Blogging Quick Tip: Keep Your Blog Audience Interested

What do you see for your blog? Sometimes we get so caught up in searching for the next best marketing tool, and forget all about the tried and true. Sure there are brand new marketing techniques that boost traffic and put your name out there, but it's ultimately up to you to create a buzz and generate hype. Traffic spikes may not do you any good unless you've got a great blog going, or are giving out some awesome information. But some blogs need some old school help, and using some of techniques of old really come in handy. You are your ultimate buziness card, and your blog is your product.

Let's take a moment to examine a common blogging blogging mistake:

Attempting to use mystery and enticement to draw in your visitors, and never revealing your true secrets will keep visitors coming, and keep them interested, as long as you give them enough to keep them hooked.

This might work if you're Yaro Starak, but not if you're just starting out. It sounds good in theory, and if you are a very established, highly respected blogger it just might keep people coming in, but even Yaro gives out plenty of brilliant marketing techniques, blogging tips, traffic building methods, and ideas that can help any blogger rise above ground level. Even if you have already exposed some of your best information, you can still use that as your selling point for your blog, highlighting your best work by frequently referring and linking to it from other posts or pages, including from your sidebar links.

Word Counting Basics

Worried about the word count of your current writing projects? Here are some helpful basics on word counts. This "rule-of-thumb" guideline can help you stick to the generally accepted word count range for a particular writing category:

• Blog Posts: 150 to 500 words
• Online Articles: 350 to 1500 words
• Printed Articles (such as news or magazines): 1000 to 15,000 words
• Short Stories: 1500 to 30,000 words
• Novellas: 30,000 to 50,000 words
• Novels: 55,000 to 100,000 words OR Roughly 300 pages of double-spaced typed copy

Online, success is often measured by the number of readers a particular site has. Readership is not only affected by the usefulness of the information, but also by the length of the posts. If they are too short - they may lack either entertainment value, or be too brief to be useful or informative.

In the offline publishing world, a submission that falls outside of the accepted word count range can result in your hard work never even being read. Approximately one third of the novels received by publishers and agencies are rejected simply for being either too long or too short. Novels over 100,000 are costlier to the publisher and the agent, and are therefore come with a greater risk.

Useful Tip:
Don't worry or pay close attention to the word count of your first draft. Allow the story to flow naturally, and without interruption. When revising your draft, be more conscious of the word count, tightening up the text in some areas or elaborating in others, as needed. But don't completely delete or destroy any portions of the story you cut out, either. These tidbits can be useful in creating other stories or sequels, later!

How to Write an Article You Can Sell

Selling an article can be a little tough if you're relatively new to the field of paid writing. Starting with a layout that works for most of your articles can save you time and energy, and increase your productivity throughout the day.

Popular Article Types
Depending on the criteria of the particular articles you write, and where they will appear, you may find that you are asked to write articles that fall in to the following categories: About, How To, What Is, Facts, How it Works, or Lists of information and sources.

Structure
Develop a precise method to writing each type of article you will be selling, and even create a template that you can use each time, with defined areas for information. Use the structure that you create - each and every time you write that type of article. This is where most of your time will be spent.

Forward Moving Text
Write each paragraph so that it leads into the next paragraph. Avoid stringing your reader along in hopes of keeping them interested. The readers' time is valuable, and they want to get straight to the point. Since most people "skim" the page, looking for useful information, be sure to highlight each section with a relevant heading.

Research
Use several resources to verify the information you are presenting in your articles. Take notes using pencil and paper, rather than with a word processor, which will help you to avoid the temptation to "copy and paste" someone else's work. Your research is to help back up the information in your article only, not where you should get your words.

Resources
Provide resources that provide additional reading that may be of interest to your readers, or that further explain the process or information in your article. Use citations and quotes minimally, providing resources whenever possible.

Rewriting and Renewing
Read through some of the articles you may have in your archives. You may find that by using your newly created structure, you are able you write new articles based on research you used in previous articles. Writing articles that are similar, but cover a different aspect of a subject can be a great way of saving time on research, and provide some additional resources for rewrites, or updating old articles with newly researched facts.

Using Structure Over Time
Using a structured method will help you to develop a pattern to your writing, and eventually a style that defines you, no matter what the subject matter is. Your interest in certain details when researching will influence the direction your articles take, and a predetermined structure will help you stick to the topic throughout your article.

