To my own understanding, the reason why only few bloggers succeed is simply because they know how to blog and how not to blog. After seeing and reading other blogs out there from the pro bloggers, they equally know the ones to take and the ones to trash. In other words….. They know which pro blogging tips to listen to.
One thing that most bloggers fail to understand is that change is constant; this means that what works few years ago might not be working again today and what is working now might also not work tomorrow. Therefore with this in mind, it’s very important that you always pay attention to what is and what is not working for you from time to time. In this post, I want to share with you………
5 Pro Blogging Tips you Should Trash now.
1. Write Epic Shit:
We always fail to understand the true meaning of this… Writing epic shit doesn’t really mean you should write a perfect copy.
It simply means you should just write. Create content that really conveys your message, you don’t need to run after perfection every time, remember this……
“ALWAYS SETTLE FOR GOOD AND DON’T KEEP CHASING BEST ELSE, YOU WILL BE RUNNING FOR A LIFE TIME”.
Moreover in this crowded blogosphere, I doubt if there is any topic that has not been written before. The ONLY way to writing epic shit is to find and solve your reader’s problems and doing it consistently.
Most pro blogging tips goes this way; focus more on creating high quality contents to make your blog go viral.
But do you think it’s really the truth when almost every blogger out there is creating good content on their blogs. How can differentiate yourself then?
How can you make your blog go viral when no one knows that your blog even exists?
No doubt, there’re thousands of readers out there waiting to read quality content. But you’ll get their attention only when you reach out to them where they’re already gathering. You need to focus on building a brand and network around your blog to make your content go viral.
Without having a smart content marketing strategy, you really can’t make your blog posts getting more visibility and attention.
If you must make a successful blog, you must be very ready to network with others. You can’t drag people to your blog by just having great blog content alone, you must first go out there and invite them after which they will become your fans and readers to read & spread your content. So build a thriving network around your blog along with the content creation.
How can you be everywhere?
- Use blog commenting
- Guest blogging
- Video marketing
- Forum discussions
- Conduct interviews
- Podcasting etc
2. Post Daily
Yes, I agree, posting daily works, but can you keep to it? From my own experience, its not very easy to post on daily basis especially when you have more than one blog or when you have another job you’re doing.
My advice is this, if you know you can really publish a blog post everyday on your blog without missing it, then its good but if not, it’s better to stick to a posting schedule that you know you can maintain. I posts twice a week here on TBC, that’s on Mondays and Thursdays precisely because I know I can maintain it.
If you start posting on daily basis, time will come when you won’t have the time or the strength to post and that might result to you losing some of your readers because they will assume you’re getting unserious.
Moreover, instead of posting crappy shits on your blog on daily basis just because you have to post, why not take your time and write something good ones in a while?
Therefore, post only when it becomes useful and worth bookmarking. Remember that no post can ruin your reputation than a worst crappy post.
3. Be the first to comment on top blogs to bring more traffic
Is that what you think?
Truth be told, blog commenting won’t bring you much traffic. Blog commenting used to be a traffic generating machine back in the days, but not anymore! Most online people have less span attention; they always prefer skimming through the blog contents. You will rarely notice people reading blog comments on other blogs.
Should you stop blog commenting then?
No… I didn’t say so
Always leave interesting comments on other blogs to provide some value. The main reason why you should comment in the first place is to build relationship with the blogger. Therefore, share your views and thoughts, spend some time to read and comment on the post.
The truth is that 90 out of 100 people will notice if you leave an attention grabbing comments. That is the only way some of them can visit your own blog to check out what you have there.
So always spend some time to leave insightful comments on other blogs. Share your thoughts and experiences; ask questions to the author – this way you can build better relationships with other bloggers by using the power of blog comments.
4. Write for the people not for robots
Don’t ever pay much attention to this. You must need search engines help to make your blog posts get more targeted traffic.
Your readers are important and should be your number one focus, that’s true. But you should also focus on optimizing the content for search engines to get more and targeted traffic your sites.
My advice is simply to write for both. Write for readers, optimize for search engines. You don’t need to stuff your posts with keyword too.
The secret of getting organic traffic flowing to your sites is to first find the potential keywords you want to use before writing even a single word on your posts.
Instead of focusing on short tail keywords like ‘blogging tips’, you can rank better for the long tail keywords like ‘pro blogging tips for beginners’
Ensure your headline carries the potential keyword, followed by sub heads and image alt tags. For a beginner, it’s always better to learn SEO basics.
5. Build Relationship with Already Established Bloggers.
I use to believe this before but not anymore. The truth is that it’s actually good to visit pro bloggers in order to learn more things, but that shouldn’t be your main focus.
