Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Tips for New Bloggers


Well, this seems to be the theme for the past month or so! But since it's the prompt over at The Broke and Bookish for our top ten list today, I'm going to go ahead and list out my newbie blogging tips once again.

Top Ten New Blogger Tips

1. Be consistent... meaning post often... or at least on a regular basis, whatever you choose that to be.
2. Comment a lot... both on others' blogs and in response to comments on your own blog.
3. Participate... there's lots of events and memes and if you want people to know you are out there, you've got to let them know by participating in things! I think Twitter could also be included here because Twitter is nothing if not participating!
4. Keep it fun... remember not to stress about  blogging, it's supposed to be fun and if it's not, change something.
5. Be personal... mix up the review and meme posts (and giveaway posts) with personal posts and discussion posts so readers will get to know you, and not just what you are reading.
6. Make it look good... don't let your blog get cluttered, or too busy with weird and/or moving backgrounds, or loud with music, or hard to read with strange colors, or annoying with too many spelling/grammatical errors.
7. Be original and creative... which may seem hard with how many blogs are out there, but you can always find your own little spin on things. Don't be scared to go with any fun ideas you have! Just see what happens!
8. Make yourself available... put an email up, and links to to other places you can be found, and make it easy for people to find these things.
9. Give credit... be sure to link up to other bloggers when mentioning them... or their ideas and memes. This always makes people happy!
10. Most importantly, be yourself... do what you want, blog about what you want, do it how you want. There really are no rules except for.... play nice with others.


What would you add to my list? Did I forget something huge? What have you learned so far as a blogger?

21 comments:

  1. I like all these tips but though I have a Twitter account I'm still not sure what I should be doing with it. Any tips for using Twitter to its full capacity?

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    1. Barkless: Twitter is a weird thing that's for sure, but you just have to jump in and start talking to people. Follow a lot of people and then you can see an ongoing conversation. It's fun... really.

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  2. I am loving this top ten list today. I am learning so much! I need to do a better job at making myself available by putting a contact link in my blog. Definitely adding it to my to do list!

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  3. All great great advice. I'd know, it's the advice you gave me and it's all worked so far. ;)

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  4. Agree with MC Sommers, I'm loving yours and others top 10 posts this week on blog tips - especially the tip about be original and creative - that doesn't mean that no one has done it before - just that not everyone is doing it :-)

    Tanya
    Girlxoxo.com

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  5. Some of your tips sound just like mine, :). No. 9 is very important. I especially like no. 7. So very true!

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    1. Rikki: It's interesting how everyone's lists are quite similar. There must be truly something about what we are all saying!

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  6. Pretty good and pretty complete. Now if only there were an easy way to do these things regularly :)

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    1. Melissa: Right... just a little bit here and there I'd say.

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  7. Make yourself available, that's a great tip. There are times when I want to email a blogger with a question and if I can't find a way to reach them I just give up.

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  8. Great list, Suey! I think you touched on almost everything that is important! :) I especially like 6.

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    1. Jenni: I think a lot people need help with that one especially.

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  9. these are some great tips.. and many of the reasons I enjoy your blog so much!

    ~L (omphaloskepsis)

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  10. What a great list! I used to be so good about the posting on a regular basis thing! I am trying to be as consistent as possible this year :)

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    1. Amused: I don't think it has to be really really often, just consistent... know what I mean? Which I'm sure you doing just fine.

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  11. Thank you for posting this fantastic advice. I've learned so much from this week's Top Ten :)
    Angela @ AJ Arndt Books

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