Now let me start this brand new year saying "HAPPY, HEALTHY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR" to you and your family :) I'm pretty excited about the new year as I have many different goals to accomplish and I believe it's same for you too, even it could be in so many different levels. I know many of bloggers who follow the ethical blogging approach always as they don't use blogging just to be successful in their lives though it's a part of their business or online business. It doesn't mean they all had the right mindset when they start blogging, but the best part is now they are having the right attitude after being through many circumstances which even someone can't imagine. Do you have the right attitude in blogging?
There could be different reasons why you have started blogging. It could be to help others, just for fun, to impress someone, to earn money, just because someone told you to or you name others ;) Anyway, whatever it is, what matters now is that "YOU ARE A BLOGGER". Bloggers have different personalities and there's no duplicates in real blogging even you have been copying someone else's content. Simply, you can't be SOMEONE ELSE, so don't be.
We tend to do things wrong in blogging at some points, and next time or after several times, we may learn how to do them right ourselves or with the help of someone else. No expert will be there where they stand now without being a novice at the beginning. Always believe in yourself 'cause you can only follow someone's advice but not someone's life. If you tend to follow someone's life to be him or her, follow by learning the mistakes of that person not following the exact style. Be YOU always.
There are awesome bloggers around us, no matter they are novices or experts as someone call. Why don't we just learn from the bloggers around us for a moment? Not only by what they write on their blogs, but through their real-life moments. I can't help it and I need friends all the time to live the life I love. So I reached my lovely blogging friends and just asked a simple question from them like I did in one of my previous posts - How to Get Your Comments Approved. The question was,
I know with the Christmas season my friends could have been so busy out there. However I'd like to present all the wonderful tips I've got from my generous blogging friends and some were attached with their personal experiences too. Anyway, I didn't cut down any of them, instead I was amazed by the way they dealt with the question and different kind of opinions of them. So I'm revealing all they have shared with me, in the exact order I've got them. Let's learn from bloggers, from their unforgettable moments. This is the best part of the post and why not, start connecting with these 20+ interesting bloggers to be inspired in this year and to make it more wonderful and successful in blogging :) Just hover your mouse over the name and add to your Google+ circle rightaway.
+Daniel Sumner
I guess a great tip would be NOT to go it alone! We all need community around use to help us grow! Don't be selfish and not share content across your community.
+Claude Nougat
It perhaps most important is NOT to talk about myself. Even indirect selling of one's product doesn't seem to work; the posts that have been most successful are those that have content that is directly useful to your readers!
+Milind Shrivastava
Enjoy what you write and write for the readers, not search engines and make sure to split your time in between writing and connecting with the audience.
+Jon Whiting
I think the biggest thing I have noticed is that if you don't post regularly and consistently, people don't stick around. When looking at pageviews and other stats on my blog, pageviews drop dramatically during times when I went two or three weeks with out posting.
And during one stretch I went almost two months without posting... I thought that was going to be the end of my blog. But with steady posting, and constant networking I've been able to bring some people back and attract some new readers as well.
+Frank Woodman Jr
I think that the best tip I've had is that a blog without readers isn't going anywhere so you have to address getting followers and readers as much as you address content. We all give lip service to doing that but only a few really work on a plan and then implement it.
But blogging is like any other social media activity dependent on how many "followers" or "friends" you have. So content, site development, etc are important but a blog with lots of visitors and comments even with only general quality content is better than a blog with outstanding content and no readers.
+Sue Neal
I started out doing a blog on internet marketing, but never felt too comfortable with it. I've been much happier since I settled on the 'writing' niche - so, particularly if you're aiming to set up an authority-site type of blog, I'd say it's important to have a genuine interest in your subject - The more passionate you are about it, the better.
You don't necessarily need to be a great expert when you start out - but if you're not (I'm certainly no writing expert - still learning the craft as we speak!) you need to be honest about that and make it clear you're going to be sharing as you learn. Whatever your level of expertise, I think you need to have a desire to learn about the subject and share your knowledge with others.
+Sylviane Nuccio
I've learned that blogging in your own bubble doesn't work. I've learned that a blog is a platform where other bloggers and online marketers meet together each week and offer their feedbacks and inputs in the comment area.
Such back and forth discussion, in turn, attracts more new comers to the your blog and even helps your blog rank higher.
This does a snowball effect, and then, even encourage the blogger himself or herself to write more and more valuable articles always challenging themselves to go above and beyond.
As long as I didn't understand that, my blogs were going nowhere, but it started changing rapidly when I did.
+Lisa Buben
Too short posts (Under 300 words) and not starting or staying with same blog format (Blogger, WordPress etc.)
