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Blogging: How to Start a Blog

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101 Great Tips and Ideas Proven to Kick-Start Your Blogging


There is a lot of potential to build an online presence today, especially with the rising popularity of blogging.

A lot of people today are getting into blogging and figuring out that they can use it to do things like making money or promoting their business.

There are a lot of things blogging can accomplish, and if you want to see how best to do it then go through the following tips and ideas:

1. Keyword Research: When blogging, you have to know what people are searching for in a particular niche. What keywords are they typing in? With these things in mind, perform keyword research and put the relevant keywords in your blog. This will make your site highly visible in the search engines for the top performing keywords, and this results in you getting a big boost in traffic.

2. Make sure that you do not have duplicate content. You can check for this by using the robots that are out there. If you do have content that is duplicated, the search engines will probably tag your site for spam, and you will not wind up getting the attention that you are looking for.
3. Make sure that you are productive with your blog. Do not allow yourself to waste your time watching television, or playing games when you could be doing things to make your blog bring in more visitors. When you are using a blog to make money, you are going to have to put the work hours into it.

4. Making frequent and interesting comments on the blogs of other people is a great way to increase exposure to your own. Google Reader has an excellent tool for keeping tabs on blogs that are related to your own. Comment on these regularly, every time you wish to say something.

5. Title your posts to draw your reader's attention. No one is going to read a post with a poorly constructed and boring title. The title, after all, is what draws the reader's eye to the post. Without a distinctive title the page would just be a long, boring piece of assorted words.

6. Give your readers the opportunity to subscribe to your blog and your RSS feed. When people can have good content delivered hot and fresh, you increase your value to them ten fold. Keep the subscribe button in an easy to find place and deliver good content regularly to dissuade readers from discontinuing.

7. Blogging is a great way to promote a product or web site, if you encourage comments and discussion, that is. Blogs are informal and easy to set up, which means you can add as many posts as you want to describe your product and even ask your readers for valuable feedback. So, if you are selling a product in a brick and mortar store or on a web site, you should set up blog to take advantage of the marketing opportunities that it creates.

8. In order to successfully run a blog, you need ideas. To help you get these ideas you should visit forums other forums and blogs. Also, a lot of the time the people who comment on your blog are great at generating new information that you might never have thought about before. To be relevant in today's blogging world, you need to constantly come up with fresh material that people want.

9. Make a mailing list. This can be essential to retaining and growing your audience. This is also a step that shouldn't be applied too early. You should wait until you start having a large number of regular readers. This can be essential if you are writing for a specific niche.

10. Use bold and italic formatting on the keywords you use in your blog. This is a practice that is not only helpful to search engine indexers; your readers will appreciate it, too. When your keywords are easy to read and they stand out, you will increase the possibility that your users will click on them. Remember that this should be your goal.

11. Before ever starting a blog, decide what you want from it. Would you like to gain recognition as an expert and create a reputation for yourself? Do you want to use your blog to make money? You may have different goals. You need to grasp your objectives, and proceed with your blog in a way that helps achieve them.

12. Keep track of what other bloggers are doing so that you can stay ahead of the game. It can only help to know what the blogging competition is up to. Other bloggers will also look at your blog to observe what you are doing.

13. You cannot spend enough time trying to find the right color for your blog. You need to find a color that reflects your niche and adds excitement to the topic. At the same time, you do not want a color that is difficult to look at for a long period of time.

14. On a particular day, or days, each week, provide a definition to a word relevant to the topic of your blog. Include some history or other important notes of interest. Be certain that you have properly researched the word before you post it, and make the presentation exciting for the reader.
15. Get yourself involved as an affiliate. Begin linking to other products that are relevant to your blog posts by making use of affiliate links. By doing this, you are giving your readers relevant links, which can possibly generate additional revenue for you. This is a win-win situation for both parties.

16. Make sure that you are using twitter to get your blog some attention. Be sure that you have a real presence on Twitter, and do not use this to replace any RSS feeds. Use Twitterfeed to put your new posts into Twitter. This will help you get more exposure.

