Blogging is all about building: building friendships, building links, building content, building readership. It’s not for the fainthearted and it should only be taken up by those who have a passion for the topic they wish to write about. Without drive there is no real purpose in getting started. Blogging is a massive undertaking. It’s important to start out on the right foot and to not expect things to come quickly. If you’re blogging for quick monetary gain, you might just want to go out and buy a lottery ticket instead. So how does one build a blog?
Building Friendships:
You should already know of a few bloggers in the field you’re looking to blog about. Their blogs might be part of your daily internet dosage. You might be subscribed to their blogs. Whatever is the case it is time to stop lurking and start commenting. Email the blog owner and tell them how much you liked/loathed a particular article. Offer to write a guest post for their blog. Make yourself available and useful and above all be polite and respectful in all your dealings. Don’t harass!
Friendships are not always about the other bloggers in your niche either. If you’re a sport blog endeavor to make friends with the people in your sport from referees to coaches to athletes, etc. It’s easier with book blogs as you can find ways to contact publishers and authors directly. Be a little creative and be honest. Don’t give up!
Building Links:
Start by asking those bloggers with whom you made friends for links. Give them something worthwhile to share with their readers. More permanently, would they be willing to give you a link on their site for one of yours? This is called link exchanging and your link is usually filed under blogroll or a similar heading. Additionally, search for more blogs discussing your field and offer the same deal. Link exchanges are a useful way to share readership and increasing your ranking in search engines. Big blogs need links just as much as new small blogs. It doesn’t hurt to ask – the worst they can say is no thank you.
Building Content:
There’s no point to build links and friendships if you don’t have good strong content. If you’re stuck for ideas consider writing an opposing view point, making a list, explaining terms, offering opinions on news related to your field, look for people to interview or profile, create a guide, share what you like/dislike, confirm/discredit rumors etc. Take a look around you – everything is copy – or available to you to write about. Be open to ideas and they will come.
Building Readership:
The holy grail in blogging is establishing a strong (and growing) readership. How does one do this? By writing engaging content, sure, but also by making yourself available that’s how. You’re not writing down to your readers – you’re opening dialogue with your readers. Make every reader feel special. Respond to comments and emails! Be accessible; start a Twitter account! Be friendly and be yourself. If you’re a snarky person or a shy person use your qualities to the best of your advantage. Don’t try to be funny if you’re not naturally. Don’t try to write thought provoking posts if you’re more inclined to be light and jovial. Readers respond to sincerity.
These tips are just some of the many things you can do to build a better blog. What would you add?
Today’s blog post was written by Keira. Her blog about romance novels, Love Romance Passion, is for readers by readers. Check it out whether or not you’re a fan of the genre!
Photo Credits: madnzany
Originally posted 2009-04-11 10:11:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Posts -
Bring Your Weblog to Life with Video Blogs Perhaps you have not noticed that there has been a tremendous explosion in the way of online media, especially throughout the past couple of years. Now that hosting and bandwidth are becoming significantly less expensive, and because publishing tools are becoming better, simpler and cheaper, it has never been easier...... -
Blogging – You’re Doing it WRONG! (Pt 1) Thatâs right, I said it. Youâre not blogging correctly. This two part article series will expand on my previous post, 4 Things Bloggers Do WRONG! There are a ton of blogs that are already established and a ton of new blogs getting started every single day. You wonât stand out...... -
Joining a Blog Carnival Joining a blog carnival is capable of allowing you to improve your blog. Have you ever heard of what a blog carnival is all about? Let us go into what it takes for you to join a blog carnival including what the benefits are for participating in a blog carnival....... -
Tips for Improving Blog Popularity There are a number of different things that you can do to increase your blog popularity. Here is a look at some of the tops that you can't pass up. Include an Author Biography People who are reading your blog will enjoy being able to put a face to the...... -
What is the Difference Between Blogging and Content Writing? Sometimes it seems like articles and blogs are so similar to one another in content that it can be difficult to tell what the difference is between these two types of written media. Blogs tend to have more leeway, and follow a completely different structure because they can be short......
Related Websites -
Corporate Blogging Link Building Strategies An important part of promoting your corporate blog is making sure that you have plenty of good inbound links coming into your site. This can help increase your overall popularity, as well as how search engines rank your site. While there are some methods of building links that promise the...... -
4 Ideas to Create Multiple Income Streams Online In the past, creating multiple streams of income required a lot of footwork and there were few passive stream opportunities available. However, thanks to the Internet, it has never been easier to create multiple streams of income online and many are passive! Let’s go into a few ideas that you...... -
Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss Reviewed Tim Ferriss' Book 4-Hour Workweek has been around for some 2-3 years now... and yet, while it's right in the Lazy Man wheelhouse, I hadn't read it until recently. Why didn't I read it? Here are the two biggest excuses: I Hate Books - I'd like to blame Ethan Frome...... - Blogging Heroes - Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers by Michael A. Banks Among more than 102,000,000 blogs that are currently on the internet, there are only a small, select few that manage to stand out as ground breaking, successful or influential against the backdrop of so many others. This book focuses on thirty blogging heroes, touching on everything from parenting to the......
- Build More Backlinks Hi again everybody, You probably all realise by now that the more backlinks your site has the higher your Google Page Rank will be and the the more your site will show up in the search engines. In fact now that you have a website on the Internet the main......
