How to Start a New Blog
Neil Patel over at Pronet Advertising has written a very useful article about the first seven days of blogging. His seven points are very realistic, easy to understand and implement and an excellent guide to anyone setting up a new blog. For those who have been blogging for some time his points are timely reminders on how to enhance your blog.
He especially emphasizes the importance of sticking to your topic, interacting with your readers and being consistent with your posting.
Link:
Related articles:
Books and Writing
Sherryl Clark, an Australian writer, has a blog called Books and Writing. I have just recently discovered this fellow Australian’s blog but at my first look it seems a useful blog to read and refer to for writing hints and ideas.
Sherryl writes in her blog that, “I write, I read and I teach writing. My blog is about all three.” My first impression is that she does all three very well.
Sherryl also has a very colourful website (click here) which would be very attractive to young children. According to her “About Sherryl” page, she has had over 20 books published.
How do you get more comments on your blog?
When you first start out blogging it seems no-one is reading your blog. The stats are low, the income zero and the comments…. what comments??? Then one day – your first comment! You suddenly feel as if the whole world is beating a path to your door.
After a few months the enthusiasm is starting to wane a little. The stats are steadily climbing; you might have 10 visitors a day instead of five! The income, well you made 91 cents for the month. At that rate it will take 91 millenia to become a millionaire, give or take a few hundred years.
How do you get comments? Darren Rowse on ProBlogger suggests that less than 1% of all readers will ever comment. How to get more comments? Darren suggests 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog. All are well worth following but I’d add another strategy.
11. Write Good Content: if readers perceive a need to read your blog or they have a deep interest in your topics they will return. Increased traffic should generate more comments and more return visits. Interesting content will develop a community of readers who will become involved. When they start getting involved it can take on a life of its own. Interesting content is intellectually stimulating and the readers will want to be involved. And they will start telling others (through links and posts quoting you). It’s just like word of mouth about the latest great movie or book – everyone checks it out to see what all the hype is about.
Links:
Making connections
Writing can be a rather lonely pursuit most of the time. The writer needs to fully concentrate on the task at hand and spend many hours alone getting words down on paper (or at least on the hard-drive). Seminars and conferences are fine for mixing with other writers, publishers and agents. If a writer becomes a conference junkie, or tries to attend every seminar, workshop or festival there is often little time left for the real work of being a writer.
The real work of being a writer – is writing. There is no easy way out. To write a 100,000 word novel, the writer has to write down or type every word. There is no easy path to success. It is a hard slog, and can be very lonely.
Blogging can be different
Writing a blog can be a quite different. One of the delights I have discovered with blogging is the sense of community that develops. On my three blogs I have a very real sense of a community of readers developing as the weeks go by. More and more people are coming to visit, to revisit, to comment and even start up conversations with me via email.
Making Connections
It is the connections we make with one another via our blogs that fascinate and excite me. In recent days I have have the delight of two significant blogs making a link with this blog, and writing some flattering comments about my blog on their blogs.
My special thanks to Rick and Anne. (Sorry – the link to Rick’s site no longer works.)
Related links:
- The Golden Pencil – Anne Wayman – the Freelance Writer’s Resource.
Updated November 2013.
Are you a blogging maniac?
Sometimes I struggle to keep up with writing regularly on my three blogs, attending to my non-blogging writing, reading my emails, doing research on the internet and remembering to have a life. Oh – and do the gardening too.
It was in that context that I identified with Tammy on her Jewelry and Beading post called “Become a Blogging Maniac“. She describes her demanding writing schedule, writing four blogs, magazine articles, writing books, working part-time.
Tammy explains some helpful hints in her article on the following topics:
- How to schedule your day/week
- Using warm-up exercises to keep your writing voice in trim
- The importance of immersing yourself in your topic
- Daily maintenance of you blog(s)
She makes some very valuable points.