Essential Blogging Tips – Part 1

We have all read many posts about what to do and what not to do concerning blogging and I’m going to try and list things that I think are important for all walks of bloggers.

I’m only going to list tips 1 to 10 in this post as it’s part of a series of two posts, with part 2 available for viewing tomorrow, so make sure to come back and read all about it.

I’m no advanced blogger nor a newbie, but I would like to share tips so that others can learn from mine and other blogger mistakes. These tips range from the obvious to the critical ones, they are all so important to become a successful blogger.

I have not listed them in any particular order as I think they all play an important role in defining our blog and us as authors/owners.

1. Blog with Passion

Blogging can be done by most of us and it’s really not to hard to blog about different topics as there are thousands to choose from. The problem comes in when you don’t blog with passion, your users will definitely know from your posts. When I read a post, I can pick up on the authors style of writing and whether they wrote the post in haste or if they really spent time before publishing it and if it was written with passion.

Bloggers who don’t post with passion normally fall by the wayside after just a few months and the blog then becomes obsolete. Some will post once in a few weeks or months and it becomes a burden to them to update their blog.

When you publish your next post whether it be later today or tomorrow or even next week, do yourself a favor as ask yourself if you have written it with passion.

Are you passionate about your posts?

2. Listen to Others Advice

When I first started blogging, what I thought was cool and essential for my site was actually what put others off. I started to ask questions about my technique and eventually started to get help from other bloggers/friends concerning design, post details, widgets, images, etc.

We as bloggers have a choice to either listen to advice given by other bloggers/friends about what works for them and what they think would be better for our blog or ignore it.

I like it when someone gives me their personal opinion and I always take it into consideration no matter if it’s great or harsh. We need to be able to open our ears so to say and take the good with the bad.

Do you listen to others advice or are you a stubborn person who does not care?

3. Self Hosted or Free Hosting

Many of us either started on free hosting sites like WordPress or Blogspot or maybe even took the huge jump and started with self hosting. The important thing is to know your short and long term goals and to know where you want to be in a few years time.

I know many bloggers who started on Blogspot and eventually moved over to self hosting. They then need to start working on things from the beginning, it’s not bad at all. They might first want to see if they have what it takes to blog on a regular basis, if they have the passion for it and if there are others that are willing to follow them through their journey.

Did you start with a free hosting service or did you go straight to self hosted?

4. Blog Header

It is so important now days to have a decent header image that stands out and catches the users attention. Many users will identify your gravatar with your header image if they are closely related, which helps a lot when commenting on other blogs.

I see so many blogs that have the normal title and tagline and that sometimes puts me off the site, then it solely depends on their content. Be creative and you could always create your own header image with software you already have or you could pay someone to create something for you. It all depends on what is required and how much money you are willing to cough up.

I know some people will even create a header image for free, other banners and so on. All they ask for is that you give them some kind of credit in a post or link back to their site.

Does your blog have a header image or just plain wording? Did you create your header image yourself or did you outsource it? If outsourced, who created it for you?

5. Blog design and layout

This is one of the most important aspects of any blog. When a new visitor lands on your blog via search engine or being referred by someone else or a link, your blogs first impression will either make or break how successful your blog is.

Make sure your site is not to cluttered and that there are not to many distractions. When I visit a new site, if I like the design and feel relaxed then I browse through new and old posts that have been published. If a blogger does not like the layout and design, 10 to 1 they will just close the browser before even reading one post.

There are so many themes available today that it’s hard to make a choice. You need to look at your own capabilities and know your strengths and weaknesses. I’m using Thesis theme and love it as I can customize my site just with a bit of PHP and CSS coding and a click here and there.

You need to know what layout you want taking into consideration the  sidebars and content widths. If you will have 1 or 2 sidebars and whether they will be situated on the left or right of the blog. Many sites lately are just having one sidebar, but the choice will be yours.

You could go for free or premium themes. I like some free themes, but the draw back for me is support and making sure that the theme is supported by the new versions of the blogging platforms being used. Premium theme developers ensure that their themes are updated and using all new available shortcodes, functions, etc.

Maybe go have a look at some of my older posts that are in my Themes category or you can view some from below:

• FlexxTheme
• FlexSqueeze Theme
• WP Unlimited Theme
• WordPress Now Theme
• StudioPress Theme
• Thesis Theme (currently using this theme on my blog)

Do you like your current theme or do you change every now and then? What theme are you using now?

6. Have a small black book close to you

This is not for telephone numbers of old girlfriends or boyfriends from your school days. Thought I should just state that and make it clear to you, lol.