17. Study your site's statistics to figure out what new aspects of your site are working. Try out different things to see what works best.

18. Try to create a cool and unique logo for your blogging venture and make sure that you include this logo on each and every blog that you post. This is an interesting way to add a unique flair to your blogs that your viewers will enjoy and appreciate in the long run.

19. If you are interested in blogging, but you don't particularly like to write, try starting a blog about one of your creative talents. You could try a photography blog and share your hobby with others. Or you may write poetry or music that you could post samples of. If people like what you have to offer, they will come back for more.
20. When running a blog, make sure that you ask open-ended questions. One of the most effective methods of getting people to respond to your posts is simply asking for it. Let your readers answer your questions by inviting them to respond with a comment. This makes them feel more engaged, which increases the odds that they'll stick with you.

21. Simplify your blog by avoiding inordinate amounts of multi-media. While pictures and the occasional video are definitely a nice touch, your words are more important than your ability to place obnoxious GIFs or pictures on your blog posts. Your readers will appreciate having balance in your posts and enjoying both written word and visual elements.

22. You need to post regularly if you want readers to visit your blog over and over. Posting new items frequently keeps your readers' interest so that they'll keep coming back. Some of the best blogs update at least once daily. If you think this may be difficult for you to achieve, put together advanced material that you can later add daily prior to the initial launch of your blog. This gives you plenty of useful content ahead of time, just in case you get stuck with it in the future.

23. An important part of any blog is to feature the latest posts at the top of your homepage. With so many blogs abandoned or out-of-date, it's important to let readers know that yours is current. This way, your readers will have fresh, new posts to read and you will get the best exposure for your newest content.

24. There are many good blogging platforms available with Blogger and WordPress being the most commonly used services. Both are great free platforms that allow one to quickly set up a blog for free. Blogger has the advantage of allowing commercial content whereas with WordPress you must upgrade to a premium service to post commercial content. Let your purpose for blogging be your guide when choosing a blogging platform.

25. Use pictures and other graphics to break up your text and draw in readers. Many people learn best in a graphic format rather than in a written format. By interspersing photographs, diagrams and other graphics into your blog, you are actually perfecting the overall image of the page. The entire page, in effect, becomes an image.

26. Make your blog appear reliable and informative by keeping yourself informed of new ideas and information at all times. You need to create a good reputation and that means it is imperative that you know what you are blogging about. By keeping current on news and educated on your topic, you will be forming a reputation people will know they can trust.

27. Make bullet points and include italic text along with keywords that are part of your niche. Doing this will help make your content easier for both search engines and your readers to digest, and will give your traffic a boost. The proper use of keywords within highlighted text or lists should lead you to increased readership as more people are led to your writing by the search engines.

28. Try to make the most of your keywords. You should always try to stem your keywords into as many forms as possible. This means that you should include plural, singular, present and future forms of your keywords to ensure that when people search for the topic, they find your site.

29. One way to engage your blog readers is to add a poll to your blog. This feature is commonly available on most blogging platforms and allows you to ask for input from your readers. You could ask what they want to see more of or less of and use the poll results to fine-tune your blog. So, add a poll and get to know your audience better.

30. Use social media sites to promote your blog. Many people will link blogs that they like on their social media page, and you can do the same thing. This will draw more attention to your blog, and more likely your friends will check your blog out, and may post it to their social media site as well.

31. When you are creating your blog, consider purchasing your own domain name, rather than using a free site. It isn't that expensive to do, and will give your blog a more professional appearance. That will also be simpler for people to keep in mind; this is especially true if you use relevant wording for your title, or use your company's name.

32. If possible, have someone else go over your blog posts before you post them. This is especially critical for internet marketing posts. People have a tendency to be blind to their own errors, so they will often miss problems with grammar, spelling, sequence, or logic. Another person may also be able to provide information you have left out or correct errors of fact.

33. Ask a blog that is popular in your niche to post a link on their blog. It may take a few days for them to get back to you, but you should not get discouraged. It's important the blog you want your link posted on is relevant to your niche.

