Five Things Every Blogger Should Know
When you first start blogging, you might want to make money or just share your thoughts with others. Whatever your goal, there are a few basic "best practices" that will help you attract new readers and interest existing ones.
1) Write regularly
Blogs live and die because of their content. The more content you have, the more visitors you will get from search engines, and the more visitors you have, the more readers you will get. Regularly updated content is also great for keeping your existing readers interested. The reader will not constantly return to your blog if he sees the same message every time. Readers want new content.
Many people offer a daily publication schedule. It's a lot of work! If you think you want to try writing a new blog post every day, I suggest you try to do it before you create your blog. Use your favorite text editor and write a blog entry every day for a week.
If you find yourself tired of writing at the end of the week, consider writing a post only once every few days. The most important thing is not so much how often you write, but that you stick to a regular schedule. If all you are capable of is one post a week, but your readers know that it will be available on Wednesday evening, then they will come looking for it.
2) Spread (link) love!
The general approach for new bloggers is to try to keep readers on their own blogs without creating links to other blogs. I think if I follow the link, people will actually follow the link and leave my blog.
It's true, some of your readers will follow your links. But if they find what you're referring to useful, they'll come back to read your next post. And links to other blogs are a great way to attract the attention of the owner of other blogs. They will probably come to see what you have written about them, and perhaps stay here and become readers themselves. Or they may return the favor and contact you someday.
Free links are a good method both to provide value to your readers and to attract more readers.
3) Read (and comment on) relevant blogs
Whatever you write about in your blog, you can bet that there is someone else who writes a blog on the same topic. Reading these other blogs helps keep you inspired. In other blogs, you will often find ideas on topics that you have not considered, and you can state your own view on this topic and write about it yourself.
Commenting on other blogs is also a great idea. By commenting on another blog, you tell the owner of that blog that you liked what they wrote so much that you took the time to comment. There is a high probability that they will visit your blog, read some posts, and, possibly, leave a comment.
When you leave a comment on another blog, you will be asked to provide a URL. Be sure to specify the web address of your blog in this field. This way, when someone visits your blog and sees your comment, they can click on your name to go to your blog.
Regularly leaving comments on other blogs is a great way to make friends and expand the circle of readers.
4) Market in moderation
A lot of people these days start blogging to try to make money.
You can earn money by blogging, placing ads on your blog pages, or posting links to affiliate products in your blog posts. Some bloggers think that the more they do this, the more money they will earn.
In fact, if you use too much marketing on your blog, your readers will ignore it. Those who can't tune in to this will probably get angry and stop reading. It is much better to exercise moderation in your marketing efforts. Subtle marketing is more likely to make you money than if your blog was like a carnival barker.
5) Be Authentic
When you are trying to make money with a blog, there is a temptation to promote any product that can bring you money. However, remember that you are dealing with your reputation. If you promote a product that is no good, your readers who have bought this product will not trust your recommendations in the future.
Similarly, if you write a dishonest blog post just to get people to click on ads, eventually your readers will stop trusting you.
Always be sincere and honest in your letters and never post anything on the Internet that does not reflect your true feelings.