Ten tips on how to blog successfully

A weblog (more commonly known as a blog) is an online diary, concerning subjects and can be written by one author or multiple contributors. The cult of blogging receives more and more members each year: as of July 2006, 175,000 blogs are created each year, according to report by Sifry's Alerts. This article will help you into your journey of blogging.

1) Choose a competent blog platform

Free blog platforms such as Wordpress and Blogger enable people to blog. Each comes with particular features. Blogger is ideal for a first-time blogger as it is simple and easy to understand with significant customisation options. Wordpress has a slicker and polished look.

2) Usernames

Usernames for your blog can be as personal as your birthname or obscure like a pseudonym. Just remember that if you have signed up to a blog platform as mentioned above, your username will appear when you make a comment on your blog or someone else's.

3) Technical Aspects of Posts

Posts are central to the blog as they provide content, which attracts readers. You can write as little or as much as you like within a post. Additional options such as making certain words bold, using italics or adding hyperlinks are available on most blog platforms to add style to posts.

4) Creating Links

A blogroll is a column of internet links of interest to the blogger which tends to be on the right hand side of the blog's screen. Adding external blogs to your blogroll can direct hits to your blog. Other bloggers when finding out they have been linked, may be curious to learn about who linked them. Thus linking you in return if they like your work which leads to increased traffic!

5) Write What You Know

Belle du Jour was one of the most famous UK blogs, written by a call girl. It was eventually adapted into a series by ITV in 2007. It owes it's success to being a niche blog that gained a cult following because of it's sharp writing. This example highlights that if you just write what you know, who knows, you could be the next big thing!

6) Get Your Blog Out There!

Spread the word about your blog by allowing it to pop up in search engines. Another way to promote a blog is by using blog aggregators. Blog aggregators allow readers to learn more about certain blogs. Technorati is perhaps one of the more well-known ones that tracks all movements of your blog and shows how many times it has been linked by other blogs.

7) Comment is free…not only on the Guardian!

Comments are designed to encourage discussion and can be located at the top or bottom of a post. Adding your own comments to respond to your readers on your own thread creates a 'digital community' feeling to your blog and may entice them to return. Free comment platforms such as Haloscan are viable options if you do not like the commenting tools that your blog platform has provided.

8) Updates

Writing frequently increases the traffic and visibility of your blog. You can choose the frequency (hourly, daily, weekly etc). However, try to remain consistent so you can build a steady stream of readers. This is particularly important if you are starting a fashion, music or political blog where news changes fast.

9) Guest-blogging

Guest-blogging involves writing posts on other people's blogs or where you contribute on someone else's blog. This can happen after you have built a rapport with other bloggers via commenting on their sites or if they become frequent readers of your blog. It will most likely introduce you to a different audience of readers, thus maybe creating more buzz for your blog.

10) Read, Read, Read

Reading other people's blogs is one of the most important tasks to do. By researching other blogs, you can see what you like/don't like. For example, if you wanted to start a UK gossip blog, checking out HolyMoly, a popular UK gossip blog, would be a good idea, allowing you to suss out your competition. The more research you do, the more aware you will be of what you want for your blog.

Blogging should be enjoyable, complementing your life. You can learn so many important skills such as clear writing, as well as improve your knowledge about how internet publishing works.

Have fun!