25 Blog Tips I Learned In Blogging

Note: This post is going to be bit lengthy (around 2700+ words), but I’m sure if you read the entire post, you’ll get immense value which you can use right away on your blog. Let’s dive in now..

What makes a blog more successful? Is it reading, better writing or promoting like hell?

None of this..

They were used to help you 10 years back. Not now and not any more..!

Then what requires to build a better blog?

Learning. Learning and observing from the popular blogs and great bloggers. Observation is the key to make your blog successful. The more you observe the better you can develop your blog. I have observed the following 25 blog tips which will surely help you.

I know you may across many blog tips already, but empty your mind before reading this. Because you are gonna learn in a new and simple way. Trust me and go ahead..

Blog Tips Which Help to Grow Your Blog

1. Readable content:

What makes a blog readable?? Think before you read further.

Certainly it’s better content. If you are reading a blog from many days means it really has a great content built in it. Without good content no one reads your blog.

Then how to create great content in your blog??

You should know what is meant by great content before you are creating great content.

What is great content?

People usually come to Internet because of 2 reasons,

One is to have their problems solved
Other reason is to have fun!!

So try to focus on these two points. Educate them, solve their problems and you will be on your way!!

Before creating great content in your blog, ask these questions to yourself..

• What my readers want?
• How can I grab my readers attention?
• Am I writing this post just to publish on my blogging schedule? (If yes, don’t do that. It’s not mandatory to publish your blog posts on certain blog schedule. You can post it later too, after creating a post consider re-crafting it)
• Is this post helps my blog and my readers?

Great content always solves the problems of your readers/visitors. Remember, without having good/fresh content in your blog, readers won’t come back.

Always try to add value to your blog posts and try to be an authority in your niche.

2. WordPress

If you really want to make your blog professional – use WordPress. If you still using blogger or any other platform, migrate to WP soon. WordPress is famous for its plugins, widgets, CMS (Content Management System) and regular updates.

WordPress gives easy access to your blog if you use it in right way, if not – it can make your blog worst than anyone else!!

Use this top ten WP plugins: Top 10 Must Have WP plugins

How to use WordPress effectively and user – friendly??

Don’t use too many plugins as it can affect your blog’s loading time. If it loads more than 7 to 8 seconds – your readers may jump over to other blogs even though you have good content in your blog. Because readers are lazy by default!!

3. Include Images In Your Posts

Having an image in each post you write is essential to grab your readers attention. They not only add value to your blog but also enhance your blog’s credibility.

Choosing a perfect, funny, attractive image is an art.

Precaution: Don’t use google images (because Google may ban you from their AdSense if you copy and paste others images without giving a credit), try to use the images from the free image sites like:

• freedigitalphotos
• flickr
• istockphoto etc

And don’t forget to give credit to the images which you use.

4. Usage of tags

Try to write at least 3 to 4 tags for every post you publish. Because tags are the keywords that Google uses to know at what subject you are writing the posts.

These are the list of keywords that people will use to search for specific terms in the search engines. So, people will come to your blog ONLY through the help of tags. Make them efficient, and use appropriately in your posts.

You can take the help of Google Keyword Tool to write tags.

5. Headlines/titles

No matter how hard you work on creating the quality content in your blog, you must write effective headlines in your blog posts. Because your users/readers will decide to read it or not by just looking at the heading of that post!! So, take extra care in choosing heading/title of your post.

The best to tip to write killer headlines for your blog is: hack the ideas of popular blog posts and apply to your blog posts. Don’t use as it is – but change, shuffle according to your readers. Ultimately your readers should click on it by just looking at the headlines. That’s the trick.

Read: How to Write Headlines That Work

6. Design

Your blog design should be simple and unique. Go for custom design if possible if you want to stay out of the crowd.

Even if you buy premium themes, they are no unique!! Many of them are using in blogosphere. Even if you buy them, try to customize minor changes to get a unique look.

Because, “First impression is the last impression” and the same is true for your blog design also. If your readers get a good impression on your blog design/theme then the chances of getting back to your blog will be absolutely high.

7. Start Slow – Grow Strong

It’s a better idea to start slow and know the things around you. Make mistakes, learn from them. If you want to publish your articles only once a week, then stick with it.

