Crete, Greece
How many do’s and don’ts of blogging lists have you read?
Do you feel dizzy after digesting the confusing array of conflicting advice?
Been there.
Done that.
After blogging for well over 14 years – or longer? (I can barely remember) – I intend to offer you clear do’s and don’ts of blogging based on my experience and my observation of top bloggers during the time frame.
Follow sound advice.
Ignore bad advice.
Sure this sounds simple.
But blogging becomes quite uncomfortable sometimes.
Re-read this post when things get uncomfortable because those moments typically scare bloggers into ignoring the “do’s” and following the “don’ts.”
Base your blogging campaign on these ideas to accelerate your success.
Do’s
1: Blog Mainly for Fun
Blog mainly for fun, not traffic and income.
Blogging for fun invests you heavily in the process of enjoying blogging. Loving the process of publishing detailed content and building strong bonds positions you to increase blogging income. Trusting, loyal blogging friends and readers buy from you, promote you, endorse you and grow your referral business.
Allow the part of your ego desiring money and traffic to be little; it’ll come if you let the part of your heart desiring to spread love by helping people to be large.
2: Pick One Blogging Niche
Pick one blogging niche.
The world trusts specialists.
Generalists? Not so much.
If your doctor delivered pizza, picked up trash and wrote ad copy on the side would you trust them to diagnose your dis-ease accurately?
No; you would not trust the person because they split their professional attention and energy between 4 professional endeavors.
Give all attention and energy to tackling one blogging niche. Learn it inside-out. Be a specialist. Gain trust. Position yourself properly. Succeed.
3: Publish Detailed Content
Publish detailed content to answer reader questions.
Share practical tips to build your blogging reputation.
Write 1000 – 1500 word posts most of the time to publish thorough resources. Google loves long-form content. Readers love robust solutions to their problems.
4: Optimize Posts for SEO
SEO-optimize blog posts to drive targeted, passive Google traffic.
Targeted, passive blog traffic morphs into:
- a blogging community
- increased blogging business
Create posts around a long tail keyword relevant to your blogging niche. Make posts scannable. Use headers, bold text and italics to create contrast.
Divide posts into a high number of paragraphs to make it easy to read. Write a clear meta description.
Link to valued resources on your blog. Link to valued blogs from your niche.
When it comes to do’s and don’ts of blogging this tip is basically non-negotiable. After great experimenting I have realized that Google traffic draws business seamlessly compared to other blogging strategies.
5: Build an Email List
Build an email list for traffic on demand.
Imagine an email list as a large group of people you collectively call on the phone with the message: “My new blog post is live.”
People tend to check their email. Posts delivered to email inboxes tend to be:
- opened
- read
Until you patiently build a loyal social media network, Facebook and Twitter algorithms are fickle. Email delivers because people check their inbox many times daily.
6: Engage in Genuine Blogger Outreach
Engage in genuine blogger outreach.
Blogging friends increase your traffic, boost your income and fortify your credibility by amplifying your reach within your niche.
Practical Tips
- promote bloggers on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- comment genuinely on blogs from your niche
- mention bloggers on your blog
Release expectations. Ask for nothing in return. Earn trust. Gain attention through your generosity.
Connected bloggers succeed.
7: Invest Money in Resources for Your Blogging Education
Invest money in blogging courses, blogging eBooks and coaching to learn from successful bloggers how to succeed.
Follow their advice to thrive.
Courses, eBooks and coaching sessions guide you with thorough, detailed, complete resources in easy to follow format.
Free blog posts, videos and podcasts offer solid advice. Premium courses, eBooks and coaching offer fabulous, thorough, detailed, complete advice guiding you through a full process in step by step fashion.
This roughly 1500 word post is like an appetizer; you cannot go pro based on advice gained from this post alone. My eBooks are full guides.
The quickest way to learn how to become a successful blogger is to invest money in the best advice from pro bloggers who package their experience into thorough, step-by-step, detailed resources.
8: Integrate Revenue Streams Seamlessly into Your Blog
Monetize gracefully by working income channels into your blog organically.
Monetize primarily to meet reader needs. Open revenue channels fully aligned with your niche. Place a heavy focus on publishing practical blog content. Drop a quick hitter mention of your products and services at post end.
For example, write and publish a 1500 word post filled with practical content. Devote the last 2-3 lines to promoting your blogging products and blogging services.
Consider embedding up to 2-3 advertisements for varying income streams on your blog sidebar.
Monetize subtly. Treat monetizing like a deft surgeon with the most subtle of touches, not a rabid baboon in heat.
Don’ts
1: Rely Solely on Automation
Don’t fully automate your blogging campaign. Humans need the human touch. People eventually ignore a human who uses only bots or systems to allegedly “interact”.
Here’s my take: like cooking a fish, find that “just right” frequency. Overcooking fish produces shoe leather. Undercooking fish means hunching over the toilet for the evening.
