Blogging is as varied in its applications as using the telephone or taking a picture. The tool doesn’t predict the output. You might be using your blog to post recipes, or to inform the local community about information you find elsewhere on the web. Maybe you’re just trying your hand at writing, and the web is as good a place as any.
If you’re looking to go beyond that, however, you’ll need to take steps to improve your blog from at least five different perspectives. In 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level, I wanted to share my thoughts on how you should consider your goal, your design, your content, how you promote it, and the business aspects of your blog. Please add to these ideas in the comments, and let’s grow the list out.
50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level
Make Your Goal and Target Audience Crystal Clear
My point with this entire post, but most especially this section is to ask you to admit what your real goals are with your blog. If you’re not sure, that’s fine. You might not really want to take your blog to the next level just yet. But if you’re feeling as if you want to get serious (in whatever direction that takes your efforts), give strong consideration to the following.
- If your goal is to be an entertainment or news blog, be very clear that it’s that and not a “fun” blog. Consider splitting off your personal or fun blog.
- If your blog is to be your business, treat it like that. Get into stats. Get into building audience. Get into delivering something unique. Don’t straddle back and forth on this.
- If the goal is to be a great community resource, mix your blogging time with time spent reaching out to the community you propose to serve. If that’s an offline opportunity, like something local, be there. Be active. Be a connector.
- If you’re going to be a professional about your blog, carve out the time to do it right. Never, ever, ever post a “sorry I haven’t posted lately” blog post again. Ever.
- Up the ante on delivering original material. Get outside the echo chamber. Writing a me-too blog isn’t the way to build your blog to the levels you seek to attain.
- It’s okay to use a personal voice. In fact, there’s no point blogging if you’re going to write like a cold robot. But keep personal and useful in balance.
- If you are attempting to do real business via your blog, look for ways to convert readers into customers.
- If it’s just an ad revenue business, compete, and be honest about that. Compete with others in your space for audience, value, and better deals. My point in this regard is that going halfway into the water doesn’t make you less wet.
- If your blog is the premier source of information for nonprofits, for photographers, for whatever, then be sure you’re scouring news feeds and finding information outside the blogosphere to keep that relationship informed.
- Make a point of engaging your community often in the comments section, on their blogs, on the other social networks where you cross paths.
Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep
Consider the design elements of your blog. They do change the way people perceive your work. And, they can help you improve your potential business opportunities.
- Get your own unique URL. It matters in the long run, especially should you choose to change hosts. For instance, if you move off a blogger account at *.blogspot.com , you lose all link equity and page rank for that domain. This means you’d have to start again from scratch. Already in that position? Make the switch now.
- Consider moving to a hosted blog. You can get a hosted WordPress blog set up and running for only $10 USD a year at Bloghost.me. (Note: if you use code “brogan,” you can get it for $9 a year. Andy’s a friend.)
- Consider using a professional theme. I am an advocate for Thesis by Chris Pearson. There are other premium themes out there, as well.
- Consider getting a customized Wordpress theme. That link goes to Nico Pin, who designed [chrisbrogan.com]. There are others who do this kind of work, obviously.
- Are there several unnecessary widgets on your blog? Review them and decide which add value to your audience.
- Is your layout readable? Are your fonts clean and easy to read? Are your color choices all they can be? A little time with your stylesheet goes a long way.
- If you have ads, are you choking your community with them? Do you actually endorse the products on them? How effective have they been?
- Is your blog design and layout configured well for SEO? Several blogging platforms now have SEO plug-ins/add-ons to help with this. That doesn’t beat having a professional take a swing at improving your blog’s SEO, but it’s a good first step.
- A logo and matching favicon doesn’t hurt. You can find various price points for this, and many different people offering the service. Mine was created by Justin Evans and his team at StressLimit Design. I also have friends in California that I highly recommend, as well.
- Consider the graphics you post on your site. Do they add to the story you’re trying to tell? If not, seek upgrades. There are many freely available graphics at Flickr, if you search by the appropriate Creative Commons license level.
Make Your Content Top Notch
Growing quality blog posts isn’t magic. We don’t sprinkle cookies all over the house and hope that the Blogging Fairy comes along and writes us posts in exchange for the cookies. It takes lots of work, and a strong commitment. And if it doesn’t come naturally, you CAN learn how to improve.
