What Makes a Good Blog?

Good content is in the eye of the beholder. What could mean good content for person A could be just more Spam for person B. However, the standard in good content is lots of useful information and not much html.

Over on Squidoo.com I am on their top-ten-lensmaster (webmaster) list. Squidoo is a cross between blogging and being paid to write articles. Like blogging, to come out on top on Squidoo, you must write good content. Content is king. Here is what I tell people, when I am asked what the secret to my success was. This was written with Squidoo in mind, but much of it applies to blogs as well. In fact, I run 32 different blogs, and I use the same method on my blogs that I do on Squidoo.

QUESTION: What is your secret to lens success?

ANSWER:

I have created several top ranking Squidoo, lenses, 4 of which are in the Squidoo top 1,000 and one that not only made it to the top 100 it made it all the way to #32! So, what is my secret to building high-ranking lenses that sweep in money?

Content. Lots of it!

Love of my topic, overflowing with a rabid obsession for my hobbies and the desire to share my knowledge with others.

Money Making Modules staggered throughout instead on all in one place.

Lots of links to topic related web sites.

Focus on content. Your readers want a unique point of view about topics they enjoy. What are you passionate about? What do you have expertise in? THAT is what you should write about. Just write good content. People like that. Write about what you know and your readers well love you for it. The more you write, the more folks will keep coming back to read what you wrote. Do not be afraid to let your lens get really long. Love your topic and talk about it!

Do not focus on making money. Focus on informing your readers. If you focus on making money, your readers will know it, and they probably will not stay on your lens too long. Squidoo is filled with spammy moneymaking lenses owned by folks wondering why their lenses are not making any money. Well, I ask you: What content have they included to attract readers? The answer: none. Readers do not care if you make money or not, they want to know what you have to say about your chosen topic. Love your topic!

Give your readers a break. On Squidoo, I mix my personal text content with some Money Maker Modules (Amazon, CafePress, and eBay being my top 3 faves!). Think of it as a TV show: Your written text is the show, and the Money Making Modules are the commercials. Make sure the Money Makers are on topic though. If you are talking about Harry Potter characters, than put Harry Potter books on your Amazon module and Harry Potter action figures on your eBay module. If you are writing a beadwork how-to lens, than put bead craft books and seed beads on your SuperStore module. On a blog, I do this by strategically placing paid advertisements, such as Google AdSence.

Share the link love! Are you writing about self-publishing? Than add a link list to your personal fave online printers, like LuLu.com. Even if the links do not make money for you, your readers well enjoy it. Your reader wants to find what they are looking for, and if you help them find it, they well come back to your lens-blog again and again, and they well tell their friends about it. And keeping your readers coming back for more is the real secret to making money through either Squidoo or blogs.

Oh... for those who do not know "Squidoo-speak" just change the word "lens" to "blog" as you are reading this article. On Squidoo, "lenses" and "lens posts" are the same as "blogs" and "blog posts".

In short, good content is anything that is useful to your readers, stuff that has value to them, stuff that does not waste their time, stuff that they are willing to devote a few minutes of their life to checking out.

Who are your readers? As a general rule you want readers who think like you, so your best bet is to just write articles on subjects that you personally enjoy. If you enjoy reading what you wrote, than the readers you want to attract to your blog, well enjoy it too.

Also... In addition to good content, you want to write good comments as well. Writing good comments brings traffic to your blog to read your good content. Comments and content go hand in hand if you want to succeed as a blogger.

How do you post good comments? I read a lot of blogs on several topics I enjoy. I post comments, which promote a meaningful conversation between the blog owner and me. It is not unusual for my and the blog owner to that continue the conversation in a chat-room manner back and forth across both their blog and my blog. The blog owner enjoyed my comments on their blog, so they came by to check out my blog. It is a win-win situation. You gave them traffic so they gave you traffic. In addition, anyone who reads their blog will see your comments and will visit your blog.

Note, that I only post MEANINGFUL POSTS or GOOD COMMENTS (often over 1,000 words per comment), my comments are actual thoughts and feelings I had about the posters blog post; they know without a doubt that I read their blog post, because I post detailed comments I did not Spam their blog with "great post click this link to visit my blog!" or "c00l vIEws i lIkE" or other such childish drivel.

Also, in my comments I use basic common sense: I do not spam links on my comments, and I never flame anyone. No body likes to get 10 or 20 links to your blog posted all over their blog. The quickest way to be hated and lose traffic is to send flaming hate comments to instigate trouble, and in most cases it will get you banned from the blog host.

Because of my comment posting method, combined with my meaningful content on my blog's posts, I know have a blog that gathers hundreds of visitors each week.

Think smart. Use your brain. Be polite. Make friends with the other bloggers, and before you know it, you too are a successful blogging queen. In other words, what you give is what you get. You write good content and good comments and you get good readers. You write spammy content and hate filled spammy comments, and you will be spammed right off the net and banned from blogging.

Good luck with your blog. May all your blogging dreams come true!