Slowly gain your momentum and grow strong. It’s not that how fast you are growing, it’s about how strong you are growing from the bottom.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu

8. SEO

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is the key factor in any blog’s success. If you are a newbie to blogging, you should be well aware of SEO. Try to know about SEO before you are launching any blog.

Try to optimize (decrease the difficulty) your blog design, coding etc as much as possible to build a SEO friendly blog.

Read: 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

9. There are no rules in blogging

This is by far the best lesson I have learned in recent days. You need not to follow the rules which you don’t like. Make rules by yourself, make your own blogging schedule, write only when you feel like to, don’t comment on other blogs just because you need to build a relationship (when you feel like it’s a bad content and you really don’t like it, but you are commenting just because you want some help from them – this is worst).. these are the few among them.

Just be yourself and write the content which worth reading. :)

10. Monetize

If you really want to monetize your blog, then you must write for your readers. Before monetizing your blog you must have good traffic. To get more traffic you need to have quality content.

There are many ways to monetize your blog. Here is a must read article on monetize your blog..

Read: How to Make Money From Your Blog – Direct Methods

11. Promotion

Use social networking sites like facebook, twitter, stumbleupon to promote your blog posts.

To get more exposure of your blog, sign up for the blog engaging community forums

• Blogengage
• Blogkube
• Blog interact etc

and start forum commenting, submitting your blog post url’s etc.

12. Posting frequency

I already said that “go slow and go strong”.

If you are newbie blogger – try to publish at least 1 to 2 posts a week.

If you are a seasonal blogger – publish 2 to 3 posts/week

If you are a problogger –  raise your hands and comment here ;) (I can’t say anything for them)

Important: Posting frequency depends upon your niche.

If your blog topic is about just like me i.e “Blogging Niche” then the above frequency would be enough.

If your blog topic is about “News”, “Entertainment”, “Politics” or “Technology” then you must update daily or even 2 to 3 times a day.

13. Create your own blog checklist

Before hitting Publish button, use the checklist. I bet it will increase your credibility and gives you better results. If you don’t have any download it from BlogPostChecklist.

14. Traffic

Big Network + Better promotion = More traffic

If you have a huge network for your blog or developing a community around your blog then your traffic increases along with your network.

If you promote your blog in a better way, then you will get more traffic.

Try to promote your blog posts in all the ways. Participate in forums, guest post, comment on top blogs gives you better recognition as well as traffic.

At the end of the day, you must have better content in your blog to add more readers to your blog. Without that you can’t succeed.

15. Write pillar/killer articles

Write killer articles at least once a month. Don’t forget that killer articles consume much time. Because it focuses more on details. It’s better if you can post a killer article for every 2 weeks or 1 month.

Normally a killer article includes 1000 to 2000 words or more than that. The best example for a killer article is this post. It included 2800+ words in it!! That’s really huge, but it worth in a long run.

The trick is to give the reader the confidence that you know what you are writing.

16. Blogging is not a hobby – it’s a business

Most of the people jumping into blogging arena because they are seeing others earning millions in this field. There’s nothing wrong in that though, but consider blogging as your business, put serious efforts into it – don’t consider blogging as a hobby if you want to succeed.

The best advice is: You must keep aside at least 3hrs. for your blog. Remember that it depends on your blogging schedule. You may have only 3hrs/week to spend on your blog or you may have 3hrs/day. Then the time factor should be like this;

• 60 mins – for normal post creation
• 60 mins – for creating a killer post
• 30 mins – for reading other blogs
• 30 mins – for promoting and networking

You can increase this time, if you got more time available – you can increase somewhere to update your blog posts, writing more posts etc. It depends on your time factor.

Note: Try to spend at least 30 mins. a day for writing killer posts and take 2 to 4 weeks to complete it.

And everything that you put on your blog is an “Investment”. Any blog generally needs the following investment to succeed.

1. Time (for reading other blogs, creating content, getting traffic, building network etc)

2. Little bit money (for buying a theme, logo, ebook creation, email auto responders etc – though not all these are mandatory to buy, it depends on your interest)

But you should keep in mind that, “if you want to make money from your blog, you should spend money” its as simple as that.

17. Write normal posts

Its also important to write normal posts regularly (at least 2 to 3 per week depending on your niche). Because you can engage with your readers regularly.

