A few things I’ve learned about blogging

We’ve been writing the Simply Zesty blog for a few months now and it’s just starting to get to a point where (we think anyway!) there is a nice community starting to build around it. I’ve certainly learned a lot about blogging in the past few months and thought I’d share a few of my thoughts with you. I’ve still got a lot to learn, but here goes anyway

News is not news

It’s taken me a while to realise this, but people are not coming to our blog to simply see the latest headlines. Posts that are on a particular story of the day rarely get any comments and little love on Twitter or Facebook. Just compare this post to this post from this week to see what I mean. This is actually nice. It definitely means something if people value you your opinion and I’m learning that that’s what people are probably coming here for anyway. We can all subscribe to techcrunch, so unless we’ve got a particularly unique take on a story or happen to be one of the first places to feature it, I’ve learned that it’s best to offer my own opinions on a particular subject.

Blogging every day is hard

But it’s necessary to blog frequently, if not every day. This is a point that Chris Brogan continually iterates and it’s an important one to make. If you expect people to return to your blog and become a part of your community, you have to give them a reason to come back. I know I’m always slightly disappointed when I subscribe to a new blog off the back of a particularly good post, then find it’s days before they’re updating it again. You have to be disciplined about it. We all work hard, but you have to make the time if you want to build a good blog. Convince yourself that this should be a top priority in your day, even if it means going to bed an hour later. Frequent posting helps to build up the authority of your blog and will help ensure continual visits. If your content is good.

Don’t post something you wouldn’t want to read

I’ll admit that certainly towards the start of this blog, this was something I was guilty of. Unless you’re absolutely sure that what you’re putting up is good content, then don’t post it. Of course, quality is subjective but your post has to be something that you believe in or that you’re interested in. If it’s not, then how can you expect other people to be interested in it? I’ve written entire posts before that I’ve had to scrap because I’m just not that convinced by it. It might make a couple of hours extra work for you, but the damage to your blog by putting up below-average content will far outweigh that.

Read for inspiration

This is an important one. You have to know what other people are talking and writing about, not only to ensure you’re not just repeating the same content, but to inspire you. I always read other blogs for inspiration. You often just come across that one sentence or one comment that sparks off an idea and it’s always these posts that I find the easiest to write. Don’t just sit staring at a blank screen for 15 minutes, wondering what to write. Go and read some other great content and sometimes that alone can spur you on. I’ll admit that jealousy does play a small part here for me. If I’m reading a great post, I want to prove that I can write something I’ll be proud of and hopefully others will like.

Your content is only one part of it

It’s what you do with it that makes it count. Are you encouraging comments? Are you sharing your post across other platforms? Getting your content off the ground can be a challenge at the start. If you’re starting a new blog, you have to earn your community. It’s not going to magically appear over night. Share your content across social networks and with other people and also comment on other blogs as well. If you have something interesting to say on another post, at the very least that author is going to notice and you might have just gained yourself another very important reader.

Your readers are gold dust

This is important whether you have 10 or 10,000. Take the time to respond to your readers comments. Or if they blog about a particular post you’ve written, be sure to feed back to them either in the public comments, or privately if you prefer. Every reader you have also has their own community and they could share just one link to your blog that goes out to their Twitter followers, or a topic you’ve written about could come up in conversation and that one reader starts to tell others about your blog. Without readers, you don’t really have a blog so make sure you take the time to acknowledge them.