SEO can help you stand out from the online crowd!

SEO – A Buzz Word You Should Care About:

Do you know how to write SEO friendly blog posts? Until recently, I didn’t (and even now, I’m still learning). Lately I’ve been doing lots of research about SEO, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that:

SEO is a really powerful way to attract more visitors to your blog.

Even better, SEO doesn’t have to be complicated! It’s something that any blogger can incorporate into their posts to make sure they’re continually increasing the number of people who visit their site.

(A caveat: SEO can most certainly be complicated if you want it to be: it’s an ever-evolving field that changes every time search engines update their algorithms [which is several times a year]. This post will give you an overview of SEO, but if you want to really get into the details and science behind SEO, check out this post and this post to get started.)

I’ve compiled 5 resources to help you learn how to write SEO friendly blog posts, but before we get to that, let’s talk very briefly about what SEO is.

What is SEO?

Wikipedia says that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is: ‘the process of improving the visibility of a of a website or a web page in search engines’ “natural,” or un-paid … search results’.

I think of SEO simply as a way to bring more traffic to a blog or website. If you can increase the number of times your blog shows up in search results, you’ll increase the number of people visiting your site. And now onto the tips for improving your blog’s SEO!

5 Resources to help You Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts:

1.  8 First SEO Tips for Bloggers from ProBlogger

If you read one post on SEO, make it this one from ProBlogger. This is the best SEO post I’ve come across for giving actionable advice on how to improve SEO for your blog right away (and it’s not all that hard to do!).

2. 4 Tips for Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts from Mashable

This post includes 4 quick tips for improving your blogs’ chances of showing up in search results.

3. The Blogger’s Guide to SEO by Aaron and Giovanna Wall

Aaron and Giovanna wrote a book about SEO, but they have kindly shared their tips on SEO for bloggers on their site. The Blogger’s Guide to SEO includes background information on how search engines like Google work that the average person (like me!) can understand, as well as tips for making your blog  posts SEO friendly.

4. The Blogger’s Essential Guide to Search Engine Optimization from TentBlogger

If you really want to dig into SEO for your blog, check out this series of 41 (41!) posts on SEO from TentBlogger. This is the series I used to improve SEO on my site over the past few weeks. A caution though: many of these posts are geared towards people using WordPress.org, although there are still good tips in there for people who are using other platforms.

5. 6 Steps for Optimizing Images for SEO from ClickZ

One easy-to-overlook part of SEO is the images you include in your blog posts. The size of your image, its relevancy to your post content, its ALT tags and even its name can affect your SEO results. Check out ClickZ’s post above to make sure your images are contributing to your SEO strategy.

What do you think?

Do you think about SEO when writing blog posts? Do you have any SEO tips to share? I’d love to hear them!

Image source: Portland Mike on Flickr

Carrie Mumford - Writer & Editor

RSS: Not-So-Simple Syndication

When I first started blogging, one of the things that eluded me was RSS. It seemed like it should be easy to understand — after all, I saw it on almost every blog I read — but for some reason I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

I understand RSS now (er, I think I understand RSS now), but I still don’t use it to follow blogs myself. I do offer it as an option for following my blog because there are lots of people who DO use it, and if they’d like to follow my blog using RSS, I’m more than happy to hook them up!

It seems like there are other people out there who are mired in RSS confusion as well, so I thought I’d share what I’ve learned.

A disclaimer before I get started: I know just enough about RSS to set it up. If you’re looking for the technical ins-and-outs of RSS, I’d recommend taking a look at posts like this one from ProBlogger for more detail.

What the heck is RSS?

To add insult to injury for those of us who are confused about RSS in general, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. You can think of an RSS feed as a news feed: it’s list of all of the recent updates to a site or blog. If we’re talking about a blog, it’s a list of all the recent posts. RSS feeds are automatically updated when you publish a new post to your blog (in the same way that many e-mail widgets automatically send out e-mail updates to your subscribers when you publish).

