Monday, April 18, 2016

Some Tips on Successful Blogging by Jacqueline Seewald





To develop a successful blog you need to blog regularly. An article I read not long ago suggested that posts should be provided on Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays with Thursdays getting the most hits or views. If you can manage, it’s good to post once a week, even more often if that’s possible.

You will probably notice that I don’t do as I suggest. I don’t follow a regular time schedule. I am a writer with limited time allotted for blogging, but I try to make each of my posts meaningful.

Appearance Matters. You want your blog to be attractive and accessible. Use an easy to read font like Verdana. Second, there should be graphics not just print words. Third, readers like white space between paragraphs, again for easy reading. Last, don’t make your blog too long. You’re not writing WAR AND PEACE. Readers today want writing conversational in tone and right to the point.

Keep in mind that drawing readers to your blog is your goal. There’s nothing more disheartening than writing an article and discovering that no one bothers to read it. So how do you manage to build a readership with so many other blogs competing for reader recognition and attention? There are a number of ways that seem to work:

1. Join groups of people of similar interests and advertise to them when you have a post.

I belong to several writer’s groups sponsored by Yahoo for the most part. Some of these are publishers’ groups, others are simply subject oriented like mystery, romance or short story writers’ groups.

2. Have interesting titles that are attention-grabbing and provocative.

Ask a question.

Begin with: How To _______

or create a list:

Ten Tips on ________

Keep focused. Topics should be those that would most interest your perspective reader audience.

For instance, I’m a writer and so my blog is concerned with topics related to writing.

3. Use social media to publicize your blogs. I post on Facebook and Twitter. I am not progressive enough to use Instagram or Snapchat, but you might consider them.

4. Do guest blogging for others who share your interests or your field. This widens your audience and brings new people to your blog.

5. Respond with comments to other similar blogs. These bloggers may do you the same courtesy.

6. I don’t put out newsletters but I know a number of bloggers who have had great success with them.

7. Offer giveaways of some kind.

We writers tend to give away advance review copies of our books when they’re published in order to stir interest of readers. There are many items that would interest readers and they don’t have to be expensive.


Do you have any comments or suggestions regarding blogging that you would like to add? What do you think draws to readers to a blog?

27 comments:

  1. Good points to remember. I don't use as many graphics as I would like, primarily because I'm afraid of running into image copyright.

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    1. Maris,

      I have the same problem with graphics. I only use those photos I take myself or cover art for my books because like you I don't want to infringe on copyrights.

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  2. Great advice Jacquie!

    Consistent IS key as you said which is why I have the 3 features on my blog.

    Thanks for sharing.
    Good luck and God's blessings.
    PamT

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    1. Pam,

      Your blog is an outstanding example of what a successful blog should be.

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  3. Huh, I sort of fell into Thursday for my writer blog, and it's good to know that was a good day to pick.

    There are TONs of resources out there for free images you can use without copyright concerns. I even wrote a blog post on my business blog about finding free images. :) http://www.1to1discovery.com/finding-free-images-for-blog-posts/

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  4. I blobbed for quite a while, then ran out of steam. I was doing it twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I used Creative Commons for images. They have a section with cartoons, and I could usually find one that was simple and fun. Caution about images--they can be slow to load, and I've actually left without reading webpages that had way too many images. One very popular blogger, Anne Allan, doesn't use images. Hasn't hurt her. Great advice overall, Jacqueline!

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    1. I enjoyed reading your blog. Many writers give up on them because they do steal time away from writing. But it's just another way of being recognized.

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  5. Good advice, Jacqueline. I haven't been able to keep to much of a schedule, so my blog is a sometime thing.

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    1. As Pam observes, consistency is important. I haven't managed it myself on my personal blog.

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  6. I admire your organization and drive to achieve such blogging success. Great suggestions. I love to guest blog but do not have the knack for running my own blog weekly. Thanks!

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    1. Guest blogging is good! And you're welcome to visit here if you choose.

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  7. Great advice! Now I just need to heed it. ;)

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    1. Thanks for coming by, Liza, and good luck with your new blog.

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  8. Consistency is difficult. I try to blog every Tuesday, even if I just post a photo I took, with a paragraph describing it. I just can't be brilliant in 300-500 words every week, while trying to write fiction! Thanks for the great tips, Jacqueline.

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    1. Hi Catherine,

      Posting photos is a great way to reach more readers. We've learned that via FB.

      Delete
  9. Good advice, as usual, Jacquie. I was blogging regularly and then just got tired of it. I expect I'll pick it up again, but I don't want to feel it's a chore. I think the reader notices that. I also want to avoid turning my blog into a classroom, where I'm always giving lectures on correct grammar, how to write a fight scene, and the like. For me the blog is another opportunity to tell a story.

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    1. I agree with you. Great insights! As a former teacher myself, the tendency is to be didactic which really is boring to most readers. So we all have to watch it. Telling stories whether real or imagined is interesting.

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  10. This is a helpful post, Jacqueline, and hopefully it will spur me to action. I do use Thursdays on my blog for my guest authors in the hopes they will get more readers but I'm inconsistent the rest of the week. It all depends on how busy I am (or how well I'm procrastinating). I'm still putting off the changes I need to make to my new site--I had to ditch some of the plugins that weren't working. Hopefully I'll escape this debilitating spring fever soon and get back to work.

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    1. Pat,

      You actually have a very strong blog and do reach a lot of readers. I always appreciate guest blogging with you.

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  11. Great ideas, Jacqueline; I am on many blogs, but I haven't begun my own as yet.

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    1. Sometimes you're better off limiting to guest blogs, especially when you don't have extra time.

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  12. As always, useful advice. I just can't seem to be regular with my blog. I also liked Susan's comment; I generally write about writing and even I am often bored! I will work hard to tell more stories.

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    1. I agree. I think we all have to make an effort to provide interesting bits of writing on our blogs.

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  13. I've also read that we should use keywords in the blog header and throughout the blog.

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  14. Thanks for mentioning that, Nancy, since I forgot to do so. Apparently keywords are picked up by search engines like Google. That also help get readers.

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