I get a few people every week emailing me for advise about starting a blog, tips and tricks and where to get content ideas etc. It was one of the main reasons I started Tecky Tuesday and this has been a post I wanted to create for a while. I wish I had read something like this prior to starting out as I think I might have found my blogging feet a lot faster. So here we go, these are in no way definitive or in any real order.

Blogger Help – 7 Tips for Running a successful Blog

1 – You need to find your niche.

I think it is important that you create a blog about something that you feel passionate about. There is no point giving the same perspective as everyone else on a subject that you don’t really care about. Most people wont bother to read the content that you create if you make it for the sake of making it. If you have been posting for a while and its not working out, change it up with a few test posts see if you gain extra readers & comments.

2 – What makes you stand out?

It is important to find the one thing that makes you stand out and work with that to help you get your posts seen. Are you great at photography? Use this skill on your posts. Do you have a wicked sense of humour? Use your personality in to your posts and keep in all the little elements that make it you, don’t remove this little things when you read it over and edit it. Embrace who you are and what sets you apart.

3 – Think about who reads your blog.

When I create a post now it’s much easier for me to know my audience thanks to the comments that people leave and Google Analytics being setup to show age ranges and locations. I now have a pretty good idea of who is coming to my site, and I can now build my content with them in mind. But when I started out I had no idea who might read what I write, so it is very important to ask people to comment. You can find out roughly how old people that read your blog are and where they are located so that you can tailor your posts to your audience. There is no point running a makeup blog and linking to UK prices if most of your audience is in the US, or is priced out of the average range of someone their age.

4 – Making constant quality blogposts is hard.

When I started out I had loads of ideas about stuff I wanted to post about, but as I post daily these initial ideas disappeared quickly. Since then I spend a good hour or so a day just thinking about what my readers might like to read and see on the blog. I’m always jotting down post ideas for my readers and my latest push has been YouTube as I feel mixing both a blog and video can be really helpful. As well increasing a viewership is always nice. I was lucky in that I did both blogging and video creation when I was at university, but this relates back to point 2.

5 – Get ideas from your readers.

Don’t be worried about asking for ideas from your readers. Ask on at the end of blog posts or on twitter for suggestion., I always ask for ideas when I’m struggling on my twitter feed. The readers are the people that can shape your blog. I love to read the comments that you guys leave me, it really makes running my blog worthwhile when a reader request posts. This also has the added bonus as knowing the post will be read by at least 1 person. As I always worry you guys will hate what I post.

6 – Don’t get panicked about learning new things.

If you want to get the most out of your blog you are probably going to have to learn a little bit about HTML, Javascript & CSS as most of us don’t the money to have a web developer help us on our blogs. These are the things that give your blog functionality that it might be lacking or add user-friendliness that will helps you stand out. I have done a set of posts attempting to get you guys started on my initial learning curve such as my Twitter cards post but I will be doing more over time. Don’t get scared about messing stuff up, it’s the only way to learn. If something annoys you on your blog, look in to how to change it. If it is annoying you, it will probably annoy someone else.

7 – Get ready to give-up some time.

Writing blogs posts on a regular basic will use up a good amount of your spare time. Some of your other hobbies & interests will take a hit. If you want to give blogging a fairly serious go, get ready to put some other stuff on hold. I know I have but I have also found blogging to be very addictive at the same time. When I see a post I have just put up get 20 comments it is very rewarding.

I hope that these blogger help tips will be of some use to new and old bloggers alike, please write in the comments below if you have anything else that you would like to add. Don’t forget to share on this post on twitter if you have found it useful!