This is a round up article where I will discuss 5 key elements crucial for every blogger. Whether blogging is for business or hobby, every blogger learns and improves throughout their blogging journey. So it is not about being serious or not, it is about blogging and blogging alone. So here are the 5 key elements I want to point out:
Use your current skills as a blogger:
Most of us look to leap. We eye all the time at those A-listers and try to be them. We always see what they have that we don’t have. We therefore pull-pull and push-push all time very hard to get to the levels of those A-listers. We totally forget to see what is already in there in us. I recently came across a thought provoking post at Problogger which discusses this very issue. Why do we always stare at the sky when we are all equipped to fly?
Most of us don’t realize that we have talents in us. Some are excellent in writing articles, but they want to write like Mr. X who is a guru in his/her niche. These people forget that every person is unique. I cannot write like you and you cannot write like me and that’s what makes you as you and me as me! Some others feel what they have is not enough even before trying it out.
So as a blogger, one should dig out the talents that dwell inside, that is not noticed, not taken care of and not used with confidence. Use it with confidence and go blogging.
Monetizing your blog: Use multiple streams
Neil wrote about the lessons he learned from monetizing his own blog QuickSprout. As I read that post, I could see that he was using a variety of methods to monetize his blog. Don’t just rely on adsense. That’s so elementary, although adsense makes over 80% income for most bloggers. Why I called it elementary? Every new blogger is most likely to immediately start an adsense account and start integrating ads in their blog (mostly the reason could also be that the majority of blogs are started with Blogger!).
After integrating adsense most bloggers think that they have accomplished something, they have an income stream. Well, there is more of it. Using multiple streams is a wise way to monetize one’s business- one could use direct advertising, email advertising, ads from ad networks, selling own stuff, affiliate programs, article marketing, paid reviews and so on. Experiment on different methods, improve and implement them.
Learn everyday:
Learning from your mistakes, learning from your innocence, learning from others is the right way for a blogger to evolve. Learning makes you grow, improve and become mature day by day, and so does your blogging. Especially as Pamela points out in her article at Copyblogger, a learner’s mind is fearless and it helps you keep going whatever happens. When you are on the learning mode, you don’t feel or become depressed for your mistakes, that will be too much to do. You always have the feeling that after all you are learning, so there ought to be mistakes and you are not an expert. This very feeling actually makes you an expert in due course.
Know stuff that keeps you from achieving
As I said in #1, we all have skills inside us by default. Skills help us move forward, helps us to give our best and helps us to achieve. On the other hand, we also do have stuff that keep from achieving something. It is highly important that we also do identify such things in order to overcome them and move forward. As Daniel points out at Daily Blog Tips, it can be fear, hesitation to make friends, unable to reveal stories from your life, unable to provide valuable and unique content and so on. Once we identify and fix these things we sure can be blogging masters.
Write for people and not for search engines:
SEO is good. But too much of it is not good. Sometimes bloggers get obsessed by SEO techniques that they pack their blog posts with keywords in order to be easily ranked by search engines. Optimizing a blog post with appropriate keywords is a good practice. However as Grant wrote in Blog For Profit some just pack their blog post with keywords to get the bot’s attention. That is, they pack their blog posts either with too many keywords or inappropriate ones. When people search the internet for chocolates and found your blog on the search list and click it to find that you blog about cycles, you already have lost your reputation. So use SEO wisely and only to the optimal level!
Article by JaneSheeba
+Jane is the founder of Problogging Success. She is an expert blogger, consultant, freelance writer and blog designer. Don't forget to get your hands on two FREE Ebooks she offers.
Jane has written 257 awesome posts for Problogging Success.
When my blog was under Jane’s watch, everything was under control.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
very precise round up.
You have given very valid points. There is no point in flooding the blog with sub standard daily posts just for the sake of ranking!
Ya I believe that quality is more important than quantity, both in terms of the number of blog posts and also the length of each post
Great piece of share
Good going
I completely agree with you. Specially the first point that a person should blog naturally and should not try to blog like some of other A- listed bloggers. You never know that you could be liked more that those A-listed bloggers.
round up
It is surprising at how almost everyone wants to be like others and totally forget the potential they have in them. Learning your weaknesses will really help you know where you go wrong and this can help you to do things the right way.
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