Tuesday, October 27, 2015

In Search Of. . . A Good Do-it-yourself: Tips for a new blogger


Well, again, this is one of those things that I feel is better asked of someone who isn't stumbling his way blindly in this blogging thing. 
AKA Not Me. 

But, It's part of the challenge, and I shall deliver.
To deliver, I decide to search the internet for help.
Here are fifteen tips I've found. 

15. Create Artificial Limitations
For example, writing prompts, like this one. Or write continuously for so many minutes. 

14. Write about the interesting things that you do. 
I could run a daily blog, but as you guys saw in my last "A Day in the Life Of" blog, it would be super boring. However, the time I went to LA was interesting. So I blogged about it.

 13. Be Consistent. 
Things that are updated sporadically, will be read sporadically. I didn't drive my readership up until I started writing daily. 

12. Find A Schtick. 
A thing to write about. Normally comes from the blog name or inspiration. Or you could do challenges.  

11. Use Social Media. 
You can blog all you want and someone may come across your website. However, if you share on your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest, it reaches that many more people who will go back to blog and learn to love you. 

10. Don't expect immediate results and readership. 
Doing this daily challenge has obviously helped me have more people. I swear though, it's not as many as I would like. They aren't rushing in by the droves. Now, I could see the amount of people hitting my blog and be discouraged, but why? 
I'm a beginning blogger. Rome wasn't built in a day. 

9. Link to other sites. 
If you take something from somewhere, link it. Or if you have friends that you want to give shout outs too, do it. It helps them and you. They're more likely to give you a shout out back. 

8. Be yourself.
I think this one is vague, but I've seen it a lot. I can understand where it's coming from, though. If I tried to be someone else, then it wouldn't sound right for me. It would sound forced and practiced. 
Have your own voice and know that it changes, but it's always your voice. 

7. You don't have to write all the time. 
I know I've done daily blogging this month, but I won't next month. You don't always have to post something every day. It'll burn you out. 

6. Diversify.
Yes, your short little videos may suck (mine do) or you may not be the best photographer, but people like different things. Try to add variety. 

5. Plan. 
I like these challenge things mostly because it's pre-planning. It takes a little of that blank page, blinking cursor terror out of blogging. Too, planning allows you to write things in advance. Unless you're a last minute person, a little advance writing never killed anyone. 
I'm hoping that as I grow, I will be able to come up with my own challenges, but all those things require planning. 

4. Be Relevant
As with most writing, you need to think to yourself, why would someone want to read this? Or, Would people want to read this? It will help you stay relevant to your blog and to people.  

3. Have an attractive Layout
Think of yourself as a reader coming to a blog. Does it look clean and neat, which I hope mine does, or does it look cluttered. Are you distracted by the side bars and header? Do things match? 
I know if you go back on my blog, you'll see older posts that matched older themes, but for the most part, I try to keep it all pretty uniform. 

2. Network
This falls under social media, but commenting on other peoples blogs will put your name out there and encourage others to look back at yours. 

1. Write. 
This one is obvious, but sometimes it gets over looked. Unless you're doing a vlog, you can't over look the writing. Try to write something everyday, even if you don't post. 
Writing is a skill that if you don't use you loose. 

There's my list. It's not comprehensive, but I think it's fairly decent. If you have any more ideas, 



As always, 

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