- Put your blog posts on a diet. Read them with your audience in mind. Can you thin them out? Remove unnecessary words. Make them tight.
- Lead with the main point. If you’re attempting to be a quality news or opinion blog, make your main point at the top of the post. Don’t make us dig.
- Link. If you’re writing about another person, post, or website, link appropriately and thread the web. It fleshes out the story, gives us places to explore, and shows a “good neighbor” practice.
- Vary up post lengths. If you write a “feature length” post, have something brief come next to avoid reader fatigue. (Unless you’re writing an essay-length blog all the time, and hey, good luck.)
- Read. Read. Read. Get outside the blogosphere. Find sources of information that span far beyond what your competitors are covering.
- Get on a regular writing/posting schedule. Extra points for writing a few posts ahead of time for those days when you can’t get to it right away.
- Work on your titles. A great title drives visits, but also informs us as to what we’re going to learn.
- Refrain from “me too” posts. If you’ve got something to add, do that and link to the original post, but if you’re moving up to the next level, lose the “pointer” posts. (Your mileage may vary on this one).
- Consider video, audio, and rich media. If you’re doing a text-mostly blog, consider mixing it up from time to time. It might find you new audience, and it might also give people a more dimensional sense of who you are.
- Review your blog posts monthly to see if you’re covering the same ground. If you are, consider building an editorial calendar to post from, so that you don’t overlap and repeat topics too often.
Promoting Your Blog
No one loves someone who talks about themselves all the time, but if you’re going to work on bringing your blog up a few notches, make sure your efforts aren’t for nothing.
- Use a social bookmarking plugin like AddThis or Share This on your blog posts so that people who like your work can share it easily.
- Make a very prominent option to subscribe by email available on your site. More than 50% of my readers do so via email.
- Add your blog URL to your email signature.
- Make sure your blog URL is on your twitter profile, your facebook profile, added into Friendfeed, and several other outposts. This helps people discover you who might not have noticed your work before. (Note: Steve Rubel said that to me many months back. He told me that he “discovered” my blog via Facebook. I’ve been a believer ever since.)
- If you’re going to promote your blog via places like Twitter, be sure to do it tastefully instead of just dumping links into the stream. Consider asking a question, or pointing out a rather insightful comment.
- Make sure you’re doing the basics, like listing your site in Yahoo!, Google, DMOZ, and claiming it in Technorati.com (each of those sites shows you how via the help function).
- Commenting on other well-known blogs in your same space in a not-spammy way is a great way for people who might like your work to discover you. Don’t put blatant links or otherwise be rude. Just be thoughtful and helpful to the community at that site, and leave a useful comment. They’ll come, if they like what you said.
- Don’t forget posting the occasional blog post in LinkedIn’s status message. It reaches some interesting people from time to time.
- Is it fair to Digg or Stumble your own posts? There are mixed opinions on this. I’ve had little to no success with Digg in this regard. StumbleUpon is a different story. Decide for yourself if you think this is okay to do. I’ve heard it called “patting yourself on the back in public.”
- Write the occasional post that’s worthy of bookmarking. When someone adds a blog post of mine to Delicious, I often get lots more traffic than from other promotional angles.
Building Business From Your Blog
You might be trying to make money from your blog directly, perhaps through advertising or affiliate marketing. Or you might be seeking to establish thought leadership and promote consulting opportunities. You might be simply looking to drive even better awareness of a social cause or have a nonprofit or educational motive in mind. In any case, think of “business” to mean “value beyond the blogging itself.”
- Build conversion opportunities. If you’re selling something directly, think of clever ways to post about it that educate, inform, and encourage a call to action.
- Make sure your blog design points people towards the action you want them to take. (See Financial Aid Podcast for an easy example).
- Ask for the sale. If you’re selling something, don’t be shy. Ask for it. Do so in a blog post, or in an ad of your own creation. Be direct and honest about this.
- Mix free value and additional opportunities. If you’re selling something that’s not unlike what’s available on your blog for free, demonstrate the dividing line. Even consider giving a hint of what’s on the other side.
- Make it easy to opt in. Like asking for the sale, make sure you help your prospective customers/cleints/partners know how to get into your sales funnel, should they be interested.