If you want to build your blog fast, you must first start networking with bloggers that are somehow on the same level with you. Those big fishes in the industry no longer pay much attention to those that are still growing. People like John Chow, Brian Clack and many of them.
The funny part is that, even when you visit there blog and after reading their post and then comment asking some questions that you really need an answer to, they will hardly reply you. This is because they are already big and they are no longer aiming at building relationships.
But if it were another beginner’s blog that you comment, they will always come back and reply you knowing that they need those relationships. Why not pay more attention to them?
Finally, there are millions if not billions of blogs out there today that says different things, but my advice is to always think and analyze whatever advice you read on those blogs even from my own before taking your decision on what to do remember, you have the final say.
7. Over to you:
What other pro blogging tips do you think is not worthy of our attention? Please share your thoughts with us.
Also remember to share this post with your friends if you enjoyed it.
HAPPY WEEKEND.
Photo Credit: Freedigitalphotos.net
Siegfried says
hi Theodore!
I totally agree to all the points – I used to worry a lot about all these things but… not sure if it really matters 😀
Theodore Nwangene says
It doesn’t really matter at all Siegfried,
Just follow what you like and what you know works for you.
Thanks for coming and happy weekend.
Srikanth says
Hi Theodore,
i have read each and every line and came to know that blogging is not so easy thing to Practice !! It requires so much Patience and so much Knowledge to start a blog!! keeping this tips will make the really a succesful!!
Theodore Nwangene says
You’re very correct Srikanth,
Blogging is never an easy task, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes for you.
Thanks for the visit man.
Sapna says
HI Theodore,
Great post!
The day I started thinking less of these 5 points mentioned, the life has really become cool and I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I’ve started worrying less about writing an epic sh.t. I write what I enjoy.
Since I don’t want to stress out, I have started posting once a week because there are other set priorities, now blogging is more for passion and not for money.
I’ve seen many blogs getting closed down or not being updated, the reason being very clear, they might have got something which is better than blogging for them.
Thanks Theodore for sharing this.
Sapna
Theodore Nwangene says
I’m with you Sapna,
I will soon start posting ones per week too because there are other sites i need to look at also as well as my school stuffs.
I’m happy you’ve also realized that most of those advice out there are fake. Good luck my friend.
Koj T. Tajo says
Theodre, Wonderful post! I too have been suggested many times that have network with established bloggers but I have never accepted that tips. In-fact I believe if we start thinking that way, we are sure to lose much of our traffic which comes as new bloggers. And I would love to have network with you. You see, I’ll just keep coming back. Keep blogging always.
Theodore Nwangene says
Hi Koj,
Thanks again for visiting me again, i really appreciate that. Those big guys out there don’t even care to know we exist at all.
So lets team up and start promoting ourselves there.
You are always welcome here and don’t hesitate to ask for my help if you need it.
Thanks.
Koj T. Tajo says
Ofcourse, I too would love to team up with you. So nice of you to offer me help. I would seek for that. You are becoming my fav 🙂 . Super luck to TBC.
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks Koj,
Really honored to your fav, lets succeed together men.
Jennifer Cunningham says
You are so right. I run out of time trying to post 4-5 times a week. But I would feel better if I only posted less frequently. I like commenting on others’s blog but I don’t like it when they don’t visit me or worse send me that automatic email. When I get one of those I do not visit that site again.
Theodore Nwangene says
I agree with you Jenni,
Those automatic emails can really be annoying and i hate it too. I don’t see the reason why they should not visit you ones you have a good comment.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to visit my blog Jenni, really appreciate.
BTW: Jenni, maybe you did not add your blog URL here, your name is not clickable, are you sure thats not why they don’t visit you?
Harleena Singh says
Hi Theodore,
Couldn’t agree more to what you wrote, something I too believe in. 🙂
Oh yes…just write what you feel is right, and for your readers, but as you mentioned, to be visible – you need to write for the search engines too, or else you aren’t going to get noticed. It works best to have a perfect combination of both, and am sure whatever we write we would keep our readers in mind (I hope most people do this, though those who really write for the search engines only – are far from our types!)
I would never post daily, even if I had the time because it’s not something I believe in, and it does get taxing too. Like you, I also post twice weekly, though a year back I used to post once a week but when I knew I could handle it – I started twice a week. I did think of the most common days – Monday’s & Thursdays, when most bloggers post – but then thought with so many posts getting online those days its better to choose Tuesdays & Fridays – why tax people more on Mondays and Thursdays. I guess if we do have that extra time and want to post daily, we should instead use it for building relationships with others or working more towards our blog, instead of just putting up anything and everything daily.
