I love blogging, and blogs. When it comes to seeing what’s out there in the blogosphere, if somebody’s doing it I’ve seen it. I would conclude that there are exactly three categories that all blogs fit into.
- Awesome, Viral Blogs- Usually these blogs are written with awesome content by somebody who is either extremely talented writer, has a catchy take on things, or is very good at explaining valuable information in an easy to read fashion.
- Awesome, Not Viral Blogs- These are often either heavily funded corporate blogs with great information by the best writers and no one cares, talented bloggers that still haven’t figured out how to get noticed in the right circles, or blogs in a small niche.
- Sub-Awesome Blogs- Those are all of the blogs that may be good, but are not tweetfully good.
Notice that there is no fourth category of sub-awesome, viral blogs.
For those of us that love to blog and want to be more successful at it, the trick to going viral is twofold: creating an awesome blog and gaining traction.
Creating an Awesome Blog
- Write great: If you haven’t yet got the hang of writing great, don’t worry, it can be developed by writing a lot and unlearning some of the bad habits that you were taught to cultivate in high school.
- Have a catchy take on things: Blogs that are just like all of the other blogs out there don’t get any special notice, which is why it’s important to develop your own voice and perspective that is captivating enough to inspire readers to hit the tweet button.
- Make it look nice: You don’t need to be the best looking to win the popularity contest, but you do need to be presentable. Pay attention to choosing a nice color scheme and layout.
Gaining Blog Traction
- SEO: Get the search engines working for you by indicating to them what you are about. Choosing good keywords is important, and writing blog posts about subjects that people are searching for will guarantee that there is at least interest in your subjects. Google’s Keyword Tool External is a great, free resource for finding good keywords.
- Social Media: Engage an audience with the social website of your choice. Engaging an audience through a site like Facebook has the power to transform a group of individual readers into a community.
- Respond to Comments: The people that bother leaving a comment are the ones that are going to be most likely to publicize what you have to say to their social groups, bring them in to your inner circle.
- Comment on other Blogs: As you have probably already realized on your own bloggers like to know where their comment leavers are coming from, and they likewise click through to find out.
- Guest Blog: Ask a fellow blogger in your niche if you can write a post for them with a link back to your own blog. Guest blogging is mutually beneficial because they get your free and unique content while you get publicity and a backlink to your blog (Backlinks are good for SEO).
Here are a few other things to pay attention to…
- Niche Size: Make sure that your niche is big enough to support virility. Niches that don’t have many people interested in the subjects have little chance of stirring up interest no matter good they are.
- Passion: Almost all bloggers lose passion about their blogs at one point or another. When the passion goes it shows, and it is important to keep rekindling that spark.
Good luck on joining the elite bloggers and going viral. Is there anything else that you would like to share with the community that might help others to develop their blogs? Let’s hear your comments.
Our guest author, Scott Hersh, is a business blogger for BCAblog.com the official blog of BCA: leaders in merchant cash advances.