- Make content that sells. If you’re blogging or posting video to promote a business objective, work at building the content such that it drives that end decision. Too 1.0 for you? At least open conversations up about what you’re trying to accomplish.
- Make it very easy to contact you. Make your About page very clean and easy to read. Put some real human names on the website, and even consider adding a photo, so that people know who they’re addressing. (I say this all the time, but I see so many examples daily of people who could use this advice.)
- Build relationships with similar blogs and share opportunities. If you’re blogging about real estate, get to know the other real estate bloggers and learn from each other.
- Give “serving suggestions” on your blog. If you’re blogging a particular kind of offering, is there a way to share what it does, or how you want to be involved?
- Remember: even if your blog’s main goal is selling, be human, be interesting, be involved. This isn’t the old Internet. We have these nifty social tools that remind us to be human. Let’s use them that way.
My goal in writing this was to offer advice and suggestions for how one might transform their blog from “another one in the pack” to something of a destination on the web. It’s not my opinion that we should all be following this advice. There are several blogs that I love exactly the way they are, and I’m sure their respective owners do, too.
We all do this for different reasons, and one size does not fit all. For those of you who DO intend their blog to be an authoritative, professional-minded presence on the web, I hope this helps.
Do you have something more to add? What’s your take? What have I missed completely? What other questions to you have?
[chrisbrogan.com] is meant for sharing. Please feel free to repost, share, distribute, print, anything you want (except to make money from the content). Just please give proper credit back to [chrisbrogan.com] if you post elsewhere. Thanks!
Photo credit, Foxypar4
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You rock, Chris!
Thank you from a slacker blogger!
Your nudges to keep blogging and make it work really help.
Kim
Dr. DeClutter
Chris,
Great post, it covers all major ideas on improving a blog.
On point 12 (’Consider moving to a hosted blog.’), it would be great if you could elaborate a bit in a future post. As I am considering this (currently blogging at wordpress.com; I would like to know the downside of moving to self-hosted blogging before actually moving.
E.g. how long would it take to get good scores again on Google searches for my most important search terms; and what about increased risks in ‘hacked’ widgets (wordpress.com does not allow java scripted widgets for that very reason).
Thanks in advance! Regards,
Jeroen de Miranda
I think the hardest things for blogs that can’t get over the hump (my own included) are #3/#10 reaching out to and engaging the community you intend to serve, and #5/#28 getting outside the echo chamber.
I think the challenge with the first one is that it is something that is hard to do even if you’re making the effort. I think a lot of people will do it initially and give up, but don’t realize that they need to keep planting little seeds for their field to grow. From my experiences great communities tend to build slowly, organically.
You have great gift of getting others to participate with your content, and often I will read and re-read the end of your posts and try to emulate ways you get others to contribute to the conversations you’re starting.
With regard to getting out of the echo chamber, I think this is something that is very hard for bloggers that don’t have lots of experience. I think one of the keys to be able to create your own content and having your own voice is #25, to read, read and read.
I try to read many blogs in my blogosphere; those that I aspire to be like, and those that are my more direct competitors. Then I try to read others articles in other publications and learn as much as I can. I think I’ve shifted from being just a “me-too” guy to someone who can take a couple of different resources and continue the conversation with my own spin (which is good), but I still don’t have many posts where I’m truly creating my own unique content.
Thanks for putting together this phenomenal list Chris! I have enjoyed interacting and thinking about the way many of these things impact me!
the Content-top-notch part is usefull, thanks Chris.
On a sidenote: (social media) content needs to be educational, enlighting and entertaining to create loyalty and the urge to come back.
Fantastic article, Chris! I’m never disappointed after reading your blog.
I think #6 - write with your own voice- is so important. How you say something is certainly as important as what you say. As @Ryan Stephens mentions above, it’s sometimes hard to be as original as we’d like to, but if you inject personality into what you have to say and give your own spin to it, you’ll find an audience. People will come to hear you “talk” because they like the way *you* say things (i.e. it appeals to their particular personality type and worldview).
Keep the great posts coming, Chris!
Craig Ernst
@Jeroen de Miranda, 1st and for most Self hosted blog gives you total control on your blog,
2nd it looks more professional, if you are aiming a business blog, then self hosted blog is your best bait,
3rd you can have keywords of your choice in your domain which is vital for seo (yourname.com is more optimal then yourname.wordpress.com)
@Chris 37. Commenting on other well-known blogs one thing that i do it as daily ritual (and suggest my reader too) and trust me guys its the best and sure fire way to spread the word about your blog.
