Invest in Tools That Make You More Productive
Certain tools make the life of a blogger much easier. For instance, planning and managing your blog posts is far quicker and simpler in a spreadsheet like Excel, than in an unstructured document, like Word. Learning to use Excel may not be exciting but it will save you lots of time. Once you are confident with Excel you can also use it to do things like analyse your Google analytics data to see what your readers most enjoy reading about.If you�re not confident using Excel there are lots of online resources available. A great one for learning how to analyse your Google data is Excel for SEOs. For more general help Excel Easy is a great place to start.
Choose a Topic or Niche You Are Interested In
To become a successful blogger, you have to be able to produce high quality content on a regular basis. This is almost impossible to do if you don�t have a keen interest in the topic you blog about. All the research in the world won�t motivate you to keep blogging about something you have no interest in and your audience will pick up on this too. You should have experience, knowledge and a passion for your chosen topic.Become a More Resourceful Researcher
Unfortunately, many bloggers run out of ideas for their blog. This should not be the case because the internet is the best research tool the world has ever seen. The search engines give you instant access to billions of pages of content, but you can use other resources too, to generate content ideas. Google trends, video sharing websites and content and discussion forums on other people�s websites are just some of the other places you can get countless blog post ideas from.Discipline
Blogging is a hobby for many people. However, if you decide to really take your blogging seriously, you have to become disciplined, which can take the fun out of it for many people. What posts to publish and when to post them should be planned well in advance, so that you have more control over your content. How you interact with people on your blog is another important factor you should be aware of and be able to plan for.Post Regularly
The most popular blogs are frequently updated. The more blog posts you publish, the more you will attract the attention of the search engines and the more your audience will grow and interact with your blog.Improve Your Writing Skills
Writing is central to any successful blog. If you think you can improve your writing skills, there are plenty of courses available that will help you with your vocabulary, grammar and other aspects of your writing.Once you have mastered the technical aspects of your writing, you will be in a position to become better at writing catchy headlines. You should also aim to make your blog posts more entertaining, educational and make them sound more natural.
Writing shouldn�t be a solitary exercise either. Ask other people to check your posts before you publish them. They should check for any common problems such as spelling mistakes and make sure your blog posts are easy and clear to read. A useful tool for this is grammarly.
Use Different Formats
Blogging should not just be a text based activity. You can add content in other formats too, which will satisfy the requirements of more people. Some people like to read text, others may want to see images, others may want to watch a video and others are happy to listen to your content by way of an audio file.Network
It�s difficult to gain any momentum when you�re a �one-man band� who blogs alone. However, if you network with other bloggers, it can open up opportunities you did not realise existed. Many prominent blog owners are only too happy to share the secret of their success. In some situations, you may even be able to partner with bloggers who reach a much wider audience than you. Participating in blog carnivals and making connections outside your own blog is also another way to greatly increase your audience.Interact with Your Audience
Today�s online users expect more when they visit a blog. It�s no longer enough to simply publish content. Blog visitors want to be able to interact with blog owners too, so you have to make yourself available to talk to your audience.Some visitors will simply thank you, while others will want to ask you questions. Where possible, make sure every question and comment is answered. This is an effective way to build trust and people will be more likely to return to your blog to read future updates.
Optimise Your Content for the Search Engines
Writing high quality content is only half the battle when you blog, especially if you want to keep the search engines happy and attract more blog visitors. This is why it�s essential to focus on optimising every blog post you publish. If you use a CMS like WordPress, this is pretty straight forward because you can install a plugin like Yoast that checks to see how well optimised your content is. The most important elements of each blog post that should be optimised include its URL, title, content, tags, images and internal and external links.Add Calls to Action
When you write a blog post, the end reader is your main concern. The content of your blog post should be of value to you readers and they should then carry out certain actions you want them to carry out. This is why it�s vital to add a call to action in every one of your blog posts. You can ask people to share your content, subscribe to an email list, phone you or do something else you want them to do. If you don�t ask, it won�t happen and you could lose customers, subscribers or not reach as many people as you hoped for.Becoming a successful blogger is not an impossible task. However, it does take a lot of hard work and you need to be aware of each of the factors above. Doing this will increase the likelihood of your blog becoming a success for many years to come.
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