The Decision to Write Online or Publish a Book Traditionally

I am continually amazed to see how many writers and authors are turning to blogging as a literary outlet. For many years, I have known many people who say they have a book ready to be written, a lot of people who say they have already started writing their book, a few who have written a lot down and have a few books written, but nothing published - but only a couple who have actually accomplished the goal of becoming a published author.

At the same time, I have watched many of these very people make the switch from the monumental and often unsuccessful traditional publishing route - to the self-publishing power of the Internet. Most recently, this is taking place in the form of blogs, and suddenly everyone is a writer. The days of waiting months to hear form a publishing company while your sweat and tears lie in a pile of dusty manuscripts are gone. No more paying thousands of dollars to have your book published while you strip yourself of your ethics and dignity, and still get nowhere.

While this may sound like an open-invitation to flood the Internet with your ramblings, it's actually intended to be an inspirational tidbit to encourage you to look deep within yourself and decide whether you're ready to start now - or wait to write that book until you . . . perhaps don't even write it? Procrastination will get you nowhere, my friends.

While many people are worried about plagiarism and scraping, plagiarizers and scrapers are also looking to non-internet and tangible forms of literature to take from, in order to prevent detection. If you decide to brave the web, and whether you decide to blog your book one chapter at a time, or write informative posts or articles, just get writing! Keep your wheels turning, your gears oiled, and be inspired. Don't bury your talents any long, just do it. Write something!

Dispelling Myths about Blog Post Frequency

Sorting through all the "post frequency" garbage on the web can be a little confusing, and sometimes discouraging. But knowing how often to post on your blog could give you an edge over your competition, even if you are posting less frequently than they are. While frequent posts and mass content may have helped boost traffic and search engine visibility in the early days of blogging, web-clutter is piling up fast, and making it more difficult to find valuable sources of information on the net.

MYTH: Frequent posting will increase blog traffic and RSS subscriptions.

TRUTH: Regularly appearing posts can make it easier for readers to know how often to check your blog for new content. It also allows search engines to determine how often to crawl your site. But with an increasingly high number of readers turning to RSS feeds, too many posts bombard your subscribers, causing even loyal readers to unsubscribe!

MYTH: Daily posts are what readers want.

TRUTH: Readers want to spend their time reading quality content, juicy tid-bits, useful information, or something that specifically sparks their interest. Most successful bloggers agree that the usefulness or value of the post is much more important than the frequency. Too many new bloggers quit after just a few months, or sooner. All of these brief little posts are accumulating in the blogosphere - creating a veritable blogging landfill within the search engines. Cut down on the clutter that is clogging up the lines of communication. I'm not implying that we lobby for a virtual-green blogging ecosystem - just suggesting we all use a bit of common sense.

MYTH: Short frequent posts are better than long articles posted less frequently.

TRUTH: Unless you can string together a handful of words to brilliantly convey your point, providing your audience with something of value in just a few sentences, you may do well to avoid short frequent posting. Remember what grandma used to say - if you don't have anything nice to say . . ? Well let's put a web 2.0 spin on that old saying:

"If you don't have anything useful or valuable to post - don't post anything at all."

Restrain Yourself!

Frequent posting is (in part) what fuels low-quality posts. As a blogger, you could very well downgrade the quality of your entire blog if you allow the pressure of frequent posting get to you. It is best to take a fair amount of time researching your information and providing useful and valuable information to your readers.

How often you post is of less importance than the quality of your posts. If you have something valuable and useful to say - post it, regardless of how often you post. Articles and posts that are timeless (meaning they will still be valuable next week - or next year) will continue to draw attention long after they have been posted. Posting too frequently could bury some of your more useful posts in your archives, and new visitors may never take the time to find the value in your blog. But when each and every post adds more value to your blog, it invites multiple page views, repeat visits, and loyal readers who eagerly await your next post.

The Untold Story of How the Three Little Pigs Built Their Blogs

Learn From the Mistakes of Others

Well, as we all know - learning from your mistakes saves you the time and hardship of making them again. But two of the three little pigs didn't seem to learn much from their ordeal with the big bad wolf. I don't know if you ever knew the names of the three pigs, but the one who built his house out of straw - that was Gary. Larry was the one who built his house out of twigs, and George, well - he built his home out of bricks.