Below is an example of the drawback that I see in self hosting my blog (remark: I do understand the large upside of self hosting) - security in wordpress.com blogs still seem better to me currently.
From:
http://diythemes.com/thesis/demo/
‘Urgent Security Fix, Please Update Now!
by Chris Pearson on September 11, 2008
Yesterday evening, I learned that Thesis had a security vulnerability on search results pages that could potentially give would-be hackers an entry point into your WordPress installation. Fortunately, the fix is extremely simple, and it’s available now on the Thesis downloads page.’
Anyone who has a blog or is interested in writing a blog should read this post.
John P. Kreiss
Morgansullivan, in.
http://www.johnpkreiss.com
This is great advise.
If you write articles and publish them be sure to add them to your blog
@Jeroen - There can be exploits on any web page, hosted or not. You’re right that there’s a risk of you implementing a malicious widget for your site. We tend to put faith in the WordPress site that it will keep us free from risk. That’s where I download my plugins. Am I 100% I’m safe? No.
Has it shown any impact to me yet? Not yet.
How long before you get back your link juice? I guess it matters on how well you can promote the new site with the new links. Because you don’t own the other platform, you can’t even institute 301 redirects (google it) to port your link equity over.
Putting blog url as email signature is little and very useful tip for all bloggers.Thank you very much.
Hi Chris, wow, this is a really helpful and comprehensive list of recommendations - I will refer back to this, for sure. I especially appreciate the editorial calendar tip - this seems like a great way to give a blog direction and avoid getting side-tracked on other topics. Thank you! : )
Thanks for this post. Being a new blogger, I value reading good commonsense advice on how to go about building my blog business. Thanks for all the great resources on our site and I am already imagining myself visiting here often to learn and interact more.
Thanks again:)
Tons of valuable information in this post, especially from a gal who’s going through her own site redesign & reassigning her blog to a unique URL.
Having your own blog URL is priceless and I feel also speaks toward the your brand integrity. Whether you’re hosting on your own server or using #12 above for a hosted option, take control - and ownership - of your content.
With regards to bookmarking, I seem to enjoy the most traffic enhancement from StumbleUpon and retweets on Twitter from a trusted network. I get pretty annoyed with “shouts” on Digg and only digg content I personally enjoy, not as a “reciprocation.”
If you tweet, another traffic enhancer is to not only put your blog URL in your signature line, but on your Twitter profile as your website. Personally, I have my blog link everywhere, from Facebook to LinkedIn and StumbleUpon and enjoy the occasional cool connection it created (expanding on Chris’ #38).
And yes - even my web designer agrees: Thesis WordPress theme is THE BOMB. Can’t wait to see my new blog built with it!
@redheadwriting
@Erika - If your designer likes the Thesis WordPress theme, make sure they take a look at my tip for easily using Flickr photographs with Thesis through the Photo Dropper plugin. The tip includes CSS customizations so your photo blends in well with the Thesis theme. The tip is at http://www.thesistheme.org/photo-dropper-thesis/.
Why would you want a Flickr photo in your blog post? Ask Chris Brogan. He’s got one at the top of this post. :-)
I can’t remember how I found this post, but I’m glad I did. I made some immediate changes that I couldn’t believe I didn’t do in the first place. Stumbled and bookmarked on Delicious.
Similar to asking a question in Twitter and posting a link to build traffic, changing your Facebook status with the same strategy will cause the link to appear in the “mini-feed” and help build traffic.
Using a tiny URL puts the focus on your question and not on the link, which helps limit the SPAM.
Ryan, I wrote a post yest. that can help get one out of the echo chamber (it took 3 hrs).
http://conniebensen.com/blog/2008/09/13/extending-your-personal-brands-reach/
Chris - sometime I’d like to hear how long it takes for you to write our posts? Awesome post here :)
Great blog, Chris. I shared it here with acknowledgement :)
http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=112070
If you are going to be on twitter, and you want followers, return the favor and do more there than just flood your followers with links to posts. We’ll remove you for that. Interact with your twitter audience. Those @ messages mean something to someone that sends them. If they mean nothing to you, you won’t be followed for long.
