If you are a blogger, whether new or experienced there is no end to learn new methods to become a successful blogger. My aim of writing this post, is to provide you valuable insight which will let you know how to blog and grow as a blogger.
Since WordPress is my favourite blogging platform the below mentioned tips goes best with WordPress. But if you are using any other platform these tips are nevertheless handy in any medium of blogging.
Read: 5 Enticing Perks Of Working As a Full Time Blogger
1) An anti spam plugin
Not a single blogger is safe from the hands of shady marketers who try to budge into sites and promote their products. So a powerful anti spam does the most tedious task for you. It detects any anti spam element intrusion and functions against it.
A smart anti spam plugin keeps a track with millions of blogs across the world, to know the tricks of real time spammers so it can prevent spammers from commenting or trackbacks. With an effective antispam you can be rest assured that your comment section will be pleasing to readers always.
2) Build strategic relationship with fellow bloggers
I’ ve mentioned in my earlier posts even that how striking a rapport with contemporary bloggers can help your website. Your site needs ongoing promotion or news to stay in the limelight.
Do not view other bloggers as competitors. In the virtual world bloggers can help each other by tweets or status messages in social networking platform.
Almost every blogger is available in social sites. So create a community whereby you can post advertisement of your website in other blogs or in blogger’s social networking profile. Exchange your unique insight or suggestions with others to get new ideas.
Check this video by PBunnieP : Blogger Tips #01 | Intro to blogging & my blog story
3) Foster relationship via comments
I am sure you would love to hear what other people have to say about your content or blog posts. A very easy medium to garner views about your content is via comment section after each post.
Take each comment seriously and answer them by saying more than thank you. How will you garner more comments? Write for people more and write less for yourself.
Atleast you should follow this trend strictly in the beginning to muster the trust of readers in your blog. Always leave a question or a phrase like ‘do you agree’ after your post, so that readers feel the necessity to comment.
A great way to boost your site is to keep the comment section lively.
Check out this video by PBunnieP : Intro to blogging & my blog story
4) Give your blog a nice package
There is no second thought that impelling content builds your blog. But just like food, website garnishing or dressing is important to please the eyes of the readers. A beautiful cover page, attractive header , valuable widgets in the side bar and a neat content will endure readers to go through your posts.
If your content has a clumsy look and congested with unwanted advertisement posts, it is unlikely that readers will want to go through your lines. That is why I recommend, focus on packaging of your site, be it the tiniest details like the font size and text colour.
5) Use emails for registration
Keep the subscription process easy to attract more subscriptions with your blog from viewers. Since email is the most convenient platform for many readers, I recommend, use an email service provider as your subscription widget.
Further if you want daily, weekly or monthly automated newsletters to your readers’ inbox your email service provider should be able to fulfill those.
6) Format your posts
See for yourself which website post is more pleasing to your eyes. If you want readers to go through your content, the text should be easy on eyes. Reading online content is more painful than reading a print.
So what you can do is break your contents into subheadings. Keep the subheadings in bold and important points in bullets so that readers can easily run through what you have written.
Remember readers do not have all the day to go through your content. So present them crisp yet informative and formatted contents to economize their time.
7) Signup with the Gravator image
Do you want to look like an established blogger? If you sign up with Gravator image, when you drop in comments your picture appears alongside the comment.
It is just an added feature to give teeth to your image and it also accentuates the visual connectivity with your readers and fellow bloggers.
8) Use the right headline
The headline is the decision point for the readers, whether to go through your content or not. Ofcourse use a captivating headline but do not misguide your readers. Your headline should say what your input is.
Suppose if you are writing content on ways to improve skin tone, use a headline like ‘Five easy steps to give you a bright and supple skin’. Your headline should be number and target specific.
By number, I mean the number of steps you mention and what you achieve through the steps. Words like ‘easy’ or ‘convenient’ makes readers click on those headlines first.
Check out this cool video by Bella
9) Illustrate your articles
Do you ever like a plain text without any visual treat? Use photos or videos to add teeth to your content. If you are holding a travel blog try and tag pictures from your collection or any of your friend or family’s who has visited the place.
Picking random pictures from Google and using them in your blog can be illegal, so better go through Flickr and use pictures which have been licensed for social usage.
10) Optimize your blog with keywords
SEO style writing is essential if you are holding a business blog. If you want to market yourproduct, content or services use phrases or keywords which optimize your webpage in search engines.
Keep in mind that if you use ultra popular keywords you face stiff competition from many blogs which have similar keywords for optimization. Instead go for keywords which are less widespread so that it serves both purpose. a) It serves the function of SEO styled article b) Increase the chances of visibility in organic search results.
There are many tools for keyword suggestion among which Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool stands out in popularity.
This video might help you in How To Optimize Your Blog For Keywords
11) Build links
Building more links to your site is equally important as SEO. But do not be in a hurry to get links. If you want established bloggers to carry link to your site, ü First establish a good relation with them.
Ensure that your content are linkworthy as successful bloggers will not spoil their image by having invaluable links attached to their site.
Secondly you can go for reputed sites which market or promote links in their platform. Thirdly guest posting is a resourceful way to generate link to your site. Write blogs or articles for free for other website and in turn insert your link in the site for promotion.
