Blogging 101: 41 Steps to Business Blogging Success

Most of the Top 10 posts for blogging success seem repetitive, while this one seemed more original. Even if you get two or three good suggestions or enjoy the helpful links he provides, this is well worth taking a look at. Here are a couple of additions I would make to round out the list…

• Be an active part of My Blog Log and Blog Catalog. Both are great ways to find interesting blog and get some ongoing traffic to your blog. Blog Catalog even allows you to ask questions to the community and draw on its knowledge.
• Subscribe to RSS feeds both in your area of focus and outside. A current events news feed or two can be helpful for contextualizing your posts.
• Offline networking in the real world is helpful both in terms of traffic and quality. Getting outside the internet bubble can be both personally refreshing and good for the content of your posts.
• Link up your accounts. If you have Facebook, Twitter, or are a member of other social networking communities take advantage of feeds to those respective accounts.
• Collaboration with other bloggs and guest posting can both be helpful for spreading the word.
• I haven’t tried this, but posting on craigslist in your area of focus.
• Message boards are a great way to get your questions answered and to build community.
• Join an aggregated blog community. This will allow you to network with bloggers in your subject or geographical area.
• Be personal, be honest, be authentic.
• I’ve run into problems adding pictures, but pictures and videos can really distinguish blogs. Put simply: a picture is indeed worth 1,000 words.
• Interview and draw on the expertise of others. This is communication 101.
• Listen to your audience…
• Recommended blogs to receive tips about blogging: Darren R. at Problogger and the Blog Herald. They both consistently have helpful information. I highly recommend Chris G’s Authority Blogger Forums
• Remember the Long Tail. Blogging “success” can sometimes take awhile. Its all about practice and gradual improvement.
• One thing I wish I knew when I started blogging is that I wish I had just one email account dedicated to both incoming RSS feeds and to my blogs. Instead I went the branded route of “compassioninpolitics@gmail.com” instead of “socialmedia_nathan@gmail” or something similar. Now it seems I have to get an additional account for each additional blog.
• Never stop asking questions…and learning.

Check out this link for 26 other tips! Have any helpful blogging tips??? Any favorite blogging sites??? Hope you liked it. Tell me what you think. I’m hoping to do a follow up post in the near future…

Nathan Ketsdever Nashville New Media and Business Blog Consultant