For every @ message sent to you, it’s a chance for exposure to those that don’t know you yet. So consider those a valued resource and treat them as such. And allow yourself to view all @’s and not just those sent to you.
@ chrisbrogan - Wow! This is excellent information my blog is only just being built and I had no clue really how to get the best out of my blog. Thanks to you I have steps to create a very professional blog.
I appreciate you sharing and I enjoy following you
on Twitter! Have a great Sunday!
Your Friend,
Tonya
Self-hosting has worked great for me. I am glad I switched to it earlier rather than later - next time I will start with it.
The advice on an editorial calendar is helpful. I will implement that this week and stick to my posting schedule. Having a few posts in backup seems like a good idea, too.
I have always blogged in my own voice, but I admit that I struggle balancing selling vs. informing. I solved it by reviewing products that are my personal favorites within my blog posts and putting other interesting affiliate products in a Product and Resources listing, segregated away from the posts designed to build my brand as a voice in my niche. That seems to offend the least people and also allow individuals who are seeking out produts to find them easily.
Thanks for the great post, Chris. Good stuff!
Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman
follow me at http://twitter.com/smartwoman
Great insight Chris. Quite a robust list. I think this would be a daunting task as a blog post. I wonder if you started with 50 as the target or wound up there as you went?
I found the post because someone tweeted “I’m confused by #40 Why “occasional”? Or are you being modest & polite? Serious question”
I would respond that #40, “Write the occasional post that’s worthy of bookmarking” has a good point. Delicious often gobbles up big lists of tips, resources of some type. If your post is commentary or reaction its less likely to be bookmarked. If it is like this post, a long list of great tips, the likelihood of a bookmark shoots up. I like your #40 because the “occasional” emphasizes to mix up your content type. If you did all lists as a blog, you may get some readers, but will you have the best community, will you challenge them? And if you completely avoid lists and bullets, your posts will seem more dry and less accessible.
I think persistence is the real key - it surpasses all else!
@connie - A post like this takes about 30 minutes. My more thoughtful posts take a little less time, because they’re not as formatted.
@jak - My point is that I write sometimes because I know it will it Delicious Popular and I know other times it will provoke useful conversations. I try to do a bit of both. One extends the community. The other gives the community something to talk about.
@Linda - I try to do a 1/12 sharing scheme, where I share about 12 links to other people’s stuff to any link of mine. That way, I’m trying to never fatigue my followers with self promotion. Heck, none of us like to hang out with the MeMeMeMeMe types. Do we?
@Vicki - as long as you’re clear when you’re selling, I think your audience will understand the difference.
THanks to everyone for your ideas and thoughts.
@chris: thanks for giving me feedback on my concerns over moving to self hosted blogs (topic #12) - your experiences encourage me to seriously thinking on moving over. Using plugins from trusted sites will indeed reduce risk of using exploited plugins.
A move to a self hosted blog actually means more or less starting with a new blog from scratch. An additional benefit of starting anew might be that this makes it more easy to implement more focus in my blog (’make my audience crystal clear’).
Excellent article! Very informative.
I’ve done a lot of these things to take my blog to the next level. A few months ago I launched a new custom design for my blog Lyved which has really helped move the blog forward.
I think the most important tip on here and the tip I would tell most people is to be DIFFERENT! I’ve done that from the beginning and that is what has achieved the most success for me. I like to be different with my articles and even a little controversial. It gets people thinking and talking, and isn’t that what blogs a are all about?
Thanks for this post Chris!
-Andrew
Great post Chris
Lot’s of useful suggestions. Some I already do and Some I will work on. I know it takes time to become a top blogger but I know if I give up I will never make it.
keep em Coming!
Good stuff Chris … and all commentors. It’s great to see the conversation.
For me …
Reading:
I’m getting ready to launch a blog for the company i work for. this is exciting, but it can also be slightly scary. i find my self wondering ‘what to say’ , ‘what to focus on’ , ‘what will add value’ … i’m sure these are common for 1st time bloggers? (i hope)
All that said … reading is by far the BEST way to help answer all these questions/conserns. I’ve been focusing on reading blog’s like this one over the past 2 months and it’s helped incredibly!
