Seven Keys to Better Blogging

Seven Keys to Better Blogging

My Blog is called Better Blogging with Michael Martine. So, naturally, I feel it’s important to explain exactly what I mean by “better blogging.” What is better blogging? I have identified seven key areas in which any blogger could consistently improve. These seven areas, if regularly attended to, will enable any blogger to maximize her or his effectiveness:

1. Content Production (writing, images, video, audio)
2. Blog Design
3. Search Engine Optimization
4. Social Engagement (social media, commenting, participation)
5. Monetization
6. Tools
7. Productivity

Content Production

I had originally conceived of this as writing, but blogs are more than just writing. Most of my other blogs, for example, contain very little writing. Their content is mostly video. Many bloggers provide content in more than one form of media. Podcasting in both audio and video is big stuff and getting bigger. Since most blogs feature writing as the main form of content, most of the posts here on content production will also be about writing. Good writing principles never change, so it’s important to revisit the basics.

Being a better blogger means creating the best possible content you can, and understanding your medium so you can maximize your message.

Blog Design

Blog design is more than just choosing a blog theme or template. Many such themes and templates can easily be customized. We can add and rearrange widgets and blocks of content. We can change colors and pictures. And within each blog post, we have to decide on a composition of elements. There are similarities in blog design that allow people to tell a blog from a non-blog website, but these same similarities make it harder for your blog to stand out from the sea of themes and templates. We know that design matters, therefore blog design matters.

Being a better blogger means understanding blog design and realizing your vision for your blog’s design.

Search Engine Optimization

Better blogs place well in search engine results for keywords related to the blogs’ subjects. Every blogger who wants to reach an audience, for any reason, needs to know the basics of search engine optimization (SEO), even if it’s just so the most appropriate and effective SEO services can be purchased. But bloggers in general tend to be do-it-yourself-ers, so I think we’ll have a lot of fun with this one.

Being a better blogger means understanding search concepts and applying them to rank well in search results.

Social Engagement

Blogs are about people. That is such a simple statement, yet it’s also profound and has far-reaching implications. People are social creatures, and when you blog, you find yourself in the midst of a community. There’s everyone, called the blogosphere, and then there’s the few people you’re “blog buddies” with. Somewhere in between these two extremes lies everything else. You have peers who are writing similar blogs to your own, you have potential customers and clients, and you may even have enemies and detractors! There are many methods for engaging with the blogging community, and there are better and worse ways to go about it. One characteristic I’ve noticed about better blogs is that they are deeply entrenched in a raging internet social scene, and that their social contacts are not limited to their IM buddy list.

Being a better blogger means being socially engaged with people both online and offline in a way that strengthens the relationships and enhances the lives of everyone involved.

Monetization

With almost every blog I’ve seen that I would consider a better blog, it’s clear that the blogger(s) profit from the blog. There are many ways to do this besides AdSense, and it is very easy for one misstep to do a lot of damage. Trust and reputation are everything in the blogosphere, worth more than gold. You know that sick feeling you get when someone you trusted sold you out? Making money from blogging should feel like the opposite of that. Everybody should be happy about it on all sides of the equation: bloggers, readers, sponsors, and service providers. A truly win-win situation.

Being a better blogger means making money from blogging in a way that increases trust and reputation.

Tools

Anyone who is good at what they do knows how to use the tools of their trade to best effect, and blogging is no different than other activities in this regard. Because blogging is so intrinsically related to technological advances and influenced by new ideas and trends, effective tool use is necessary for success. Bloggers face an endless array of choices in platform, software, blog widgets, and third party tools such as advertising or analytics.

Being a better blogger means understanding your tools and using them to maximum effect to achieve productivity and blogging goals.

Productivity

Productivity is an elusive goal, and we are often our own worst enemies in its pursuit. Successful blogging—better blogging—requires discipline and determination, but often, there is helpful information, tips, and tricks that help us be productive. Out of the seven areas that help us all be better bloggers, this one is the most personal, because it touches on what kind of people we are psychologically, as well as what methods we employ.

Being a better blogger means using methods that increase productivity and overcoming your own limitations via discipline and determination in order to be more productive in a greater, more personal sense.

The Seven Areas on Better Blogging

I wrote this post as both an explanation and a manifesto. These seven points will form the major categories for all future posts and articles here at Better Blogging with Michael Martine.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogs, better blogging, blog better, improve blogging, wordpress, tools, productivity, blogging productivity, seo, blog design, blog monetization