#1: Anti-Spam Plugin
Spam is one of the biggest problems in the blogging world. There are hundreds of thousands of marketers that will attempt to promote their products though spam comments and trackback links. Leaving these comments on your blog leave it looking messy and unattended. That is why I recommend installing an Anti-Spam plugin. There are some pretty powerful tools out there. Akismet, for example, is one of my favorites. It stops the spam comments and trackbacks, as well as allows your comment section to look neat and tidy. One of the best parts? It’s essentially free (unless you own a business oriented blog, in which case it costs $5 a month).#2: Building Relationships
You have to look at your blog as a business, in a way. By gaining support from other bloggers, you are essentially building the stepping stones for success to your blog. Don’t look at your fellow bloggers are competitors, look at them as allies. How can other bloggers help you?
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Linking to, retweeting or sharing your posts
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Providing advice when you’re stuck
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Being supportive and encouraging
#3: Cultivate Relationships through Comments
How can you quickly gain friendships through blogging? You can start by actually reading the materials that others are putting out there. Leaving positive feedback and commenting is a great start as well. The more that you comment and associate with your fellow bloggers, the more that they will do the same to you. Your blog will gain authenticity with REAL blog comments.To encourage positive comments, get into the habit of asking a question at the end of every blog post.
#4: Design and Appearance
The words on your screen aren’t the most important aspect if your blog. In fact, a blog is much like a website. While the content is key, so is the design. If you select an ugly design for your blog, chances are that your viewers won’t take you seriously. A blog that isn’t attractive or easy to read is considered “amateur”.Here are some tips to help improve the quality of your blog appearance:
- Enlarge the font size up to make your text easier to read.
- Get rid of the clutter in your sidebar.
- Consider paying a designer to create a header for your blog
- Stick with a clean, simple design.
#5: Formatting Blog Posts
Good blog formatting helps readers follow your posts easily. Blogs are just like books. If you can’t keep up or follow the plot, you’re going to lose interest quickly. Here are some tips for great blog formatting:
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Subheadings (Header 2) to break up your content
and provide signposts so readers can jump to the section that’s most relevant
to them.
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Bold text to highlight key sentences. Don’t
overdo it, and avoid using bold text to highlight individual words.
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Add bullet points for lists, rather than putting
the whole list in one paragraph. The extra white space that this creates helps
readability, and bullet points are easy for the reader to take in at a glance.
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Use blockquote formatting for any quotes.
