Update: added, what are pillar posts.
Here are a few tips that I have learnt over the past few months that I been blogging. I think these steps are important for maintaining and keeping the momentum going new blogs.
1. Drafts.
Make drafts of your future posts, collect data and information related to the post and keep working on them. One of the reasons most blogs fail or lose an audience is that they fail to to post consistently. Having a bunch drafts helps you when you run out of ideas and keeps you organized.
2. Become A Feed Ninja.
Read more post less. While you might not be Scoble and have the ability to read 600+ RSS feeds in a few hours, try to keep track of news around your niche and interests, blogs catch up on news faster than news sites. Reading will also help to give you more ideas for your next post. Practice makes you perfect.
3. Engage Users And Build Relationships
I have subscribed to every reader who has left a meaningful comment on my blog this helps me get to know my readers better and what they expect from my blog. Use Services like cocomments etc to keep track of comments.
4. Be Available And Accessible.
One of the key things of building relationships is to be easily accessible. I have added most of my regular reader on Gtalk and chat with some of the frequently (you can add me ajacob[at]clazh.com). I’ve helped some of them out when they ask me for help or advice.
5. Break News, Write Pillar Posts.
If you follow point 1 and 2 you’ll realize there are two types of post you can do. Break news or write Pillar post. Breaking news is hard you’ll need to watch your Rss feeds like a hawk, it has a few advantages, if its important news it will get picked up easily by other blogger. Writing Pillar post will make your article sticky, most of the traffic that I get are from my pillar posts.
What Are Pillar Posts? Source DailyBlogTips
Characteristics of pillar articles:
- they are longer posts
- usually above 750 words
- they offer a clear value to the reader
- their content is timeless
- their content is original and unique
- they outline the expertise of the writer around a specific topic
- they attract links from other bloggers
Good advice, I should be saving more drafts. It is a good idea every time you have an idea to start a draft save it go back to it when you have free time.