Successful Blogging: Creating and Maintaining a Blog that Attracts Followers

The art of blogging is different than any other writing. It is important to follow certain principles in order to set your blog apart. The tips below will help you start, maintain, and grow a successful blog. Blogger.com and typepad.com are two very popular places that you can sign up for a blog if you don't already have one.

1. Establish the purpose of your blog. Decide whether it is for comic book lovers, writers, your family, Christian women, military families, etc. Does it have a purpose to inform people, connect people, or just keep friends abreast of your daily happenings? Once you have decided on your purpose you can tailor your blog posts to fit that purpose. You probably want to avoid varying from your theme too often because your blog is functional for your readers in a specific way and they will come to expect that. This does not mean you need to bore your audience; it simply means that if you have a blog for writers don't talk about your cat for three weeks straight.

2. Update it regularly. When people stumble across your blog on the web they will want to make sure it is a blog that is updated on a regular basis. When someone starts following a blog it is discouraging to find that the blogger only updates it sporadically. There is no way for the reader to be sure about when to come back and check for new posts. However, if you generally update it every weekday, or every Tuesday, then readers know when to come back to visit your blog. You can also include a "subscribe" link on your blog so that readers can receive an e-mail every time you post something new.

3. Find your blog voice. Most readers come to know and love you through your blog voice. This voice is the specific way you speak to your readers through your posts. Do you have a business tone that readers will enjoy? Perhaps you have mastered the art of kind sarcasm, or perhaps you use a witty tone to relay information. Find your voice (it should be something that comes naturally to you) and use it often. Knowing your audience will help you determine your voice and content as well. Who is reading your blog? What type of people would you like to attract to it? Write to those people.

4. Promote yourself. Link your facebook, MySpace, twitter account, or personal webpage to your blog to attract readers. Join online communities that share your same interests as a way to promote your blog. You can e-mail out specific blog posts to your friends to draw them in as readers.

5. Network. A really effective way to attract readers to your site is to read and comment on other blogs. You should follow a number of other blogs on a consistent basis. Specifically follow blogs that relate to your areas of interest and ones that have similar content to yours. Make sincere, well thought out comments on other blogs. People will eventually travel back to your page and check out what you have to say. If you follow blogs in your line of interest, it is likely that the readers of that blog may have some form of interest in yours. Post links on your blog to other blog posts that you find interesting. If appropriate, let the blog owner know that you have posted the link. Hopefully your online acquaintances and friends will post links to your blog too. This will increase traffic and improve your PageRank with Google (for more information on PageRank click here). A free membership with sites like Digg.com also offer you the opportunity to post links to your blog and attract readers.

6. Add your blog/website to the listing with both Google and Yahoo! If you go to http://www.google.com/addurl or http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html you will be allowed to submit your URL (which may look like this - http://exampleurl.blogspot.com) to the Google and Yahoo! search engines. This can improve your visibility when people search for your name, or search topics that you cover on your site.

7. Ask for reader involvement. Poll your readers to see what they find most useful, or what they want more of. You can make free surveys and polls at polldaddy.com, esurveyspro.com, or surveymonkey.com among many other places. Readers love interaction and the results of your poll may help you write content more relevant to your audience.

When blogging remember to ask yourself, "What am I contributing?" Is it information, tips, funny stories, statistics, or anecdotes? Make sure your blog and your posts have a definite purpose.

Don't try to blog in a vacuum. Search the web and find other blogs; see what works and find what you like. Use visually pleasing formatting on your blog to immediately attract attention. Remember to make it personal and be yourself; that is what people like!