We all know that at some stage in a bloggers life, they will hit the brick wall of writers block. This is not a maybe, but a fact. This is where my point of the black book comes into effect. My black book is small enough to fit into my shirt pocket. You could have a bigger book if you really wanted, the choice is yours.

You will be sitting at home or even busy with something else and some great idea pops in your head that you would like to share with others, you need to write this idea down somewhere so that you don’t forget about it later.

I even use my black book for changes that I want to do with my blog design, messages I need to send out, etc. Anything goes here, just jot them down and not worry about forgetting it.

Do you have your own black book? Do you write down your ideas anywhere? How many books have you gone through?

7. Use images in your posts

In the past, I use to post now and then and not really get many comments. When I did, they were very short comments and I use to ask myself if my posts were boring. What could I do to spice up my posts or make the users want to comment.

I remember that once a user left a comment saying that I needed to add some images/pictures to my posts as it just looked like paragraphs and paragraphs of writing and they would get bored by just reading.

I looked at some other bloggers posts and I enjoyed them as they would have some kind of images in their posts. Some would be funny when they were trying to convey a bit of comedy or laughter and others were about their post, depending on the topic or category at hand.

I have to say that an image speaks a 1000 words. Yes, a full one thousand words. That’s a lot if you ask me. It spices up the post and you could use this to your advantage. If you look at this post, I have images by some of the tips, but not all. I could choose to put by all, but I don’t want to over do it. Images can be aligned in different ways including left, right and centered. It depends what effect you are trying to portray.

Do you always or sometimes use images in your posts? Are there certain image sizes you use? Any other advise on images you would like to share?

8. Have different subscription options

I will be honest with you, I had not put much thought into this as one of my regular visitors commented on this and I took his advice. I practice point 2 about listening to others advice.

I have seen some blogs have small buttons to subscribe or even nothing. This is where you can get users to subscribe to your blog updates and start to build your community. There are different subscriptions methods and you need to know what and where to place them.

An excellent one to start off with is your email updates which you can use Feedburner. They will manage your updates and users can opt-in and out and any stage. This is my favorite as then I can view the email with post details and see if I want to visit the site and comment on the post.

You will need to place a relatively big icon to make sure you attract your visitors attention and place it where they can see it. Maybe at the top of the blog or in your sidebar.

Twitter is so popular now days that you could get other users to first start following you there and then they might sign up for your post updates via email. You could also offer the normal RSS Feed option for others that use other applications to keep updated with your posts.

Another way is to also offer a mobile version of your blog. As technology develops, more and more people are accessing blogs via their cell phones. You never know!

Are you making it easy for users to subscribe to your blog?

9. Blogging platform

When choosing a blogging platform, I only recommend WordPress and no other. I know there are so many wonderful platforms available on the net, but the community around WordPress is so much larger than the others and it’s so easy to use.

The WP developers amaze me every week with the plugins that come out, there is practically a plugin for every kind of feature or functionality that one would need or require at one stage.

Every week I post about new WP plugins on this blog to help others out and hope that I stumble upon some plugin which you like or require. Thus, giving my readers and visitors information on demand.

I know some might object or have other views about WordPress and you are entitled to it. It depends on the individual and their capabilities.

What blogging platform are you using? What do you look for when deciding on a blogging platform?

10. Offer something for FREE

This is where one can increase their subscribers or mailing lists or even get new visitors by offering something for free. When I say offer something for free , I mean it can be download files, free advice, free installation of software, support, etc.

Currently I offer free downloads ranging from ebooks, PLR articles, images and graphics. I have over 750 download files and they have been downloaded a total of over 50,000 times. That’s over 50,000 hits for something that does not take any of my time or money.

By offering something for free, you could increase your reputation and thus increase your blogs traffic. This kind of service has helped me in finding new friends and helping them. It’s also my way of saying thanks and giving back to the world

Are you offering some kind of free services or products? Let me know of them, I would like to share it with all my readers.

Conclusion

I hope the above tips can help you create a blog whereby you and your community can be proud of and want to visit on a daily or weekly basis and refer others to.

Part 2 of Essential Blogging Tips tomorrow will consist of SEO, blog traffic, post content, interacting with commentators, social bookmarking and others.

I’m keen to hear your feedback and thoughts, they are all welcomed and appreciated.

Tagged as: advice, blog tips, blogger, blogger tips, experience, Tips

From the desk of George Serradinho

I am the proud owner of Serradinho.com and have made this my second home. I'm into blogging, downloads, WordPress, meeting and helping others, etc. Basically the internet in general :) Serradinho Web Services is my own company whereby I offer my services to clients. This ranges from web design, website upgrades, theme customizations, support, premium WordPress plugins and many more .....

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