Having your own vocice:
This one is related to the above for me. having my own voice is coming from doing a lot of reading. my voice comes out (crystalizez) the more i read & think about the topic/area i want to post on. and get comes along even more when i start to write it down in the form of a blog post.
Twitter:
A amazing tool. i find more information and helpful people here than any other place so far.
—
http://twitter.com/franswaa
This list is an interesting comparison to a post of 25 blog marketing tips we did 2 1/2 years ago: http://tinyurl.com/295lqv
Most of the suggestions still hold true today.
Well done as always Chris. You have an amazing ability to stimulate conversation.
Excellent points Chris! I think one of the most important ones is to have your own voice. Personalizing your blog is key in this social age; nobody wants to read from a drone.
Hi Chris:
Some wonderful coments and information posted here.
When blogging to reach a business to business audience, do you have any suggestions in terms of SEO strategy? I’m trying to use my brand, Client Service Network to get noticed for securing additional consulting work or even better, a full time job. Thoughts from Chris or others that might be reading my comment? Right now, I’m going out to different internet technology related events and providing video coverage, doing interviews, etc. Hard work, but hoping it will pay off in the long run.
You know, I started my blog as a way to introduce people to me and my craft, but since then it has taken on another life. Now I write articles and tutorials encouraging people to tap into their own inner creativity and to learn things on their own. I’ve had many people tell me about the things in your list, but to tell the truth I’ve being doing this stuff for most of my life and since I obviously have a knack for it I think it’s safe to trust my own gut instincts.
nice tips.. really useful
thanks.
Chris,
This was my first visit to your site. I stumbled here this morning and I want to take a moment and thank you for putting all of these tips in one place. I think they are useful and clear. Your writing style is very easy to read. I’ll be subscribing today and adding a link at tumblemoose.
Thanks again.
I like what Doug C. (comment directly above this one) said about his blog taking on another life. That’s part of the beauty and fun of blogging — you start off assuming it’s going to go one direction, and you learn so much from the experience of writing and interacting with readers that your blog takes off in a whole new direction.
While it’s important to set up an editorial calendar, you should be flexible with it; if a previously unexplored idea pops into your mind, veer from your calendar for a few days and explore it in depth on your blog.
The act of blogging is a wonderful learning experience.
Laura Christianson
co-founder, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com
Great post Chris, I completely agree with targeting your audience. We can’t be all things for all people.
Eight pieces of advice for marketing one’s blog…
1.) Tattoo the URL on one’s forehead.
2.) Use a large piece of chalk and write the URL on a busy sidewalk if one can do so legally.
3.) Pass out your blog address on business cards to strangers on a subway.
4.) If it is legal, write your blog’s URL on paper money.
5.) Leave your blog’s URL on public toilets, again, if legal.
6.) Have a skywriter write your URL in the sky above a large public gathering.
7.) If legal, put your blog’s URL on strips of paper and insert it in public library books.
8.) Stand outside voting booths and pass out strips of paper with your blog’s URL on election day.
9.) Change your name to your blog’s URL.
In addition to #31, setting up feedburner email, aweber or something similar for people to keep updated via email.
Insightful and useful as a checklist. Well worth bookmarking.
I have to add one suggestion: Don’t make political posts unless you’re running a current events/political blog in the first place. I’ve lost count of how many otherwise good niche blogs I’ve walked away from permanently because I’ve gotten sick and tired of irrelevant political slams being forced down my throat in between otherwise-excellent posts about technology, cooking, etc.
(I should probably note that in 9 out of ten of these cases, it’s the same political side being taken across the board. It’s almost as if these bloggers actually enjoy ostracizing fifty percent of their potential readers.)
You advoacted and linked to the “share this” button, but did not mention the links at the bottom of your post pointing specifically to delicious and other social sites. Those are in my opinion more helpful when I, as a reader, want to share. Can anyone point me to where to figure out how to add those type of links at the bottom of the posts?
“@Linda - I try to do a 1/12 sharing scheme, where I share about 12 links to other people’s stuff to any link of mine. That way, I’m trying to never fatigue my followers with self promotion. Heck, none of us like to hang out with the MeMeMeMeMe types. Do we?”
I noticed that about you, and personally I get bored with “me, myself and I”. After all, who can be fresh and interesting all the darn time. Too much pressure. I’d prefer to link to other links and sites that are different than mine, whether I’ve commented on them or not.
