People that are blogging for the first time, but don’t know that much about blogging practices that work, should learn a little bit before they begin to blog. It could be that you are impatient to get started. You want your blog running now! It would be a mistake, however, to not go over this part of how to blog. You don’t want to have to go back, relearn everything, just because you started making mistakes. Instead of blogging right away, learning proven blogging practices, plus obtaining solid knowledge, is what you need to have before you begin.
I have one blog and it keeps me busy enough, plus I have other commitments as do most bloggers. You need to use your time as efficiently as possible. You can use RSS to stay on top of other blogs that are similar to your niche. This may be something that you have never done, even though it is not new.
It’s as simple as downloading an RSS reader, figuring out how it works, and using it every day to monitor the other blogs. Just download one that is well known, so that you know it is an excellent software program, and will not add malware to your computer. Another great advantage of RSS is everything you want to read is in one place. All you have to do is find something that you are interested in, and use your RSS reader to view it. Making a post a certain length is something that you’ll find many people telling you to do. If your readers are ignoring your post because they are too long, this could backfire on you. The reading habits of each niche will be different, so experimenting with different post links is in your best interest. You’ll find some audiences will read long posts of close to 1000 words. It is important to write valuable content, information that your readers will actually enjoy. If the perception of your readers is that your content is actually valuable, they will take the time to actually read what you have written. 400 word posts often work best, as most people will take the time to read that. If you make it shorter, around 300 words, this will still work just fine.
It’s very easy to fall into a rut when you’ve been blogging for months or even years. It is important that we address this problem of getting burned out for a couple different reasons. Changing up your posts, and using something different, is something that we often forget to do.
This can really be a challenge for just about anybody. Since your readers want to read something interesting, changing it up a little bit is definitely necessary. There is a fine line between writing something good, and making it so outrageous that no one wants to read it. Put variety, humor, and personality into your blog posts. Don’t be obvious by alternating between them all the time. Be a little unexpected but at the same time you need to have a consistent writing voice. Blogging usability practices, by the way, are open to interpretation depending upon what niche you are in. What you need to do is test, and see what works best on your blog for you and your audience. Most people will use split testing to determine what content is most applicable.