6 Tips for Better Blogging Success – Avoiding the Pitfalls

Blogging has long been a vital component to building a successful online presence and cementing your role as a leader in your industry. While it has gone in and out of vogue in terms of big companies, successful small and medium businesses have long known that having a blog gives them access to tremendous advantages found nowhere else. 

However, you can’t just build a blog and expect success to materialize. This isn’t Field of Dreams – if you build it, they will NOT necessarily come. In order to see real success with blogging, you have to know a few things. Here are six vital tips for ensuring success no matter what your industry or niche.

It’s Not the Style, it’s Your Content

Everyone wants to have a polished, professional blog – the proliferation of stunning WordPress themes alone is evidence of this. However, you have to realize that being successful with blogging is about more than just having a sleek blog style. It’s about the content. If your blog lacks in quality content, then your readers have absolutely no reason to visit. They’re NOT going to come for the eye candy that is your blog’s theme. They want information, entertainment, connection and interesting content to read. Put your readers first and your design second (that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from a quality theme, though).

Tie in Your Other Online Efforts

Blogging is not (or shouldn’t be) your only online effort. You should have outlets in many different areas. For instance, you should certainly have a website for your brand, where your customers can come to get a feel for your products or services, as well as your company as a whole. You should also have social media accounts on networks like Facebook, Twitter, G+ and even Pinterest. Use your blog to tie all of these efforts together. Make it the central hub for all of your online marketing efforts and help ensure that your visitors can “connect the dots” and visit you in other places.

Clean Up Your Act

Going back to the design topic for just a moment, it’s vital that you clean things up. While there are plenty of widgets and doodads that promise benefits, overloading your pages is never a good thing. A quality blog that entices readers to stay and explore isn’t overloaded with shiny widgets and flashing lights. If you’re still living in the 90s, it’s time to bring your blog into the present. You’ll find a ton of high quality WordPress themes out there that provide substantial functionality without overwhelming your visitors and slowing down your page load times. Also, if you’re not using the WordPress framework, now is the time to consider switching.

Brief Posts Are Great

If you think that you have to write a book every time you make a blog post, think again. Your audience has a limited amount of time (and a limited attention span). In fact, lots of long blog posts could actually be harming your results here. Short posts can be excellent options. Limit the length of your posts unless you really have a lot to say. Keep long posts the exception rather than the rule. This increases the likelihood that your readers will actually stick around to read the entire post, rather than losing interest because your content just goes on and on and on. 

Make Your Content Shareable

Shareable content is the goal of everyone who operates a blog. While the content you post is the most significant factor here, you cannot afford to neglect sharing tools. Don’t expect your readers to go the extra mile on their own. They most likely will not go to the trouble of copying and pasting your URL to their Facebook page. Give them tools to make sharing easier. There are plenty of widgets out there that allow your readers to share your posts right from the page, and there are premium WordPress themes that offer this functionality without the need to add any widgets as well.

Images, Images, Images

We’re very visual creatures. Our eye is immediately drawn to pictures, art and other visual elements. Turn this to your advantage by including an image in every post. Of course, you need to ensure that you’re not stealing someone’s work – use public domain images in your posts, or get an account on a site like iStockPictures.com, where you can buy royalty free images. Having pictures in every post offers additional benefits as well, including the ability to add keywords to your image descriptions through the WordPress dashboard (which can help draw in additional traffic when used correctly).

Using these tips, you can build a blog that offers your readers a reason to stay and the ability to share your posts immediately with their own friends through social media.

I am fairly active on Reddit and these are some of the posts I recently published:

1. Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables
2. Range hood CFM calculator
3. Heirloom tomatoes
4. Limo Hire
5. Austin Rents
6. Scallops
7. MBA Programs
8. Dog Training
9. Foreclosure
10. Hiring an electrician

About the author

Olga Ionel is a creative writer at ThemeFuse.com. She is passionate about WordPress, SEO and Blogging. Don’t forget to check out stunning Premium WordPress Themes