The blogosphere is filled with bloggers, but the differences between avid users and everyone else should cause you to sit up and take notice.
Even if your entrance into the world of blogging is more recent, there are ways for you to reach your audience, perhaps having an impact that far exceeds your wildest dreams. To get there, however, there are a number of sound blogging habits, each that are just too good to ignore.
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Blogging With Passion
If you are interested in something, then that should be apparent in your blogging. The first step here is to only blog about what interests you. The second step is to write with passion in your voice.
Too often, bloggers fall into a trap of writing for the search engines and not their audience. This is a huge mistake as your readers will see right through you.
Always write with your audience in mind, allowing your passion for that subject to flow. Genuine enthusiasm will attract like-minded people, individuals that know you have a reputation for always serving up good, even fun information.
Staying With It
A few years back Technorati did a survey of blogging, finding that more than half of all bloggers quit within the first year. A significant number got started and then stopped within mere weeks.
Quite easily you can give up even on a topic that you find passionate, but that is what sets the run-of-the-mill blogger from the passionate blogger.
Staying with it also means showing that you are dependable. If you update your blog daily, then you should stick to a schedule. Your readers are expecting to find valuable information from you — those details should come in at a regular basis and offer your unique viewpoint on the news.
This means that if you are an automotive blogger, that you won’t simply parrot what other people are saying. Interview potential car shoppers and share details that may even contradict manufacturer assertions.
Back and Forth
What sets the mundane blog apart from the those that truly shine is the level of engagement offered. Champion bloggers keeps their comment sections on steroids, providing Comment Luv and other goodies to reward people that participate.
Look at each article you write as just the beginning of the conversation. What you want is to encourage people to participate, by approving related comments and conversing with them.
No blog should be a monologue — you want to build a dialogue where people can interact with you. Within the body of your article you can also link to avid users sites, giving them further reason to tweet, share or otherwise link to your excellent work.
A Smart Platform
There are blog themes and then there are blog themes. Most of the older themes just have not kept up with the times and may even penalize the blogger. Choose a theme that is SEO-ready, easy to navigate and appears consistent across operating system and mobile platforms.
Usability is an important aspect of the reader experience. Your readers may expect to find advertisements, but those ads should not slap them in the face. Avoid pop ups, pop unders and other techniques that can mar the visitor experience.
Check your links to ensure that they work and make it easy for people to find your news. Just as you work hard to link out and curry links, sensible and consistent interlinking of your data is important too.
Spreading the Word
Don’t think for a moment that your blog operates in a vacuum. You are part of an overall system of blogs and online data, points that you should always keep in mind.
The most significant way for bloggers to stay in touch is through blog networks. You can and should also use Facebook and Twitter, allowing you to share excerpts of your article and invite people to visit your site. Connect with your readers and visit their sites as well.
Looking Ahead
Now that you have the habits or essentials of blogging down pat, you will want to work toward maintaining that. This means evaluating your work, without obsessing over the smallest and least consequential matters
Certainly, evaluate your web traffic by using a stellar analytics tool and making changes as necessary. Your blog, however, will naturally attract a strong audience if the information you provide is interesting and you prove yourself trustworthy.
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© 2013 – 2015, Priya Florence Shah. All rights reserved.
Priya Florence Shah is a bestselling author and an award-winning blogger. Check out Devi2Diva, her book on emotional self-care for women. In her spare time, Priya writes science-fiction novels and poetry and chills with her two-legged and four-legged kids.
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