What Every Blogger Needs to Have and Know
While I would no longer call myself a new blogger, I still feel like I’m learning the ropes in the world of social media. Over the past 18 months as I’ve been blogging, I’ve learned that there are a few things that every blogger should have (or know). Here is my extensive meager list.
1. Every blogger needs to have a basic understanding of who their readers will be. When you know this, you will be able to tailor your writing in a way that is exciting and relevent to them. People don’t necessarily want to know whether you had scrambled eggs or fried eggs for breakfast unless you are the publisher of a food blog where your readers expect new recipes and ideas for the kitchen.
The important thing to remember is to write in a way that is engaging and relevent – even if you are only writing for a small group of family and friends. This will make your blog more engaging and informative and will keep your readers coming back for more.
2. A blogger needs ideas. And sometimes inspiration is hard to come by. Become an observer of everyday life. Study and learn as much as you can about the topic(s) upon which your blog is built. Try to post several times per week so that your readers don’t get bored.
The fact of the matter is that anyone who starts a blog, does so with the intention that they will have readers. If you are writing for no one but yourself, you’re not likely going to spend the time setting up a journal in such a public venue. So, if you are hoping to acquire readers, you need to be drawing them in. The blogs with frequent, engaging content are the ones with a solid base of readers – and that makes sense, doesn’t it?
3. A blogger needs space. This seems pretty cut and dry. A space of your own creates room for your mind to expand and your fingers to talk. You may not have a lot of time to escape to said space, but a little time every day can do amazing things for your blog.
4. A blogger needs blogging friends. I’ve found this to be one of the most rewarding perks of my blogging endeavors. I’ve made new friends, some of them face to face, many of them via cyber space. Blogging is very unique in the way that it connects the world, even if that connection feels rather impersonal.
Good blogging friends will help foster the good ideas mentioned earlier that are needed to write engaging posts, which are necessary to establish a healthy readership base. If possible, try to connect with local blogging groups and get involved with these people on a more personal level. Such connections may open the doors to new opportunities within your community and online that you never knew existed.
*Warning – Shamless plug to follow: For those of you in the St. Louis area, we would love to have you join us at the St. Louis Blogger’s Guild. Not sure what we’re all about? Join us tomorrow night for an informal gathering at the Atomic Cowboy where you will meet fellow guild members and have the opportunity to network with others in St. Louis social media. Or you can join us on Saturday, June 13 for our monthly guild meeting. End shameless plug.*
5. Finally, a blogger needs to know that there is more to life than just blogging. Life is short and grand. Keep a memory of it and make the memory vivid, but certainly don’t live online. It’s easy to get sucked into the online vortex of thought, but there is too much to be missed by over consumption. The bloggers I admire the most spend very little time blogging. This is a balance I encourage everyone to strive for.
Alright, well I promised it would be a meager list, didn’t I? The bottom line is that blogging can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience for those with the right tools and understanding. If you have any other advice or encouragment to bloggers, please leave a comment and share it. We would love to hear your thoughts on blogging.
I find that it is VERY easy to blog when I am out doing stuff with the family and/or friends. When I’m swamped at work, it is hard to come up with topics, usually, as I have something of a rule about blogging about work.
This past Christmas, I planned to take a break from daily blogging while I was off work and having fun with the family…yet I didn’t as I found it almost trivial to blog.
All of this is a long way of saying that your last point is probably the most important!
It’s a good list. Blogging is just a part of life. It’s a good thing for those who always have something to say. There are people who are good speakers but aren’t very good at speaking face-to-face. they are more successful at sharing their thoughts in writing. i think that blogging is for those people. And there is another category of people who are good listeners. They belong to the readers’ category. so blogging can become a necessary thing for both categories
Great list. Where to get blogging ideas is always tough. To have a built in support mechanism such as the bloggers guild is a treasure.
I’ve gotten several ideas from fellow bloggers both here and around the net. Heck, I encourage folks to steal my humble ideas if need be.
Another aspect of having fellow bloggers is the encouragement to continue. That and keeping you from thinking you’re the lone crazy person out there doing it.
Cheers.