Blog Tipz

So, you’ve started a blog. It can’t be too hard to reach the level of the “professional” bloggers in due time – hopefully within the next year. But, wait a minute. They must have had to go to school to learn how to market and promote their blog. It must have cost a fortune in both time and money to get to the level they are at – through massive marketing campaigns, connecting through conferences and speaking to large audiences. Wrong.

Saying that it takes years to get to the level of a professional blogger, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Some of the professional bloggers took less than a year to get to a level of fame, although in many cases, they had a wide range of smaller bloggers help promote them, finding that they had content unique compared to theirs.

In fact, you don’t have to spend an hour sitting in a classroom setting, but rather invest time each day in learning how to do each of the following things (I’d advise against spending money on e-books unless you are desperate to find out how to do something) online. Everything is right there – you just need to know what to look for and what is required of as a blogger.

• Writing Skills – Learn about sentence structure, what constitutes as a great blog post, and other general writing advice. Don’t be concerned if your writing knowledge isn’t as good as others – it will become better as you spend more time practicing.
• SEO and Optimization – It’s really quite simple to optimize your content. Just realize that you need to create a balance between the number of keywords you use and ‘real’ content, otherwise you’ll lose out in the ned. You need to outsmart your competition in being able to promote your blog or website.
• Social Networking - A new term within the past few years, this allows you to connect and utilize services that focus on being able to promote your name and/or business through non-traditional methods, such as through Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. It can be as easy as writing a post, inviting your readers to subscribe to and follow you through these sites, leading to a more ‘connected’ blog and profile.
• Design - Your blog requires you to be able to design images, text, etc., so you need some background knowledge on what is appealing and what isn’t. This is beyond coding, it is the overall experience (user interface) that you have presented to your readers when they visit your site.
• Coding (XHTML and CSS, Possibly PHP) - The back-end (in terms of what is displayed on your visitors’ screens) coding system used to generate the design, spacing, and style of your blog. Once you master some of the main elements, you will be able to save time and money, not having to use someone else’s design and not having to hire someone for smaller projects.
• Marketing - A sector that is nearly always been crowded, you don’t want to hire someone that can do what you can learn in just a few hours (spread out over a month or so period). In marketing, you need to analyze when is a good time to promote your site, where to purchase advertising, and how to scale up your site to meet new needs.
• Common Sense - If you’re blogging for yourself, this is an even more important issue. Don’t make mistakes that could cost you or people connected with your blog unnecessary time and money. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a blog that doesn’t have any respect for its writers – the people who, should in fact be seeing the most of it for their dedication.
• Internet, Productivity Skills - A majority of the developed world has had Internet access for a number of years. However, you still need to continually find ways that will enable you to cut down on the time spent doing activities that don’t really benefit or affect your blog. In other words, focus on what will help you in the long-term, rather the short-term.

The writer of a blog is much like the stay-at-home mom whose regular tasks are often overlooked by people who don’t fill their positions. As a blogger, you have to be able to do more than simply manage the content and continue to update your blog, but to continually hone in one the skills that define you as a blogger and web publisher. In the end, it may all pay off immensely in the relationships and potentially earnings, if you have that desire.

Once you have balanced all the daily tasks, you will be able to expand your brand to multiple niches, such as being able to cover multiple sub-niches on your site. Until then, it will be difficult to define the direction that you want to take your blog in.