Why & how do people use RSS Feeds?

The real benefit of RSS feeds is that they can be pulled into an RSS feed reader or aggregator. People use RSS readers to pull content from many sources (often blogs) into a central place where they can read it using a webpage, desktop application, mobile phone or tablet. There are a ton of RSS feed readers, but some of the most popular are Google Reader (web-based), FeedDemon (Windows only) and My Yahoo.

Who uses RSS?

A confession: I don’t know anyone who uses RSS.

There are lots and lots of people who do though. From what I’ve read, it seems that RSS works for a technically inclined sub-set of the population, but overall, it’s not well-known.

There are also occasional rumours that RSS is on its way out. Many people claim that Twitter and Facebook and other social media sites have had an impact on the number of people using RSS.

Why I still offer RSS:

Whether or not RSS is dying doesn’t really matter to me. I know that some people use it, and it’s easy to set-up. If RSS will allow more people to read my blog, I can’t see any reason not to offer it.

How to set-up your RSS feed:

Despite my initial confusion about RSS, it’s actually pretty easy to set-up. In fact, WordPress.com blogs come with RSS feeds already built in (check www.yourblogname.com/feed to see your feed).

If you’re using WordPress, you can add your RSS feed to your blog using the RSS widget that comes with WordPress by default (see below), but you’ll want to do more than that to make sure you can track your RSS feed traffic.

I’ve listed the high level steps for creating an proper RSS feed here, and lots of resources to get you started.

1. Sign up for Feedburner.

To get the most out of your RSS feed, you’ll want to register for a Feedburner account. Feedburner allows you to track the number of people subscribing to your RSS feed and which posts they’re clicking on. It will also give you to option to customize the way your feed looks a little bit. To get started, visit Feedburner.com.

Here’s a great post with tips on how to set your Feedburner account up properly:

Tent Blogger: How to Maximize Your Feedburner Settings With the Best Configuration

Now matter which blogging platform you’re using, setting up a Feedburner account to track your feed subscribers is a great way to measure interest in your blog.

2. Add your RSS feed to your blog.

Once you’ve burned your RSS feed in Feedburner, you’ll need to add it to your blog so people can subscribe to it. Google (who now owns Feedburner) has created a set of tutorials to help people add RSS to their blogs that includes instructions for WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and MySpace. You can check it out here.

Adding an RSS Feed to Your WordPress Blog:

Since I know WordPress better than any other blogging platform, I thought I’d share a few tips on adding an RSS feed to a WordPress blog.

If you’re using WordPress, there are lots of ways to add your RSS feed to your site. Here are the methods I’ve used with success:

a) Use the RSS widget that comes with WordPress by default.

You can find this widget using the left-hand navigation in your WordPress dashboard. Go to Appearance >> Widgets and look for the RSS Links widget.

Drag your widget to the sidebar you’d like to to show up in and choose what you’d like to display (your posts and comments, or just posts).

b) Use the RSS feature offered in your theme.

Some WordPress themes also have a space for adding your feed (mine does!). Check out your theme settings to see if there’s a place to paste in your new RSS feed url to have it display on your site.

c) Use a Text widget to add an RSS icon that links to your feed.

There are lots of places to get RSS icons that you can use to advertise your feed on your site. You can find RSS icons for free on sites like this one, you can create an RSS ‘chicklet’ right in Feedburner, or you can purchase social icon sets that include RSS icons. I purchased the icons I’m using in my “Stay in Touch” widget from Designmodo. (I’m not using it, but the set includes an RSS icon too).

If you know how to add a clickable image to your WordPress blog, once you have your icon, you’re ready to go!