34. When you decide to begin a blog, be certain that the topic is something that you find engaging and that ignites your desire to share with others. Writing the content of your blog will take several hours each week. You want to be certain that you have a passion for the subject.

35. There are several ways to highlight interesting content on your blog. You can show a list of upcoming posts to pique readers' interest. Another good topic is a list of most popular posts. These are posts that many readers will be interested in. You can also try most commented posts. Many people enjoy reading comments to blog posts. All these ideas will get your readers interested in more than just your current posts.

36. When you are managing your own blog, it is absolutely necessary that you properly edit and proofread each post you write. Nothing looks worse than misspelled words, awkward wording, or grammatical mistakes when you are trying to make your blog look professional. Be sure to use spell-check or even have someone proofread for you. Your reputation depends on it!

37. Majority of the traffic that your site will receive is going to come from search engines such as Yahoo, Google or Bing. Knowing how to use SEO tools is going to help you to have a higher ranked webpage which will bring in more viewers. You will know how to use the correct keywords and where to place them for the most success.

38. Try to utilize synonyms for your keywords. This will ensure that your site does not come off as a piece of spam. Varying your word choice is also a great way to catch the attention of your varied audience. This is an easy step that can make a world of difference for your blog.

39. Avoid a blog that is too general in scope! Don't make your blog about anything and everything or you will find no audience exists for such a thing. Instead, focus in on a subject you know well or have a great interest in. By doing so, you will stay interested in blogging and connect with readers with similar interests. So, pick a topic and stick to it and you will build a following.

40. Try to include at least one picture in your blog posts. Images can sometimes express an idea better than words. They improve the overall reading experience. Choose compelling pictures related to your posts that readers will be likely to remember. Using pictures creatively will increase the chances that a reader will revisit your blog, and share your posts with others.

41. Go to blogging conventions if you have the financial means to make this happen. These conferences are usually designed for specific interest groups or businesses, so you can come away from them with some beneficial and constructive information that will help you become a better blogger. They are also a great place to network with other successful bloggers. Who knows, some of their success may rub off on you.

42. Design is vitally important for a blog. It is important that your blog is easily readable. You need to have the right colors for your background and text to ensure that your readers can see all of the text in a clear and candid manner. This will ensure that you keep your readers happy.
43. Stay accessible to your readers. Try to make this a habit for both you and your readers. If you can connect with readers, they feel that they can contact you. If you want to give up on blogging, keep in mind that you're not the only one who will be disappointed.

44. Set goals for your blog. Having set goals that you want to achieve will go along way towards increasing your productivity. Decide how many posts you want to make in a given week. Determine what your focus is going to be and what keywords you are going to be targeting. Taking the time to work out your goals, will keep you on focus and blogging productively.

45. Keep your individual post focused on one point. Blog with the full knowledge that you will be making many subsequent posts and if you tell everything in the beginning you may not have anything left to say later! Think of your blogs as being the spokes in a wheel. By themselves they are important but as a wheel they are incredibly important.

46. If you are going to blog, you need to make sure you choose a niche or market that you are passionate about. There are plenty of blogs out there, and there are just as many topics to choose from. Stay specific, and choose a blogging subject that you can create a successful blog with.

47. Pay attention to your grammar. This is especially important if you are trying to be an International blogger. If your grammar is not up to par, a lot of people will get annoyed with reading your blog, and think that you are not creditable. There are many programs that you can use to run a grammar check, and you should do this with every entry.

48. Avoid the overuse of personal pronouns. When most of your blog is coming from an I, me or you standpoint, it can turn the reader off. You may be perceived as lecturing, pompous or just plain narcissistic. Make your writing a little less personal, but still remain approachable. It is a good balance to find.
49. Make alternative content. Your blog may have much more than just text. Try using multimedia. You can use video content, make podcasts, or just use alternative creative application on your posts, like PDF booklets, mind maps, or templates. Even something like a simple download page for your blog can make for many more visits to your blog.