@David - For WordPress there is a “Sociable” plugin from yoast.com, a great source for many excellent plugins:
http://yoast.com/wordpress/sociable/
I’ve got several plugins from Joost de Valk (the man behind Yoast.com) installed on my blogs.
As always, Chris, a lot of useful advice here!
I’d like to take issue with one point:
Regarding #20 and using images off flickr or other image sites, it’s important that people pay attention to copyright.
On flickr, for instance, run an ‘advanced search’ and tick the applicable box at the bottom to search for Creative Commons licensed images. Then, when embedding the photo, make sure to add a line to attribute the photo credit.
Here’s a recent post of mine on listening to advice on social media where you can see the flickr picture at the top and the credit line at the bottom.
Free imagery can also be taken advantage of (and uploaded for others to share) at Wikimedia Commons.
Chris,
Great article. As a guy who is trying to get my blog into the next level, this stuff really helps.
BTW, I really like your layout of the site. Crisp and clean. I’ll be subscribing soon.
Thank you for the insight… I am a newbie, juggling the craft of blogging with the building of an audience. I am now at the point where I would like to have my blogging experience grow into more of a business direction. Your info on the post was most helpful.
@Ari - I agree with your advice to honor Flickr photo copyrights. If you want to make it “drop dead” simple to do so (at least on WordPress), then I need to repeat my plug for the free plugin (no pun intended, I swear!) called Photo Dropper. I’ve got a blog post about it here:
http://www.thesistheme.org/photo-dropper-thesis/
The post describes how to tailor Photo Dropper for the Thesis theme, but the basic idea of customizing your CSS for the HTML that Photo Dropper generates would apply to any theme.
Now I use photos on every one of my posts because Photo Dropper makes it so fast and easy to do so.
Cool, thanks
I have printer cut out and pasted this entry on my office wall to keep me focused on the goal of my blog. Tremendous article! “50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level” probably needs to be in every article about this subject. A great post.
Sharp, and right on target. Very well written Chris. :)
Well this is as good as a post i can ever think of. This post has it ALL. Right from the scratch to make our blog a really big one. I’m enlightened. I’m itching to implement all of this at As You Like It
hey chris really might help to separate comments and trackbacks on your threads, esp big ones like this.
would make the blog alot cleaner and comments section easier to read — like you say, that is where the community happens!
it’s really simple:
http://hackwordpress.com/how-to-separate-wordpress-comments-and-trackbacks/
Thanks for these great tips. I am new to blogging and learning as I go…mostly the hard way. I am beginning to realize that there is much more to all this than meets the eye. My niche blog (”Bedrock Dreams”) is essentially dead in the water and getting on the wrong side of Google didn’t help my cause. Wondering whether to dump it now and start afresh on a private domain or?
Anyway, thanks for the help.
J.R.
Santa Fe, NM
Great post Chris, lists really are good reads on the web. What about blogrolls where you ask your readers who are also bloggers to add your blog to theirs if they feel it will add value to their reading community.
Many will automatically do this for the best blogs, but what about the ones that are off the beaten path a bit and don’t receive as much attention. “Ask and you shall receive.”
Is there a way to change the host of your blog and without losing all of the SEO benefits?
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Craig: You can change your hosting company every day if you want and search engine ranking will not change. The key is what search engines see, not what server it’s on.
Ari: Thanks, our company’s blog is in its infancy right now and we are working on slowly building it up with a redesign and content and want to make sure the SEO we have established won’t be completely wiped away.
Also a general questions about establishing a voice in a company blog. Besides company updates and article content, do you think a companies blog should establish their own personal voice as well? On topics like industry related meet ups on a more casual note to allow readers to get to know the members of the team better and develop a more personal relationship with them and the company. What do you think?
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Thank you, Chris, for all of the information that you send out. Being a beginner to this new world, I find it overwhelming sometimes but I just keep taking baby steps and reading your blog to find my way.
I found this article very helpful and will break it down and utilize it to improve my experience with the “blog” world.
Are you planning any events in Atlanta?
Isn’t blog reading a form of entertainment?
Thus blogging is entertainment business and then the entertainment rules apply (whatever they are).
Entertain, bring emotion to your audience.
