Are you a Social or a Hermit Blogger? My Tips for New Bloggers out there!
Having a great looking blog and writing great content for it just won’t cut it anymore. Ten (or so) years ago when blogging (or web logging as it was known back then) took off it was quite easy to build your blogs audience, reputation and authority.
Of course having a great looking blog and writing great content is of course important, but especially if you’re a new blogger building your blogs audience can be an uphill struggle and can be quite disheartening if you have put a lot of effort into your blog and not seeing any return on your investment.
I have recently set up a third blog that’s all about my other obsessive hobby of birds and birding. And as yet I have not got an audience for it but I am quite lucky as over the years I have learned a few lessons when building your blogs audience, rank and authority. So to that end I am going to share with you in this first post for Andy’s Comment Luv Network a few tips on building your blogs audience.
- Post Often, my numero uno rule when blogging is to publish posts often by that I mean setting a timetable of publishing posts. As your audience will come to expect to see posts by you at certain times of the week. Start of small and post once a week at the same time and day as the week before, then as your confidence grows you can post more often but once you do that never drop back to just one post a week as you can lose a chunk of your following that way. Make sure you don’t fall back on posting when going away on Holiday (vacation), Phil Lusted a fellow Blogger has written on this very subject HERE
- SEO, Spell check and grammertize your posts, the first thing I always do is to write my posts in word. To check for any spelling and grammar mistakes as not doing this can not only be embarrassing for you but you’re not helping your blogs authority as well as looking unprofessional. WordPress has 2 great features for seo. The first is the ability to send trackbacks to other sites related to your topic. Not only is this great for others by sending link luv but is also great for building your blogs backlinks. The second is to use the tags feature. Post certain keywords and phrases when posting. One more thing I have not mentioned is a great plugin called the all in one seo pack that can be found HERE.
- Pinging and Bookmarking. Of course you should all know about using Facebook and Twitter to let the world know about your blog but here is a list of sites you can use to build your blogs audience! They are all pretty self explaintiory and free to use as well. Technorati is a must for all bloggers, BizSugar, delicious, Digg, MyBlogGuest and CommentLuv as well as these you can also get immediate traffic by pinging your posts with these sites here: Pingler, Ping-O-Matic, Feedping and PingMyBlog
- Forums. These are great places to be social, give value and build your audience! The great thing about forums is not only can you find current topics to write about but most have a feature called signatures!
For maximum impact I tend to use banners in my sig where I can! Some forums won’t display your sig file until you have made a certain number of posts so it’s always important to stay active in these places as they are a huge resource of traffic to your blog especially if you give great content. Now I could list a load of forums and a few like bigboads and warrior forum come to mind but what I tend to do is search Google by using this text string in Google search: {forums} Keyword (or multiply keywords related to your blog).
- Find Other Blogs. Have a list of about 10 or 20 similar blogs that you visit and comment on can only build your blogs audience especially if they have the great comment luv plugin, always try and provide value in your comment never put things like “great post, really enjoyed this”. For me that is a kind of spamming especially if you have your link attached to it! I always try and add value by leaving my thoughts, ideas and tips that are related to that particular post.
- Don’t Be Selfish. After a while you will start to build your audience and start getting comments if you use my tips here! But make sure you are not selfish when it comes to comments. People have took the time to read and leave feedback on your writing so the least you can do is acknowledge them by replying and reciprocating even if it’s just to say thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.
- Become a Guest Blogger. For me this is the ultimate, as your confidence grows you will want and desire a larger audience. Guest blogging is a great way of getting traffic back to your blog. Guest blogging here on Andy’s Comment Luv Network or Hesham’s Famous Bloggers is a great way to start. Of course there are many criteria to guest blogging and certain rules to adhere to. For me guest blogging is akin to someone letting you into their house and using their kitchen to cook your own dinner. So above all always treat the blog owner with respect and never tread on his or her shoes.
Patience is a Virtue. Building your blog’s Audience will take a long time after all this game is a marathon and not a sprint so have patience. Don’t just throw out loads of posts and sit back expecting an audience. Blogging is so much more than writing great content of which that is just a small part of the experience. The tips I have mentioned here encompass only a small fraction of a bloggers job there is so much more you can do and learn out there.
I am still learning new things all the time and think that I will never fully understand this hobby of blogging fully! But I do know that being a Social blogger rather than a Hermit blogger will bring you success in gaining a strong following for your WebLog.
What are your thoughts? Have you any other tips or advice that I have not mentioned here? Do you disagree with anything I have said here?
Thanks for reading?
-Phillip Dews
Twitter: andrewrondeau
says:
Phillip
Great ideas. I get my wife to check all my blog posts for spelling and grammar, before I publish. I find it really hard to check my own writing.
One idea I’d like to add – invite guest bloggers to blog on your blog. As a newbie you may not get many offers but as your blog grows, you will.
Andrew
P.S. My wife doesn’t spell / grammar check my comments – so hopefully no mistakes here!
Andrew´s recent blog post ..Liar Liar Your Bums On Fire
Twitter: socialphill
says:
Hi Brian,
Thanks for your comment buddy! Nope no mistakes here! so all is good!