Like the Baby Bear, find the “just right” automation frequency that works for you and your readers. I follow no specific ratio but usually automate and manually engage roughly in the 30-70 ratio or even less. I automate a little and engage manually quite a bit.
Never rely solely on automation because humans:
- trust human interaction
- distrust inhuman interaction
For example, consider publishing one weekly email for your list. Follow up with one auto-responder weekly or bi-weekly if that feels right to you.
Trust your intuition to guide you on automating frequency. It knows what works for you and your readers and what does not.
2: Ignore or Overlook Your Reader’s Questions
Some high level pros receive 100’s of engagement requests daily. No single human can reply to all.
But don’t ignore or overlook your reader’s questions when you have even 10-20 minutes to read and reply to their queries. 99.99% of bloggers who read this post have 10-20 minutes to read and reply to reader questions.
Answer reader questions. Build your blogging tribe.
Note; for bloggers who receive no reply to their questions:
- visit the blogger’s blog and ask your question via a search bar query to get an answer
- invest money in the blogger’s premium resources like coaching and courses to get answers
- turn to Google, another blogger or social media to get an answer
- never take this experience personally; the blogger cares about you ***but in some cases*** has too many human beings to help (Would you be pissed off if Elon Musk or Richard Branson did not personally answer your question? Busy humans can help only so many people on a personal basis!)
3: Spam Only Links on Social Media
Don’t use social media only to promote links to blog posts, eBooks, courses and services.
Link blindness plagues social media friends who only see links from you and nothing else on social media. Social media algorithms heavily favor text updates and images.
Promote a few links daily. Distribute a few text-only updates. Share a few pictures. Ask a few questions.
Mix text, images and links for a well-rounded social media strategy to gain trust, build credibility and to grow your blogging business.
4: Try to Do it All Alone
Blogging is a team sport.
Never blog solo.
Lone wolf bloggers struggle and quit in a world of highly successful, connected bloggers with loyal communities.
After publishing this blog post I will distribute it through a friend network who will amplify its reach. I patiently built my blogging friend network over many 1000’s of hours spanning years.
Imagine if I blogged solo?
I would publish the post and no one would see it.
Stop publishing a cyber diary for your eyes only.
Never blog solo.
Build a friend network. Grow your blogging community.
5: Wing It as a Beginner
Don’t wing it as a beginner blogger.
Never trust your blogging inexperience.
Blogging involves many skills. Newbies who wing it always struggle, fail and quit because they never learn any skills required from pros in order to succeed.
Invest in pro blogger resources. Learn from experienced bloggers how to blog successfully. Position yourself to thrive by learning how to blog effectively.
6: Worship Top Level Pros as Being god-Like
High level pro bloggers appear to be wizards.
But each did simple things generously, patiently and persistently for years in a world of complex, stingy, impatient, non-persistent bloggers who deify these seeming blogging gods.
Never worship top level pros. Turning them into blogging gods victimizes you as a non-god blogger who will always fail. Do not self-sabotage through this practice.
Every blogger is identical to you. We are all one.
Relax.
You can succeed too, just like these beings.
Learn from the leaders.
Never worship them as doing something unattainable, though.
If they did it you can do it too.
7: Make Blogging Complex
Blogging is simple.
Publish detailed content. Make blogging friends by helping people. Help readers. Monetize.
Don’t make blogging complex by panicking, worrying and deviating from these simple strategies.
For example, bloggers often panic and write 5,000 word, complex, wordy blog posts that Google and human beings largely ignore. Why? Humans and Google hold the basic expectation that posts be 1000 to 2000 words. Anything more? Write and self-publish a short eBook. Humans and Google want simple tips not complex, verbose, long-winded posts.
Never make blogging complex. Stop trying to cheat with AI. You’ll regret trying to get something for no-thing. Stop following hare-brained strategies dripping with difficulties. Never make your job harder. Stick to the basics to succeed.
8: Fight with Your Readers and/or Fellow Bloggers
Does this talisman of blogging wisdom sound asinine?
Query “blogging” on Twitter.
Do you see what I mean?
A “blogging” keyword search on Twitter yields some genuine value but a frequent orgy of political, religious, social media and sports-related fights, bickering and general madness.
Don’t do that.
Don’t pick fights with your readers and/or fellow bloggers.
Let go fear. Release the need to be right. Surrender the need to prove yourself.
Fighting displays fear. Fear is weakness. No reader desires to follow afraid, scared, weak-minded bloggers who feel so terrified that lashing out like a wild animal seems the only option for survival.
You are a kind, compassionate, peaceful person, not some wild animal.
Act like it.
Conclusion
This post offers a simple guide to nudge you in the proper direction.
Follow these basic guidelines to build a rock-solid foundation for your blogging campaign.