+Praveen Rajarao
"Do not start your blog with the sole purpose of making money". I started out with that intention and I should say that every post of mine and every single update to my blog was oriented towards that. I ended signing up for every possible affiliate programs out there and every CPC networks with zero revenue for a year.
When I took stock of what I had achieved with my blog at the end of a year, I realized that I earned many good friends (virtual) who were there reading my articles and appreciating my hardwork. That is what made me change my blog focus towards writing and contributing posts rather than monetizing.
+Carolyn Nicander Mohr
My lesson was: Don't mess with coding if you don't know what you're doing! Ask someone to help who knows how to code.
As far as writing articles goes, I would say, don't worry about what topic you think will get you lots of traffic. Write about what you think will help someone. If an article helps someone then you have written a valuable article.
I am constantly surprised by my traffic. Articles I think won't get much traffic will be very popular, usually because people were helped by the content.
+Margarita Slavkova
The biggest thing I learned is that I don't have to know in order to start doing that. Before I wanted everything to be perfect. Now I just write it. Always making sure that it is valuable to readers.
Also, when I write, I focus on my serving others, not on myself not being perfect.
+Chathu Perera
Earlier I shared some articles which I collect from my inbox, with my blogger friends. But later I realize, as a personal blogger, It's better to write my own thoughts. Because it's not suitable for my blog or my personality. And I know, readers of my blog expecting to read my thoughts, not the things I copied from somewhere.
If I do so, they can't trust me. They can't guarantee whether the thoughts which I share is mine or not. So I think it's better to share my natural feelings and thoughts, and gaining trust of my readers, by becoming/showing who I am. Then people will love to read them. That's what I learnt from my mistakes and I like to recommend this to other personal bloggers too.
+Roz Bennetts
I think it would be to make sure that posts are fun with videos and pictures and interesting for people top read rather than just text.
+Vidya Sury
The best blogging tip I have learned from my mistakes is - always write the post on the hard disk in a text file and THEN copy it to the Blogger editor because the autosave does not always work. When the browser sometimes freezes, and we reload the page, the post is gone. No draft. And it kills if it was one of those mega posts!
Another thing - if commenting on Blogger blogs, and if it is a long comment, always copy the comment before publishing - because once you choose profile, the page refreshes and there's no comment there. Gone. And it is so painful to think you've got to rewrite the comment. If by chance you publish comment and there's an error message, the comment has disappeared into cyberspace.
Yet another learning point: When using Publish this on Blogger from Picasa on your computer, remember only the picture gets saved in Google+ albums. Your post is lost. I lost 8 posts I saved to drafts from there.
+Jess Brown
I believe that would be to do keyword research. In the beginning, I wasn't doing that and no one was finding my blog. So I learned that I MUST do this no matter what.
+Jan Bierens
The best thing I have learnt from my own mistakes is "Do not be afraid to make a mistake". When you start blogging you want everything to be perfect and it needs making mistakes to get better at blogging. Not only at blogging mind you...
So not being afraid to MAKE mistakes is the best lesson I learned from making mistakes.
+Vanita Cyril
Never let anyone convince you you're not good enough. If blogging makes you happy... Go for it. Being happy and enjoying it... What's important.
+Sapna Kumari
There was a tip from one of the blogger that the biggest platform for blogging is WordPress, I at time was developing my website in asp.net, I have still some page in asp.net. Thank God I switched over to WP and saved my life otherwise I would have kept coding for every feature that WP is providing as Plugin.
+Corinne Rodrigues
The best blogging tip I've learned is to respond to comments - although it's an area I'm still working on.
+Harleena Singh
Though I am still learning every single day, but what I've learnt from my mistakes is to prioritize your work. Blogging is a full-time job that requires your undivided attention and patience, but then so is your family and other things. There was a time when I was blogging and doing other things more than looking after my kid's and family, which I regret.
It all does come down to time-management, and cutting yourself off from the social media and other distractions. Work when you have to work without any kind of distractions, and close everything when you need to be with your loved ones. If you are able to do this, you can create a beautiful balance between work and family, and enjoy your blogging too.
+Carol Lynn Rivera
I learned that you have to keep testing your forms to make sure they're working. For example, we had a contact form once that was accidentally set only to accept a certain number of submissions. So once we hit that number, the form shut down. I never even noticed until much later, so who knows how many people tried to contact me and couldn't? Test your email submission forms, too.
In fact, just recently I discovered that one of my subscribe forms wasn't working - of course it was the one right in the middle of my home page! It's a good thing I caught it because I have no idea how many subscriptions I missed, or how many more I might have missed. So keep testing... over and over, on a regular schedule, even if you think something is working.
