Basic Blogging
The massive world of blogs has moved beyond pseudo-celebrity and fringe appeal. Today every industry takes advantage of the power of blogging, and the ones doing it right are reaping the rewards.
How do you “do it right”? Unfortunately, there’s no one answer, because every industry and every audience brings new obstacles and expectations. However, a few blogging basics prove almost universally true.
The Web 2.0 Philosophy
Before you write one word, you have to accept one thing: blogs exist to serve the readers.
The Web 2.0 Philosophy suggests that serving your readers in a spirit of sharing and goodwill before serving yourself will see you rewarded with a positive online reputation that you can harness towards your goal, most often increased revenue. Think of it like this: a good blog is about giving your readers what they want, not tricking them into giving you what you want.
Writing Content
Whenever someone around the office asks me for basic blogging advice, I always start at the same place: personality. A good blog has got to have personality. Nothing is a bigger turn-off than getting bogged down in the formality of information. Don’t fret over the marketing message, don’t try to be “the company” – just be yourself! Write from your own perspective, offer your own opinions, be a person. That’s the only way you’ll keep them coming back.
Community Building
Sometimes great content just isn’t enough. If you want the readers, you have to go out and get them. A hard working blogger builds his or her readership by participating in the blog community. Often that means finding similar blogs and posting relevant, worthwhile comments (including links back of course). This is no quick solution. Proper community building takes time and a high tolerance for failure. But with effort, you will begin to develop a reputation within your market, and that leads to traffic.
Whet your Appetite?
This article is a sample from a larger piece on blogging basics hosted on our own flagship blog, USA Travel Guide. For more tips on the subjects listed above as well as Social Bookmarking and Link Baiting, read the full article here.
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Content should be the number priority when doing blogs and internet marketing. It’s a surefire way of driving more traffic to your site since people would be very much interested in reading your posts. Then everyone and everything else will follow.