If you don’t know how to add an image to your WordPress site, there’s an easy and slightly tricky way to do it (and it doesn’t require you to know any html!). Here’s the trick:

• Add a new post, and then upload and insert your icon as a picture in your post.
• Format the icon so it’s the size you’d like it to be on your site (or as close as you can guess).
• Link the icon to your RSS feed the same way you’d link any photo to a url when writing a blog post.
• Next, look to the top of the box you are composing your post in and click on ‘html’

• Copy everything you see in the html section (this is the code that will make your icon show up on your site).
• Save your post as a draft in case you need to make adjustments to the size later, and then head over to your widgets area (Appearance > Widgets).
• Drag a Text widget over to the sidebar where you’d like your RSS icon to appear.
• Give your Text widget a title if you’d like, and then paste in the html code. Hit save.

That’s it!

Your RSS icon should appear on your site with a link to your RSS feed (be sure to test it out to make sure the link works!).

Here are more details on how to add an image to your site using the Text widget.

Let me know if you have any questions about how to add RSS to your blog: I’ll do my best to help!

A few final words…

I think that RSS allows you to offer another way for potential followers to keep up with your blog posts, so it can’t hurt to make it easy for them to find on your site.

What do you think of RSS? Do you use it? Do you offer it as an option for subscribing to your blog? Was it as much of a mystery to you as it was to me?

Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/svilen001

Carrie Mumford - Writer & Editor

This isn't an eBook, but it's a nice picture :)

Last week I talked about building your writer’s craft library. This week I want to talk about another way to learn more about writing and the online world: free eBooks!

Many writers are now offering free eBooks when you subscribe to their e-mail updates. Even better, many of these free eBooks are useful tools to improve your writing and/or your online presence. The books aren’t always book-length — some are only a few pages long — but they still include many helpful tips on the writing craft.

Below are 4 free eBooks that I’ve enjoyed reading.

4 Free (and Fantastic) eBooks for Writers

Sarah Selecky

When you sign up for Canadian author Sarah Selecky’s newsletters, she will send you a copy of her 10 Commandments for Writers. Sarah’s 10 Commandments are clear and to the point: do these ten things to your next short story before you submit it and have a better chance of being published. If you’re submitting to contests and/or journals, Sarah’s 10 Commandments are for you! (Also, Sarah’s newsletters are great too, so it’s a good idea to sign up even if you’re not interested in her mini-eBook).

Jeff Goins

I only came across Jeff Goins‘ website a few months ago, and I felt like I’d been missing out by not finding it sooner. Jeff Goins blogs about creativity, writing, and changing the world (fist pump in air!) several times per week. When you sign up for his e-mail updates, he’ll send you a free copy of his eBook, The Writer’s Manifesto. The Writer’s Manifesto is all about remembering why we write in the first place (because we love it!). Jeff also offers a free 12-week course on Intentional Blogging. When you sign up you’ll get one new lesson about blogging via e-mail each week (for 12 weeks).

Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau runs a website called The Art of Non-Conformity. Chris is passionate about living a remarkable life, and he’s a writer too. He’s perhaps best known for his goal of traveling to every country in the world before his 35th birthday, and by gosh I think he’s going to do it. You can see his progress here. Chris offers lots of products for writers, artists and freelancers for purchase, but he also gives away two eBooks for free.

The Brief Guide to World Domination is almost a classic now as far as free eBooks go. In fact, Chris has published a much longer version of The Brief Guide as a book (The Art of Non-Conformity). I haven’t read Chris’ published book, but The Brief Guide to World Domination is a call for people to create change in the world and not settle for average.

In Chris’s second free eBook, 279 Days to Overnight Success, he shares tips on how to grow your blog following without crushing your writing. I devoured this book last weekend. There are lots of links to more information and resources. I almost can’t believe he gives it away for free.

Big News

Which brings me to some news! I’ve written a mini-eBook called: 10 Tips for Writers Who Blog. This eBook is going to be available to anyone who subscribes to my e-mail newsletters, for free!

10 Tips for Writers Who Blog includes details on how to grow your blog following and stand out from the crowd. I’m putting the finishing touches on the eBook now, and it should be available by the end of the month, if all goes as planned.

