How to Blog
In our previous post, Creating Your Blog, we continued our series all about blogging by discussing the process of creating your blog
In this post, we discuss some of the key things to remember when you start blogging.
Some rights reserved by marsmet451How to Blog
There are as many ways to blog as there are people on Earth. Each blogger will approach the task of posting an engaging blog in his or her own way. As we indicated in the previous post in this series, you should decide how blogging will achieve your online objectives before you start.
Start by Commenting
Once you’ve created your plan and figured out your approach, visit lots of relevant blogs and consider posting comments as a way to get the hang of blogging. In doing so, keep in mind the following guidelines for commenting on others’ posts:
- Follow the 4-to-1 rule: Comment on four posts for every post that you write — Spread the love around
- Link to other blogs — Acknowledging a great post on another’s blog can help build your reputation and deliver readers for your own blog
- Comments are a great way to spread the word, but don’t spam — If every comment you make includes a gratuitous link to your blog, or is seen as merely self-serving, you’re not going to be successful in luring readers of other blogs to yours
- Ensure your comments are relevant and on-topic — This is the other side of the previous rule: Don’t comment if you’re not adding value. We’re often tempted to post something useless like “I agree,” or “What he said” but that does nothing but clutter up the comments stream, and readers will immediately gloss over your comment in search of something interesting.
- Include a link to your blog — Yes, it’s appropriate to include a link to your blog in a comment, but only in context, meaning that your blog amplifies or otherwise is pertinent to the same or a similar topic
Blog Frequently
Once you start blogging, you’ll want to establish a rhythm. Try to blog frequently — more than once a week, maybe even daily. The point of blogging is to get followers. Followers want currency, not stale, month-old posts. Blogging frequently will keep them coming back.
If you can’t commit to blog daily, shoot for blogging every few days, or at least weekly. You may need to spread the blogging chores among several authors. If you do, encourage them to maintain a common tone.
Next up: Writing Your Blog
How to Blog is the 145th in a series of excerpts from our book, Be a Person: the Social Operating Manual for Enterprises (itself part of a series for different audiences). We’re just past page 378. At this rate it’ll be a long time before we get through all 430 pages, but luckily, if you’re impatient, the book is available in paper form at bit.ly/OrderBeAPerson and you can save $5 using Coupon Code 6WXG8ABP2
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