New to blogging? Blogger’s block? Blog not working out? Starting to think you suck at blogging?

Every blogger needs a few tips every now and then no matter how experienced he/she is. After all, many professional writers consider blogging a tad more difficult than ordinary article writing. Don’t believe me? Well think about this way. You don’t only have to worry about what to write but also how to promote and properly monetize your blog. That’s already thrice the work. That’s also discounting the effort you have to put into designing your blog, doing revamps, creating themes, learning how to work WordPress if you use it, etcetera, etcetera.

To help you all out in our common goal to better the blogosphere, I have collected a few links to articles (new and old) I deem to be essential blogger reads.

1. 10 Killer Post Ideas

This is, I believe, an idea gold mine. This was written back in 2005 but the advice given for bloggers is timeless. Chris Garrett from Performancing.com discusses ten ideas for blog posts that get readers to comment AND link to posts. Unfortunately for blogs, it’s not always the well-written post that gets “dugg”. I think by skimming through the posts in THIS blog, you’ll get a tangible proof of that statement. There are, however, proven formulas that could get your desired feedback and backlinks. To summarize, Chris Garrett lists the ten killer post ideas as follows: How to, lists, campaigns, interview, review, case study, research results, What’s new; trends, Attack!, and Ask the Audience. Nothing professional writers don’t know, but to aggregate all these ideas for reference deserves commendation. I think everyone would agree.

2. 10 Requisites for Professional Bloggers

If you’ve been blogging for a while now and have not been generating the revenue you seem to think is commensurate with the effort you’ve been exerting, it’s time to rethink your career path. Also perfect for all those who are thinking of becoming professional bloggers, Daniel from Daily Blog Tips talks about the prerequisites for being a professional blogger. Before you immerse yourself completely in problogging and before you leave your full-time job because blogging big wigs proclaim their tens of thousands of earning per month, take a look at the list and see if you have what it takes.

3. 5 Blogging Methods That Work

From netbusinessblog, this is Matt Coddington’s take on which blogging methods work. The article discusses which methods are most used and repeated by probloggers (sometimes even to the point of nausea) that get the links and feedbacks. This is different from the first article in this list and offers a unique angle to each method. Matt lists the five methods as: Breaking a Post Down into a List, The “What [person/group/experience] Taught Me About [topic]” Strategy, Link-farm Posts, Make All of Your Posts Personal, and Interlink Everything.

4. 5 Simple Ways to Open your Blog Post with a Bang

Stop writing run-of-the-mill opening paragraphs. Remember, it’s the first paragraph that’s essential in getting readers hooked. You’d want them to stick around until the end and comment on your posts, not just take a passing glance and surf elsewhere. Brian Clark from copyblogger shares tips on how to generate immediate interest to your blog posts. Copywriters could compare it to the ever pervasive A-I-D-A concept. I personally believe the tips in this article should be used as rule of thumb by all bloggers. To summarize all five, an effective opening paragraph should be attention grabbing. For more details, see the full article.

5. 55 Social Bookmarking Sites to Promote Your Blog Articles

So you have your blog, you started your post with a bang, you wrote an article using a format that works (list, how-tos, tips, etc) and yet you still get minimal traffic to none. What’s next on the list? Marketing your blog is of course an essential. One way to accomplish that is to use social bookmarking web sites. These web sites allow you to submit articles for view by an audience. And yes, there are MANY social bookmarking sites, not just “digg” and “del.icio.us”. This article compiles links to more than 55 web sites. Register for all of them and get your blog noticed. One thing to remember though is that posting links to your articles in these sites won’t suddenly get your PageRank up by 3 points. Spend time creating quality blog content and THEN advertise. Only then would you see sold results.

These are only the first five of the articles I’ve collected to give everyone (including myself) tips on how NOT to suck at blogging. Links to more articles of the same nature are coming within the next few days. I hope you’ve all gleaned something useful from this collection, I know I have. What have YOU learned?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 11:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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