Blogging Your Way to Success: It Can Be Done!
The other night I went to an evening seminar on blogging. While some of it was by necessity rather basic (What’s a blog? What’s a url? etc), it was nevertheless very inspiring because the speaker was Melissa Lafsky, a former lawyer-turned-blogger whose blog Opinionistas.com shot to fame when it was profiled in the media just a month into its existence.
Melissa has worked for the Huffington Post, one of the world’s top blogs. She even has her own Wikipedia entry, a secret ambition of mine (one that actually has something worthwhile on it, I mean; I know it’s open-source). Yes, I Google-stalked her. Sorry, Melissa. Anyway, below are - in my opinion -
Melissa’s Top 10 Blogging Tips
1. Focus first on content, then promotion, then readership, then revenue. If the latter three aren’t happening, return to your content.
2. Sound like an authority on your topic. Analyse and interpret.
3. Link to your sources, in fact link to as much as possible.
4. You need a good design and attractive layout. Have your own url.
5. Contact the press to see if anyone’s interested in doing an article about you. Create a “buzz“, get talked about.
6. Create an email list so people can get email updates when you post. And promote your RSS feed.
7. Build good relationships with your readers. Allow comments and display an email contact. Some readers may like to contact you privately.
8. Write for other websites and link back to your blog.
9. Set up a category list. It makes it easier for readers to search your archives.
10.. Don’t get discouraged! Have patience, it takes time to build up a good blog. You will be found; good content floats to the top of the blogosphere.
What do you think of Melissa’s advice? Is there anything special you’d add?
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Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
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