If you want a blog that will be popular and have loyal followers you need to keep in mind the following things.
1.) Make sure your blog is set up on the right hosting service. - By this I mean, should you be using a free blogging services like WordPress.com and Blogger.com or should you be setting up a blog on your own domain.
If you are blogging for profit you should be on your own site with your own domain name. Yes, it is possible to make money with the free blogging services but you will either have to be lucky or work much harder.
Having your own domain name and your own site makes it so that you can add features like plugins that will optimize your site for better performance in the search engines which should bring more targeted prospects to your site.
2,) What blogging software should you use - you have the choice of lots of software but I recommend you stay with WordPress because it has the most support, the most plugins and the most themes and almost all of them are free and easy to use.
3.) Stay in your niche - when you create a blog you should know what niche you are going to be working in. Make sure you stay in this niche. If you stray too far you will loose readers because no one wants to go to a blog about fitness and read about the new triple chocolate supreme delight being offered around the corner.
Staying on topic for your specific niche will make you the obvious expert and will help on conversions whether you are selling your own product or are referring your readers to affiliate products. You will become known for your niche.
Your niche should be something that you have an interest in. Even if you aren’t the expert you should still be able to tell if a post is good or if it sucks and only put good ones on.
4.) Know your keywords - every blog relies on keywords to get search engine traffic. The keywords you choose to use should be researched and you should know that people are actually searching for these keywords.
Google’s keyword tool is a free service where you can see exactly how many people are searching for your keywords on Google every month. This is a great place to start your keyword research.
5.) Make your blog personal - most people don’t like to listen to the anonymous stranger that is trying to give them advice. The much prefer to be able to build a relationship with the person (even if only in their own minds) and feel that they know the person giving the advice. You can do this by writing the articles in your own voice or even just putting a picture of yourself on your blog.
These steps will get you started with blogging, review them before you start your blog or if you already have a blog going see if they apply to your blog. They are the backbone of almost all successful blogs.
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