It’s Listography time again and this week I’m adding my top 5 tips for bloggers. Having been blogging for 15 months now it feels like I am finally getting somewhere, but it’s tough getting to this point so hopefully sharing a few of the things I’ve learned might help people. If they don’t then check out the other entries because no doubt something there will.
1. Find a blogging cadence that suits you, but I would suggest at least once a week. It’s difficult to build readers and get interaction if you are blogging less often. However don’t feel like you need to post every day or anything, once or twice a week works fine.
2. People aren’t going to magically find you blog, find out where people who write blogs in the same category hang out. If it’s parenting then checkout Britmums and NetMums etc, if it’s food then perhaps the British food bloggers? This gives you a great forum to not only let people know that you exist but also start talking to like minded people.
3. Following on from the above, go and comment on blogs, set aside a few minutes every day or every few days and comment. This is a great way to build interaction and 9 times out of 10 the person who receives the comment will be curious and come and have a read of your blog. But do make the comment meaningful, not just ‘nice post’ every time, find some way to share an experience or comment on a particular aspect of their post.
4. Join in with some of the regular linkys like this one, they’re a great way to get inspiration for what to write (see point 1) and for getting some visitors to your blog. But please don’t just do linkys, it gets a bit boring if that’s all you’re doing or if you are doing 1 a day. We also want to read something original from you and learn what makes you tick.
5. Be nice. You can be thought provoking, controversial even in your writing, but do it in a positive way. This goes for twitter to, have a debate but don’t be nasty or believe that your view is the one and only right one.
P.S one more thing to add that occurred to me while at the gym (where all the best thinking is done) and that is enjoy it. A lot of the above are about getting people reading your blog, but please don’t interpret this as you should be trying to get as many page views as possible. The reason to attract readers is to get some interaction and discussion. Get out of your blog what you want, be it a place to share things with family, exercise your urge to write or to build an income. None of these is the ‘right’ motive.
