Blogging Do's and Don'ts

People are under the misconception that anyone can write a blog. While this may be true, not everyone can be successful. In fact, some bloggers sabotage their success by failing to take action. If you want to be successful, here are just a few do's and don'ts for you to consider.

Do Blog Consistently

This is one of the most important tips you can follow. It's also a mistake I made in the beginning. In order to keep readers coming back to your blog, you need to blog consistently. If readers come back to your blog a week later, and don't see new material, they may never come back. Set a schedule for yourself and stick to it. Those that want to be extremely successful should consider posting an entry every day.

Don't Overuse Keywords

Yes, keywords are important. However, overusing keywords will cause search engines to think your blog is spam. Thus, it will be banned to the bottom of the search results. Your keyword should appear in the first sentence and once in each paragraph. You should also repeat the term in your last sentence.

Do Use SEO Friendly Headlines

It's important to use your key terms in the headline of your post. For example, a post with the keywords "fried chicken" might have a headline like "Fried Chicken Recipes: 10 Quick Fixes". Another tip to remember is to keep your title shorter than 65 characters.

Don't Post Too Many Back Links

Back links are a wonderful way to make your blog successful. Unfortunately, using too many back links that you posted yourself can discredit your blog. Once a while it is okay to post back links from answering sites, such as Yahoo! Answers, but only if your blog pertains to the question. Remember, the best back links will be those that were posted by someone else, specifically someone in the same field.

Do Stick to One Topic Per Blog

You may have thousands of blog post ideas running through your head, but the most successful blogs stick to one topic. If you have more than one topic idea, start a new blog. This way readers will see you as an expert on each topic.

Blogger success doesn't happen overnight. However, there are things you can do to ensure the process goes more quickly. Since I started using the tips listed above, I've seen a large increase in page views and you can too.