Try to write these normal posts on:

• Regular updates in your niche
• Top 10 lists
• How To’s
• Suggestions to your readers
• Your expertise
• Something controversial

and the list goes on.

Generally a normal post includes 400 to 500 words.

18. Proof Read

Recheck your articles perfectly. Don’t hit publish button without proof reading it, if you are not satisfied with your article then craft it until you feel satisfied.

Readers don’t read 100% of your articles, word-by-word; they look for the main points first – if it’s interesting or if they feel its useful then only they will read your entire post(s)..!

So, carefully proofread and craft your every article.

Read: How to Craft a Blog Post – 10 Crucial Points to Pause

19. Break long paragraphs into short

Majority bloggers say don’t write looong paragraphs in your articles. Cut them. Divide them into 3 to 4 lines.

No one reads if your 1000 words article is built on 2 paragraphs ;) Just imagine, how horrible it would be..

You can make your posts appealing by dividing into paragraphs (again short paragraphs). If you are already doing this then hats off. If not implement from now on wards.

20. Guest articles

Try to guest post twice a month. Do it from the small blogs in your niche (if you don’t get any response from the big blogs). Within a short time you will better write your guest posts, then you can think of writing them for the big blogs.

There are many uses of guest posting, you can get more traffic (at least more than the normal days), good relationship with other bloggers etc. Allow guest blogging in your blog.

21. Comments

First of all don’t worry about the comments, they grow as your blog grows.. But, you need to concentrate on building top class content to get more comments.

Comment on top blogs and try to comment in fresh blog posts. Your blog will be exposed more and it leads to more traffic to your blog. Don’t comment one liners like – “Great post or awesome etc etc” (nobody doing this now a days though).

Best tip on commenting: Try to involve in the discussion. Try to give suggestive tip to the author. Ask relevant questions in comments. This will improve the response and respect in return.

Use these plugins to get more comments:

• CommentLuv
• TopCommentators widget

22. Interact with other bloggers

You must interact with other bloggers to build a quality network around your niche. Which can ultimately leads to high traffic, more PV’s (Page Views), comments etc

Try to interact with them daily, share and like their latest posts via twitter, facebook etc. This is the best way to grab their attention.

23. Read as many blogs as possible

There are many benefits if you read other blogs. And I believe that “Best writing comes from the best Reading”. Not only this, there are many other advantages too.. You will know

• How to present the article well
• How to write effectively
• What to use and what not to use
• How to approach your readers
• How to attracts the advertisers and traffic etc..

So, make a habit of reading at least from now. Set a time for that in your blogging schedule.

24. Relax and Recharge

Relax. Blogging is all about putting countless hours in creating content and marketing them though but you need to take some relax.

Stay away from all the distractions. Spend some time with your family and friends.

Relax and recharge yourself. You can give 100% effort when you have some relax. Know your hobbies and spend time on them. Watch movies, listen to your favorite music, hangout, drink ;)

It’s not only important to succeed in blogging, it’s also important to take care of your health and family.

25. Backup your blog

Last but not least backup your blog. Make sure to backup your blog at least once a week or twice a month.

You can backup your blog posts using WP plugins, even you can schedule your backup time and it will send your backup files to your computer HDD or email.

You can download it from here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

Few quick tips:  Use Google Analytics,  write Top 10 posts, use a popular posts widget in your sidebar, never copy from others and don’t allow others to copy your content – use this.

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Conclusion

You know what it takes a blog or a blogger to succeed?

Hard work or Smart work?

Innovation?

Passion?

No.. none of the above.. CONSISTENCY is the answer.. :)

Be consistent with your writing, never give up. And try to focus on giving the best to your readers.

My advice is:

Don’t try to be just another blogger in the blogosphere.

Be you. Have your own voice and become an authority. Don’t worry if you started your blogging journey late. Feel proud you are going to create a mark in blogging world. Always learn. Never feel down and never compare yourself with others. Compare yourself to a professional blogger :)

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Your Turn:

If you are either a newbie blogger or seasonal blogger, go and apply the above tips to your blog. I can’t guarantee you the success, but you can make your blog more better than how it is now.

This article took me almost 1 month time to complete (no kidding). I’m eagerly waiting for your views, suggestions, tips, doubts or questions on this article. Do drop them in the comments section below.

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