Sometimes things stop working. Especially when it comes to blogging, you go through a lot of effort to get people to contact you and to subscribe, so it's a wasted effort if you're losing those opportunities.
+Barry Wells
Check every comment before approving them because track back spam and malware sites can cause you loads of headaches. Not to mention the time it takes to find and remove the offenders.
Just because someone comments on your site and praises your writing doesn't mean they have your best interests in mind. Always always check your comments until you know the person leaving them properly.
+Adrienne Smith
Remain consistent with the daily action steps that will bring results. Consistency is the key and most people get frustrated after one week or even one month when they aren't seeing the results they had hoped for. Just like with driving traffic to your site or even building up your comments. This all takes time and trust me, it will be worth it in the end.
+Donna Merrill
When I first started to blog, I didn't join any groups, tribes or communities. Once I started joining them, the reciprocity of comments and going back to comment on them were amazing. That's why I named my blog DonnaMerrillTribe, after I read a book by Seth Godin.
+Maureen H
I've made a lot of mistakes blogging and being friends with blogging experts really help me learning. (Big shout out to Vanita Cyril!). My biggest mistake was when I transferred my hosting company, my Google PR rank disappeared. I ignored it thinking it's not a big deal. Well two years later? My old blog didn't show up on Google search. Thankfully, Vanita was able to help me out and now my new domain have a Google PR rank. Don't under estimate Google PR Rank even when at first they don't sounds very significant.
I'm really glad I asked them. Personally, I've found many great tips here for me to follow in this new year. I'm thankful for everyone who contributed this post with their awesome tips and stories behind them. Without their contribution, this would have been just another post I guess :) Wouldn't you agree?
I strongly believe this will be a helpful post for bloggers to learn and start with a fresh motive in this year to embrace change and improve their blogging experience without going to dead ends.
One simple thought in my mind for you is that just think about what we can do as a WHOLE rather than an INDIVIDUAL in this year :) You have a blog and mostly you alone manage it. It's perfectly alright. Join hands and start cooperating more in this year thinking outside the box. Engage with relevant people and build your authority outside your blog :)
Now, let me know, what tips you would love to follow in this year? :) You have been wondering like me after going through all the tips they have shared here?
If you have a tip you have learnt that haven't mentioned above, I'm inviting you to join the discussion and mention them in your comments. Let's help guide bloggers to the right direction as we can.
What is Your Attitude?
There could be different reasons why you have started blogging. It could be to help others, just for fun, to impress someone, to earn money, just because someone told you to or you name others ;) Anyway, whatever it is, what matters now is that "YOU ARE A BLOGGER". Bloggers have different personalities and there's no duplicates in real blogging even you have been copying someone else's content. Simply, you can't be SOMEONE ELSE, so don't be.
We tend to do things wrong in blogging at some points, and next time or after several times, we may learn how to do them right ourselves or with the help of someone else. No expert will be there where they stand now without being a novice at the beginning. Always believe in yourself 'cause you can only follow someone's advice but not someone's life. If you tend to follow someone's life to be him or her, follow by learning the mistakes of that person not following the exact style. Be YOU always.
Bloggers Inspiring Bloggers
There are awesome bloggers around us, no matter they are novices or experts as someone call. Why don't we just learn from the bloggers around us for a moment? Not only by what they write on their blogs, but through their real-life moments. I can't help it and I need friends all the time to live the life I love. So I reached my lovely blogging friends and just asked a simple question from them like I did in one of my previous posts - How to Get Your Comments Approved. The question was,
"What is the best blogging tip you have learnt from your mistakes?"
I know with the Christmas season my friends could have been so busy out there. However I'd like to present all the wonderful tips I've got from my generous blogging friends and some were attached with their personal experiences too. Anyway, I didn't cut down any of them, instead I was amazed by the way they dealt with the question and different kind of opinions of them. So I'm revealing all they have shared with me, in the exact order I've got them. Let's learn from bloggers, from their unforgettable moments. This is the best part of the post and why not, start connecting with these 20+ interesting bloggers to be inspired in this year and to make it more wonderful and successful in blogging :) Just hover your mouse over the name and add to your Google+ circle rightaway.
+Daniel Sumner
I guess a great tip would be NOT to go it alone! We all need community around use to help us grow! Don't be selfish and not share content across your community.
+Claude Nougat
It perhaps most important is NOT to talk about myself. Even indirect selling of one's product doesn't seem to work; the posts that have been most successful are those that have content that is directly useful to your readers!