If you already subscribe to my blog updates via e-mail – thank you! You won’t need to re-subscribe to get your copy of 10 Tips for Writers Who Blog. I’ll be sending you an e-mail that includes a link to download the book if you’re interested.

Have you read any free eBooks for writers that you’d recommend?

Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/pear83

Carrie Mumford - Writer & Editor

Fresh new flowers...and blogs

I love finding fresh new blogs. Every few weeks I’ll veer away from my regular weekend blog reading and venture out into the unknown via WordPress.com’s homepage. I’ll check out the hand-picked Freshly Pressed posts and then wander into Topics (also known as the Global Tag Listing) in the hopes that I’ll come across a fantastic new blog.

New WordPress blogs are being created at an alarming rate:

• There are over 500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments on WordPress blogs every day.
• 349 million people view over 2.5 billion pages a month
• As of today (March 28, 2012), there are 72,368,041 WordPress blogs.

(Check out more stats here, including a really cool map.)

(Note: the stats above also include WordPress.org blogs.)

There are a few common things that I notice about new blogs that if changed, would make a big difference in the amount of traffic they’re getting, as well as the usability of the site. I notice them mainly because I did these things too when I set up my first WordPress.com blog, and I learned the hard way that to stand out from the crowd (even a little bit) I’d need to change at least some of them.

Without further ado…

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your WordPress.com Blog Today:

1) Choose your tagline.

I come across many new blogs with the default WordPress tagline still up: “Just another WordPress.com Site.” Leaving the default tagline up on your blog makes it difficult for readers to find out what your blog is about.

Choosing a tagline isn’t easy. It needs to be short and snappy and let site visitors know a little something about you (or your blog) so they can decide if they want to stick around. Your blog tagline also contributes to improving search results for your blog, making it easier for people to find.

To change your tagline, go to Settings > General and edit the text in the second row down (“tagline”). Remember, you can always change it later! Learn more about how to create an effective tagline in One Cool Site’s post here, and click here for 45 Creative, Clever and Effective Taglines to inspire you.

 2) Add an ‘About’ or ‘Bio’ Page

Half of the excitement of discovering a new blog is discovering a new blogger. Even if you’ve chosen to blog anonymously, an ‘About’ page is (in my mind) a must-have page. Writing about yourself can be daunting, but you just need to crank out a few sentences to get yourself started. Why are you blogging? What are you blogging about? Who are you? Give your readers an idea of what they can expect from you (and why they might want to stick around to read it).

Here are a few tips on writing ‘About’ pages to get you started: How to Write Your “About Me” Page from Problogger and How to Write an About Page in 8 Simple Steps. Just like writing a tagline, creating an ‘About’ page can be daunting, but remember, it’s not set in stone: you can always change it!

3) Remove the WordPress Meta Widget

When you start a WordPress.com blog, WordPress automatically adds a widget called “Meta.” The Meta widget includes links to log in to WordPress, Site Admin, the RSS feed and WordPress.com. I often find this widget on newer blogs, and I can understand why: the widget makes it easy to log in and out of WordPress.com. But if you take a look at many more established blogs hosted in WordPress, such Nina Badzin‘s blog or Gene Lempp’s, you’ll notice that the Meta widget has been removed. It’s handy for the blogger, but not super-useful for your readers. You can always bookmark the WordPress.com home page and log in from there.

The Meta widget does include links to your RSS feed, but it’s often a good idea to highlight your RSS feed and email sign up in a more prominent way. Which leads us to…

4) Give Readers an Easy Way to Follow Your Blog

There’s nothing more frustrating than stumbling upon a new blog that you like, only to find that there’s no way to follow the blog.

You’ve gone to all the work of creating a wonderful blog, make sure people can be reminded to come back and visit the next time you post by adding an email sign-up box as well as a link to your RSS feed.