Great advice I think I will one day as soon as it get’s more traffic! After all my blog is all about internet marketing and there are a lot of bloggers blogging about that!
Anyway Brian I just wanted to say thanks for leaving your thoughts and am going to check your post out as it jumped out at me!
All the best buddy
-Phillip
Phillip Dews´s recent blog post ..Is Your Blog Fully optimized for the search engines
Twitter: richescorner
says:
Hi Phillip,
Great tips, most people, I think including myself go the other way around with their posting schedule. They start out with a bang posting daily or even more often, and then they slow things down later on. Either they are getting tired at that pace, or they’ve decided to adjust their posting frequency to a slower pace. Your suggestion is really an insightful way to start with a little momentum and build up on it instead of slowing it down.
richescorner´s recent blog post ..Learning a New Way to Get Targeted Traffic
Twitter: socialphill
says:
Hmm from small acorns and all that! thanks for your imput Riches! Am glad you enjoyed my post! will check out yours shortly!
All the best!
-Phillip
Excellent advice. I learned the hard way via having too many projects that I allowed to interfere with blogging with regularity. Well, I have finally got a kick in the pants to be on topic and in touch. As a marketer, it’s what I do. I must show up for work. Great lesson to learn…
Jae Smith´s recent blog post ..Facebook Best Practices for Wall Posting
Twitter: socialphill
says:
I agree with you there! having too much in projects is so wrong as you cannout commit all yout time to them! i would rather have 1 or 2 projects and commiting 50% of my time on each of them instead of having 10 with just 10%
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jae!
-Phillip
great tips! I’ll have to do these things one at a time. Still having problem with comluv.
Twitter: socialphill
says:
Hey thanks glad you like the post! what problems are you having?
-P
Twitter: gilbertocintron
says:
Great tips. I need to have a structure. Creating a blogging schedule and adhering to it is important to me now. I was one to create blogs, forums etc. with no rhyme or reason supposedly to make money. I wound up wasting money and time and never getting anything in return. My lesson learned is to stay focused and patient.
Thanks for the reassure.
gilbertocintron´s recent blog post ..OMG it’s almost Christmas again
Twitter: socialphill
says:
Hey glad i could help Gilbert! heres to your success!
-phillip
Twitter: IMMechanics
says:
Hello, Phillip. Thanks a lot for sharing your insights here and I agree with them all. The blogosphere is such a huge place and it’s important for bloggers to connect. I like how you highlighted that patience is a virtue; many newbie bloggers tend to forget that.
Anna´s recent blog post ..Easy Video Player 20 Bonus
Twitter: socialphill
says:
It sure is a virtue Anna! Glad you enjyed my post! all the best!
-Phillip
Hi, I find it takes so much time to spend reading forums and other blogs and leaving comments..
I know a lot of people say this is a great way to get traffic, but for me it doesn’t seem to do much.
Is there any special tricks that anyone can suggest to increase the effectiveness of said tactics?
Natural Pain Reliever´s recent blog post ..Locating and Treating Trigger Points Muscle Knots In the Gluteus Minimus
Twitter: socialphill
says:
Hmm a tricky one! It is a great way of getting traffic! i find that providing value and giving something of value away for free like I have on my own blog i give away 2 ebooks that I have written away for free and that gets me traffic!
Just keep doing what your doing and have a little patience then you will get there! as for any special tricks, well i cannot think of any to be honest!
Hope that helps!
-phillip
Twitter: cieraholzenthal
says:
I have a relatively new blog and these are some great tips! I added comluv to my site and use facebook and twitter but I really like the guest blogger idea! Thanks for the info!
Ciera´s recent blog post ..Much Love Monday – Sucré New Orleans
Twitter: socialphill
says:
Hey NP glad you enjyed my post! have you read my post on SEO on my own blog! all the best
-Phillip
I only blog for fun and a hermit blogger, but when I started joining forums and putting comments on other blogs I started noticing regular readers on my blog. It makes blogging more fun. Right now I’m trying to post often and also trying out SEO stuff.
And yes, patience is a virtue.
yodz´s recent blog post ..How To Have A Bad Day
Twitter: socialphill
says:
thats great Yodz, have you seen my post on wordpress SEO? glad your getting a following buddy! all the Best
-Phillip
Phillip Dews´s recent blog post ..My Review of GHEADSHOT by Jani G and Dylan Loh
I’m using Commentlove on my humour blog I don’t find it to be that helpful however I post regularly and use stumbleupon while the traffic is untargeted it can bring in quite a few views.
As for everything else I’ll have to start giving it a go
Lachlan´s recent blog post ..Awkward
Twitter: socialphill
says:
hang in there Lachlan you will get there buddy!
All the Best
-phillip
Phillip Dews´s recent blog post ..My Review of GHEADSHOT by Jani G and Dylan Loh
While I haven’t heard it put that way before, as a matter of fact, I would have to say “Yes. I am pretty much a hermit blogger.” But I’m working on that. Thanks much for the tips.
Twitter: socialphill
says:
Hey NP Walt, Glad you liked the post!
All The Best
-Phillip
Phillip Dews´s recent blog post ..My Review of GHEADSHOT by Jani G and Dylan Loh