Ah…blog commenting. It does work well only if you are able to leave valuable and wholesome comments, something that others might read and click, and you might get a few visitors from where you left your comment, or else I don’t think it really works any longer. Even otherwise, I feel when you are reading a blog and leaving a comment, it should be meaningful and a way to converse with the person who has taken pains to write the post too- it’s the least a commenter can do! And yes, CommentLuv helps as you can see the links people leave that might be of interest to you and visit their blogs.
I totally agree with building relationships with top bloggers – it doesn’t work. They really have no time I guess, or even if they did, I think they are already established and wouldn’t really bother to reply to you, which I find rather sad in-fact. Speaking of myself, I don’t think I could ever do such a thing, no matter how big a blogger I might become (if at all;)
Thanks for sharing a wonderful post. Have a great weekend as well. 🙂
Theodore Nwangene says
Well said Harleena,
I know that if you continue the way you’re doing over at your blog, you will soon become a very great and go-to blogger.
And i believe you won’t start ignoring your readers then as other are doing. I agree with you that you can only get some few visits from a blog if you leave a very good comment just like the one you always leave here and the other blogs you visits.
When it comes to commenting, i know you’re very good at it.
Instead of going after those big fishes that don’t even know we exist, why don’t we start promoting our selves.
Thanks for coming Harleena, you’re a darling.
Harleena Singh says
Aha…I am flying on cloud 9 now. 🙂
Theodore Nwangene says
Hahaha Harleena,
You better hold yourself so that you won’t fall…haha
Dan Black says
All great points! I totally agree with you about not needing to blog everyday. I personally know I would not be able to maintain great content if I posts more content each week. I think especially for the new bloggers it has the potential to lead to the person burning out and then quieting all together. I have heard many times people tell me “I’m going to blog every day” or “I’m going to be consistent in my posts” then a month or two later they have stopped writing and I never hear from them again.
Theodore Nwangene says
I agree with you Dan,
Instead of posting useless posts daily, why not cool down, take your time and post what will interest your readers.
Its not just about posting, its about posting what you know your readers will like to read.
Thanks for coming too man.
Dan Black says
The post should add value to our readers and be ones they want to read. I always enjoy reading your posts!
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for the compliments Dan,
Really appreciates
Evan says
Umm.. sorry, maybe i will look like complete noob but i didn’t get how come the first comment on the blog post will lead more traffic& O_o
Theodore Nwangene says
Hi Eva,
It can really happen if your comment is good enough to grab attention.
Video Production says
A single point I just would like to say is the fact your Blog is so ideal valuable for us.
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks,
But remember to use your real name next time.
Enstine Muki says
These are important tips Theodore!
What I can’t stand now is writing daily. I try to post 3 times a week. This gives me time to promote the articles and engage with my readers. You must be doing full time blogging to be able to write daily.
Yes, it’s not just building relationships but you have to hook up with already established bloggers. Don’t also neglect the young beginners too. We need both vertical and horizontal relationships.
Thanks for putting up value bro. Hope you have a splendid weekend overthere
Theodore Nwangene says
Yea my man,
I’ve started enjoying my weekend already. Writing blog post on daily basis is never easy at all, i was doing it when i started but it started taking much of my time, so i have to minimize it.
Thanks for coming bro, do enjoy your weekend too.
Mosam Gor says
Hi…Theodore,
Great Share!!
yes, you are right Write for the people or your Loyal readers not for robots! 🙂
Thanks or this Nice Post.
Mosam
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for visiting my blog today Mosam,
And yes, i really appreciate your comment too. Hope to see you again.
Babanature says
Hello Theodore,
Do you know when i first started blogging i post every single day? yes! i love blogging and i can write just about anything without running out of idea. But the more i write the lesser comments i get. so after reading a post on getting more comments, i stopped posting regularly and start posting twice a week.
when i write, i don’t put the audience in mind because when you start impressing someone else that’ll be your starting point of your downfall but i do make it to have meaning and i try as much to reach out to all my readers with my post.
Connection is the main key to a successful blog. Thanks for tis lovely post and do have a great weekend
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for stopping by Babanature,
Posting everyday is never a good idea as your readers might even become tired of reading your blog posts alone. Thanks for coming bro and also enjoy your weekend.
HP van Duuren says
Yes, for what positing daily is concerned, it doesn’t seem to be the best guarantee for getting really Inspired Posts,
When you post a little less frequent, you can also make your posts
more – Exclusive –
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for coming dear,
Is that your real name?
HP van Duuren says
Yes, not only my content is exclusive, even my name is a little – Exclusive – 🙂
Adrienne says
Hey Theodore,
I had a guest blogger this past January write a fabulous post for me and one of the things she shared was to disregard the epic stuff. That puts way too much pressure on people to write great stuff when all you need to do is just write from the heart in your own words about something people want to know about. If it can solve a problem of theirs then that’s epic enough. I can’t stand that word anyway.