Keeping Up with the Jones's

All three pigs moved from wolf's territory just after he huffed, and puffed, and blew two of their houses down. They moved out near the old information highway, which is far away from the big bad wolf. The three little pigs moved into a new neighborhood called the Web, which is now almost entirely dominated and powered by Ooogle. But the pigs weren't intimidated by Ooogle's laws of the land, and each had a plan to become part of the blogging community.

Their new neighbors, the Jones family, said that almost everyone in the community has recently redesigned using the Web 2.0 model - and the pigs just had to keep up with the Jones's.
Each of them quickly began to build their blogs, each with different types of blogging platforms, different types of writing styles, and offered very different information on their blogs.

Gary's Blog Was Build from Straw

Gary actually built a pretty nice blog. The design was clean and simple, he had decent content, but his approach to getting more traffic was a little weak. Basically he just submitted to a few blog directories, trying to avoid dealing with Ooogle and the laws of the land. He sat, and he sat, waiting for visitors - but they didn't come. His traffic was close to zero, and Ooogle completely ignored his blog. He thought he could be doing more, but he didn't really know what to do. Gary would have to learn a little more about building traffic and becoming a part of the community before his blog would have the strength to stand up to Ooogle. Gary's blog fizzled.

Larry Built His Blog from Twigs

Larry wanted to build his blog quickly, so he used articles that he had posted on an old website he had. Well, one of Ooogle's laws of the land is that you never post duplicate information, so Larry's used articles quickly got Ooogle's attention. Ooogle banned him from the query results page, saying he posted duplicated information. Larry's blog fizzled.

George Gained Success through His Blog Built of Bricks

George bought his own domain right away, that way people would take him more seriously as a member of the community. He started out with great content to begin with, and often participated in discussions in forums and joining conversations by leaving insightful comments and sharing useful information on relevant blogs. He even gave away some great information for free. George's blog sizzled! Within just a few weeks, he had his first few visitors, and some even left comments! He commented back, and he visited the sites of those who left comments - leaving a comment for them as well. He was invited to guest blog on a popular blog, and a few of his posts were pretty hot on Digg! He was well on his way to becoming a valuable member of the community, offering useful information to his readers.

The Traffic Formula

Traffic, just like any other measure of success, is the fruition of the hard work and dedication you have put into your blog. If you don’t already have a steady flow of traffic, whether it’s five visitors a day or five-thousand, then you probably aren’t taking the proper combination of steps (or enough of the proper steps) to help people find your blog and take interest in what you have to say.

Quality Content

Basically, the successful traffic equation is simple:

Quality Content + Community Participation = Traffic

This is probably the most important factor when considering your traffic flow. As far as new visitors are concerned, if you don’t offer valuable information within the first 30-seconds of their visit – you’ve lost them. Furthermore, if your layout is confusing, or if your information is outdated, they might leave without reading the great information you offer. The combination of quality content and a good site layout is the proper foundation for a successful blog, and a growing readership.
As debates between the journalism community and the blogging community heat up, there is a more intense expectation of bloggers to produce quality content. Even if you are blogging about Aunt Martha’s favorite recipes, your information could either be jam-packed with useful information – or you could rattle on for paragraphs about nothing but her cat. But if readers are expecting to get a few great recipes from that aunt they never had and are instead pummeled with countless anecdotes about Fluffy – they’ll leave. They probably won’t even stick around long enough to find those delicious recipes – and certainly won’t be book-marking your blog!

Community Participation

Once you have a decent amount of information put together in an organized fashion, you’re ready to get out and socialize! That’s right – in order to build blog traffic in the quickly-evolving web 2.0 world of today, you’ve got to get out and join the blog party. This means joining social networks, forums, community memberships, and commenting within your niche. Find others that have blogs in complimentary subjects, and leave comments that offer value to the conversation. You’ll find that leaving useful and informative comments on highly-visible blogs can turn out to be a wonderful source of traffic.

On that same note, if you participate in community forums, you will find that by sharing valuable information within that community can help seat you in a position of “authority” within your particular niche. Basically, it’s a game of social survival – just like high-school, but in this game the goal is not only to become popular, but to become viewed as an authority in your niche. You want to get people talking about you, and what you have to say. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people open their posts with, “I was just reading an article by Darren on ProBlogger”. I’m starting to wonder if the guy could just write 10 words about chocolate – and people would actually believe that there was a blogging lesson in those 10 words that they learned by visiting ProBlogger that day.
That’s the power of becoming an authority within your niche.