50. One key aspect of blogging is to enjoy yourself while doing it. If you are bored, your content is probably boring to your audience; being disconnected and uninterested in your content shows through in your writing. Write on a topic you love, and enjoy what you create. If you enjoy the topic that you are writing about, that enjoyment will become contagious!

51. Include an easy to follow index on your blog page. If you do not have an index, the people who view your site may have a difficult time trying to navigate across your site. An index will make your site more user-friendly, which will bring your readers back for more.

52. Know what your competition is doing with their blogs, and make sure you are doing all that and more. Since they are competing against you, it is good to know their actions. Remember that they are probably on your blog for similar reasons.

53. Use fonts that are easy to read throughout the blog. While you may wish to use different fonts for the title, posts, and links on your site, all should be readable. Ensure that the size is not to small, and that the contrast to the background is sufficient to differentiate between it and the text.

54. If you have a talent with graphics, create a regular cartoon that depicts something related to your content. No matter what you blog about, people enjoy laughing and looking at the lighter side of things. If you don't have the skills, perhaps you have someone in your social circle who would work with you.

55. Try posting in advance. Do not be shy, or think that it can ruin the authenticity of your blog. As long as you remain the author that writes timeless content, there won't be any problems. Posting in advance can be a good strategy to use, and it can relieve your stress by already covering something ahead of time.

56. Try breaking your posts into manageable pieces. This is a very easy, but unfortunately ignored blogging tactic. Do not write like you are trying to run a marathon. Break up your posts in smaller pieces. This can help boost your SEO, and it can help create a clearer writing approach. This can actually help you think better.

57. Make sure that you are blogging for the right reasons. If you are looking for some quick money, this is not the way to go. Blogging should be more of a hobby. If it becomes something that you start to dread, your writing will not be very good, and you will have less readers.

58. Patience is one of the most important parts of growing your list of readers. It takes a while, even years, to build to great success as people find your blog. You also have to build up the amount of content on your blog before there is enough to entice a large audience to visit. As your blog becomes more established and you build up a sizable amount of content, more people will come to visit it.

59. Guest blogging can be your best friend when it comes to leading readers to your own blog. Find a good, relevant blog whose owner will allow you to post. Then create some awesomely written posts and make them stand out among other guest posts. Use this tool to give readers a taste of what they can find by hopping over to your blog!

60. Make your blog a primary source of information on the topic. With a simple read through your site, your viewer should feel like they have a thorough understanding of your niche. This will ensure that your readers will come back to your site when they have more questions on the topic.

61. Redistribute your blog posts all over the worldwide web. This way, you can be sure they will be seen by a wide variety of readers. Remember that you must not limit the outlets that you have for success. You will have the greatest success if you use one fell swoop to gain as many viewers as possible. Use every outlet available to garner attention.

62. You may want to have contests or giveaways on your site. This helps readers to become a part of your blog and increases their excitement about visiting. Readers are also likely to send links to contacts interested in the content of your contest. The giveaway can vary, depending on your site.

63. Take time to read over your blog. This step tends to be ignored quite often. You have to be the first reader. Whenever you have some free time, try reading some of your older posts. It can really help you see what you can do to improve with your posts in the future.

64. Create a handful of blog posts that you keep in a special file for emergency use. Use them when you are ill, or have some other situation that prevents you from having the time or energy to write quality content. Doing so will provide your readers with regularity, while allowing you time to deal with your situation.

65. Make a mailing list. This can be essential to retaining and growing your audience. This is also a step that shouldn't be applied too early. You should wait until you start having a large number of regular readers. This can be essential if you are writing for a specific niche.

66. Your blog should have a contact page that is easy to find. This will permit visitors to post questions, or provide you with suggestions. Your blog may be read by a wide variety of people, and allowing them to get in touch may provide valuable feedback, including that from perspectives you hadn't considered.

67. An excellent tip for blogging is to make use of WordPress. This particular platform is extremely flexible with the various plug-ins that are used when it comes to blogging. WordPress is being utilized by over 12% of a million of the largest websites. It is currently the most popular CMS being used today.

