Essential Things To Be Aware Of When You Blog (from Our Member)

From Ann: This article is written by one of our great users and I love the advice here! This article is courtesy of MyBlogGuest Articles Gallery, the best source of free unique content for your blog – and that’s the great sample of what you can get using it!

Daley is a freelance writer and blogger who knows it can take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get into the rhythm of writing great material, and that’s before all the other stuff that can trip you up. You can find him at www.daleyjfrancis.com.

Whether you’re a small business, a lone freelancer or a large corporation, the importance of having a blog on your website is huge, and growing increasingly more relevant to business and marketing with every passing year. Gone are the days when a blog was just a way to stuff keywords into the website in order to try and get better search engine rankings, or to try and steer visitors of the site to the sale.

A blog is now a way to inform customers about who you are, what it is that you do and show just how much of an authority you are in your niche. It is the equivalent of wearing a badge that says “I know what I’m talking about”, and you’ll see more businesses with a quality blog than you will without, because businesses know this is a great way to communicate their message.

But just having a blog isn’t enough. You need to have a strategy of what you want to say and how you want to say it – by first person case studies, images and videos, helpful advice, podcasting, etc. – or it can quickly descend into an incoherent mess or become a chore. There is nothing worse than heading to a business’s website and finding out that their last blog entry was November 2011 and it reads like they couldn’t be bothered. It doesn’t give the best impression to the reader/customer. Here are a few things to consider when starting your blog:

Be Original and Relevant

Your blog should be a reflection of your business but with a personal edge, with that personality shining through in your writing and the effort that you put in. This doesn’t mean that it should become the equivalent of a 300 word Facebook status. It should be informative, useful and relevant, or you’re going to lose your audience fast.

It is also important to try and be as original as possible. There are going to be times when you write about something that might have been covered before, but if you insert some personal experience into the content, it can become an original piece rather than something that feels rewritten from another source.

Always cite your sources

When it comes to research, it is crucial that you cite your sources when you upload those blog posts. As Morrissey said in the classic Smiths’ track ‘Cemetery Gates’: “There’s always someone, somewhere, with a big nose, who knows, and they’ll trip you up and laugh when you fall.” You should consider blogging like an A Level or University essay. If you don’t cite your sources in a bibliography there, you lose marks. In the blogging world, you lose credibility, especially if the blog post is written in a way where it looks like you have found the facts yourself.

You can cite your sources at the end of the post or quote the source when you write the facts you’ve found and use a hyperlink to give readers the opportunity to read the post where you found the facts. There are a lot of people out there who like to point out mistakes and people who don’t cite their sources are high on the list of targets.

Don’t rise to critics or trolls

One of the biggest bugbears of the internet generation is that it has given a voice to people who love to antagonise and criticise for the sheer hell of it. These are called ‘trolls’ (although we’ve all called them much worse) and if you have any kind of web presence, there is a high probability that you’ve come across them before. They love to head to blogs and Twitter and try to cause arguments, or sometimes just to be hurtful. They also have a knack for commenting and then bookmarking the page, ready to return later for a rematch with anyone who responds. It is so important not to rise to trolls, or even critics in general.

Getting comments on your blog posts is a great thing, because it shows that your content is good enough to provoke a response, positive or otherwise. This makes it even more important to be professional and not to bite when somebody is being personal or critical. Only respond to comments if they are respectful and discussing points where you feel a response is necessary. If you are challenged on a point and feel like you should respond, keep it professional at all times. Don’t ever get personal or aggressive, and remember that comments can be misconstrued, causing all kinds of problems.

Too Much Information?

puzzle-man Research is the lifeblood of all content. You want your blog posts to be informative and useful to the reader, and by conducting research to back up the points you make, you show readers that you have made an effort to make your content the best it can be, and when you cite your sources, you provide an opportunity for your readership to find out more information. This can help to develop trust with the reader, as it shows that you’re not just out for yourself.

With this in mind, there can be no such thing as compiling too much information on a subject. The research you have gathered could be used for future blog posts or purely just to improve your own industry knowledge. Just remember that your blog posts should be of a readable size. Having lots of research doesn’t mean that your posts have to be 10,000 word essays to prove the point that you know what you’re talking about. Sometimes one line and an image can make a point better than 1,000 words. Mix up the techniques you use to get your point across, and throw away the word count rule. All that will do is put pressure on you and give you writers block. Get in, make your point, and get out of there. Your readers will thank you for it.

Be open to contributions

Although your blog posts are a great area for you and your business to showcase your knowledge and experience of your chosen industry, it adds freshness and authority to your blog to mix up the authors that contribute. This could be other employees within your business, but something that is always great to do is to be open to guest contributions. Industry experts and guest bloggers can give fresh perspective to your blog (and give you a chance to have a break from blogging) and it will highlight to customers and readers of your blog that you have access to established industry professionals and are willing to share their work on your blog.

Image: Puzzle man

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