Three Things You Can Do to Improve Your Blog

Improve the Look and Feel of Your Layout

• Organize and De-Clutter - Get rid of widgets and buttons that do not offer anything to your reader, or to you. Eliminate anything that causes a "cluttered" look, or is distracting. smooth out the appearance, align the sidebars and contents in a way that creates a "clean" look and fresh feel.
• Create Usability - place common objects in a place that is to be expected. people will look for certain things to be in a certain area, and readers will appreciate being able to find these things easily. Thanks for the tips, Skellie!
• Add - Elements, colors and pictures - in a non-distracting way, of course. Think of it as a sort of eye-candy, or entertainment for the eyes that keeps your reader interested. Plain text can appear boring and blah when you have been on a site for a while. If you want your readers to continue reading and viewing your content, you'll need a little flair and style!

Increase Traffic

• Build Links - Using link building techniques such as comments, blog submissions, community forums and deep linking will help to build your blog traffic, increase traffic through search engines, and help build credibility for you as a blogger.
• Social Networking - Social networks and social media are extremely useful if your content is able to generate a buzz.

Improve Your Content

• What You Offer - Consider the usefulness of the information you offer
• Provide Resources - In doing so, you earn the opportunity to become recognized as a resource, and you yourself may ending up an expert in your niche.
• Avoid - Stay away from writing styles that could confuse or distract the reader. If you have bad writing habits that prevent readers from understanding your point, you'll quickly lose any potential readers.
• Create Usability - User-friendly, easy to read information. Create content that is laid out in a way that is easy to understand, and readers know you have a point. Their time is valuable, and your content should convey to the reader that there is something of value that you have to offer. If your posts are long and indirect - readers are more likely to get bored and move on.
• Study - Go back and look over past posts. Re-read some of the older ones that you once considered great posts. Compare your writing style and ability to convey your message with now - and see how you've grown or changed as a writer.
• Read - Make sure that you are regularly reading other blogs, whether for inspiration, ideas, commenting opportunities, or simply to learn more about your own niche. Don't get yourself stranded on a blogging island.

Search Phrases and Keywords - A Traffic Building Exercise

Try any number of combinations of a phrase, and see how different the search results returned for each phrase can be. For example, open four individual browser tabs (or windows if necessary).

Google the following phrases:

• hammer tools
• hammers tool
• tool hammers
• tools hammer

When I Googled the four above phrases, I got different results, or the same results in a different order. Without scrolling down on each page, I can already see that MyToolStore came up within the top 5 listed results in all four searches. You can experiment with this using almost any phrase, in almost every search engine, and it will produce the same result - single or plural nouns, as well as the order of your chosen words will have a direct impact on the results returned.

Why should this matter to you? Well, you see . . . your will appear in the search engines much in the same way as the tools and hammers. The average search phrase is about 4 words, and that will also produce more specified results. For example: If you are searching for a hammer, you are likely to also type in what type of hammer you are looking for. If you just typed in hammer, you would get too many unrelated results - but if you typed in "geology hammer" or "rock hammer" your results would be much more specific.

Since your blog will appear in these results as well, or articles that you write, you'll want to use certain keywords and phrases in your writing - naturally, of course. You can easily implement this tactic by replacing words like "it" and "this" with keywords and key phrases that search engines will pick up on. For example: In this article, I have used the following words: blog, blogging, write, and writing – a combined total of nine times so far. (This will increase with the next sentence!) When I ran a search for the word “blog”, the search tool included the word “blogging”. But when I entered in the word “blogging”, it did not pick up on the instances of the word “blog”.

From this simple exercise, you can conclude that the root words are more likely to produce results that include other variations, as long as the spelling of the root word remains intact. For example: “Write” will not bring up results containing the word “writing” because the ‘e’ in vary was replaced with the letter ‘i’ in writing. The more you mention a certain subject in your blog posts or article writing, the easier it will be for search engines pick up on your keywords, and will eventually regard your website or blog as “relevant” to a certain topic.

