Jay Leonard
You start blogging because you want to do something. Be someone. Be a part of something.
It doesn’t matter what your goals are – thought leader, business leads, brand awareness, monetization, or even just a place to post thought – you blog because of a particular reason.
The problem is, no matter how good the reason may seem to you, the traction isn’t coming fast enough for you. Which is okay, actually – successful blogging is a marathon, not a sprint (damn these cheesy quotes!).
But for anyone that’s looking to try and speed up the success process, stop looking too deep into why you might be lagging, and instead think about adopting these four approaches that every blogger should aim toward, if they want to be successful.
1. Read
This might seem like common sense, but read other blog posts as much as you write you own. Look at the best writers in the literary world – do you think they just read their own books and become great because of that?
No. Instead, they’re reading other authors in their niche, as well as up-and-coming authors in other niches but who have interesting approaches to storytelling. Mimic this.
Think about the blogs and bloggers you’d like to emulate, and see what sets them apart. It could be language, tone, formatting, etc. If you want to be the best, learn from who you feel are the best.
2. Savour
So many bloggers rush to get the next post ready to go. They feel that the more frequent their content, the more search engine value they’ll receive, and the more visitors they’ll get.
The thing is, though, your readers aren’t superhero ninja reading robots. Like the rest of us, they only have a finite amount of time every day to allocate to reading a blog.
So, instead of blasting out content left, right and centre and hoping the SEO benefits will come, take the time to sit back and let your readers savour your posts.
Let the content sink in, and the comments around the post end naturally. You can usually tell when a post has reached its zenith – don’t force the issue, let it happen and then post the next update.
You don’t have to do this, especially if you have a schedule that works for you – but wouldn’t it be nice to treat a blog post like a vintage wine instead of a tequila shot once in a while?
3. Comment
One of the most popular questions we get asked here is, “How do I get more comments?” – it’s easily in the top five questions for most bloggers.
And, unfortunately, there isn’t any real right or wrong answer, because every reader is different. Oftentimes, the most amazing blog posts get a few comments, while the most inane get hundreds. And vice versa, before you think, “A-Ha! Let’s write an inane post!”
So, instead of telling you how to get more comments – although that is covered here – my piece of advice here is simple: make it easy to comment.
- Use a friendly comment system. This can be your native option (the one that comes with your blog’s design), or a third-party option like Disqus, Livefyre or IntenseDebate (but allow guests to post when using third-party options).
- Have an open comment policy. Unless your business dictates you absolutely must moderate all comments (which breaks up the flow), allow anything to be posted, as long as it adheres to your comment policy.
- Encourage discussion. If someone leaves a comment, reply (where a reply makes sense). Make the reader feel welcome and they’ll come back (especially if you encourage discourse with respect and boot off comment bullies).
- Kill the captchas. Seriously. Captchas used to be used as an excuse for stopping spam, but with the amount of anti-spam filters have now, this is a lame excuse. Captchas are the birth control of blog commenting – if you want to propogate, drop the barrier to entry.
Make it easy to comment and guess what? People will generally comment.
4. Share
You’re the greatest blogger the world has ever seen and your content is amazing – so why the heck are you making it so difficult to share with others?
The amount of times I’ve landed on a blog post, loved it, then went to share it with my networks only to find there were no social sharing options? GAH!
This isn’t 1999, folks – we have hundreds (if not thousands) of ways to share a blog post without just relying on optimized copy for search engines (though, please, don’t forget that either).
You want your blog to grow? Make it easy for folks to help you in that goal.
It’s pretty easy to add sharing options to your blog, no matter what platform you’re on (though if you’re on self-hosted WordPress, even better with the amount of plugins available).
So why would you write the best stuff to keep hidden from the world? Your blog isn’t Rapunzel – come out of your tower and let it be shared.
It’s pretty straightforward – whatever your goal is in blogging, you’re not going to get there by making it hard to be found and interacted with.
The good news is, you don’t have to do a heck of a lot to get the cogs moving – ready to get started?
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
Learn how to publish your content on B2C
Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage
Add B2C to your Google News Feed
Hi Danny, thanks for the blog article, I had previously read an article encouraging newbies to post every day for 60 days to get a blog up and running. what are your thoughts on that?
Hey there Paul, cheers, and glad you enjoyed. While a library of content can definitely help, it comes down to “at what cost to quality?”. If you’re “forced” to write 60 daily pieces just to get established, you’re probably going to get burnt out before you even start.
Set your stall out from the start; people accept new blogs aren’t going to be chock-filled with content, so if you’re going to post three times a week, set that out as your calendar from the start.
Hope that helps!
Hi Danny, thanks for the good article. I’ve read many blog post of how can people create a successful blogs but I’ve never heard or ‘Savour’ before. I’ll try to do my blog this way. I agree with you that we need time to communicate with our audiences until the discussion about the topic has died down. It is more important to get the most out of each post rather than spam your audiences with a daily blog post.
I also agree with you that blog desn’t need captchas. It is really annoying when you have to do captchas when you want to comment a blog but it is more annoying when you fail consecutively after many attempt of captchas. Many captchas are not clear so there is a high chance that you will fail the captchas.
Prapat W.
Hi there Prapat,
I was once on a blog where you had to bypass three captcha systems. THREE!! Are you kidding me?? :)
Great post.. i been reading up alot and yeah.. some blogs just churn out posts after post.. but i guess when u have ONE really valuable post.. it allows the readers to anticipate your next one and of cos, some time to create a valuable post.. Sometime, good things have to wait~
Hey there Jackson,
Great point, mate – I’ve seen posts continue to get traction a year after they’ve been posted. And, yes, if you’re writing a series, think of how all the classic cliffhangers – the time between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, for example – leave you wanting more.
Here’s to cliffhangers and anticipation on more blogs!