Blogging Tips

I have come across some amazing blogs and I applaud those people for such great care and effort. I am always amazed at what is chosen as a topic and even more amazed at the facts presented for the education of their readers.

While I have come across some that are great, I thought I would offer a few helpful tips to those who are new and need a place to start.

1. Give readers a way to follow easily. Adding Google Friend Connect allows readers to stay abreast on the latest posts. While subscriptions and RSS feeds can help, you want to understand why you would use these.

• RSS: This is a type of subscription that is used with a feed reader allowing readers to view all updates on various sites in one place (not exclusive to blogs)
  
• Email Subscription: Sends notifications of new blog posts to subscribers email address.
  
• Google Friend Connect: Allows readers to use Google Reader or Blogger dashboard to read latest blogs
  
• Bookmark: This bookmarks a page for the reader to visit at their will
  
• Networked Blogs: Allows readers on Facebook to follow blogs and receive Facebook updates on new blog posts. This tool is for Facebook only.
  
• Social Networks: Some social networks allow you to connect your blog to your profile to update readers on current blog postings. This is usually an RSS feed.
  

2. Frequently add posts. At minimum post 3 times a week. Blogs that are not maintained can lose their readers.

3. Keep away from building a blog that is just one long ad. While you may be trying to sell a product you need to use your blog platform as a teaching tool. Blogs that are viewed as ads are not enticing and send readers away.

4. Proof read those posts. A simple slip happens but frequent spelling and grammar mistakes can be a turn off.

5. Find your niche. If you want to write about movies, pick types of movies such as family or romance. You can even get more specific from there.

6. Keep your blog clean and uncluttered. To many things going on at once makes it hard to read.

7. Customize your template. Using a free template provided by your blog host is not as attractive and does not set you apart from others. Do a search for templates such as "blogger templates". You can purchase a template or create your own.

These are just a few tips to get you started.

Happy Blogging!

Olivia Vidal
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