The post daily myth is something I get upset with as well. Sure, if you have a new blog and you just want to get some good content up then write everyday for the first 30 days but don’t beat yourself up. I also see people writing lots of content when they’re trying to reduce their Alexa ranking. What they don’t realize I guess is as soon as you stop it’s going right back up. You can’t keep that up for long.
I’ve heard that too about being the first to comment and I’ve NEVER been first for most of the blogs I visit only because I have to answer all of mine first before I can make my rounds so I’m usually way down on the list. Hey, I still read the comments though and I’m also still seen by others.
I get what you’re saying about writing for the people and the search engines. If there are certain keywords you want to go after then sure, get them spread throughout your content but it’s going to make more “sense” to write for the people even if you are using keywords. Writing for the robots will get you nowhere quick.
I’ve never had any luck with any of the big named bloggers. They could care less about the little guy or even a lot of the up and coming bloggers unless they’ve bought something or are in their coaching programs. Then they might actually pay attention to you but trust me, it will only be if you can benefit them. I so agree with this one.
I was skeptical about this post when I read the title but after reading through it I definitely agree with what you’ve shared. Great job.
Hey, have a great weekend yourself okay!
~Adrienne
Theodore Nwangene says
I will call this one an advance comment Adrienne,
Its even good enough to make one blog post. And yes, i remembered that post on your blog about the epic stuff in fact, i wanted to link to it but couldn’t locate it.
Its very good to write for the people as you said, but what i meant is that you should also do the necessary things that will also give you some search engine traffic.
If you ask me, i will say lets start caring less about those big guys as they don’t equally care about us unless as you said, we belong to any of there memberships.
You’ve really covered a lot on your comment Adrienne and I’m very happy you agree with the post.
Have a blissful weekend too.
Sue Neal says
Great advice, Theodore – particularly the one about posting every day. To be honest, you could wear your readers out if you do that, apart from the fact that it would be very difficult to produce a great post on a daily basis. I think posting regularly is more important than posting that frequently.
I love posts like this that make us challenge the conventional wisdom – you’ve made some excellent points – nice one!
Sue
Theodore Nwangene says
Hi Sue,
So happy to have you here again. I agree with you, there are many blogs i no longer visit because of the way they post. I’m glad you like the post. Thanks for coming
Kharim Tomlinson says
I agree with this post man.
Especially the part about blog commenting. Yes blog commenting used to bring in tons of traffic back then, but now it will bring in a few.
So being first to comment on a top blogger’s blog isn’t working as it did back in the days.
Awesome post and thanks for the other tips provided.
Kharim Tomlinson says
I agree with this post man.
Especially the part about blog commenting. Yes blog commenting used to bring in tons of traffic back then, but now it will bring in a few.
So being first to comment on a top blogger’s blog isn’t working as it did back in the days.
Awesome post and thanks for the other tips provided.
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for coming to my blog Kharim,
You can say that again, blog commenting is really not for traffic anymore. Its simply to build relationships. Thanks for leaving your awesome comment man.
Astro Gremlin says
Hooray! The emperor has no clothes and you nailed it. Writing epic shit and not attending to SEO? You might as well print out your blog and file it under “Unread Brilliant Material.” Alas, commenting used to build links which were signals to Google that your URL was relevant. I still do it, and I try to leave meaningful comments. It makes blogging friends, since I never blow sunshine but do leave sincere appreciation. Writers like that. 🙂
Theodore Nwangene says
Thanks for coming to my site Astro and i really appreciate your candid opinion.
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Lala Johnson says
Thank for the great value!
Another tip you might through to the trash: focus on one single niche to build an audience.
it is a good thing to have niche of course and build an audience that will always comes back to you on a particular subject. But you have to write with passion (from the hart) and someways you may feel more passionate about some topics more than others. You should then just go for it and with time you will build a diversified audience that will like you anyway for what you provide.
~lala.
Theodore Nwangene says
Welcome to my blog Lala,
I pretty well understand what you meant here. But that advice might be a good one in some cases. If you’re new to blogging, its always go to focus on a particular niche because targeting multiple niches can lead to a confusion. But if one can actually handle multiple niches without losing focus just like Harleena Singh is doing on her blog, its also good. It all depends on the individual i think? Thanks for stopping by Lala.
Hope you’ll come again.
Mike says
I do agree with your points! Sometimes we try too much to be perfect, rather we should be more focused on trying to develop our own blogs and readership through seeing the ‘real’ us. That is something that I wish more bloggers would touch on.
Theodore Nwangene says
You’ve said it all Mike,
Thanks so much