I’ve heard from some really cool bloggers that readers like checklists. (I have also heard they SUCK!) but I did it anyway!!

You know, blogging is a very cool hobby or business to have. You can post exactly what’s on your mind(within reason). It’s YOUR blog isn’t it? It’s also very cool to see that you have a new reader or your traffic has increased to your blog! There are even advertisers that offer money for blogs that get lots of traffic, so blogging can also make you some moo-lah too! Yay!

Tip #1 | Be yourself

The best blogs are not written using formal grammar rules. You don’t want to think about our 7th grade Language Arts teacher reading your blog and correcting your grammar. Now I am not saying that you should just write anything but honestly, being formal is boring and your readers don’t want to read through a bunch of perfect grammar posts. So if you want your blog to be popular, write it like you are talking to your friends.

Maybe not the “What’s up Dawg?” type, but a normal conversation. You can use slang and other words that may not be “proper” (don’t get nasty, tho). Although I did have one reader tell me that y’all was not a word! (It is in MY book!!) Being funny is also a good way to make people want to keep coming back to read your posts.

Tip #2 | Spell Check

Even though the tone of your blog is casual, edit your work. You can be casual, without being sloppy or rude. Check your spelling before you submit your post. You don’t want posts that are sloppy and full of errors. People will wonder why they should listen to you and probably won’t take anything you say seriously. So remember to SPELL CHECK!

Tip #3 | No Long Posts

Short blog posts will help you keep your readers. Most folks don’t want to spend a ton of time reading blog posts. Stick to your point and keep it short. A blog that is about 400-500 words is more likely to be read. If you have more to write, make another blog post. Give your readers a break.

Tip # 4 | Flexibility

Be flexible with your blog posts. If you have a niche blog, post about different topics in your chosen niche. If you have a lifestyle blog, then there are tons of things you can write about. Just be flexible. Post on everything you are interested in. There are millions of people interested in the same thing. You could even post about popular things in the news, (politics and religion might get you in a blog fight) but current events can bring people to your site when they do a web search! That’s what’s called FREE traffic!

Tip #5 | Advertising Woes

This is a biggie! Too many people only advertise things on their blog and have no real content. Now if you have a review blog, that’s another story, but is a review blog really a blog? Or just advertising space? Advertising is OK but be nice about it. Give great content and if you find something that will help your readers, then by all means, put it on your blog. But not every post and not every page. You don’t want to scare people away!!

Tip # 6 | Last but not least (and MY biggest blogging failure) Consistency!

Folks who read your blog will be looking for a new post every few days. Maybe only once a week. But if you want to keep your blog fresh(and have new subscribers), then you have to post often. Maybe you put new posts up every Saturday. If you do, then be consistent!If you are keeping your blog posts short and sweet (as mentioned above) then you should be able to at least post once a week. 2-3 times is better. I read a blog that has a new post every Tuesday morning, so on Tuesday morning, I go to see what’s new. Now if there wasn’t a new post on Tuesday, I would probably be disappointed because Tuesday morning has been the “new blog post” day for over a year. So, be consistent!

I ‘m checkin the word count here so…..feel free to leave your comments and if you have any more tips or suggestions or want  to expand on what I have here,  I would love to hear them!

And remember to share, stumble, tweet, digg, facebook, whatever!

God Bless!

Lisa~

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