Stolen Content May Help You Advertise Your Blog through Deep Linking

It’s never comforting to realize that someone has stolen your hard work by ripping off your latest article. But there are some steps you can take to ensure that your blog will receive some healthy advertising through the whole ordeal. Fighting against the article skimmers could be long and fruitless, and could leave you more frustrated than the day you discovered your copy on someone else’s page. But with a little extra effort, those content thieves could be sending you some extra traffic!

The first thing you need to understand is how your article is likely to be used. In most cases, content thieves are skimming articles in order to quickly put together a blog with a seemingly long history. It’s a common scam that sploggers use to fill up their blog archives with well written articles in order to give them what appears to be longevity and “credibility” in their chosen niche. They will typically post your article along with the articles of others onto a blog with no contact information, but usually with all of the original links attached. In fact, you may even discover that by clicking the title link, you are taken to your own blog or site. While it is definitely a bad thing that your name is not included in the byline of your article, you may find a small amount of comfort knowing that the article links to your website.

But you can do even more to promote your site through potentially stolen content – other than just complain. Since it’s become common practice among bloggers to link a related article within a post, you can take comfort knowing that this will help your link building process. But how does this help you? You already know that you can make each and every post on your blog direct readers to other pages on your site, but what you may not realize is that these are deep links. (Deep links are any links that provide a direct route to specific information, without having to navigate through a site from their Home page.) These can be used to your benefit when designing your website, as they will likely appear on the thief’s blog as well. These deep links within your posts will help redirect readers towards your blog, no matter where they find your article.

Breaking News Can Bring Your Blog to the Top 10 in Google

It's not always easy to make it onto the first page of a Google search, but there are a few things that can help boost you up to the top. One of the best examples I can share with you comes from one of my other blogs, Blogging Mt Hood. Most people in the U.S. are familiar with the story that brought my blog to the top - unintentionally.

Since I live in the Mt Hood area of Oregon, I decided it would be fun to blog about the local events, people, places to go, and local news from the locals' point of view. Well, nearly one year ago, three hikers went missing on Mt Hood. When I decided to write about what happened in our local area, the tragic events that took place on the mountain became the very thing that brought my blog to the front page of Google. Because two of those hikers were never found, people continue to search for answers from across the country, and visit my blog to read about it.

While I would certainly hope that there is a more positive news story you are able to follow - I encourage bloggers to include current events in their blog posts. I would even suggest finding out what some of the top search terms are for the day - and if any apply to your niche, then be sure to include it.

Now don't get me wrong, including names like Paris, Lindsay or Britney in your blog may not be the best way to bring visitors to your blog - even if they are in the news a lot. People continue to visit Blogging Mt Hood because the story is relevent to the blog, and they return to read many other blog posts, not just the tragedies. In fact - if you were to use a famous name to bring people to your techie blog - you'll quickly learn that even when people do land on your site due to specific keywords, if they aren't relevent to your blog topic - the visitors will quickly leave.

What's the Difference Between a Blog Post and an Article?

Some blogs are designed to give you brief, but information packed posts several times a day, or even just once a day. Others may offer long articles with detailed information, often posted less often than the alternative. Even still, there are others that combine the two, offering small and regular posts, with a "pillar" article that comes out once a week or so. No matter which style of writing suits you and your readers, quality is always the key to gaining interest in what you are writing about.

There is still some debate over how long a post must be to qualify as an article. I believe that there is some distinction between certain blog posts, and an actual article. A blog post can be any length, and still be considered a blog post. However, there are some posts that are just too short, and lack sufficient information to be considered a full fledged article. They are usually along the lines of a personal notation being shared, or a "Check this out!" type of post, or a summary of ideas put into a brief post, and even the occasional rant. I personally would not consider all of these to be articles.

I worked for Weblogs, Inc for some time, and the "articles" were to be shorter than 400 words. By visiting many of the blogs within Weblogs, Inc - you can clearly see that some people are just putting up a catchy or humorous tid-bit with a few quality links, along with a photo of some sort. Since this was the requirement of working for them, it is the minimum of what most of their bloggers adhere to. I would not consider half of what I read on Weblogs, Inc to be "articles", but rather blog posts. However, if you were to be able to read your favorite magazine online, you would definitely find true articles, written in article form, as would be true with newspapers, etc.

