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how to be a better blogger

The Simple 10-Step Guide To Better Blogging

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There are millions of blogs on the web, and hundreds of thousands of blogs get added onto the web every day. With the amount of blogs on the web rapidly increasing, more people than ever are looking for ways to become better bloggers and get more traffic. If you are one of those many people, you have come to the right place. In this blog post, I am going to provide you with the 10 steps that many bloggers including myself have used to become better at what they do.

  1. Identify your niche. You need to know what your niche is before you write your first blog post.
  2. Get comfortable with the dashboard. Getting comfortable with your dashboard means knowing how to publish a new post, publish a new page, add sidebar widgets to your blog, and more.
  3. Read other people’s blogs. Doing this will allow you to learn more about your niche. Even if you just read other people’s blog posts for 15 minutes every day, you’re ahead of the game.
  4. Get ideas from other blog posts and from idea generators. This makes the process of thinking of ideas easier. When writer’s block hits, blog post idea generators and other blog posts come to the rescue.
  5. Only write about the things you enjoy writing about. You may be writing about the same thing for years to come, so make sure you have fun every step of the way.
  6. Keep it simple. I could have added an extra 5,000 words to this blog post and convey the same messages, but I don’t think you would want to read a blog post that large.
  7. Make it easier for your visitors to read your entire blog posts. Make them shorter, make lists, use bold font so some people with busy schedules can skim through the content, and write in bite sized paragraphs instead of one giant block of text.
  8. Write better headlines. Headlines attract people to your blog post and encourage them to keep on reading. Here are some ways to write better headlines.
  9. Practice every day. If you are able to practice every day, you are naturally going to get better at what you practice in. Why not practice writing every day?
  10. Never limit your scope of possibility. Why settle with where you are when you can do something much greater and more empowering.

Implementing these 10 steps will allow you to become a better blogger and write in a style that would encourage visitors to come back. Which step was your favorite?

 

Think You’re Cut Out For Blogging? Take This Quiz

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Blogging Quiz

One of my favorite toys to play with as a kid was the 20Q toy. I enjoyed how I could respond to 20 questions, and somehow the 20Q toy would always know what I was thinking about. I decided to mix the 20Q toy with my love of blogging to come up with a 20 question quiz to determine whether you are cut out for blogging–and being successful at it–or not.

  1. Can you write blog posts every day for many years to come? The right answer is yes.
  2. Do you believe your traffic will dramatically increase overnight? The right answer is no.
  3. How long will it take for your blog to become popular? The right answer is at least one year.
  4. Are you writing about what you enjoy? The right answer is yes.
  5. Is a blog merely a place to promote a product? The right answer is no.
  6. Is a blog a place to show ads? The right answer is no (more on this here)
  7. Will you trade in your passion for money? The right answer is no.
  8. Will you treat blogging as a hobby? The right answer is not forever. It will become more than that.
  9. Would you blog even if you knew you wouldn’t make any money from it? The right answer is yes. It takes some bloggers a few years before seeing a huge profit.
  10. Would you write a blog post late into the night if you had to? The right answer is yes. If you enjoy blogging enough, writing late into the night won’t be a problem.
  11. Do you read books? The right answer is yes.
  12. Are you only blogging for the money? The right answer is no.
  13. Do you want to avoid making mistakes? The right answer is no. We all make mistakes anyway. As hard as it is to believe, I make mistakes too (okay, my ego got the best of me there).
  14. Do you envision your blog becoming successful? The right answer is yes.
  15. Do you want to be an author? The right answer is yes. If you want to be an author, then you would also make for a really good blogger.
  16. Are you blogging just to get more traffic? The right answer is no.
  17. Is blog traffic more important than having fun writing the content? The right answer is no.
  18. Are you happy with where you are? As long as you keep on growing and never settle, it’s great to be happy with where you are. If you settle, there’s a problem.
  19. Do you set goals for yourself? The right answer is yes.
  20. Would you write for a guest blog? The right answer is yes. This shows you enjoy writing content and getting traffic to the point where you would write for someone else. This will make you a better blogger and writer when you write for your own blog and publish your own books.

If you had the right answers for most of these questions, then you are ready. If you got more than five answers wrong, you need to change your thinking about what it means to have a blog and write blog posts.

How did you do on the quiz?

 

3 Reasons To Ask Questions In Your Blog Posts

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Questions

In a world where everyone focuses on quality content, SEO, and getting more traffic, there is a tiny detail that many bloggers forget to include in their blog post. Not including this element of a blog post makes these bloggers lose engagement and strong connections (some of those connections lead to sales). The element of a blog post that most people forget about is asking questions.

I always make sure I see one question in a blog post that I publish. I actually search for the question mark using the word finder just to make sure. The reason I make sure I am asking questions in my blog posts is because there are three powerful outcomes of asking questions in your blog posts.

  1. Your visitors will feel as if they are having a conversation with you. Asking a question in one of your blog posts starts a dialogue. The visitor has to think of an answer to that question. Then, as you ask more questions in your blog posts, the conversation will build. How do you think I am doing with this blog post so far? Your response is the continuation of our conversation that is currently taking place.
  2. You blog posts will get more comments. If you ask questions, you will start a conversation. The only problem for the particular conversation taking place (such as the one in this blog post), a visitor cannot ask a blogger a question and get a quick response. I can ask you how your day was and get a quick response. If you ask me how my day was, you would still be staring at a blank screen. In order to get a response from me or any other blogger who asks questions, a visitor would have to leave a comment below to get the proper response. How many comments do your blog posts get? Imagine what would happen if you could double that number. Asking questions throughout your blog posts makes that possible.
  3. Passive reading turns into active reading. If there are no questions in a blog post, then the visitor is passively reading that blog post. When you ask a question, you are turning passive reading into active reading. You are forcing your visitor to go from scrolling through your content to think of an honest answer.

Those are the three big reasons why you need to ask more questions in your blog posts. How did you like the blog post? What are your thoughts on asking questions in your blog posts? Please share your thoughts below.