Tips for New Bloggers…

So we met a lot of people in Reno who seemed interested in starting their own blogs, so I thought some tips for the new, or not so new blogger might be a good topic to talk about.

1) if you want people to come to your blog, go comment on other people’s blogs. The blogging community is a give and take thing. This doesn’t mean make a big grand round and comment everywhere once or twice…and then don’t commment anymore. People won’t come back to your blog if you don’t come hopping to their blog.

2) blogs not open to comments. Yes, I realize some truly big time authors just can’t. But the rest of us ?? And if you’re on blogger, open your comments to non blogger members.

3) make a point to comment on the comments in your blog. Answer questions. Say hi to new people who comment on your blog, and pop over to their blog and say thanks for visiting my blog.

4) if possible, get a blog with an RSS feed. More and more people are reading blogs that way. They know which blogs are updated and can hop right over there and check out your posts. (I get the RSS feeds, but then click on the link to go directly to the blog to read the entry and comment, I think more and more people read blogs this way) I sometimes forget to go to blogs that don’t have the feeds directly pushed at me.

5) some people like snarky blogs. That’s fine. I personally don’t read the constantly snarky, ranting, whiney blogs. But some people do. Decide what tone you want for your blog. You’ll attract readers that want that type of postings.

6) remember you’re putting your words out there for everyone to read. Decide what information you’re comfortable telling the world about. And remember that if you post in haste, and delete it…it’s still probably out there somewhere cached where people can find it.

7) think about who you’re trying to attract to your blog. Other authors? Readers? General public? Tailor your posts for them.

8) don’t post that you’re too busy to blog hop, but ask people to still come by your blog. Uh, huh. You’re too busy to read their blogs, but you want them to come visit yours? You’ll notice as you get into blog hopping, that when people do this, their comments drop way off. Besides it’s rude.

9) If you’re going to be away for awhile…conference, vacation, life too hectice, whatever. Post a post about when you’ll be back. Then make the blog hopping rounds when you get back so people know you’re back.

10) a blog is a powerful tool for building traffic to your website. I’m getting 5 times the traffic I used to get in the 6 months I’ve been blogging.

11)okay, this a personal preference, but I prefer WordPress, Moveable type, and blog platforms such as that, rather than blogger or livejournal or free blogs. I think they look more professional, they save the commenters info so they don’t have to keep typing it in, and you should get great statistics through your control panel on your website. These platforms are free. WordPress is now designed for “themes” and there are TONS of free ones out there, or you can have someone design and set it up for you for not too much $$. Look for people who aren’t charging an arm and a leg to do this for you. Some have templates you can buy and have installed for about $50, and some will actually design and install for about $100. Most of them will have a portfolio of designs on their website you can look at. Webspace can be gotten for less than $10 a month. Stay away from free webspace with pop ups. Domain names are less the $10 a year to register now. Invest in your career.

Eleven. Weird number. But that’s how many I came up with. Any other tips you want to add?