Blogging is simple but it isn’t easy. If you learn a few winning habits it becomes a breeze. So, here are the seven habits of highly effective bloggers:

1. Have something to say
The best blogs are those where the blogger has something attention-grabbing to say, whether it be about potty training a puppy, supporting a baseball team or electing a president. Say it with vim, say it with sentiment and above all say something different.

Make it a habit always to put a novel angle on a topic and you’ll attract readers like flies to a dung heap.

2. Project your personality
It’s about you, stupid. Have an attractive, enticing ‘About’ page.

If you’re going to have a photo of yourself don’t just use a mugshot: you’ll look much more intriguing if it’s a picture of you actually doing something. What you want people to do is talk not just about your blog, but about you.

Get into the habit of being a character.

3. Post regularly
The most booming bloggers have sticky blogs. That means you want regular readers who come back because they need your content. And so you must continually gratify this craving with a constant stream of dazzling content.

One easy trick is to find a big theme that you can break down into a succession of posts. Post as ‘Part 1′, ‘Part 2′ etc (for example ‘20 Tips On Training Your Puppy’). Make the sequence addictive: hold back just enough information to have them howling for more.

If you can get this right, you’ll become their habit.

4. Engage with your readers
Blog with a smile on your face but aspire to be an authority. What you want your readers, and other bloggers, to do is to like you, trust you and give you their esteem.

And don’t be afraid to be contentious: being opinionated will stir up their responses and get them to comment.

Comment generously on other blogs. Give and leave trackbacks. Bond with your blogging community. The idea is to get them hooked. Which is where you want to be.

Be in the habit of being addictive.

5. Optimize with titles, keywords, categories
Every post title should start with the words of explicitly what your post is about. The title of your blog post is what your human readers, and the search engine spiders, see first. ‘My Puppy Peed On The Carpet’ rather than ‘Oh No Not Again’.

Scatter relevant keywords all through your post. Use tags, categories and slugs to explicitly spell out what your post is about.

Optimization doesn’t seem very sexy but it’s a great habit to get into.

6. Harness the power of RSS
Many bloggers are neurotic about design of their blogs and pay little attention to their words. This is a mistake. RSS will syndicate your content around the globe in seconds but what gets displayed in the feed? Words, words, words - not pictures. Words speak louder than pictures.

Be smart with syndication: practice the habit of loving RSS.

7. Keep on blogging
Winning bloggers find their voice and this voice matches their character. When you are comfortable in the skin of your personality it’s not too difficult to find something new to say. So keep on blogging. The most effective, original, expansive bloggers are the most gripping bloggers. Blog every day, or at least three times a week.

Get into the habit of fluency and both you and your blog will thrive.

Tags: bloggers, Blogging

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 8:39 am and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.