[Note: Since Hugh Hewitt kindly plugged the series I wrote a few years ago, I thought I should highlight the posts to make them easier to find.]
Starting a blog is easy and can be done in a matter of minutes. Starting a successful blog, however, is much more difficult, often requiring months or even years of dedicated effort. But there are ways of improving your chances of garnering attention and gaining an audience. After spending over a year studying successful blogs I’ve put together a series of posts providing tips and advice on how to emulate the “A”- list bloggers. Hopefully if you are just starting a blog or simply hoping to improve your efforts you’ll find these posts helpful. Thanks to everyone who linked to the original posts.
- Part I - Before You Begin
- Part II - The Beginning Bloggers Toolbox
- Part III - How to Become an A-List Blogger
- Part IV – The Art of Marketing Your Blog
- Part V - Owning a Micro-Niche
- Part VI – Three Essential Elements of Blog Design
- The 5/150 Principle
- A Review of the Top Ten Blogs
- How to become a Higher Being
- How to get linked by Instapundit
- What’s the point? -- Defining “success” in the Blogosphere
- Paris Hilton's Tips for the Striving Blogger
- Information Flow and the Gatekeepers of the Media
- Choir Preachers, Shepherds, Thinkers, and Dirty Tricks: Black Ops in the Blogosphere
- Tipping the Blogosphere: A Review of Hugh Hewitt’s Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation
- Megaphones Without Oversight: Blog Swarms, Opinion Storms, and Brand Destruction
- The Autobiography of a Blogger
Update: These six posts and the “5/150 Principle” can also be downloaded as a Word document or PDF.
Other Resources
- Australian blogger Darren Rowse has a comprehensive lists of tips that I found to be invaluable when I first began blogging.
- Simon World has a must read contribution with "Everything you wanted to know about blogging but were afraid to ask"
- Paul from Right Side of the Rainbow has some excellent advice on managing expectations.
- Pejmanesque teaches the basics in Blogging 101
- Brain Shaving has suggestions on gaining attention for your blog.
- James Joyner -- who showed me the value of reciprocal blogrolls -- has a list of his own blog tips.
1
I would like to download/print out this excellent series to read on my train ride to and from home, as my employer would not be happy with me taking that time during regular work hours and my home connection to the internet is still dial-up. Is it possible to link these somehow into one such print out/download for those of us still in the dark ages of internet access?
Thanks.
posted on 07.12.2006 10:33 AM2
A good suggestion, is there a way Joe that you could make this a single essay that could be printed in one shot? You may want to consider this for some of your other multi-part posts.
posted on 07.12.2006 11:05 AM3
I love this series and have already downloaded most of it.
Despite our considerable differences in outlook (and my unfortunate inability to express them graciously), I have always admired Joe's blog. I think he demonstrates the most creative and thoughtful bloggerly craft on the Web, and I always learn from him.
I can't remember if I've made this suggestion before, Joe, but I think it's a good one: you could compile these posts into a short book, or a hypertext CD, or both. Cafepress offers such services (books, CDs) at no upfront cost, and I'm sure people would be interested in them. (You might also offer some of your serial posts, like "Know Your Evangelicals", the same way.) It's a cheap and easy way to make content available that doesn't require the effort or formalism of a real book. I'm sure you'd sell some, and, like I say, it's no cost to you either way.
posted on 07.12.2006 12:12 PM4
"Put one at the bottom of your blog and make it available for everyone to see."
Umm... Joe? You're stats are set to private. I can't see them. You might want to change either this or your advice...
posted on 07.12.2006 1:05 PM5
I don’t think it is necessary, especially at the beginning of your blog’s lifespan, to put up a hit counter. It can become a temptation to obsess over your stats. For some bloggers, watching that number tick up becomes a source of pride. For others, a low number might be too much of a discouragement; and that can be unhealthy for your blog. Don’t write solely to gain readers. Write about what interests you, and the readers will come. Once you’re established, a hit counter becomes less worrysome, as you already have a solid base of readers.
posted on 07.12.2006 2:44 PM6
Joe,
Thanks for these tips. As a relatively new blogger (since mid-May), I find these informative, helpful and timely. In particular, I find your 5/150 principle very encouraging.
Andre
posted on 07.12.2006 2:53 PM7
Joe, I've been a reader of your blog off and on for a long time -- I'm thrilled to have your great blogging advice compiled here, as I'm a newbie blogger myself. Thanks!
posted on 07.12.2006 6:11 PM8
Joe, not to rain on the parade, but don’t some of the principles offered in this series run counter to the concerns you expressed in your post on wisdom and blogging? It just seems to me that many of the ideas of blog success presented here affirm a “worldly” concept of success rather than a “counter-cultural,” Christian one (which should not be an oxymoron; never mind haggling over definition of what is “cultural”).
Perhaps some of the advice, such as suggesting that bloggers write at a level so prodigious that few can do it and not compromise other areas of their lives, and that they aim to attract readers (and employ other marketing strategies), ought to be revised. I realize that in the early-Genesis stage, the goal of Christian blogging was to gain readers so as to expose them to good Christian thought. But how is this any different than proselytizing via feel-good preaching or cool praise bands for numbers on the church attendance rolls rather than truly helping souls receive or draw closer to Christ?
I know you've spoken of the importance of personal relationship with readers, and I agree that's where a blogger's real influence lies. Yet it seems that there's a mixed message being given. If numbers aren't important, why must we still strive for some?
That asked, I agree with Kevin that your blog is premium as far as writerly craft, thoughtfulness, and creativity go. I too learn a lot from you.
posted on 07.13.2006 11:11 PM9
Joe,
I've been reading a few other Christian blogs lately and I must say to you "THANK YOU FOR BEING RELATIVELY BRIEF AND SUCCINCT!!!" Some people just drone on and on (like I do in my posts on your blog) and it discourages me from checking back on those blogs. You pack a lot into a few words and I appreciate it.