Email Sign-Up: It’s really easy to set-up an email subscription option in WordPress.com thanks to their wonderful ‘Follow Blog’ widget. For details on how to set this up, visit this post.

RSS Feed: When you start a blog, WordPress.com starts two RSS feeds for you: one for your posts and one for the comments on your posts. An RSS feed is a stream of your posts (or comments) that can be loaded into feed readers. Some blog readers use RSS feeds to keep up-to-date with their favourite blogs without having to visit a ton of different websites.

To learn more about using your WordPress.com RSS feed, check out this article from the WordPress.com support forum.

For a really easy way to add your RSS feed to your blog, visit this post: RSS Links Widget.

5) Tag Your Posts

Your new blog is awesome: you want other people to be able to find it to see just how awesome it is. WordPress.com makes this really easy with tags.

You can (and should!) add tags to each of your WordPress.com posts. Tags are keywords that let readers (and WordPress.com, and search engines), know what your blog post is about. Tags will be displayed on your posts, and be used to categorize your posts in WordPress.com’s Global Tag Listing. Even more importantly perhaps, tags are indexed by search engines, so they can have a big impact on your blog traffic.

Tags can be single words or short strings of words. For example, for this post, I have added the following tags: WordPress.com, setting up WordPress.com, getting started WordPress.com, WordPress.com for Writers, writing, 5 Tips for New WordPress.com bloggers, what to do with a new WordPress.com blog.

When creating your tags, try to think of the words that someone might enter into a search engine to find your post. Also, check out the more popular tags  in the Global Tag Listing and try adding a few relevant ones to your post to make sure your posts show up in the more popular categories. The bigger the tag’s font in the global listing, the more often that term is being used.

I usually add between 3 and 8 tags for each post; WordPress recommends between 5 and 10. Just be sure your tags are relevant so readers won’t be disappointed when they arrive at your site.

Each time you compose a post, look to the right-hand side of your screen for the box labelled “Tags” and add a few to make sure your future readers can find you!

Are there any other blogging lessons that you learned the hard way? If you’re a more experienced blogger: do you agree with this advice? Have any to add?

 Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Krappweis

Carrie Mumford - Writer & Editor

When I first started blogging, I read several articles about the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, but eventually decided to host my blog using WordPress.com.

My easy-to-use WordPress.com site has served me well over the past year or so, but when I decided to combine my blog and website, it was time to move to WordPress.org. I’ve spent the past few weeks searching out a new theme, finding a good web host, and learning a little bit of coding to get my new WordPress.org site up and running.

Before I talk about how my move to WordPress.org will affect this blog, I wanted to share a few things that I learned about the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, just in case there are others out there who are wondering which option is right for them.

If you’re not interested in all of this WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org business, please feel free to skim to the end of this post where I’ll give you the scoop on my new blog and website. Thanks for reading!

What’s the Difference Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

WordPress.org:

WordPress.org is open source blogging software that you can download, upload to a 3rd party server, and create a blog or website with. When you use WordPress.org you have the ability to make your blog or website look however you’d like it to, and the option to install lots of ‘plugins’ that super-smart people create and add to the WordPress.org plugin library. Plugins range from social sharing widgets to contact forms to spam blockers and much more.

To use WordPress.org on your own you’ll need to know (or be willing to learn) a little bit about servers (web hosts) and ftp sites and possibly some CSS coding. Don’t let this scare you though! I knew very little about any of these things a few weeks ago when I decided to make the move – you can learn as you go.

A Few Benefits of WordPress.org:

• You have more control over the way your site looks.
• You can sell ads for your website and keep 100% of the profit (I’m not interested in doing this, but I know many bloggers are).
• You can add lots of fun plugins.
• You can make use of just about any custom theme you’d like.