I truly believe there is a difference, however, I agree with you that you should not fill a post with empty words just to consider it an article. All fluff and no fill won't help your blog, nor will it interest readers. Quality posts are important, whether you write brief and to the point, or whether you have a lot to say. What's your idea of a true article? For some, I guess it's just a matter of symantics.

Analysis of a Blog Reader

Your blog readers will be a mix of people, but it is important to keep in mind that they are real people. Who are they, and how did they find your blog? What did they come here to find, and will they find the answers to their questions? The answers to these questions will help you to build traffic, develop a blog that attracts return visitors and loyal readers, and learn how to attract and keep the readers attention.

1. People who stumble across your blog quite by accident, but the words on the screen are so enticing, they are compelled to keep reading.
   - Are you consistently producing that quality of content?
   - Is your subject matter random, or do you have more content on the same or a similar subject?
2. People who stumble across your blog quite by accident, but either click their "Back" button or click a link to leave your site.
   - What made them leave so quickly? (Some people will leave anyway, it may purely be accidental that they are on your site.) But could your site have poor design, or could the colors be driving people away?
   - Is your site easy to read? Are you using a clear font and is the color clearly visible against the background? (I frequently leave blogs because they use light font colors on a white or light background. There could be great information on the blog, but if I can't see the words, what's the point in sticking around?)
   - Are providing entertainment and/or great information? Visitors commonly leave a blog or website because they are "not getting anything" from it.
3. People who are in search of something specific, and some of the words on your blog matched their search criteria.
   - Again, is your subject matter consistent, or do you have random topics that do not relate to each other throughout your blog?
   - If your subject matter is random, are you entertaining enough to keep readers interested?
4. Loyal readers who continue to read your blog:
   - Because they relate to the subject you are writing about.
   - Because they are learning something they have an interest in.
   - Because they enjoy your writing style, you entertain them.
   - Because they see you as competition, and are studying your methods.

Don't forget, some of the visitors in your traffic stats are also pings and crawlers, especially if you are submitting to or are already listed in search engines, and if you are using pinging services. While it is a good thing to write with search engines in mind, people and your readers should be your main focus. Using a popular name like Paris, Lohan, or Bush might get you in the high ranks of the search engines, but the traffic and the people you draw in might be let down when they find out your blog is about your quest as Mario to beat the dragon in world 8-4 on the old Nintendo 64 as you battle the pain of carpel tunnel and struggle with the medical bills. That's all I'm sayin'.

How To Produce a Traffic Spike in Your Blog Stats

If you are writing consistently, but haven't yet seen an increase in traffic, there are a few things you can do to create an instant traffic boost. But all things done in order, you need a great blog post first. Not just a good blog post, but a really awesome post. You also need a really intriguing blog title, as well. This title will be the grabber for your readers in this style of traffic boosting, so it should not only be a great description of what your article is about, but grab the attention of the reader in a way that they just can't resist but to click on your article's title.

The post itself should be either newsworthy, or just full of fantastic information that the reader feels compelled to continue reading. Most of your blog posts or articles will not have this level of greatness, and it may take you a while to write such an article. This is a very important fact you must realize, that the article must truly be fantastic in order for this tactic to work, otherwise if you try it with too many mediocre articles or posts, readers will get to know that, and once you have the article that truly is great, you may have already let potential readers down and they may not be as willing to read the next one. Once you have that article, you're ready for the next level.

If you would like to see some great examples of the type of article I am speaking of, take a trip over to reddit or digg and read some of the hot topics and articles that are being posted. The articles on the front page of both of those sites are the best of the best. This is where you're going to find your "instant" traffic. When you've got your great article reader-ready and published on your blog, sign into one of these sites, it's free, and submit your article. Within just a few minutes, your article will be exposed to millions of readers, hungry for something great to read. You'll notice a spike in your traffic, which will actually help you in the long-run as well. By submitting your best article, you expose readers to your whole blog.

If it is truly a great article, readers will be likely to come back to your blog to check for more articles, and you could be looking at an increase in traffic on a more regular basis. If you are actually capable of writing articles of this level quite often, you'll definitely develop a larger flow of traffic that continues to grow. However, if your articles don't match that level of greatness, you'll simply enjoy a momentary spike in traffic and your stats will fall near the level they previously were before you posted your best article. You may even get the pleasure of attracting a few new readers who enjoy your blog for what it is.

