This is Day 6 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 60+ of us bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers. You can read an overview here.
Today is a massive dose of medicine that should really taken over time, well that is what I thought when I looked over the list of posts that Darren mentioned. The internet is full of such articles; so it is great that we have a list filtered by someone trustworthy and influential. I have read many of these and seen a few video; recently that of Chris Brogan‘s Kitchen talks and those of Daren Rowse. The points that have stood out or me:
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- It Takes Time
It is easy to say that when you have been blogging for a few years and your blog is successful, but it is true. Even Darren says something like two years.
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- It Takes Effort
Not Luck, Chris Brogan says that. You can see that he advocates hard work. It you want to get a better blog then you gotta make some sacrifices like waking up early and not watching that lame movie.
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- It Takes Thought
There is a purpose to everything; whether you like it or not. You want lot of page hits, lots of comments, an Alexa rank of under 100k, all you family to keep visiting your blog. Whatever it is there is strategy needed to obtain those goals. I read a great book by Donald Miller called a Million Miles in a Thousand Years; what story do you want to tell about your blog.
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- It Takes Help
Seth Godin‘s post on first, ten is great. There is so much power in collaboration. He says that you need to try first with ten people then move on. However, I think that it does not matter where you are in your blog, get ten people now and stage a drive – it will put a little bit of extra momentum into you endeavors. This is something I have been trying to get right for a while, it has not worked because I have not had the right people, close by, with the same interests and intentions as me, but now with all of use here on the same project looking for the same outcome, hmm I think that this is an opportunity for us all.
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- SEO, etc
One set of principles and technical aspects I have always had in the back of my mind is that of SEO. I am sure that a better understanding of the principles involved would be good – not just using plug-ins like the All in one SEO pack. There are so many articles, long articles, on the subject. I am sure that delving into them will help you achieve your blog objectives. Refer to the point about “It Takes Time”, lol.
Discussion
- What are your thoughts on the 5 points above?
- What tips have proven to be most effective in developing and improving your own blog?
- What tips stand out as things you want to implement or get better at?
- Did you find any other articles not listed that could/should be considered?
The Extra Mile
A few other things you can do to take your blog, other bloggers, and this project even further today…
- Reply & give other bloggers feedback on the little things they do.
- When other bloggers include a link to a new article they’ve posted today, click, read, and comment on it.
- Check previous posts in the series for new comments.
- Tweet, share, & bookmark this post.
Phillip Gibb; I am a Christian, a husband to a beautiful wife and father of two stunning children. It is my dream to make a Film one day and to Glorify God on my journey there. I blog at SynapticLight and twitter at phillipgibb.
102 Comments
I agree with the five points above. I think thought and effort has been most effective on my blog. You have to consider who is reading it and take the time to find and wor'd the information correctly. I want to make my blog more reader friendly and cover topics that people want to read about.
Today's post is "Your Community 1 of 6"http://tijuanabecky.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/your…
I want to do the same thing, but I also want to stay true to myself and what I want to write about. It's definitely a balancing act.
~Jennifer
Serious bloggers are always on the lookout for tips and 'success stories' to help them improve their blogging. I know that I am always interested in what others are doing. There are a few things that I have observed in my years blogging.
1. Diligence – In King Solomon's Proverbs 'diligence' is an often repeated theme for success in every area of life. Be a diligent blogger!
2. Details – Pay close attention to details. Watch spelling and grammar. One of the objectives of blogging is to build a persona of trust and expertise. I have been disappointed many time when i go to a blog and the post (no matter how interesting0 is loaded with misspelled words and poor grammar. It only takes a couple of minutes to proof read your post before posting.
3. Clarity – when writing for others, make sure that your points are clearly stated and easily understood. Often people write in the same manner that they speak. Often we have a tendency to ramble and interject slightly related topics when, ultimately, make the point that you are trying to make obscure.
4. Personality – Let your readers see who you are and what you believe.
Blogging is a great way to get your message out. Plan your blog posts. We do not plan to fail. We fail to plan.
I hope that this helps those who are serious about blogging.
Always be a conduit of God's blessings.
I so appreciate the personality component of what a good blog needs. Thanks for the suggestions. I am brand new to blogging.
Thank you for your 4. Those are great. And about wanting to read success stories and tips I'm so with you on that, that is something I look for in a blog. I want to learn something.
First, new post on the blog:http://trainingcrucible.blogspot.com/2010/05/musi…
Second, I agree with JustaPen, sometimes it feels like information overload. I do better with short lists with long answers or long lists with short answers, but now really well with long lists with long answers. It is taking awhile to go through everything and try to pick the top 5-10 that matter the most right now to me since my blog is so new. I think the major one is Consistency. It seems to be the thing that appears on eveyone list when talking about great blogs (imagine that).
Here is a short article I wrote about today's lesson.
There are a lot of repetition in the set of links in today's lesson. In my opinion, that list of links could have been shortened to about 5 links.
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Weird.. Don’t see the IntenseDebate login.. maybe it’s because I’m on my in-laws incredibly slow internet! Feels like dialup.. wow..
I’ll have to read over the lesson later. We decided to head out of town last night to see my wife’s mom and so I could go see my dad this week. See Saturday is 1 year since my mom died..
I posted a blog about my thoughts on Mother’s Day (which was also my birthday). I’d be honored if you read it and gave me your thoughts. http://guardraildamageahead.com/mothers-daymy-35th-birthday/
On this lesson the one thing I can add is SEO is very important. I’m sure Paul can give more pointers on that. You have to be intentional with what you write and with how you do your Page Title, description and keywords. If you can define a smaller niche and use long tail keywords you are more likely to be able to grab that lower hanging fruit.
Generally speaking, I’m not big on memorizing a lot of little things. I much prefer to learn some general principles and then apply those principles to specific situations. So, as I was reading through all these tips, certain underlying principles started to emerge.
What’s more, I noticed that a lot of the general principles for blogging well are actually derived from even broader principles for living well. So, I wrote this post about 7 general principles that apply to blogging as well as life in general.
http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/05/10/7-blo…
Generally speaking, I’m not big on memorizing a lot of little things. I much prefer to learn some general principles and then apply those principles to specific situations. So, as I was reading through all these tips, certain underlying principles started to emerge.
What’s more, I noticed that a lot of the general principles for blogging well are actually derived from even broader principles for living well. So, I wrote this post about 7 general principles that apply to blogging as well as life in general.
http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/05/10/7-blo…
Great list post. 😉 Thanks.
Just to add to my own answers: I found this interesting dynamic list of articles : Biggest List of Traffic Generation Tips