A Few Cons of WordPress.org:

• This might sound like a minor quibble, but it’s driving me batty: as far as I can ascertain, there is no ‘Like this post’ button for WordPress.org. I’m hoping that someone will create a plugin for one soon.
• You’ll likely need to pay a monthly fee to a hosting company. I’m using Laughing Squid, which has been wonderful and very helpful thus far! The monthly fee is modest, but it’s something I didn’t have to worry about with WordPress.com.
• If you’re not technically savvy to the ways of self-hosted blogs (I wasn’t), it might take you some time to get a WordPress.org site up and running. You can pay someone to help you do this if it’s not something you want to bother with. WordPress offers this service, as does wpbeginner, to name two options.

WordPress.com:

When you use WordPress.com, you set up a site and WordPress.com takes care of the rest (back-ups, upgrades, spam, etc.). You don’t have to worry about adding plugins or messing with coding or paying a monthly fee for a server host. But, you also don’t have as much freedom when it comes to making your site look and act the way you would like it to.

A Few Benefits of Using WordPress.com:

• It’s easy to set up.
• You can get traffic from WordPress’s Freshly Pressed picks of the day and post tags.
• You don’t have to worry about your site crashing if you get a monstrous amount of traffic.
• There’s a like button for every post (I love that button!).

A Few Cons of Using WordPress.com:

• WordPress can show ads on your blog to users who aren’t logged in if you don’t pay the yearly fee of ~$30 to have the ads removed.
• You can’t modify your theme very much (although you can a little bit with the CSS upgrade [$30/year]).
• You can’t use plugins.

Here’s an official explanation from WordPress along with a full list of the pros and cons of each platform: WordPress Com vs. Org.

And here is an easy-to-read infographic that shows the differences between the two options from the wpbeginner site:

Infographic by WPBeginner

Which WordPress site is Right for You?

To decide which WordPress platform is right for you, you’ll need to consider your plans for your blog or website.

Do you want to blog just as a hobby? WordPress.com is probably right for you.

Do you want to blog to earn money? You’ll likely need to move to WordPress.org.

Do you want something that’s easy to set up and takes very little work to maintain? WordPress.com is probably a good option for you.

Do you want something that gives you total control over the way your site looks, and any profits you might make from your site? WordPress.org is for you.

In a nutshell:

WordPress.com: Easy to set up, not as much design flexibility, you won’t get 100% of your profits should you choose to monetize.

WordPress.org: You need some technical know-how to set it up, but you get full design control and do with it as you please.

Changes to This Blog: Email Subscribers

As mentioned earlier, I’ve decided that WordPress.com is no longer the right choice for me, so I’m moving my blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. The most painful thing about moving from WordPress.com to WordPress.org is that you can’t take your email subscribers with you.

This means that if you have subscribed to my blog via email, you’ll need to re-subscribe to my new blog to continue getting my posts. I hope this isn’t too much trouble!

If you’re reading this blog through an RSS reader, you shouldn’t have to make any changes.

For the next few weeks I will continue to post on both sites, just to make the transition easier on all of us.

And now, without further ado, please visit my shiny new website/blog: http://www.carriemumford.com/blog/.

Carrie Mumford - Writer & Editor

Lessons Learned in 10 Months Blogging

There comes a time in every blogger’s life when they feel ready to give blogging advice to others. Or maybe there just comes a time when they’ve made so many mistakes they feel they can help others by sharing their experiences.

This time has come for me :)

I’ve been writing here for ten months now, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. Some lessons were learned gently, by reading other blogs and searching the Internet, while others were learned the hard way, through trial and error.

Here are 10 lessons I learned over 10 months of blogging. Enjoy!

1. Premium themes are sometimes worth the cost:

I started this blog using a free WordPress theme, which worked well for a few months. But as I grew more comfortable with WordPress and began customizing my blog site, I found I wasn’t totally satisfied with any of the free options. I ended up purchasing a premium theme from WooThemes, and have never looked back.

If you cant find a free theme you love, consider springing for a premium theme so you can make your blog look exactly the way you would like it to.

