8 Tips For New Bloggers
It’s been 8 months since I first started blogging. I’m not a pro-blogger, but still I have come up with a few tips that I think will be found useful by the new bloggers. This is my first attempt in giving out tips. :) And that also with a bunch of links from some of my favorite blogs.
1. Own Domain: Your domain should be small (10-12 characters are enough) one and easy-to-remember. For more tips on choosing domain names, read Shaun’s article.
2. Good Host: If you have a self-hosted blog, then host it on a reliable host. Make sure your is a reliable one, has no downtimes and has 24/7 support. (If anyone has written a good article on importance of good web-hosting, please let me know below. I’ll add the link here.)
3. Nice Theme: You should have a nice, clear and simple template. Don’t make it full of images, because that will increase the loading time of your blog. Remember, your theme gives the first impression of your blog. Read Nirmal’s post for more info. on selecting a theme.
4. Feed Button: Place the feed link/icon in the first fold of your blog. The feed icon should not be too big or too small. Use a medium sized icon depending on your blog layout. For more tips, visit Shankar’s place.
5. Comment on other blogs: Well, yes. This is important! Or you, yourself, won’t get any comments on your blog. So, this is a must. When I started out blogging, I used to be very lazy in commenting on other blogs, but the result was that I hardly got a comment the whole week. Read more tips by Brown.
6. Reply to comments: It’s good to respond all the comments given on your posts. Your blog looks more active this way. Don’t ever piss of your readers. If you do want to do, read some tips to piss of readers by Shaun and read another good article on how to increase comments on your blogs by Nirmal.
7. Participate in discussions: Participate in discussions on other blogs.Participation doesn’t mean you start spamming. Make a comment related to the topic. This will help your blog gain some exposure.
8. Join Link Directories: Join as many link directories as you can. It gets you link backs, and link backs help you get a higher PageRank.
As this is my first attempt in giving out tips, I’m sure there will be many points I’ll be missing. Feel free to point out my mistakes, or add more tips below. I’d appreciate them all.
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37 Comments
Brown Baron
Great set of tips there. Thanks for the link love buddy!
Sep 16th, 2007
Vaibhav
nice ones, infact the last two were new to me.
can you tell more about link directories :)
i will try those as well. and add one more. try to take part in forums.
Sep 16th, 2007
Haris
@Brown: You are welcome! :)
@Vaibhav: I’m glad you liked the tips. Well, yeah, I really did forgot about forums. I’ll add that soon. :)
Sep 16th, 2007
Shankar Ganesh
Great tips! 8th one is something I’ve not tried :D
BTW, thanks for mentioning my article on improving RSS readers.
Sep 16th, 2007
Haris
@Shankar: You are welcome! :smile:
Sep 16th, 2007
Bush Mackel
Yeah! Nice list - Especially the second two. You don’t find those often on lists like this. *nod*
Sep 16th, 2007
Madhur Kapoor
You covered all the points there buddy .
Sep 16th, 2007
Vikram
Great Tips :grin:
Sep 16th, 2007
Haris
Thank you all! It’s you guys, who made me confident enough to give out tips :D
Sep 16th, 2007
shaun
Awsome list man! i made that list two times :cool: oh yeh haha thanks for the links bro I really appreciate it. Stumbled this post hopefully you’ll get some good traffic!
Sep 17th, 2007
Haris
@Shaun: You are welcome!
Sep 17th, 2007
Nirmal
Great compilation of tips and thanks for the mention. Did you check out this link? It looks like a copy of your post.
http://www.egyguy.com/2007/09/.....-bloggers/
Sep 17th, 2007
Haris
@Nirmal: No, I haven’t seen that. Thanks a lot for letting me know.
Indeed, it is a copy. Look at his cleverness, he even changed the smiley URL to his own :P . In fact he did that post 11 hours and 56 minutes after I did on my blog. :P Bad for me, but good for you guys, hehe. You guys got an extra link back :D
Sep 17th, 2007
TechZilo
I did not know the importance of #1 and #2, and I now repent it :(
Sep 17th, 2007
Haris
You are on DreamHost, right?
Sep 17th, 2007
Dj Flush
Nice tips there Haris. Really I appreciate that despite being a new blogger yourself you have the power to understand a blogger’s psychology.
Way To go ;)
Sep 17th, 2007
Chris Coyier
Nice tips! I’m a little up in the air on the link directories thing though. I’ve went down this path in the past and it seems like these directories are mostly garbage and provide hardly any traffic at all. And the fact that you need to provide a reciprocal link negates any SEO you might get out of it anyway. Kind of a waste of time.
Sep 18th, 2007
Sean
Good tips to refer with.
But, I heard that joining something like viral link or reciprocal link will gonna ruin your site…
However, I hope can have a link exchange with you. Drop me a msg if you are interested on it~
Thanks.
Sep 20th, 2007
Thilak
All the above points make total sense, but I’m not sure Joining Link directory helps. Thesedays, Link Directories are almost dead!
Sep 22nd, 2007
Haris
@Thilak: There are still a few that does bring you some traffic. But yeah, most of hem are dead. Finding good ones is pretty difficult.
Sep 22nd, 2007
Thilak
@Haris: If I were Google, the first thing I’d do was blacklist all of these Directories from crawling. I guess, that’s what Google’s been doing. No point in wasting time submitting to those Directories… atleast, that’s what I believe.
Sep 23rd, 2007
syahid ali
nice compilation. new bloggers will definitely benefit from this list :grin:
Sep 25th, 2007
Haris
@Syahid: Thanks :) I’m glad you liked them.
Sep 25th, 2007
Shashank
Great tips for beginners i would also like to add one :wink:
Patience :razz: the only thing beginners requires than anything else
stumbled good post
Sep 28th, 2007
Haris
@Shashank: Hey, I had this tip in my list, but forgot typing. Thanks a lot for reminding me back :)
I have seen many people who have given up blogging just because of lack of patience. And thanks a lot for the stumble.
Sep 28th, 2007
HASSAN'
Nice infact the link back one is new to me. thx
Oct 1st, 2007
Haris
@HASSAN: I’m glad you liked it. :)
Oct 1st, 2007
Technobuzz.net
Nice tips :)
Oct 3rd, 2007
Haris
Thanks :)
Oct 3rd, 2007
BilZone
Great tips. Thanks.
Dec 29th, 2007
Anjar Priandoyo
thanks, put the domain first, i’m agree with that.
Jun 13th, 2008
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