Advice for newbie bloggers
I received a comment yesterday from the Workout Review asking if I could give some advice to help a newbie blog. I could easily write one hundred and one, or even one thousand and one pieces of advice, but I’m pushed for time and there are probably one million and one other bloggers more qualified than I am.
So instead, I wanted to write the top 3 pieces of advice I’ve picked up from my experience in just under a year of blogging. So here goes, I hope you find this useful Workout Review:
1. post regularly about stories that will interest your readers
Ever heard the expression content is king? Well that’s certainly the case in blogging. Find a niche, do your keyword research (read my post on keyword research) and stick to it. Going off in all kinds of directions is unlikely to please your readers.
2. Read lots of other blogs and contribute.
First of all this will help you to build your profile and meet new bloggers, which will in turn drive traffic to your blog. Secondly you will start to notice features you like and dislike in other blogs which will help you to customise your own. There’s an amazing array of options out there, especially if you decide to buy a domain and host your own blog site - the costs involved in this are literally only a few cents and the added functionality is well worth the investment.
3. Put the hours in.
Every successful blogger I read about invests a lot of time in their blog (see TechCrunch ), but be careful, plan what you want to achieve and don’t just rush in like a bull in a china shop. The best blogs seem to be on a mission to add value to your lives, the worst are always selling and never giving.
There’s really a heck of a lot of work that goes into writing a good blog, but for absolute newbies these few thoughts should help to get you on the road to blogosphere stardom.
Oh and Workout Review, I like your blog. Nice, simple, clean and what looks like the start of some pretty decent content. Anyone looking for some fitness advice, check it out here.
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Profile of a super blogger
Anyone wanting to be a world famous blogger and to earn a substantial living from writing about what you love, should read this case study on Wired. It’s all about Michael Arrington from the California based technology blog TechCrunch. I won’t go into all the details as the story on Wired is too well written for me to spoil it, but I will note two things. After a little over two years blogging:
1) Michael’s revenue is now over $200,000 per month,
2) Michael works 16 hours a day, every day, churning out 3-10 posts everyday.
So if you want the first, you need to do the second. Oh and by the way, Michael has not had a day off in two years!
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50 best business blogs
If you’re like me it’s highly likely you spend a lot of time reading blogs. There are a few blogs I keep regular tabs on and even a rare handful I subscribe to, but I always always enjoy finding new blogs. Especially those with well written content, interesting opinions and of course, useful comments.
But how do you know which are worth reading if you don’t want to spend a lot of time reading them in the first place. You could head to Technorati and view the popular blogs page. You could check out the blog rolls of those you already read and you’ll see a couple of fantastic blogs I read on the right hand side of this page. Of course, you could also do a Google search on the topic you want to read about and find a blog that way.
However these all require time for reading and evaluation. There must be an easier way?
Well there is. Our friends at the Times (THE leading British daily and Sunday paper) have published their list of 50 best business blogs.
Some of these blogs I happily agree with and some I believe should be stricken from the record. I mean who really cares what Charles Dunstone, CEO of Carphone Warehouse has to say…. not me.
But there are some gems on their also, like Richard Edelman’s PR blog and Seth Godin’s marketing blog. You could do a lot worse than to read these for ideas and inspiration on how to market your business, your blog or your products. They are certainly the source of some inspiration for me.
Of course, I I would love to get your thoughts and opinions on the blogs you ready and why. Please feel free to add a comment with a link and I’ll check out your recommendations, or even your own blog if you want to brag about it. If I like what I see, I’ll post up a short review.
Tag:blogging web 2.0comments
Customise your blog
I’ve been looking into the idea of developing a custom theme for my blog. On the advice of various IM blogs and Aaron Wall’s SEO site, this seems to be a great way to further develop a blogs brand identity and differentiate it from the rest of the pack. It’s also a great way to spend a bucket of cash, right? Wrong.
OK OK it can be and this is why I haven’t taken this step so far. But then I came across a site from Yvo Schaap with a Wordpress theme generator where you can build your own theme in minutes.
Well, not exactly minutes, it actually takes a lot of effort to create something professional looking. But what you will have is a unique, impressive, widget ready theme to call your own. Now that is something to be proud of. The best thing about it though, t’s FREE.
Thanks Yvo, that’s fantastic!
I just have to decide whether or not I have the time, or whether I might be better off heading to RentACoder…
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