Blogging For Beginners: 5 Non-Negotiable Rules For Successful Blogging

Author: Dr. Bob Clarke

Blogging can be a little daunting for beginners,especially when first getting started. Questions like "what do I write about?" and "how will I get people to read my blog?" are normal when just starting out. Blogging should be fun -- maybe even therapeutic -- and done correctly, can also be a source of income for years to come. To help those just beginning their blogging careers, I've listed what I consider to be 5 absolutely non-negotiable rules for successful blogging:

Follow up:

1. Get a good design.

Many blogs look like they’re from the 90’s. Instead of going with default blog themes or generic themes, hire someone to customize an existing theme for you or to design you a whole new look. If you’re going to use your blog as your base of online operations of sorts, then you’ll want people to be impressed when they visit. It's important to keep the look clean and crisp. After all, you wouldn't invite people to your home without straightening up, right?

2. Determine your blog’s focus and stick with it.

Some marketers like blogging about their personal lives as well as their businesses while others like to keep these two aspects of their lives separate. Some bloggers open their blogs up to guest posters and paid reviews while others prefer having total control over the content that is posted on their blogs. No matter what you choose to do with your blog, stick with it so that your readers don’t get confused or frustrated.

3. Post at semi-regular intervals.

You can post as frequently or infrequently as you like, but keep in mind that your new blog won’t take off if you only post once a week. Posting daily, at least in the beginning will jump start your blog's popularity, assuming you are writing about things people find interesting or entertaining. No matter how often you choose to post, keep it somewhat consistent. You don’t want to post twice in a day and then go silent for a week. This will confuse your readers and they’ll eventually stop visiting your blog because they’ll be sick of guessing when your next post will be. Your goal is for your readers to be excited about your next blog post and awaiting its arrival.

4. Engage your readers.

There’s nothing wrong with posting tons of great content, but blogs are social environments and you’ve got to take advantage of this. Try making your next post a video of yourself instead of a few hundred words of text. After each post, encourage comments and discussion. Even better is if you deliberately post something which touches on some nerves so that you spark some healthy debates. Make it controversial, ask questions, encourage debate, and join in!

5. Make it easy to share your content.

If your content is funny, informative, awesome, or is some combination of the above, people are going to want to tell others about it. It’s not like affiliate programs where people need incentives (i.e. commissions) to tell other people about it. When it comes to good content, people are constantly on the lookout for it because it makes them look good when they share it. After creating some solid content, your next step is to make it easy to share it. Include links which allow readers to tweet, digg, and otherwise share your post with their followers/friends/people. Once you do this, you’ll get tons of free traffic with no extra effort on your part. And best of all, this traffic is going to be highly qualified because they followed the recommendation of a peer to get to your blog.

Blogging is an extremely effective, low cost way to market your product or services. But it must be done correctly, right from the start. Dr. Bob Clarke is a blogging and branding expert who teaches his team of new and experienced entrepreneurs the secrets of selling anything to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Apply directly to become part of Dr. Clarke's entrepreneurial team at http://LeadersForSuccess.com?t=articlealley. You can gain access to more of Bob's training at http://BobandRosemary.com?t=articlealley.

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