Tips For Running a Better Blog
November 25th 2006 17:26
I had a long week off for Thanksgiving so I think it's time to toss some more blogging tips out there for the community to chew on. Before I get started with this post, please keep in mind that I'm no pro at this. I've just been at it for about five years so I feel I've got a little experience in the field. That being said, I welcome anyone here to comment with other tips and I'll edit the post to add them in.
Let's get started!
We all know how competitive the blogosphere is becoming, or at least we should. Technorati recently released its quarterly "State of the Blogosphere" report that says there are more than 100,000 new blogs created every day. I would dare say that a good chunk of the new blogs are actually splogs, but there really is no way of knowing until they build themselves into a readable web log that will make it a little easier to judge.
Either way, that's a LOT of other blogs out there hunting for readers. With this many blogs out there one must be aware that in order to succeed you're going to have to make constant adjustments that help you stay alert and ahead of the crowd.
- Content
I truly believe that content is king. If you go and sift through the top blogs you'll find the most common resemblance is a LOT of fresh, original, unique content. Without the right kind of content, and lots of it, you're probably going to be dead in the water.
Your content needs to be consistent if at all possible. Here at Orble you need to be posting as often as possible to stay with the frontrunner's. I would suggest you try and punch out a post on a daily basis if at all possible, but if you can't just try and be consistent with the frequency of your posting. You never know who is watching your feeds and these readers usually like a constant flow of content, otherwise they'll drop your feed in search for another.
Make sure your content offers something to the reader. This doesn't mean that you need to sacrifice the topics you're most passionate about in favor of a "hotter" topic. Rather, it means you need to get creative with your posts and make sure you're offering something fresh and new to the reader. If your reader is another blogger, you want them to go and write about your post. If it's a regular reader, you want to be bookmarked or talked about. Unfortunately this cannot happen if your discussion is not unique.
Be active in the community. Here at Orble I think it is absolutely vital to go out and be active on other blogs if you wish to succeed. Orble bloggers, including myself, LOVE COMMENTS! Chances are that if you comment on my site I'll be doing the same for you.
Discussion creates buzzes... buzzes create more readers.
-Syndicate
Syndicating your blog will take a bit of work, especially Orble blogs. But in the end I think it's well worth it. On my tech blog (www.erodtech.com) about 60% of my traffic comes through RSS. It's a brand new blog that only gets about 150 unique visits a day, but they do click on ads and I do sell advertising on the site.
You can submit your feeds to the major ping services and this will get the feeds out into the world wide web with lightning fast speeds. For good ping services, try Ping-O-Matic, Pingoat and Icerocket.
-Readers
As a blogger your readers are your livelihood. Target everything towards readers and make sure you are listening to what they have to say. A lot of bloggers make the mistake of building their blogs for themselves, when in fact you should be building it for your readers.
Never, EVER ignore a comment. You can disagree with a reader until the sky falls on the planet, but at least listen and respond to them. Interact with readers and they will do the same. Ignore your readers, and again, they will do the same.
-Social Networking
If you have time and a very good story, make sure and submit it to Digg, Reddit, Stumble, Newsvine, Netscape, etc. These sites can bring you an enormous amount of traffic in only a few hours time.
Just two weeks ago I got a story on the front page of Digg and almost instantly had 6,000 visits hit one of my blogs, essentially shutting down my server and swamping the system. The $103.00 I made via Adsense on that site that day was WELL worth the extra effort.
The bottom line in building a better blog is you should always be aware. Be aware of what you're writing and make sure you know who you're writing it for. Be generous on the links and comment on any blog page you link to so they know you gave them some link love. Follow up your posts with a submission to the social networking giants and make sure you let the ping engines know you have a new post.
If you go the extra mile it shouldn't take more than a month or two before you start seeing solid results.
Hope this helps!
| 142 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Adele
Lost Fanatic
Day Break TV
A few questions. Will I need to stop by Pingoat every time I add a post? Or do they keep track of me? What is RSS?
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
I know of Digg, I use it some times, have never made the front page though, or even close.
I know if an Orble blog hit the first page it'd be over for orble that dya, the traffic digg gives is MASSIVE. Digg slap!
Would still love it if that happened to my blog...
But other than that all your tips are really good (sounding) so just giving you my thanks here
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Also gives me something to write about when everything else is boring.
Comment by Adrienne
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
Amazing stuff, and to think I almost gave you a miss, not having been too impressed with that other advice that seems to be being given out leading ....... like, nowhere ...not even fast......slowly.
When I come up for air I'll get around to dreaming of the $100 in one day, sounds like a fortune, after my $2 for ...how many weeks?
Come to think of it, one would never be here for the money. That's something I'm going to have to think about quite shortly.
A great post, heard someone else talk about paying their dues to-day, I'm glad I'm not a victim to some Orblers views but most certainly I'm a target.
Oh, well, that's life, get on with it. ....Perhaps.
katyzzz
Comment by Schubler
Personal Development
Free To Join
Formula 1 News
Scams On The Internet
Thanks and keep posting about this... you made my day today as I`ve seen two mistakes that got one of my blogs 2 feet underground... I think now I have a good chance of getting it out of it`s grave!!!
Have Fun!!!
Comment by Trina
Hiphop
Confessions of a Serial Dancer
Competitions
Clubbing
I'm delirious
Comment by Eric
Mal Gadget
I'm not sure how to make it automatically ping here on the Orble blogs. With my Wordpress blogs I use a plugin that does the pinging for me everytime I post something new.
Because we cannot edit the source code of Orble blogs there really is no way to put this kind of modification into the mix.
For now, I would just ping it when you post a really good story on your blog. Try to let them know when the tasty posts pop up.
RSS is "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". The basic standard for syndicating your content.
Comment by Eric
Mal Gadget
We could certainly write something along those lines.
OH! and no it isn't "you are, or you're not". You are a blogger because you decided to be, not because you passed some kind of test.
I'm merely asserting that you're going to have to step it up a notch if you wish to push into a new level of online awareness.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
Ahmed, can you expand on the press release site idea?
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Comment by Eric
Mal Gadget
What do you do to "put them on RSS"?
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Google is probably one of the more notable ones...
Comment by Brian
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Good luck to you!
Jeanne