Effective Blogging 5 Tested Backbone Habits You Need to Know
Effective blogging skills can be learned. In fact, if your goal is to attract more eyeballs on what you have to share, implementing the following 5-backbone habits to effective blogging is a must.
1. Effective Blogging Means Knowing What Is It You Want to Achieve
Effective blogging habits don't just happen. Success is not by accident.
As in all things in life, anything you want to achieve requires planning. Stephen Covey penned, “
Begin with the end in mind.” The same advice applies when mapping out your website blog posts.
Getting started considerations include:
* Can you visualize the target group of readers you want to attract?
* Are you creating value in your blog posts that will attract those readers?
* Are you current with the times, trends, and information the demographic you are after is interested in?
* Do you present a clear call-to-action, next step, or desired outcome in your blog posts?
Each of these questions is important in mapping out what you want to achieve. They are the foundation to effective blogging.
2. Commit to Your Effective Blogging Action Plan
Once you determine what it is you want to achieve through your blog, commit to it. More specifically, commit to the action plan. Stay focused on the purpose of your blog.
Why is staying focused so important?
Success is not by chance. Focusing on a desired result, even if the goal is not perfect, is better than having no goal or direction at all. As the saying goes, “
Bad press is better than no press.” Poorly structured posts targeted to the same audience and focused on the same topic are better than a blog full of unrelated posts.
3. Recognize Your Limitations
Blogging is an art and a skill. The art is the creativity. This is seen through the format of the pages, layout of tabs, naming of categories, color scheme, and other soft touches.
The blog content is the writer’s skill. Is the style intense as in factual reporting like a journalist would write? Or is it more colorful, visual, and flowing like a skilled novelist might compose?
What is important for effective blogging is consistency in how posts are written. This is important because how posts are written attracts different readers.
Recognizing your limitations ties directly to your strengths as the creator and writer of posts. The good news is that it is perfectly okay to use third parties to strengthen content where you are not as talented. That is part of effective blogging.
4. Implement. Implement. Implement!
Effective blogging doesn’t just happen. Nor does attracting a huge number of readers or followers. You need to work at it.
Two suggestions for success include a) follow a template and b) post even when you don’t feel like it.
a) Follow a Template
A web search will point you to many templates for laying out your blog. I suggest you find one that you like or create one based on other blog posts you’ve read.
What is important is to be consistent. Readers become comfortable knowing where to look for current posts, the search button, and so forth. People are creatures of habit. Using the same layout in each post makes it easy for your followers.
b) Post Even When You Don’t Feel Like It
Yes, post even when you don’t feel like it. Implement. Implement. Implement. Consistency is what is important. If your readers know you have new content each Thursday or multiple times a month, they will look for it each Thursday or multiple times a month.
People, readers, are truly creatures of habit. Make it as easy as possible for them to follow you and you will be well rewarded.
5. Recognize and Reward Progress
Speaking of rewards, set targets for your blog.
For example, “
Each week I will publish a new post on Tuesday and Friday.” Then set a reward for yourself. This could be saying “
If I consistently do this for the next two months, I will treat myself to …”
Recognizing your achievements, even if you are a
one-person shop, is important.
Another example of a reward could be for followers. For example, “
When I have 100 followers I will … for me.”
And, if you are marketing products through your blog, you could set a reward for yourself as follows, “
When I achieve xxx sales (or xxx dollars), I will xxx for myself.”
Blogging is a passion for most of us who blog. Even so, it is important that we recognize our achievements.
Last point about recognition, if there is a spouse, partner, or significant other in your life, do not forget that person. As a solopreneur blogger, I know I am not alone when I say most of us spend a lot of time researching and creating content on our own. The people we care about most could be in the very next room, but we may as well be another city. It is important that we recognize them in our successes.
Summary: Effective Blogging 5 Tested Backbone Habits You Need to Know
Effective blogging is easy when you have a strategy. These five tips are the foundation, the backbone, to success.
Start with figuring out what it is you want to achieve. Then commit to a blogging action plan. Recognize that you will have limitations and using third parties is okay. Consistency is important so implement, implement, implement. And, as you achieve success, set targets to recognize and reward your progress.
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