My 11 Blog Lessons
July 14th, 2007 | Categories: blogs, chat, launch, marketing, networks, off topic, social media, strategy, trends, widgetsA few days ago, Mark Evans wrote a post outlining some of the blog lessons he has learned since he began. I can definitely relate to most. In light of that post, I will now outline some of the lessons I have learned since I began blogging in September 2006.
1. Content is king. This cannot be over-emphasized enough. Always provide quality content for your readers. If you find that you are unable to come up with interesting, pertinent content on a regular basis, post less often. Do not allow the quality of your content to degrade.
2. NEVER take your readers for granted. Your audience is your basis for being. Thank them for their participation, be sure to respond to their e-mails, and never insult their intelligence.
3. Blogging is a huge time commitment. Well, it can be if you post regularly and plan on successfully marketing your blog. Often, new bloggers underestimate the time needed to successfully operate a blog.
4. Become a part of the blogosphere community. This means commenting on other blogs, adding trackbacks to your posts, linking to other blogs via your blogroll, and leveraging community widgets to enhance your blog experience for readers. This will help build your traffic, provide incoming links, and ensure a certain level of exposure for your blog. Furthermore, community participation will also provide valuable networking opportunities with other bloggers, Internet enthusiasts, and company exceutives.
5. Have a goal and a vision when you begin blogging. What is your reason for blogging? Do you want to provide an update for friends and family, or do you want to write articles on a given niche? Everyone has a different reason and underlying motivation for blogging. Money and financial returns should not be a primary motivator, nor should notoriety and fame.
6. Make yourself extremely accessible to readers. By prominently displaying your contact information and allowing easy communication with readers, you will be bridging the gap and creating a more loyal, trustworthy following. Having said that, you must also make a strong effort to reply to comments and e-mails in a prompt, thoughtful manner.
7. Post on a consistent basis. This doesn’t mean you need to post daily. What it means is that you must post on a consistent basis, whether it be once every two days, weekly, or even monthly. This way, your readers will know when to expect another post and do not become frustrated by an inconsistent posting schedule.
8. Stay on topic. Don’t sway too much from your initial niche and begin posting off topic. This not only disgruntles readers, but also ruins trust and loyalty. Providing high quality content in a given niche will help shape your space in the blogosphere and showcase your expertise.
9. Don’t regurgitate other blogs’ content. Numerous blogs simply choose to paraphrase other blogs or re-write articles in their own words. This provides no value to the reader, as he/she can simply visit the cited location. Every post must provide a unique perspective or view.
10. Don’t be discouraged by stats. It takes time to build a reader base. By posting quality content on a regular basis and participating in the blogosphere community, increased readership is inevitable. Stats can be discouraging at times, but you must stick with your initial vision. Quality and consistency will translate into surprising success.
11. Make design changes every once in awhile. In other words, keep a fresh look. This may mean changes to the overall design, colour schemes, widgets, layout, etc… By making regular changes, you will be providing a fresh look for you and your readers, creating a more enjoyable experience.
What lessons have you learned from blogging? What have been your biggest hurdles and obstacles to overcome? I encourage you to write a list of your own.
July 14th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Thank you for these lessons, very interesting!
July 15th, 2007 at 12:32 am
True. This post attracted my attention, because it wasn’t “top 10″ or “10 rules”, as usual. But it was 11
July 15th, 2007 at 4:59 am
blogspot can´t to do a trackback right?? but all others hints are greats to me ;)) thanksssssssssss
July 15th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Nice job, Aidan. Point #10 is really important - it’s not the size of your audience but who reads it. At the end of the day, good content will pay dividends in all kinds of different ways.
Mark
July 15th, 2007 at 8:53 am
I’m not so sure about number 9. I read a few blogs that just list the most important articles and posts in a field which saves me a lot of time.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Aaron,
What you’re talking about sounds more like an aggregator than a blog. A collection of links is much different than written content.
Cheers,
Aidan
July 15th, 2007 at 11:27 am
i don’t get how you see other peoples blogs
July 15th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
[…] A View from the Isle was born on Blogger. In July I moved to Blogware. A week ago, 1580+ posts and 800 some odd comments later, I moved to WordPress. Marc, Aidan, and Mark did a numbered list of things they learned. I’m in a more narrative mood, so we’ll go with that, shall we? […]
July 15th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
[…] Aidan Henry and Tris Hussey have responded to Mark’s (and Marc’s) post with their own list of lessons. I’m still working on mine birthday, blogs, WSJ | Share This | Related links […]
July 16th, 2007 at 4:23 am
I think the biggest thing for me that I have learned about blogging is that it is a lot of fun, but there is a demarcation point between the social networks and the search engines. When the social networks, like digg, reddit, stumbled upon are no longer working the way they did in the beginning, and google msn and yahoo are starting to pick up is the hardest time as a blogger.
You see yourself swap from one set of readers who wanted to check out the new blog, to people who are randomly searching for things.
The other lesson, when an article goes viral and gets posted all over the place it feels really rewarding, but the crash/letdown from that can be somewhat daunting as you go back to your normal levels of traffic.
July 16th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Absolutely right, Aidan.
July 16th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Great list Aidan.
I think #5 is a key ingredient and its the first question I try to clarify to my clients who want to integrate a blogging form of communication within their organisation.
#3 is something that cannot be taken for granted and a blogger need to integrate blogging into their routine otherwise it can go to the sidelines.
July 16th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Nice post… And yes, content is still king. Because if you think about it, everything is content or comes from content. Graphics, video, audio and of course the written word — all content. That being said, good content for blogs continues to be controversial topics. For better or worse, the most popular posts pit one thing against another, and the readers love it.
Cheers
July 19th, 2007 at 1:14 am
I believe content is the king in the blog arena.
The right topic and the right content is the key to success of a blog.
I also like to make it more interactive where a discussion takes place with the help of comments.
this increases the life of the blog.
Stats are sometimes discouraging make sure you check the stat tool, I faced this problem where the tool had a problem and I had enough visitors. I came to know this when I added 2 tools at the same time to compare.
I recommend GoStats.com , they are reliable.
July 19th, 2007 at 10:32 am
[…] Aidan Henry […]
October 8th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I think #5 is a key ingredient and its the first question I try to clarify to my clients who want to integrate a blogging form of communication within their organisation.
#3 is something that cannot be taken for granted and a blogger need to integrate blogging into their routine otherwise it can go to the sidelines.
Best regards
Svetainių kūrimas
March 6th, 2009 at 7:28 am
I’m a total newbie, just got my laptop a few months ago, and have been cruising all the blogsites. You have rather old comments, the newest (besides mine) 2008. What’s up with that? Think I could do a website and blog for the grandmothers of the world?
April 1st, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Very helpful, thanks for giving out hard won lessons.