There are millions of blogs in existence, with thousands being created every day. Most languish in obscurity and anonymity for a few months at best, only to be abandoned and relegated to the Internet ether. You can still find these relics of a bygone age and track the falling enthusiasm like clockwork: the first few entries are full of wonder, hope, and exuberance, posted on successive days. Then, when they realize no one’s probably reading except their close friends and maybe family, the posts begin to dwindle. Then there’s the inevitable “make-up” post where the blogger apologizes for “waiting so long to update” and promises he’ll “get back on schedule,” which never pans out. You shudder, realizing the last post was over a year ago.
Does he ever think about the failed blog? Has he attempted another? You ponder these things and hope the same fate never befalls you and your blog. Observing failed blogs can teach you a lot about what not to do, but so many different blogs on different subjects with wildly different styles and designs all fail, making it difficult to discern truly what went wrong.
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to get your blog noticed. These aren’t foolproof, guaranteed tricks, but they will improve your chance at success.
Write Good Content
This should be obvious. It’s fairly common that a blogger will have all the bells and whistles on their blog - a Digg button, RSS feed capability, and links galore - without having any compelling content. I harp on this a lot when I give writing advice, but I do it for a reason. We write in the public sphere for readers. Without good writing, there are no readers.
Use Pictures
The Internet is a multimedia medium, with video, image, and audio capability. Take advantage of it. Some people are audio-visual learners; some are turned off by a wall of text. Good writing alone won’t do the trick. The best, most successful blogs combine excellent writing with interesting pics and videos.
The Title Counts
When writing your title, think about both human readers and search engine crawlers. Be catchy, succinct, and clever for your humans; pay attention to commonly used search terms and keyword phrases to please the search engines. The skilled blogger will be able to satisfy both audiences with a title.
Leave Comments on Other Blogs
Seek out the big blogs in your field. Participate in their comment section discussions. Usually, leaving a comment gives you the opportunity to link to your blog, too. Just don’t be a spammer. No one likes a spammer. Leave a meaningful, well-written comment, and people will be interested in reading more of what you have to say.
Make Friends
Other bloggers have similar aspirations as you. Seek them out and foster a mutually beneficial relationship. Include them in your blog roll and they’ll likely do the same for you. Leave comments on their blogs and ask them to comment on yours and trade guest posts to draw in new readers from other blogs.
I hope these tips help you in your quest to be a top-notch blogger. See you next time!
