Blogging Best Practices

Maintaining a blog is hard work, as is clearly evidenced by the fact that I can’t seem to maintain one…ever. But aside from that initial time and effort, what makes a blog successful? I’ve researched a few best practices in blogging on EchoDitto that will help transform your blog into something that people actually want to read.

• It’s okay to be opinionated and show your personality. Isn’t that the whole purpose of a blog in the first place? If people didn’t want to know your opinion, they could just read the news. Are you passionate about something? Show it! Be more interesting than the back of a cereal box.

• Links and tags are your friend. If you want your blog to be seen, don’t shy away from shameless plugging! Link to your own posts in other posts. Tag your entries with relevant key words to help them appear on search engines more easily. If it could be at all relevant, tag it.

• Interaction is key. Your readers want to know that you are hearing what they have to say. If someone leaves a comment on your blog, respond to them! Again, if they didn’t want that personal element they could seek out the same information somewhere other than a blog.

I’ve also learned simply from observation and being a blog reader myself that it’s best if the blogger keeps to a regular posting schedule, and clearly advertises that schedule. It’s a lot easier for the reader if they know specifically when you will have a new post up. Checking back multiple times in the hopes of seeing something new will just frustrate the reader and cause them to give up on you if there isn’t any new content to feed their hungry minds.

It’s funny that the girl that can’t maintain a blog to save her life is discussing best practices, but the first step in succeeding is having the knowledge to succeed! Hopefully these tips will help skyrocket your blog (and mine, if I ever get it off the ground) to glory!

Source:

“Blogging Best Practices.” EchoDitto (blog), n.d. Accessed February 24, 2014. http://www.echoditto.com/insights/blogging-best-practices.