Tips for Beginning Bloggers
Detail from Portrait of Bartolomé de Las Casas
Are you thinking of starting to blog? Whether you are blogging for business, for pleasure or for a favorite cause, there are two major aspects beginning bloggers need to think about:
- Technical: What platform will you use to blog? WordPress.com? Blogger? Tumblr? Self-hosted WordPress? Or perhaps some other platform.
- Content and Readership: What will you blog about? How will you find readers? How will you get responses (i.e., comments) from readers?
If you are blogging to promote your own business or to sell affiliate products, then that is a third aspect for thought. This post will mostly talk about developing your content and readership.
• • •
I asked some of my favorite bloggers on Google+ the following question:
What is one piece of advice that you would give a beginning blogger?
I organized their comments into categories, and I added a few of my own comments.
Why are You Blogging?
Sustain your effort and understand why you are blogging. That is critical for personal and business bloggers. It takes time to build your platform and to find your voice. Give yourself the time to do so and understand that it is ok.
It is all about realistic expectations.
Haim Cohen:
Blog for a purpose, even if that purpose is to journal privately.
Get Your Content on Your Blog
Bennett Ruda: be prepared to invest the time to post on a regular basis.
Praveen Rajarao: As a beginner myself, it was very tempting to achieve overnight success by signing up for all sorts of affiliate programs and try to make money fast.
I later realized that to be a successful blogger, I will need to write content which has NOT been seen or read elsewhere and try to get other bloggers to notice you and your blog.
Jacob Alonzo: 1. Focus on 1 piece of qualitative or quantitative piece of information. A blog entry should not be generic. A blog entry on a recipe on American apple pie can be identical to all others except maybe in how you make or decorate the top crust. But, the reader is left with a singular or valuable piece of information that will stay with them.
2. A beginner blogger needs to blog for themselves alone. Forgo any thought of a follow-ship/readership initially!
Haim Cohen: People like content, so if it is relevant to them, consistent, as well as informative, you should get an audience.
Respond to Comments
Responding to comments on your blog is not only good etiquette, it can also expand your readership.
Emily Seuss: Respond to comments so that you can meaningfully engage with your readers.
Bennett Ruda: Following up on what Emily wrote, it is also important to engage with bloggers of similar interests:
- Leave comments on other blogs of similar interest.
- Link to posts of other bloggers and quote them by name.
Haim Cohen: If you want comments, make it as easy as you can for readers to comment on it, but obviously stay clear of just allowing anyone to post.
Choosing a Platform for your Blog
Note: choosing a platform for your blog (Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, etc.) is a topic for another post, but I want to leave you with one insightful comment on Google+:
Haim Cohen: Google+ at this point is about to take over for ease of use. Links are public, share able, and have great SEO, and engagement value.
In response to Haim’s comment, I would add that I find some intelligent, educational and inspirational conversations (and lovely imagery, too – many photographers have taken to Google+) occur on Google+. Also, as he notes, the search engine Google picks up the information on Google+ and it receives priority in search engine rankings. A downside would be it is not your own platform with your own name or brand, as self-hosted WordPress would be (or WordPress.com with your own domain name).
As an experiment, I decided to link to each of these people’s Google+ profiles instead of their blogs. I’m wondering if they will attract some new followers on Google+ as a result. If you would like to circle me on Google+, I’m Leora Wenger.
Your Turn, Please
If you are an experienced blogger, how would you respond to my question? Also, if you have any responses to the bloggers’ comments, I would love to hear those, too. What else might you tell beginning bloggers? Thanks!
More posts like this one:
 Blog Highlights |
 Twitter Profile |
 Blog Improvements |
Leora – Nice to see our discussion composed into a blog post and as usual you did a great job at that. Thanks for linking back.
Praveen Rajarao´s last [type] ..The Naked Truth About Atish Ranjan
Glad you liked the format of the post – thank you so much for contributing to the original discussion. I’m finding some very intelligent and willing conversationalists on Google+ – a promising platform for making good connections.
Lots of useful advice here for those just starting out. Love how you put this together by virtual collaboration on Googl3+ too!
Emily Suess´s last [type] ..Writing Contest Announcement
Thanks, Emily. I’m finding Google+ is where the intelligent folks hang out – opportunities for good learning conversations abound.
Your writing contest announcement is tempting.
Well, I suggest you get your own domain name and set up a blog, while I know that some people cannot afford it, blogger works just as well, but there is a draw back for me with them. You have to log in and if I have to login to a blog, I tend to not bother and move on. While I do, myself have several blogger blogs, I really am not looking for comments…but I did get my first one just the other day on my recipe blog, which I need to go reply to ;-)
But, I prefer easy access — respond and move on.
It is very important to respond to your blog posts as it helps with your Alexa rankings, actually.
The way I find other readers is by blog hopping (visiting other blogs and commenting) and hoping they come back to me.
Great question and about Google+ – I hardly ever go there.
Linda
Linda´s last [type] ..Ever Heard of Tradebit? A New Place to Sell Your Products!
Thanks for all the comments, Linda. I think a good path for beginners is to set up a site on WordPress.com and then set up a domain name. If they really like blogging, later they can move to self-hosted WordPress with its many advantages (and already be familiar with the WordPress platform).
Agreed about blog hopping!
Google+ doesn’t yet have masses of people – what it does have is highly intelligent, conversational people and great SEO.
Its great to read the basic tips and about the views of different bloggers. Thank you so much.
I appreciate the input, Andy.
Wish I had seen this two years ago, would have saved me from making so many mistakes on The Real Jerusalem Streets!
Sharon, most of us learn by making mistakes as we go along. In fact, if you had just been “told” how to do something instead of living it, it probably wouldn’t sink in as well.
Thanks for commenting on Websites for Small Biz!
Best wishes,
Leora
Knowing your purpose can’t be stressed enough. I can’t tell you how many times I ask potential clients what the purpose of the blog is and they can’t give me an answer. Some people just seem to get a business blog because it seems like the right thing to do but they have no idea what they are trying to accomplish with it.
Secondly, I would say new bloggers need to be prepared to market their blog. After all, you could have the most amazing content but no one will read it if you don’t market it in some way.
Terri,
Great words of wisdom! It sounds like you do a great job of helping a business think through the blog process. Sometimes, just having someone who has “done it already” can provide a path to move forward.
Thanks for leaving a comment,
Leora
Really great tips for a newbie blogger. I’m sharing this in FB now.
Jennifer´s last [type] ..Better Jobs