Last week I blogged about terms that bloggers should know. Now I’ll touch on tips for building a successful blog.
- Find a niche and stick to it. Most successful blogs focus on a single topic. Some rely on the blogger’s unique voice and charismatic personality to unify otherwise unrelated posts, but this is hard to do. Whether you’re blogging about writing or relationships or something else, it’s must easier to find an audience once you tap into that community.
- Put your personal spin on the topic. I’ve found that what works well for me is to cover an aspect of writing (maybe it’s dealing with editors or brainstorming for ideas) and work in personal anecdotes. I try not to dwell too much on the specifics of my situation and include takeaway points that readers can apply to their own writing careers. People usually read blogs because of the blogger’s personality, so let yours shine through.
- Commit to posting regularly. Like training for a marathon or practising a musical intrument, blogging gets easier the more you do it. You’ll develop a writing style, get into a schedule, and pretty soon the ideas will be flowing out of you at 1 o’clock in the morning (or maybe that’s just me). Bonus: readers will keep coming back for more if they see that you update regularly.
- Link to other like-minded (or unlike-minded) bloggers. This is a good way to get the conversation going and show that you’re a good citizen of the blogosphere. When you’re stumped for a post idea, you can find an interesting post written by someone else in your niche, link to them, and write about why you agree or disagree with their opinion. Voila!
- Get your own domain name. As previously discussed, it looks more professional to have your own URL without wordpress.org or blogspot.com attached to the end. When I bought my own Blogger domain, the transition was pretty seamless, but it isn’t always that way. Save yourself a giant headache and buy a domain now. That way you won’t lose traffic or incoming links later.
- Do a “soft” blog launch. In other words, wait until you have at least a handful of posts and you’ve worked out the blogging software before you announce your blog to the world. I made the mistake of sending out the URL to a couple of editors, then deciding to change the name so that the original URL didn’t work. Once you’ve been blogging for a few weeks, then you can add your blog to your email signature, Facebook profile, LinkedIn page, and so on.
- Invite more experienced bloggers to contribute. You can invite them to guest blog or do it Q & A-style. I used to do this with a nifty little feature called 5 Q’s (check out the archives). The incentive to the other person is that they get to promote their book, blog, or other projects, so be sure to give them some link love. Often they will return the favor by plugging the post or interview on their own site. It’s also a good way to pick the brains of people you admire.
- Set realistic expectations for your blogging success. Realize that you probably won’t become the next Dooce or Wonkette overnight. Though you may not land a six figure book deal or generate millions of page views right away, you can connect with cool people and open up new opportunities by starting a blog. Be patient.
- Keep a few posts in your drafts folder. At any given time, I probably have five or six ideas percolating. Blogger’s drafts feature is a beautiful thing, because it allows me to start writing a post and go back to it later. Some posts come to me in a burst of inspiration, but others (like this one) require me to write a little and come back to them later. Plus, having a few drafts ready to go gives me something to publish even when I’m too busy to write something from scratch.
- Realize that you can’t read everything. When you’re just starting out, it’s tempting to want to read the archives and sign up for the feed of every single blog in your topic area. This is admirable, but it’s just not realistic. Choose a few blogs that are well-respected and that you enjoy reading. Sign up for their feed, but devote the bulk of your time to developing your own blog instead of following the pack.
What advice do you have for aspiring bloggers? Would you agree or disagree with this advice?
Very good post Susan. Even though I don’t have my own blog, I have read enough of them to add two more tips that you and other successful bloggers use – 1) encourage comments at the end of the post with a question and 2) monitor and reply to some or all of the readers comments. I especially like your tip of putting personal spin on a topic (i.e. – real life examples which clarify and elaborate on the topic of your post).
Great post, Susan! I am struggling with some of the issues that you touched upon.
Focus and strategy are two things that I continue to struggle with in my blog. For the most part there is a common thread, but every now and again unrelated posts creep in.
Hey Susan,
Thanks for linking to me as the “interesting post”!
And even the more seasoned bloggers need helpful reminders like these from time to time.
I need to constantly remind myself of these tips. The last one,most importantly, as reading blogs takes up triple the energy as writing in mine.
I really like the tip about personal voice as well. I see a lot of businesses that do blogs just to showcase news, but it sounds like it’s from a faceless robot. Utilizing a blog to add a human aspect to your business online could definitely be leveraged. Especially with freelance writing, when your personality and style is likely to come through in the content you create.
Thanks for the helpful post!
@Mark: you’re right! These are great tips that I somehow overlooked, but I definitely try to incorporate into my blog. I recently discovered a new writer’s blog that I love but the blogger never seems to acknowledge comments (maybe why she doesn’t get many). Very disappointing!
@Kathrin: I sometimes have unrelated posts, too, and I think that’s OK. It’s usually when I write rants about airline delays, but my readers can relate to that, too, so they understand.
@Erin: welcome and thanks for the comment! I completely agree with you about the “faceless robots”!
Great post, Susan — excellent advice. Our new translation blog is only a few days old, and your tips are very handy. Over the last few days, I have already realized I really need to keep my own posts shorter — I have a tendency to be too wordy, and well, I don’t read the mega-long posts on other blogs either.
I really liked your comment about posting regularly, and plan on doing so every week. Incidentally, I am also training for a half marathon, hence I like the analogy.