12) Mobile friendly
Busy people are always on the move, so they check out websites in their mobile phone or content while they are travelling. With the introduction of smart phones it is not always necessary to carry laptop everywhere.
So use a technology that makes your web page mobile phone friendly. If the your web page is tedious to load in a mobile screen, readers will refer other sites which isn’t time consuming while loading. So to be in the race, get your website smart phone friendly now.
13) There is a lot in a name
How would you like to address your blog? It is not a very easy task to choose a name. You have to choose a domain name and a name for your blog as well. Keep the domain name simple so that it gets registered in readers’ mind easily.
A long and difficult domain name is hard to remember. Your blog name must be such that it resonates with your readers. Do not keep the domain and blog name very different, otherwise readers will get confused with your identity. Have two or three similar elements between the two.
14) A great start
The first two lines create the impression with readers that what they are reading is worth reading or not. Readers coming across a lame start will not go till the finishing line.
You can use a powerful sentence or phrase to make an astounding beginning. Or you can start with question which makes the readers curious to read more. I can only advice. You are the best judge to decide how to start your content.
Just remember that first few lines can either make or break your content.
See this video by Kitsch Snitch: Beauty Blogging Tips
15) Plugins for your blog
See extensive features only add to attraction or eases your pain on tiny issues. If your plugins mostly do tedious jobs you can comfortably concentrate on your blog. Plugins need a little bit of research. Some plugins are free and their extensive services are chargeable.
Obviously you have to see and decide which plugins work best for your website as there are various plugins in the market. Study their reputation before installing a plugin for your website.
Read: My 20 Best WordPress Plugins List
16) Quotes from experts
Image Credits:Flickr
If you are writing a motivational content, a famous quote of an expert blogger or any individual will add credit to your content. Ofcourse your content should be unique and not copied but if we can insert related links then why not related quotes?
Readers will know that your knowledge is vast as far as your niche is concerned. If you had little knowledge of what you are writing, you cannot refer to expert’s quotes. So do not shy away from using quotes of others. It adds value to your content.
17) Keep a track of your reputation
You might be doing everything for the betterment of your business blog but what if you do not know if someone has scraped the reputation. Type your blog name in Google and see what comes up .
If few positive words are written about your site you have reasons to smile. If by any chance something negative is uploaded in the customer feedback, be sure to upload a public apology or if you have compensated by any means make sure you make that public too.
Make a strong presence in social networking sites as Google ratings are higher if your social networking presence is positive.
18) Experiment with your theme
Giving an outlook change to your blog is easy if you change the theme at intervals. Your web page, blog post and comments stay intact, yet your blog gets a new look whenever you change your theme.
Themes come in free except for the premium ones which allows customization according to your brand. You can also set the charge to your WordPress designer to create an unique theme for your site or modify the existing one. So a new look to your blog is always alluring as a new haircut!
19) Zeitgeist
Do you know what this word means? This means celebrate the spirit of time. Strike the iron when it is hot. That means current hot topics should be your blog topics too. It instantly fetches attention of your readers.
I am not saying that all your topics should be only on current news or affairs but atleast one burning topic should be a part of your blog just for mass attention.
20) Insert share buttons
This job can definately be fulfilled by a plugin but get it done. Your content must be shareable among all social networking sites. Insert Facebook like button, Tweet button, Google+ plus sharing button, Pinit and any other available social sharing buttons.
See this video: How to Add Share Buttons on your Blogs, Websites, and More
Only if your content are viewed across various social sites, you can dream of a popular website.
Do not be confused or overwhelmed to use all the tips in your next post. You will learn eventually and gather experience to follow the path with the changing times.
If you have your suggestions please do share it with me and if you want a deeper insight on any point, I am always available.
Dont forget to share this awesome article in social media. I will be pleased if you share this now ! Join BloggersIdeas on Facebook, Google+ & Twitter for more updates.
Each blog post is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship you have with your existing audience, prove your authority and gain trust in your niche and grow your audience, and if you do eventually sell something, or if there are affiliate opportunities within those posts, you are planting passive income seeds that could make you money, passively, for a very long time.
I can’t get enough of this list!
This is one of the awesome blogging tips I have read ever since! Well, a blog should be as perfect as possible.
Wooo, I actually don’t know where to start. However, okay, first thing’s first.
Anti-spam plug-in like Akismet is useful to keep your blog secure form spammy comments. Always update your about me or your profile if needed, you may use Gravatar or about.me.
Build good relationship with your readers and of course, give your blog a nice package! “A beautiful cover page, attractive header, valuable widgets in the side bar and a neat content will endure readers to go through your posts.”
I left this comment on kingged.com, the content curation website and blogging community.
Absolutely wonderful! Theser very important points yet very basic when it comes to blogging. These steps should be followed to produce a top blog. Isn’t it?
Yes, I am happy Kritika is enlightening new bloggers and people on my blog and it is helping you guys.
Great tips kritika
I love the way you are building your list here with a non obtrusive plugin
Hey Kritika,
Thanks for writing this. Pretty unique I would say 🙂 I think the most overlooked one is anti spam plugin. Spam is hugely popular (in an odd way) in blogging. Control that or you’ll get over 300 spams a day!
Thanks for sharing 🙂