Top 5 tips for new bloggers

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Recently I was part of a conversation about blogging. I’ve been blogging for over eight years. There have always been a lot of blogs, but every day more and more start up. People start them for different reasons. One blogger offered his top 5 tips for new bloggers,which I am sharing with you with permission.

Top 5 tips for new bloggers

It’s easier than ever to start up a new blog. There are so many convenient services to choose from and a massive online readership consuming a huge variety of subjects. But there is also a lot of competition for anyone that wants to get their voice heard these days. In fact, it’s estimated there are almost 200 million public blogs out there. So if you’re looking for ways of reaching out to more people, here are some top tips to bear in mind.

Be aware of current trends

People often stumble across blogs in the course of searching for current events or trends. If you can respond to what’s hot right now, and maybe even offer something that’s ahead of the curve on a popular subject area, you’re likely to be more visible to the average web user. Do make sure you have the content to back up your claims though – there’s nothing more off putting to users than a blog that doesn’t deliver on its promises.

Reach out to influencers

When you’re starting a new blog, it can be a good idea to look into online influencers who deal with the same subject area. Connecting with other bloggers and YouTubers may give you access to their readership. It will help if you can actually build a dialogue with the influencer in question rather than spamming lots of people for links, so be selective and courteous for the best results. Plus the dialogue you start will help inspire you to write more content.

Comment management

Responding to comments in a timely manner means you’re more likely to retain readers and build up a good relationship with subscribers over time. There are pitfalls with comments too though – watch out for people being offensive and putting off other readers. Establish a commenting policy. You can always delete comments that are totally inappropriate.

Consistently good content

Once you’ve started to build momentum with a blog, it can be tempting to rush work and push content out there that perhaps isn’t as polished as it should be. Focus on standards every step of the way to retain readers.

Email verification

Finally, it’s a good idea to use an email verification service to check that you’re actually reaching out to the people on your subscriber or newsletter list. Email verification will also iron out any ‘bad’ addresses that could damage your sender reputation, and lead to your messages being delivered to junk mail folders or being blocked entirely.

Do you have any tips for bloggers, either as a fellow blogger or as a reader?