Create blog posts that
answer the most interesting questions from people you engage with on social
media.
2. Understand your audience
Understand your
audience better than they understand themselves. It takes a lot of upfront
research, and often means being a member of the very tribe you’re trying to
lead – but it pays off.
3. Write for yourself
first
Write for yourself
first & foremost. Ignore the fact that anyone else will read what you
write; just focus on your thoughts, ideas, opinions and figure out how to put
those into words. Write it and they will come.
4. Build your email list
Start building your
email list from day one. Even if you don’t plan on selling anything, having an
email list allows you to promote your new content to your audience directly
without worrying about search rankings, Facebook EdgeRank, or other online
roadblocks in communications.
5. Love your existing
readers
Love the readers you
already have. A lot of bloggers get quite obsessed with finding new readers –
to the point that they ignore the ones they already have. Yes – do try to find
new readers but spend time each day showing your current readers that you value
them too and you’ll find that they will help you grow your blog.
6. Focus on building an amazing call-to-action
Don’t rely on people
to do the work to find your Twitter account. Don’t rely on them to do the work
to find your details in a sidebar. People are blind to sidebars. Thanks banner
ads!
Finish your blog post
with some kind of call to action to signup for an email list or follow you on
Twitter. When I started doing this, I immediately increased my Twitter
followers by 335% in the first 7 days.
7. Give stuff away
Jeff Bullas, blogger and author of Blogging the Smart Way
Give away free content
that adds value to people’s lives “until it hurts” and they will love you and
become loyal fans.
8. Be consistent
Consistency is one of
the most important things that bloggers tend to forget. It’s much easier to
lose your traffic than it is to build it up, so make sure you consistently
blog.
9. Give away your
knowledge
Don’t be afraid to
showcase what you know. Too many bloggers hold back the good stuff out of fear
of giving away the “secret sauce.” There is no secret sauce in a world where
everyone has high speed Internet access at all times. Today, you want to give away
information snacks to sell knowledge meals.
10. Be true to your voice
Stay true to yourself
and your voice. People don’t care to follow sites so much as they care to
follow people.
11. Give it time –
This is why
Plan to invest in
blogging for a long time before you see a return. The web is a big, noisy place
and unless you’re willing to invest more over a greater period of time than
others, you’ll find success nearly impossible. If you’re seeking short-term
ROI, or a quick path to recognition, blogging is the wrong path. But if you can
stick it out for years without results and constantly learn, iterate, and
improve, you can achieve something remarkable.
12. Give your email
list priority
If you’re blogging to
create a business, a movement, or to support a cause, then you need to build an
email list. It’s not an option. I don’t even consider my blog to be my
community, my email list is my community. Caring about these people, writing
for them, and delivering value to them should be your number one goal.
13. Write catchy headlines
No matter how great
your content is, it won’t matter unless you have an amazing headline. People
have a split second to decide if they should click on your post, and your
headline will make them decide. The headline is also essential in making it
easy and desirable for people to share your post. Keep your headlines SPUB:
simple, powerful, useful and bold.
14. Be Yourself
There isn’t one
specific set of rules to be successful in blogging. When I started blogging, I
had the opportunity to learn from experienced and successful bloggers in the
industry. One of the best lessons I’ve learned from them is to simply be me. I
didn’t have to be too “professional” or use “big words” to impress others. I
had to simply be me.
15. Keep it short
Biggest lesson I
learned in my past year of blogging. Keep it in the 1–2 minutes read-time
length.
16. Make it worth
referencing – here is how:
One thing I always try
to keep in mind before publishing a post is would anyone want to “cite” this
for any reason? Just like interesting research is great because it leaves you
with a fascinating finding or an idea, I like for my posts to be the same. That
doesn’t mean relying on research, but simply making sure each post has an
original lesson or actionable item, making it “citable” on the web.