Could we add you to our Blogroll on our translation blog?
We want to have a more diverse mix of blogs on our Blogroll (beyond strictly translation blogs), and I really like yours.
@Judy and Dagmar: I’m honored! Of course you can add me to your blogroll. In fact, I checked out your blog and I think a lot of the posts relate to other freelancers, too, so I will of course add you to mine as well.
Thank you Susan for the tips, I am looking for ways to get my blog on a roll :>) lol. I appreciate any help I can get~
I certainly enjoyed getting this post via brazen careerist.( I also commented there) These are great tips for all new and upcoming bloggers. You do a good job of breaking your tips down into easily understood steps. If I had to add anyting it would only be to work to engage your readers as Mark said, ending posts with a question can help bring in traffic. Also I have noticed that the more involved I am with the blogosphere, the more traffic I drive to my blog. Even if you are busy, (and I really am) I try to take a little time every day to comment on those posts that really engage me. It has brought momre readers and comments than any other method of dispersal. Nice post.
@Kristina: You’re absolutely right! Commenting around the blogosphere has definitely helped boost my traffic. I’ve been trying to do that more this week, but life has gotten a little crazy. Thanks for stopping by.
Susan –
Great post. I’ve been working on building momentum with my blog before I release it to my mailing list and am finding it takes a couple of months to get into the groove with posting.
You didn’t mention anything about pushing postings out to via a newsletter — I’m curious what your thoughts are on that. I’m building a mailing list and am trying to get more readers on my blog that way.
@Teri, I just started doing a newsletter, and I see it as an extension of my blog. But it will never be as immediate as blogging itself unless you’re using a service like Feedburner that automatically updates people when there is a new post. I think a lot of the people on my newsletter are people who don’t read blogs on a regular basis, so this gives them a chance to catch the highlights and keep up to date on what I’m working on.
Susan I just discovered your blog thanks to Writers Digest Magazine and I am loving it! I try to incorporate your 10 Tips for New Bloggers into my blog. I too feel it is important to find a niche and stick with it yet by putting your personal spin on the topic
I feel it is important as a writer to read as much in my particular genre as possible. Though I may not like every author, there is something to be gained and inspiration sometimes comes from the most unlikely places!
@Denise: I agree! Being widely read can only improve your own writing. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Susan! I (happily) stumbled across your blog today, thanks to Google Reader’s recommendations. I am anxious to explore your blog–it looks to be quite a resource!
I’m a blogging newbie–I just started out a couple of months ago, and have mostly shied away from leaving comments on others’ blogs for fear they will discover mine before I feel “ready”!
But, hopefully I am on the right track as some of the tips you list here are things I reflected on before setting up my blog. However, I’m actually using my blog to try to find my niche, which may be a little backwards. (???) I’m exploring the possibility of writing professionally, and thought that a blog would give me an arena in which to practice writing more regularly and would help me find my voice. And now I’m quite grateful to have found your inspiring and informative blog to help me along!
Also, on the topic of keeping a few ideas percolating at all times, I just started using Google Docs and I LOVE it! I can create documents that are not tied down to one particular PC, play around with them and edit when I feel inspired to, and (best of all) publish them directly to my blog when I’m ready. I’ve done this for a couple of my recent blog posts and it’s worked seamlessly. Sorry to ramble on if this is old news, but when I discovered this I thought, “this must have been designed with writers and editors in mind!”
@Katie: Thanks for commenting! When I first started out, my posts were a little more scattered, but over time I figured out what I wanted to write about and become more focused. It think it will evolve organically, but it’s good to start out with some sort of concept. I’m a huge fan of Google docs, too, but I didn’t know you could publish them to your blog. I’ll try that!
Thanks for breaking these out. I’ve done most of these things on my blog (www.joblessandless.com). So that makes me feel good. But I had to ask a lot of questions to get this info. Wish I had found your post before.
I totally agree with all your advice. I’m pretty new to blogging myself. The hardest part of blogging is probably to keep motivated to write as often as possible. I’m currently trying to get more traffic to my blog and am always trying to improve my writing skills that are a bit rusty these days. I think experimentation is important too. Trying new things to see what works can help your blog become successful. Thanks for all the great tips:)
Great post. I just stumbled on your blog and it has been very helpful for a young travel writer/blogger.
Right now my blog is just about my year abroad, but when I return I would like to make it less “here’s exactly how my Italy trip went”, and more universally appealing, so I can draw readers who don’t know me personally.
Any suggestions for making that transition?
-Noah
http://www.NoahNielsen.com
@Noah: I think “universal appeal” is going to be tough for any blogger to achieve, so you’ll probably want to define your intended readers a bit more. Perhaps people who are planning a year abroad themselves? (Not necessarily to Italy.) It could include tips on what to pack, how to deal with culture shock, staying in touch with friends and family stateside, etc.
Or maybe you want to expand the scope to something completely different? You might do a poll to see what your current readers are most interested in to gauge potential topics.
Susan,
Thanks for the tips! I truly write my blog from a "personable" perspective even though I'm a freelance writer/ blogger looking for that next great gig:)
Clara.
Blogging is a gradual process and it is great to follow these steps from beginning to end,really was successful in following these steps and thank you for this advice
serin
http://theartofexpressing.blogspot.com/