The 3 Ultimate tips for Becoming a successful blogger

Blogging is the latest buzzword in online marketing. So, you have a blog! Do you have traffic? Do you know how to build traffic to your weblog?

There are three proven methods for building readership of your blog.

They start with defining the “purpose, or life, of your blog”. Then, after you have a blog worth promoting, driving traffic is crucial to your ongoing success at blogging.

First ask Questions to Yourself before Starting a New BlogIf you are planning to start a business blog, ask yourself these “7 questions before you take the final plunge”:

1. Do you really need a blog?

Writing and maintaining a blog takes a certain degree of commitment, as well as a passion (or at least a liking) for stringing words into a decent sentence.

If you don't enjoying writing that much, you could always “create an audio or video blog”.

2. Whom do you want to reach with your blog?

The first step to reaching your audience understands where they go to find information about your products.

If your audience largely consists of people who live in your town or use products that they search for in the “newspapers, offline advertising” might be more suited to your purpose.

If however, your target audience belongs to one or more of these segments, a blog might be just the thing to boost your business.

Internet users:

Does your target audience really use the internet? If not, then starting a blog (or any online activity, for that matter) will just be a huge waste of time and effort.

Blog readers:

Does your target audience read blogs? Or do they prefer to get their information in their inbox? If the latter is true, then an email newsletter might be a better option than a blog.

Search engine users:

A blog is an excellent way to boost your search engine rankings and get listed for a lot of your

“target keywords”. If you know that your audience uses search engines to find information, a blog will increase your chances of getting their attention.

3. What do you want to achieve with your blog?

“There are a lot of things that a blog can do for your business”. Blogs can help you;

Increase your visibility and search engine rankings Brand yourself, your products, your services, your company Build a community and network with people who have similar interests Expand your reach to those outside your current sphere of influence Establish your credibility as an expert or thought-leader in your field 

Put a human face on your business Reach out to potential customers and stakeholders

Deciding exactly what you want to achieve with your blog can help you get focused, so that you can spend your time and effort in activities that help, not hinder your business objectives.

4. How much time can you spend on your blog?

“Serious business bloggers not only spend time writing their own blogs”, but also “spend a great deal of time reading up on current events and browsing other blogs” in their field for information.

If you are prepared to put in the time and effort required doing that sort of research, your blog will serve as a good branding tool for your business.

5. What blogging platform will serve your needs best?

Deciding your blogging platform is an important step that you should take only after becoming familiar with the features and benefits of each option.

The reason it is so crucial is because it can be extremely difficult to migrate an established blog to a new platform once you have started it.

Moving your blog can result in you “losing your data, search engine listings and readers”, so don't take this decision lightly.

6. How do you plan to promote your blog?

Why is it good to know this before you start your blog?

Because it will help you decide where best to “invest your time and effort” when you need to build traffic to your blog.

Decide what you want to take on and look out for service providers to handle the other functions so you can start building traffic to your blog as soon as possible.

7. How will you assess the success of your blog?

To determine how successful your blog is in boosting your profile or profits you will have to measure your “blog traffic and track sales” or leads that have come through it.

Planning this in advance will help you take more informed decisions about your blogging metrics, choice of blogging platform and degree of customization you require on your blog.

Understand that blogging is not for everyone. It's just another form of communication.

Some things may be “easier to communicate face to face, in a conference room, or even through the good old telephone”.

7 Tips for Choosing the Right Blog Software for Your New Blog

Choosing the right blog software for your new blog requires that you ask yourself some questions and make a list of all of the features and tools you need as well as your budget.

Once you have this information written down you will be prepared to start shopping for blog software.

However, keep in mind the following seven tips for choosing the best software for you.

1. Ping Updates:

These allow you to update your blog and are very important in blog software.

Make sure the blog software you are interested in provides automatic ping updates.

2. Comments:

Whatever blog software you choose, you'll want to make sure that it has an area for comments from visitors.

This will help you understand what is successful in your blog and what is not, as well as guide you in future blogs.

This is a really great tool and should be part of your blog software. 