+Milind Shrivastava
Enjoy what you write and write for the readers, not search engines and make sure to split your time in between writing and connecting with the audience.
+Jon Whiting
I think the biggest thing I have noticed is that if you don't post regularly and consistently, people don't stick around. When looking at pageviews and other stats on my blog, pageviews drop dramatically during times when I went two or three weeks with out posting.
And during one stretch I went almost two months without posting... I thought that was going to be the end of my blog. But with steady posting, and constant networking I've been able to bring some people back and attract some new readers as well.
+Frank Woodman Jr
I think that the best tip I've had is that a blog without readers isn't going anywhere so you have to address getting followers and readers as much as you address content. We all give lip service to doing that but only a few really work on a plan and then implement it.
But blogging is like any other social media activity dependent on how many "followers" or "friends" you have. So content, site development, etc are important but a blog with lots of visitors and comments even with only general quality content is better than a blog with outstanding content and no readers.
+Sue Neal
I started out doing a blog on internet marketing, but never felt too comfortable with it. I've been much happier since I settled on the 'writing' niche - so, particularly if you're aiming to set up an authority-site type of blog, I'd say it's important to have a genuine interest in your subject - The more passionate you are about it, the better.
You don't necessarily need to be a great expert when you start out - but if you're not (I'm certainly no writing expert - still learning the craft as we speak!) you need to be honest about that and make it clear you're going to be sharing as you learn. Whatever your level of expertise, I think you need to have a desire to learn about the subject and share your knowledge with others.
+Sylviane Nuccio
I've learned that blogging in your own bubble doesn't work. I've learned that a blog is a platform where other bloggers and online marketers meet together each week and offer their feedbacks and inputs in the comment area.
Such back and forth discussion, in turn, attracts more new comers to the your blog and even helps your blog rank higher.
This does a snowball effect, and then, even encourage the blogger himself or herself to write more and more valuable articles always challenging themselves to go above and beyond.
As long as I didn't understand that, my blogs were going nowhere, but it started changing rapidly when I did.
+Lisa Buben
Too short posts (Under 300 words) and not starting or staying with same blog format (Blogger, WordPress etc.)
+Praveen Rajarao
"Do not start your blog with the sole purpose of making money". I started out with that intention and I should say that every post of mine and every single update to my blog was oriented towards that. I ended signing up for every possible affiliate programs out there and every CPC networks with zero revenue for a year.
When I took stock of what I had achieved with my blog at the end of a year, I realized that I earned many good friends (virtual) who were there reading my articles and appreciating my hardwork. That is what made me change my blog focus towards writing and contributing posts rather than monetizing.
+Carolyn Nicander Mohr
My lesson was: Don't mess with coding if you don't know what you're doing! Ask someone to help who knows how to code.
As far as writing articles goes, I would say, don't worry about what topic you think will get you lots of traffic. Write about what you think will help someone. If an article helps someone then you have written a valuable article.
I am constantly surprised by my traffic. Articles I think won't get much traffic will be very popular, usually because people were helped by the content.
+Margarita Slavkova
The biggest thing I learned is that I don't have to know in order to start doing that. Before I wanted everything to be perfect. Now I just write it. Always making sure that it is valuable to readers.
Also, when I write, I focus on my serving others, not on myself not being perfect.
+Chathu Perera
Earlier I shared some articles which I collect from my inbox, with my blogger friends. But later I realize, as a personal blogger, It's better to write my own thoughts. Because it's not suitable for my blog or my personality. And I know, readers of my blog expecting to read my thoughts, not the things I copied from somewhere.
If I do so, they can't trust me. They can't guarantee whether the thoughts which I share is mine or not. So I think it's better to share my natural feelings and thoughts, and gaining trust of my readers, by becoming/showing who I am. Then people will love to read them. That's what I learnt from my mistakes and I like to recommend this to other personal bloggers too.
+Roz Bennetts
I think it would be to make sure that posts are fun with videos and pictures and interesting for people top read rather than just text.
+Vidya Sury
The best blogging tip I have learned from my mistakes is - always write the post on the hard disk in a text file and THEN copy it to the Blogger editor because the autosave does not always work. When the browser sometimes freezes, and we reload the page, the post is gone. No draft. And it kills if it was one of those mega posts!
Another thing - if commenting on Blogger blogs, and if it is a long comment, always copy the comment before publishing - because once you choose profile, the page refreshes and there's no comment there. Gone. And it is so painful to think you've got to rewrite the comment. If by chance you publish comment and there's an error message, the comment has disappeared into cyberspace.
