21 Most Important Blogging Do’s and Dont’s. How to Write a Successful Blog.

Title: Most Important Blogging Dos and Don’ts. How to have a successful blog.

Subtitle: How to write a successful blog.

Writing a successful blog is not easy. It takes work and work and more work.

We have an idea of what we have to do to make our blogs successful but we never really know what we shouldn’t do. Here are the best Do’s and Dont’s of blogging that will provide you will incredible insight into making that blog successful.

Never copy other blogs. Do not copy other bloggers content. Using other bloggers’ content as a basis for your blog is fine but don’t copy and paste. Other than this being plagiarism, Google is able to see you do this and will discredit your account by moving your ranking down.
Post frequently. Firstly, the more you post the higher you will be ranked in Google. Google recognises the domains that post consistently and therefore, will count your blog as authority. Secondly, the more you post the more your readers will engage with you. They will look to your blog to find new content on certain topics that they need information on. Consistancy is key.
Don’t post too many ads. If you’re experienced and you know that ads will generate income youre correct. However, if making money is your main aim then don’t over do it on the adds because it doesn’t actually generate more money. Also posting too many adds distracts the reader. As a rule don’t have more than 2-3 adds. People read your blog for the content, too many adds will discredit your post.
Post to social media. We all use social media on a daily, even hourly basis. It is a huge marketing technique that wasn’t used years ago. Utilise the huge social media following by posting your blogs on every social media hub you can. It generates huge amounts of traffic. All it takes is one post to be shared by one person for thousands of new eyes to view it. Also, social media is a totally free, effective marketing tactic that should be though of as such. Remember this, all goods things in life are free.
Don’t vary your topics too much. Google rewards sites that produce content on the same sorts of topics. They see your blog as an authority because of past content matching to the same topic. Varying your content means the readers are going to get confused. You can’t post about fashion one minute then post on something completely unrelated like health and fitness. Readers need cohesive, authoritative and easy to read content . They come to your blog to read about a specific type of thing. However, linking topics by small variations is a great way to expand your blog without confusing people.
Re-read your posts. This sounds really obvious but you must always re-read your blog posts. At the time of writing you have so much flowing through your mind it is difficult to actually know what your typing. Re-read and correct any errors. There is a button on all WordPress accounts that let you spell check your work. Don’t just rely on this though!
Make your blog visually appealing. Making your blog visually appealing is probably one of the most important techniques to adopt to having a successful blog. Visuals are processed 60,00 x faster in the brain than text. Images are powerful and using well thought out images that link to your content is a great way to engage with readers. However, do see the next point.
Don’t use too many images. Using too many images can be a distraction to the reader. The blog post becomes unclear and uncoordinated. Don’t use more than 2 images per 200 word posts.
Upgrade your WordPress account. Upgrading your wordpress account is probably one of the best things to do if you want to take blogging seriously. Its £85 for the year and is a great investment. Upgraded accounts let you use YouTube videos in your blog posts. It gives you access to a huge number of plugins that optimise your SEO and many other amazing things. Did you know that 95% that watch a video retain the message as oppose to text where only 10% retain the message.
Interact with your blog readers. Its so important to interact with your blog readers. If someone comments, comment back. If someone has a suggestion, accept it and reply. It’s also important to interact with other bloggers, share stories, ideas and mention each other in your blog. You attract two audiences this way. Interaction is actually proven to work, it keeps those loyal followers coming back and those new followers feel noticed.
Use sources. It is vital to any factual piece of work to use authoritative sources. Firstly, authoritative sources give your post some credibility which will incite the readers. Also google knows how many times those sources are clicked on which will subsequently rank you higher in google. Google also ranks posts higher if they hold authority and aren’t just a bunch of empty facts.
Manage your time. Don’t get distracted by writing various different posts at one time. Focusing on one post at a time keeps your mind cohesive. Youre able to effectively research and write posts. Doing lots of posts at the same time could mean losing your original ideas for each post. Also you need to be posting frequently. If youre focusing on too many posts at once none of those are going to be published frequently.
Don’t get distracted. Don’t keep checking email, don’t keep checking Facebook. Its as simple as that. When we’re blogging we’re working from our laptops, tablets etc and its easy to turn to facebook for a few minutes at a time. Think, if you look at facebook around 3 times per hour a 3-4 minutes a time, that’s nearly 15 minutes of your hour gone on a worthless cause. Focus, keep off social media when writing, you will get so much more done.
Have a positive attitude. Don’t get discouraged easily. To be successful at blogging you have to be positive and keep going. If you’re not getting much views then feel positive and upbeat and keep working towards increasing those views. It’s not the end of the world. I started blogging in March this year where I wrote one post and it received one view and I was so happy. Even now, my views are only a small amount but if it helps someone then its worth it right?
Set blog goals. What do I mean by this? Set goals. If you want to write a certain amount of posts a day then do it. Set goals for months or even years. This way you are constantly working towards achieving something which will increase your want to succeed. Also setting goals helps as it gives you flexibility. Say you want to write one post a day, what you really mean is you want to keep providing your readers with consistency. So If you miss a day then just double up the next, your still being consistent right?
Re-read over your old posts. I have found this has massively helped me improve and critique my work. You may have evolved since writing them and found different ways you can improve them. I always re-read over my old posts, add new pictures, change a few words, alter the title. Times change and so does writing so make sure you’re always finding ways to improve.
Don’t overcomplicate your blog posts. Make your blog simple and cohesive. Don’t add too much information or too many images. Don’t use a huge amount of stats or graphs or facts unless that is what your post is actually about. If you’re writing about business, keep it to that specific niche. If you are talking about business and your sub-topic is marketing don’t go in and talk about banking because it overcomplicates the actual title.
Be flexible with posts . Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t post everyday. Similar to point 15 don’t be rigid. The worst thing you could do is put pressure on yourself to keep posting everyday because your love and your passion will run dry. Be flexible because well, life happens and we can’t always be on it 24/7. There is a difference between being flexible and being committed. As long as you’re flexible with your approach your commitment will never die. Being rigid will inhibit that commitment because you will grow to hate what youre doing if the presure is too much.
Use a blog role model. This is a highly effective technique. Read someones blog who is exceeding. Use their techniques, learn from them and build on their foundations. It’s ok to have a ‘tutor’ because sometimes it saves so much time learning from someone who is happy to help rather than trying to figure it all out on your own.
Join social media groups that relate to your niche. Joining social media roups that relate to your niche enables you to interact with people that will potentially want to read your posts. It will provide you with a platform to use to get in contact and advertise your posts to a new audience. Join closed groups exclusively. This enables your posts only to be seen within that niche. It attracts more people this way.
Do not re-post content. Nothing you put on your blog is going to be replicated. Blog content needs to be original. Google recognises when pieces have been copied and pasted.