3. Trackback:

If you are discussing your blog on another blog, or simply adding information to another blog, trackback will allow you to update this information.

This is a little confusing, but trackback allows you to talk on your blog about information on another blog and ping the writer of the other blog to let them know what is going on.

Trackback is certainly a feature you want in your blog software.

4. Pingback:

Pingback is similar to trackback.

But it just sends a URL to the other blog to let them know you are talking about their blog on your blog.

5. Web-based:

The point of a blog is you can post information instantly online, so you want your blog software to be similar to a word processor and web based without a shadow of a doubt.

6. Archiving:

You want blog software that supports archiving, and most of them do.

The reason for this is you will want to “save all of your past blogs by the date they were published and archiving allows you to do that”.

7. Categorize:

Another great tool you will want in your blog software is the ability to categorize.

You want to keep your blogs organized and in categories, if you have them, so this option is really a great one for most bloggers.

Here are seven tips to help you to becoming a successful blogger

There are seven proven methods for becoming a successful blogger:

1. Provide quality content:

On the Internet, whether you are talking about websites or blogs, a lot of space is given to content.

Everyone directs you to provide quality content. But, what is quality content?

The quality of your blog’s content is directly related to how well you have defined your ideal audience.

A successful blog is written with a distinct audience in mind. In this way, you can provide content that is unique to your audience’s issues, needs, or desires.

If you create content they like and wish to return to read, you have quality content.

The second issue is to stay true to your audience and tone of your blog.

If people are reading your blog, it’s because they like your topic and tone.

Try not to stray from your typical topics and style too much.

This will give your readers a reason to link back to your blog on an ongoing basis, as will posting on a regular basis. 

2. Blog regularly:

“If you don't update your blog often enough, blog readers will move on to other blogs”. There are too many blogs out there competing for attention.

Successful blogging takes a commitment of your time. When you begin blogging and wish to capture an audience, you should be prepared to blog every day.

In this way, you can develop an audience who counts on you to help them begin or end their day. 

This means you should also try to post at the same time each day. Your readers will get accustomed to your schedule and check your blog at the appropriate time.

Since you now have quality content and a regular posting schedule, it’s time to drive traffic to your blog.

3. Mention your blog wherever you can:

“Mention your blog’s address in your email signature line, in forums where you post, on your business cards, on address labels and in conversations with anyone you meet”.

Beyond just mentioning your blog in writing and conversation, you must actively participate in the blogging community too. 

4. Participate in the blogosphere:

Get involved in other people's blogs.

Visit blogs that interest you and are in line with the general topic of your blog.

Then, leave thoughtful comments. Almost every comment option on someone else’s blog will allow you to post your blog URL and your email address.

“Help other bloggers out with traffic and they will help you”.

5. Think keywords when you post:

Think about keywords with your use of “titles, links and blog posts”.

Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, like keywords.

The more targeted your keywords, the better the chances of your blog appearing in search results.

Search results can drive that extra traffic you want. 

6. Submit your blog to blog directories:

In addition to submitting your blog to the major search engines, make certain you submit the blog to exclusively blog directories like “blogwise, blogcatalog, or bloghub”.

Many people find blogs through these online directories. 

When you do submit your blog to these directories, remember to add a description that will entice your targeted audience to check your blog out.

In addition to submitting your blog to blog directories, join a few of the free or inexpensive traffic exchange sites like blogexplosion or blogclicker.

7. Use free and inexpensive blog traffic exchange communities:

There are many sites which can be termed “traffic exchange” sites for the blogging community.

It won’t cost you anything to sign up. At the very least “join blogexplosion, blogclicker, and blogazoo”.

Once you sign up, you have two options to help drive traffic to your blog. Use both of them!

The first method is to earn credits (guaranteed visitors to your site) by using the “surf member sites” function.

As you surf through those sites, you will be earning credits (visitors to your blog).

The second method to drive traffic is to purchase credits.

The cost is very cheap for the traffic you will drive to your blog.

“The more traffic to your blog, the more customers you’ll have”. The more happy customers you have, the more they will tell others.

The more they tell others, the more customers you get. Don’t you love this dance!

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