Yet another learning point: When using Publish this on Blogger from Picasa on your computer, remember only the picture gets saved in Google+ albums. Your post is lost. I lost 8 posts I saved to drafts from there.
+Jess Brown
I believe that would be to do keyword research. In the beginning, I wasn't doing that and no one was finding my blog. So I learned that I MUST do this no matter what.
+Jan Bierens
The best thing I have learnt from my own mistakes is "Do not be afraid to make a mistake". When you start blogging you want everything to be perfect and it needs making mistakes to get better at blogging. Not only at blogging mind you...
So not being afraid to MAKE mistakes is the best lesson I learned from making mistakes.
+Vanita Cyril
Never let anyone convince you you're not good enough. If blogging makes you happy... Go for it. Being happy and enjoying it... What's important.
+Sapna Kumari
There was a tip from one of the blogger that the biggest platform for blogging is WordPress, I at time was developing my website in asp.net, I have still some page in asp.net. Thank God I switched over to WP and saved my life otherwise I would have kept coding for every feature that WP is providing as Plugin.
+Corinne Rodrigues
The best blogging tip I've learned is to respond to comments - although it's an area I'm still working on.
+Harleena Singh
Though I am still learning every single day, but what I've learnt from my mistakes is to prioritize your work. Blogging is a full-time job that requires your undivided attention and patience, but then so is your family and other things. There was a time when I was blogging and doing other things more than looking after my kid's and family, which I regret.
It all does come down to time-management, and cutting yourself off from the social media and other distractions. Work when you have to work without any kind of distractions, and close everything when you need to be with your loved ones. If you are able to do this, you can create a beautiful balance between work and family, and enjoy your blogging too.
+Carol Lynn Rivera
I learned that you have to keep testing your forms to make sure they're working. For example, we had a contact form once that was accidentally set only to accept a certain number of submissions. So once we hit that number, the form shut down. I never even noticed until much later, so who knows how many people tried to contact me and couldn't? Test your email submission forms, too.
In fact, just recently I discovered that one of my subscribe forms wasn't working - of course it was the one right in the middle of my home page! It's a good thing I caught it because I have no idea how many subscriptions I missed, or how many more I might have missed. So keep testing... over and over, on a regular schedule, even if you think something is working.
Sometimes things stop working. Especially when it comes to blogging, you go through a lot of effort to get people to contact you and to subscribe, so it's a wasted effort if you're losing those opportunities.
+Barry Wells
Check every comment before approving them because track back spam and malware sites can cause you loads of headaches. Not to mention the time it takes to find and remove the offenders.
Just because someone comments on your site and praises your writing doesn't mean they have your best interests in mind. Always always check your comments until you know the person leaving them properly.
+Adrienne Smith
Remain consistent with the daily action steps that will bring results. Consistency is the key and most people get frustrated after one week or even one month when they aren't seeing the results they had hoped for. Just like with driving traffic to your site or even building up your comments. This all takes time and trust me, it will be worth it in the end.
+Donna Merrill
When I first started to blog, I didn't join any groups, tribes or communities. Once I started joining them, the reciprocity of comments and going back to comment on them were amazing. That's why I named my blog DonnaMerrillTribe, after I read a book by Seth Godin.
+Maureen H
I've made a lot of mistakes blogging and being friends with blogging experts really help me learning. (Big shout out to Vanita Cyril!). My biggest mistake was when I transferred my hosting company, my Google PR rank disappeared. I ignored it thinking it's not a big deal. Well two years later? My old blog didn't show up on Google search. Thankfully, Vanita was able to help me out and now my new domain have a Google PR rank. Don't under estimate Google PR Rank even when at first they don't sounds very significant.
I'm Thankful. Do You?
I'm really glad I asked them. Personally, I've found many great tips here for me to follow in this new year. I'm thankful for everyone who contributed this post with their awesome tips and stories behind them. Without their contribution, this would have been just another post I guess :) Wouldn't you agree?
I strongly believe this will be a helpful post for bloggers to learn and start with a fresh motive in this year to embrace change and improve their blogging experience without going to dead ends.
One simple thought in my mind for you is that just think about what we can do as a WHOLE rather than an INDIVIDUAL in this year :) You have a blog and mostly you alone manage it. It's perfectly alright. Join hands and start cooperating more in this year thinking outside the box. Engage with relevant people and build your authority outside your blog :)
Now, let me know, what tips you would love to follow in this year? :) You have been wondering like me after going through all the tips they have shared here?
If you have a tip you have learnt that haven't mentioned above, I'm inviting you to join the discussion and mention them in your comments. Let's help guide bloggers to the right direction as we can.
