This is a follow up article for the How do I Start a Blog and Make Money Online series that we have been publishing on this blog to help the newbie’s get started with a blog. This article covers some good practices that you should develop to become a better blogger.

1. Chose The Right Topic For Your Blog

There is usually a big debate on which path to go down when choosing the topic of your blog. Some will advice you to find a niche that people spend money in and focus purely on the profitability. Others will say don’t go for the money at first, focus on your passion because things that you personally enjoy and know about will be easy to create good content on and in the process you will make money. I will leave it up to you to decide but I can only suggest that you consider both sides of the story before making up your mind. Some people can remain motivated because of the process, not the topic but that doesn’t work for me. I need to enjoy the topic.

2. Challenge Yourself

You might be an expert on the topic that you cover but it can become boring if you write from the same angle all the time. Get out of your comfort zone a little, learn more about the complex areas of your topic and present some interesting facts of your discovery to your readers and they will respect your effort.

3. Create Your Own Style

When you write try to add your own opinion or flavor that will make your posts unique. If you write about something technical then think how you can make it easy for the average readers who are not very familiar with the technical terms. Why should visitors keep coming to your blog when other bloggers are also writing on the same topic? It is your unique styles that will help you stand out in the crowd and make your blog different than a regular one.

4. Show Your Passion And Credibility

Building your reputation is very important. You need to gain the trust of your readers before they listen to you. If you talk about Green Peace then you need to let your readers know how passionate you are about it. This is where choosing a blog topic that you are passionate about helps. Let your visitors know how involved you are and what you have achieved so far. Humans can smell bullshit very easily so don’t just lie to your readers as this will ruin your credibility. The visitors who will be coming to your blog are most likely passionate about your blog topic so if you are not seriously involved then why should they listen to you and read your blog?

5. Know Your Readers

If you have a good understanding of your reader’s motivation, passion, need then it will be a lot easier for you to write articles that your readers will appreciate. Visitors most likely come to your blog because they either want to learn something or they are looking for a solution so you need to provide them with what they are after. Try to put yourself in their shoe and be on the lookout as to how you can satisfy them.

6. Be Consistent

Consistency is one of the keys to be a successful blogger. Make a routine of how often you want to publish new posts on your blog and try to stick to this routine. Do not worry too much about profit when you are starting out. Think in terms of adding tons of value consistently and the money will come.

7. Be Clear, Short And To The Point

The trick is to get your readers’ attention quickly. Statistics show that on an average most readers will decide if they are going to read the full post or not in the first few seconds after they land on an article. Having a nicely formatted structured post with short paragraphs and bullet point does the job. Don’t make the post unnecessarily long, divide them into short paragraphs and use bullet points or numbered list for ease of reading. Also use sub-heading so the readers can easily find the information they are looking for and always stay on topic. If you fill up your post with irrelevant information, readers will loose interest and leave your blog.

8. Proofread Before Publishing

I used to get too excited to publish a post as soon as I was finished writing it when I first started blogging. I didn’t used to spend any time to find spelling and grammatical errors. Lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes on an article will turn off the readers. So proofread your article before you hit the publish button. If possible, ask a friend to proofread your article. This can help greatly when you are starting out as it’s hard to find your own mistakes at first.

9. Involve Your Readers

As I have mentioned before that a blog is more interactive than a traditional website which is the reason blogs are so popular. Through interaction you can create a good bonding with your readers. So try to get your readers involved in your blog by asking them to leave comments, participating in surveys etc.

10. Reply To Comments

Reply to the comments left by your blog visitors. If someone has taken the time and effort to leave a comment on your blog then the least you can do is reply with a simple “Thank You” or answer their question. If you have a really popular blog and you get tons of comments daily then it may not be practical to reply to every comment left on your blog but in general replying to a comment shows that you care about your visitors so try to do it.

11. No Shortcuts

You need to understand that there are no shortcuts to success and it’s definitely not going to come overnight. Try to add value to the community, be consistent, hard working and patient and blog success will follow.

Please share your tips on how to be a better blogger in the comment section below.

This guest post was written by Asif who is the owner of WP Handy Hints.