Getting to Know Yourself Through Your Blog

Through writing, people tend to get to know themselves a little better. Writing can often be a reflection of who you are, who you want to be, or even reflect who you think you are. The fact of the matter is, writing anything, whether it be a letter, an essay, a blog, or even a book, is an outlet for the inner workings of the mind, the heart, and often the imagination. Tapping into that could help you create some pretty interesting posts, however, many new bloggers hold that honesty back, or don't have enough writing experience to let it out.

As you blog, you'll most likely find things you want to blog about, but perhaps are hesitant to actually post. There usually comes a point where you realize what you want to blog about, a part of who you truly are, and the point where many bloggers begin to hold that honesty back. Some blogs are meant to be ultra personal, such as a life experience blog, or particularly business oriented; even a happy mix between the two. Yet others are purely fictional, or simply meant to be entertaining and humorous. But it's when you hold back that honesty - quite often the blog becomes stiff, boring, and lackluster.

One way to really get to know your true writing style is to write a few posts with no initial intention to publish. Really let out some of the things you want to say. Let them sit unpublished and unread for a few days, and then go back and read them. Try reading them out loud and really listen to what they are saying, giving yourself the opportunity to actually hear what you wrote - you just might be surprised. I can't tell you how many articles I have written for other people, and once I read them on their websites, I was shocked to realize what I had actually written. Amazing really, the thought that I write totally differently when I know my name won't be attached to the article. But that's also when I really get to know myself, to know what is actually going on behind who I believe I am. When I write with anonymity, my style changes, my thoughts translate into the articles and posts in a more honest way.

Perhaps the reason so many bloggers hide behind relative obscurity is so that they can really let go without fear of what people will think. Since the internet creates a somewhat permanent record of what people write, many people are very careful to only write what they believe makes them seem smart, kind, or perhaps on the other hand, they can be callous and ruthless without fear of personal retaliation from those they anger. But regardless of whether or not you write anonymously, the things you write are still a reflection of a part of yourself. Even if you hold back more often than not, it is still a reflection of your fears or your inhibitions. Perhaps even a reflection of the fear of ourselves, or what we are capable of. Maybe in some way this would be a more honest world if we all wrote our thoughts in relative obscurity, hiding our faces behind our blogs, letting people know what we really think; honesty revealed in its fullest form.

Why Do You Blog?

Some blog for money, some blog for fun. I'll admit, I just blog because I'm a geek, and I get pretty severe withdrawal symptoms if I don't blog about something. I run several blogs, as well as have a few paid blogging positions that I write for quite often. When I'm not blogging, I'm reading other blogs, writings emails, and writing advertisements for the business we run from our home. But it's when I'm writing that I am most at ease with myself.

As with a lot of people who really love their job, I wake up each morning eager to go to work. Even though I work for myself, there are days when I hate my boss. But since I'm in charge, I can decide to take a longer lunch break, take a day off, hang with the kids, or put in extra hours without bothering anyone. I'm a bit of a work-a-holic, and often have to push myself to take time away from what I love to do. I've been reading and dreaming of writing since I was a child, and over the past few years, have been working to turn that dream into a reality.

Why you write can determine how long you'll stick it out. Those who are purely in it for the money may not last long, especially when the money doesn't roll in during the first few months. But those of you who write simply because you love it may contine to write even if no one is reading your blog. Although interaction is great, and turning a blog post into converstation is a very rewarding experience, it is not the main reason many bloggers write. Whatever your reasons are, you should also enjoy what you do. Even if you don't have a large following, if you're blogging and you're having fun doing it, keep going. Eventually, if you're interesting or have interesting information to share, you'll develop a readership that will encourage you to do what you love.

Avoiding Distractions While Blogging

Blogging can lead to some very time consuming distractions. Other than reading blogs, which can be a good thing, many bloggers struggle to stay on task while using the internet. If this is you, consider what your distractions are, and set aside some time for those things when your "work" is finished.