2. Read as many blogs as you can:

I regularly read 20-25 other blogs, from big name sites like Copy Blogger and Zen Habits, to growing blogs from fellow writers such as Dan Gillmor and Kat Latham. I have learned most of what I know about blogging by reading what others are writing about and creeping about on their blogs.

3. Set up Google Alerts:

I’m surprised by how many people don’t set up Google Alerts. Google Alerts are a fantastic way to keep track of what people are saying about you and your blog online, and best of all, they’re free!

When you create a Google Alert, you’ll get an email each time the search term you specify is mentioned on the web. I set up a Google Alert for my name (in quotation marks, to ensure I’m only seeing mentions of “Carrie” that are also attached to “Mumford”) shortly after launching my blog, and have not worried about missing mentions of my blog ever since.

4. Don’t be afraid to try new things (or scrap them if they’re not working):

In 10 months, I have gone through 3 blog names, 4 urls, and countless blog pages. At one point, I even completed a full site redesign. In my humble opinion, blogs are meant to be experimented with! Don’t be afraid to try new things or stop doing something if it’s not working. Try new types of posts, add new pages, post at different frequencies. Just be sure to monitor your site stats and comments to get a feel for which pages and posts are resonating with visitors.

5. Decide why you’re blogging:

It may sound odd, but I didn’t decide why I was blogging before I started this blog. I had a vague idea that I wanted to write about writing and meet other people interested in writing, but that was about it. Since the launch of this blog, I’ve narrowed my reasons for blogging down to a tight list (that perhaps I’ll share one day). Knowing why you’re blogging will keep you going when you don’t feel like writing and help you focus the topics of your posts.

6. Be yourself:

It’s difficult to make yourself stand out in the sea of blogs available to readers today. I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to survive in the blogging world is to be yourself. There were some posts that I wrote with my face red with embarrassment at my nerdiness, assuming that no one would read them. Little did I know, those posts turned out to be some of my most popular. Your voice, more than anything else, will define you in the world of blogging.

7. Post a photo of yourself:

I know this is debated, but I think including a photo of yourself on your blog is important. If you are using other social media outlets, like Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus, your blog readers will be able to recognize you by sight alone. If you’re shy, try using the same icon across all of your social media accounts. I used a stack of books to identify myself for several months until I was ready to post a real picture.

8. Add social sharing buttons:

Social sharing buttons fall into the “learned it the hard way” camp for me. Social sharing buttons give your readers a really easy way to share your posts with their followers on various social networks. All WordPress themes include social sharing options – you even get to choose which networks you would like to enable.

If you scroll to the bottom of this post (and you’re reading online, as opposed to in an email account), you’ll be able to see my social sharing buttons beside ‘share this.’

9. Comment on other blogs:

To me, blogs are just as social as Twitter or Facebook or any other networking site;  they’re a forum for conversation. Leaving comments is a great way to meet other people who are interested in the same things that you are, and a great way to let other bloggers know someone is out there, reading what they write. I know comments aren’t for everyone; just like the people on Twitter who choose not to follow anyone (only to be followed), there are bloggers who simply write and that’s it. For me, commenting on blogs and meeting other people is half the fun (and one of the reasons I bog).

10. Don’t give up!

Although it’s difficult to find statistics about blogging, I have read estimates that claim 60-80% of blogs are abandoned within a few months of being launched. If you manage to post consistently for more than a few months, you’re doing better than most! When to going gets tough, try reading other blogs for post ideas, or check out these links:

Michael Hyatt’s 13 Blog Post Ideas for Novelists
Seth Godin’s How to get traffic to your blog
Pro Blogger’s 5 Ways to Never Run Out of Blog Post Ideas

I learn something new about blogging every week, so I’m sure I still have a long way to go. Do you have any tips for hosting a successful blog? Please leave a comment below!

Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/sqback

Carrie Mumford - Writer & Editor