OK, so you started a blog and you are very excited about it. You have a lot of ideas but something just keeps going wrong. Well, here are a few tips to help you improve your blog and your status as a blogger.

Your blog

• Your Feed doesn’t work! Subscribe to it and make sure it works as you intended. Customize your feed (if you can). If it doesn’t work, how am I suppose to read what you post?
• Chose a proper theme for your blog! So you write about World of Warcraft but have a theme with fluffy kittens? That’s not going to work. Content is king but if you have an ugly theme with lots of things flashing at the same time, I’m not going to come back.
• Always state the source! There is nothing nastier, even on the Interwebz, than to steal from others. Always link back to your source.
• No contact method! I want to praise you and I have no means to contact you. Put an e-mail address visible on your blog or even a contact form. People will eventually want to ask you things and if they don’t know how to contact you, chances may fly by.
• No author page! Who are you? What do you want from me? Write a bit about yourself, people want to know who is the guy they are reading.
• No links to other blogs! Best way to get yourself known without begging. Link to blogs you enjoy and admire. They will notice and if they like what they see, will link back.
• Let everyone comment on your blog! Enabling user registration = instant death. People will not register on your blog just to comment. Let everyone do it. That’s why there are moderation options.
• Subscribe to comments option! I comment on several blogs. I don’t have time to come back to each of them to check if someone replied. Get it now?
• Use Wordpress! True story.
• Backup your blog and do it often! You never know what may happen.

Yourself

• Read other blogs! And learn from them. Don’t steal.
• Get involved! Comment on other blogs, participate in communities with good insights, get yourself noticed without spamming.
• Write! Do it often, do it good. If you like to write insightful posts, take your time. Even if you write a post once every week or month but it takes me 5 hours to fully understand it, you have me as a faithful reader.

Advertising/monetizing your blog

• Learn how to use Adsense! Don’t just put it there. Read ahead.
• Keep it simple! Don’t crowd your blog with lots of widgets or adverts. Usually, if I see more than 3-5 advertisements on a blog I don’t get past the first page. Blogging should not be about making money. That’s a consequence of being good at it.

Write good content, be active and creative. If you do these, people will come back to read you.