The main problem is to attire the right audience.
Hey Chris…
Funny, I was about to give you a call with a questions that was answered in this post. Good timing :-)
–MT
Chris… .in the “Promoting Your Blog” section, dont forget - you can seek out media coverage for your blog. Doing so amplifies your blog, builds your brand and increases traffic.
Chris - I’m just starting out and find your advice totally invaluable. There’s so much that can be done and I find it reassuring to refer to your checklists and to follow your advice. Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks for the tips Chris. I’ve been blogging personally for years and am just now working on starting a professional blog. I have enjoyed catching up on your blog and am looking forward to journeying with you through the always changing times and trends.
I’m new to blogging and got started with blogger. I spent all yesterday switching to wordpress.com because I loved this post, only to find out I can’t use plugins unless I understand servers and mysql :( All that to go back to blogger. I suppose with a bunch more reading I’ll figure out how to install the Wordpress software somewhere, but until then, I’m back to my free platform that enables tools like sharethis and feeds.
Now if only I could focus my content ;)
I’ve printed out your list and committed to achieving every one. Will be good base material to discuss on my blog for female entrepreneurs. Great stuff. Thank you.
Vicki Flaugher
follow me at http://twitter.com/smartwoman
Thank you for your posting, Chris.
I think you stated many useful tips. In my opinion it is very important that you define your blog and that you really want and enjoy the writing you do in order to perform well.
However, my biggest problem is the definition part, because without a clear definition of the goals you want to reach and the audience you want to adress, you cannot apply any of your tips. My blog was initally a birthday present from my brother because he knows I can write quite well and that I am a creative person. So I started writing about personal topics and then mainly about journeys I did, but as you said “No one loves someone who talks about themselves all the time”, I am desperately looking for a way to adjust my blog, to find an interesting and enjoyable topic to write about. That is not as easy as it seems, because I think if you once decided what to write about (e.g. medical field or media or customer advice or traveling) you should stick with it.
Greetings,
Lexy
Wow Chris, this is a great post! Each point you list is valid and as such should definitely be considered by any blog owner.
This is a great refresher for anyone to return to in keeping with their blogging efforts.
Chris,
Many thanks for this fantastic list. I appreciate your assistance in curing me of my blog envy when visiting blogs like yours and helping me to identify ways to improve my own. So many useful nuggets here; I’m inspired to put some of them into action right away.
Irene
Another great list. Your lists are a great combination of things I intuitively know but need to be reminded of and really interesting perspectives that I hadn’t thought of yet. Thanks for the effort you’re putting in. Also, i’m pretty shocked that half of your subscribers get your feed via email. I don’t even know what to make of that. i’d think way more would be via RSS. I’d love to see you write a post about the psychology behind the fact that half of the people who subscribe to your tech-focused blog use what many consider to be an inefficient even outdated subscription method. Or am I being too close-minded about email subscriptions?
Great list of tips. :)
This was such a great help and inspiration to me. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom here, for those of us who run successful blogs, but want OUTSTANDING ones!
Great list Chris. Glad you mentioned blog design. Its importance is often overlooked and under estimated. If you aren’t sure about your goals in the beginning try 2 or 3 until niches until you know which is for you.
Chris, this is handsdown the BEST blog about blogging I have read anywhere on the web thus far!! You have hit upon so many topics it’s almost like “where do I begin” I will be doing a systematic implementation of quite a few of your ideas. New bloggers like me are intimidated by this whole “blogosphere” lol.
One thing I have noticed is that if you have a business website with a linked blog, most of those authors wite concise blogs with information tidbits and lots of pictures. Visually stimulating.
Anyway, keep up the great work.
These are all great tips. We need to keep in mind that we need to provide value to our readers.
@Jeoen de Miranda, a disadvantage of hosting your own blog is that you have to do the WordPress upgrades yourself.
However, if you use a blog hosting company, a complaint can shut you down.
If you are using your own domain name (and you should be), then a host change won’t make any difference in your page rank or other SEO factors.
Craig:
Seeing as nobody else responded to you yet, my take is a company blog should be a group effort and not the voice of one person. That’s where your question about voices comes into play.
Also, keep in mind SEO is not just about blogs but websites too.
It is the first article which I have read completely from top to bottom after many months..thanks great