68. Use the correct spam filter for comments. If you require registration to comment, a CAPTCHA on the registration page is usually sufficient to keep spammers away. If you allow anonymous comments, an "advanced CAPTCHA," that is, one that asks the user for "the number of hours in a day" or something similar is usually enough. Avoid services like Akismet, as these produce lots of false positives.

69. Be as accessible to your readers as possible. Connections are important in the online world, and this is especially true when you are writing a blog. Consistent communication with your readers can help establish a strong connection between you and your readers that results from the exchange of ideas with one another. If you want to give up on blogging, keep in mind that you're not the only one who will be disappointed.

70. Try finding your size yourself. Figure out a post size that will fit with your skills and habits. Don't copy other bloggers, try finding what works for you by experimenting. Some 600-700 words per entry, and some write 2000-3000 words per entry. Try testing what works for your own writing style and needs.

71. Create an email update list for your blog. On your site, offer a place for people to sign up for these updates and send them out every time you post a new blog. Those who are truly interested in following your blog will like the idea of being notified when new content is posted.

72. Ask some popular bloggers to guest post on your blog. This is a simple way to add more high-quality content to your site. Additionally, you should receive more traffic when they alert their regular readers of the guest appearance. Use several bloggers to do this and create more rich content.

73. Providing an RSS-to-Email option is a great tip for those running a blog. This can be used so that readers have the ability to subscribe to all your latest posts without needing an RSS reader. Even today, lots of people do not use RSS, so using a RSS-to-Email service is crucial. An excellent choice for one is Feedburner.

74. You can use other forms of social media to promote your blog, but be careful not to overdo it. If all your tweets are only a link to your blog, then they will be ignored. Intersperse links with interesting, 'stand alone' content.

75. Joining blogging networks can be a highly effective method for promoting and advertising your blog. Blogging networks help provide targeted readers. Getting targeted readers and increasing your readership, are two main objectives when starting a blog. Blogging networks also help network you with other bloggers, which creates a web of informative blogs for certain niches.

76. Try using features or excerpts on the homepage of your blog. If you made a different home page for the blog, you are not required to only list posts. Try using a single or double full posts on the page. This can help your reader remained focused. This can also help with clutter on your blog.

77. Try to give your posts a more positive note, rather than dwelling on negative aspects in your posts. This will ensure that you get the most readership. People do not naturally want to come to a site to read about the negative things. They want to read about positive aspects instead.

78. Divide your blog into categories and subcategories so viewers can easily find your content. Not only will this make it easier for your viewers to locate information, but after you have accumulated enough content, you will have a much easier time keeping it sorted in your own inventory as well.

79. Make sure your posts don't elicit the "It's too long so I didn't read it" response from your readers. Studies show that people stop paying attention more quickly when reading on the web than they do when reading print. For this reason, try to keep posts under 300 words or so. Some types of posts, such as scholarly articles, don't suffer from this loss of attention of much as others, so know your audience.

80. Think of your blog posts as travelers. When you have clicked the publish button, the blog post will continue to survive on its own. Your blog post then becomes a traveler. Try giving your posts what they need to deal with any harsh conditions, along with good instructions on how to prosper online.

81. Don't make your blog look too crowded or your readers will go elsewhere. If you jumble everything together, trying to get the most material you can get on one page, readers will become overwhelmed. Carefully determine what is important to include on a page, and what is better reserved for the next page.

82. Research who your readers are before you ever start writing. People that share an interest in a particular subject usually have a number of other characteristics in common as well. You can use that fact to your advantage to accomplish your goals. Your goal may be to inform, it may be to sell a product. To do either, you need to know your readers.

83. Take advantage of the many tools that have been specially created for bloggers. In the last year of two the market has exploded with software that is designed to make the blogger's job easier. If this software is used correctly, not only will your blog benefit, your job will become considerably easier to handle.

84. Don't become entrapped with "right now". hot topic writing can only last as long as the hot topics do. Many times, that is a very short time period. Try writing content that can be easily read months and years down the road. Even if the content is about a hot topic, Try including something timeless in it.