Most new bloggers are distracted by the idea of making money. They often get lost in the world of advertisements for affiliate programs, and lose sight of creating content for their blog. While making money can be a great aspect of blogging, without quality content - you may find that your pockets remain empty. Here are a few ideas to keep you on track:

• Make a list of daily activities that you wish to accomplish. Read over the list several times per day to make sure you are keeping your goals in mind.
• Start your day off by tackling a few of your major activities, the earlier the better. Once you have completed them, you will find that you have much more time during the day to dedicate to other projects.
• Save any projects that could distract you until other tasks have been completed. This way, if you do find yourself distracted, you will not be neglecting more important activities.
• Answer any emails you receive right away, which can prevent a major "responding" project later on.
• Set aside a certain amount of time each day towards monetizing your blog, and stick to it.
• Don't check your stats every day, which can be a major distraction for some bloggers. Concentrate on providing content for your blog, which will keep your blog up-to-date and fresh, bringing in more traffic.

Need Great Quality Pictures for Your Blog, Website, or Publication?

Pictures are an essential part of many blogs, providing color and visual stimulation to the reader in an otherwise all-text environment. Sure widgets provide some pizazz, but even through it's quite cliche, a picture really does speak a thousand words. While some bloggers provide their blog with pictures they have taken themselves, this isn't always a practical solution for every blog. I rarely use pictures as a descriptive aid on this blog, however, some blogs just scream out for something more visual than plain text.

For instance, I run two blogs in which nearly every post contains a photo. One of them, Blogging Mt Hood, the photos are almost all taken by me, or a family member. The other blog, Herbal Whirled, I download pictures from either Dreamstime or stock.xchng (or sxu) - a great source for the type of pictures needed for that blog. While there are many sources of pictures online, I have found that the pictures on sxu are of great quality, and there are so many different categories and types of photos, that I rarely find the need to go anywhere else. It sure saves a lot of time and money on pictures of things I do not have, or cannot get.

Pushing Through Blogging Slumps and Writing Blocks

If you're like most bloggers, you've got a file full of unfinished posts. Writers sometimes have a file of things they have started, but never finished. This is a great starting point for those days you want to write, but are stuck for a topic. If you don't already have a file of this sort, start one. Everytime you don't finish a post, put it in the file for later use.

When you get to the point where you need a topic, and if you keep up on your blogging - you probably will get to that point, take a look inside the file. Read over some of the posts that you've started, and chances are one will speak out to you. Finishing up on older posts is a great way to work your mind, get writing again, and perhaps inspire some new ideas.

Three Tips to Successful Blogging

No matter what your blogging motivation is, you're eventually going to want people to be reading it. Whether you're writing a novel online, or blogging in a particular niche to establish yourself as a blogger, without readers, your blog will essentially be for the simple self-satisfaction and enjoyment of designing and writing to your blog. If you are writing a novel online in the form of a blog, you'll want readers to leave you encouraging comments, or constructive criticism. If you're running a business blog, you'll want readers in order to make money, as you will if you're running a niche blog with advertisements, visitors and readers will help generate revenue.

High Quality High Quantity Blogging - If you want to build an excellent readership, you'll not only want to provide regularly updated information, but high quality information that your readers can benefit from. People will come back if they are receiving something, or learning something from your site. Readers will also likely return on a regular basis if they are entertained by what they are reading. Your blog can be simply for entertainment purposes, or your useful information can be written in an entertaining way, both will bring people back for more.

Useful Links and Information - If your blog is providing links to information that is useful to the readers, or information that isn't generally easy to find, your readers will likely return for more information. This is especially true if you regularly update the material on your site, or post to your blog on a regular basis. A great deal of people searching for information on the internet will search for free information before opting to pay for information, so providing it for free would boost your readership.

Credibility - In order to establish credibility, you've got to know what you're talking about. If you don't know your subject well, you'll have to be willing to do a lot of research to learn enough to write fluently about the subject. It's generally good to choose a subject you are extremely familiar with, especially if you want to establish credibility as an expert in your field. However, if you're just trying to get your feet wet, post quite a few articles and posts before you launch your blog or website. Try to get a feel for what it's like to post regularly, and establish a pattern to your posting. That way, you're not overwhelmed with by the need to post as often. While keeping your blog updated in the future, you can rest assured that your readers have enough to keep them reading. Don't launch if you're not familiar with regular posting unless you already have plenty of content. Readers may not come back if you only have one post. Blogging credibility can take months, and hundreds of posts to attain, but you've got to pay your dues in nearly every field. It's rare for anyone to burst out on the scene as an expert in a field if no one has ever heard of them.