85. Having active commentary on your blog is an effective way to maintain traffic. This is because comments are content just like blog articles. Readers will revisit your blog not only to read new articles, but also to see if anyone has left new comments. You can encourage commenting by asking questions and inquiring about your readers' perspectives in your blog articles. Responding to comments also encourages commenting.

86. Always do your homework and research any topic you will cover on your blog. If you've got a lot of knowledge on a topic, you're less likely to make a misleading or inaccurate post. Knowing as much as you can will also allow you to respond to comments quickly and accurately.

87. Free stuff attracts people and always has. Offer freebies on your blog. People always enjoy getting something for nothing, even if that something is small. The more contests and freebies you have, the bigger the payoff for you, in terms of readers and followers. In addition, they are likely to return to see what other free things you have to offer in the future.

88. Be sure to identify the hotspots of your blog. Hotspots are the places that tend to be the most visible on your blog. What you have in these areas depends on your layout and your reader's reading habits. You could use the space for various incentives, such as reminders for subscribing, advertising, or even premium content.

89. Do not copy other people's articles. Plagiarism is taken seriously, and if you do plagiarize you are ruining your reputation. Finding success in a blog does not require you to write like a professional. The important thing you need to have is passion about the things that you are writing.

90. Your blog goes much further than just your posts. It may look like just a collection of various articles, but it's so much more. To be a successful blogger, your blog needs a presence. This is created by your posts and comments, both on your blog and other online sites.

91. Keyword Research: When blogging, you have to know what people are searching for in a particular niche. What keywords are they typing in? With these things in mind, perform keyword research and put the relevant keywords in your blog. This will make your site highly visible in the search engines for the top performing keywords, and this results in you getting a big boost in traffic.

92. Link building is a great way to traffic to your blog. In order to generate enough quality links you need to submit your blog to web directories like DMOZ, Aviva and other blog directories. Doing this creates incoming links which help your site get spidered, indexed and ranked higher by search engines, all of which drives more traffic to your blog.

93. Make sure that you have SEO friendly themes, plug-ins and templates. This will allow your blog to load very quickly. The faster something loads, the more people are going to be willing to look at it. If a page takes to long to load, more than likely a visitor will just close the page.

94. Remember that you have a life outside of blogging. If you don't take a break, you run the risk of burning out. Take a short walk, call a friend or take a quick break for a few minutes. Taking some time off will let you return to your blog refreshed and ready to write.

95. Give your readers every possible way to follow and share your blog. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites can be very helpful in getting your blog recognized and having it become successful. This will allow your readers to forward your content to their peers and bring in more traffic.

96. As you write your blogs, you should try to utilize references and sources that matter. References will give your blog a greater inter-connectivity throughout the world wide web which will instantly help you get more attention for your site. This is a simple step that you can take to make your blog that much better.

97. Try to use a greeting just before your content. Prior to your content, use a sentence that welcomes your users,. This is completely based upon their referrer. It also gives them particular incentives. There are some handy ones out there that you can find, you can write your own, or search for a plugin.

98. An easy way to come up with new blog content when you are having writer's block is to look back through old posts. Many posts that are old or outdated can be brought back to life with fresh, up-to-date information. Or you may find a piece of an older post that you can expand into a full post. Check your archives! You never know what you'll find!

99. Use empty space to improve visual interest in your page. There is a reason why those who produce hard copy material abide by certain formatting rules. Margins, spacing between lines and blocks of text, and even spacing between sentences is important to the overall visual effect of your blog.

100. Consider making posts that contain fun lists, like a "top ten," or whatever number you desire. You can do this on a regular basis, enticing your readers to see what interesting list you conceive next. You can use bullets or numbers, with links to greater content included in each one.

101. Blogging is a great way to promote a product or web site, if you encourage comments and discussion, that is. Blogs are informal and easy to set up, which means you can add as many posts as you want to describe your product and even ask your readers for valuable feedback. So, if you are selling a product in a brick and mortar store or on a web site, you should set up blog to take advantage of the marketing opportunities that it creates.


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