Many bloggers simply launch a blog and start scribbling their experience into it, and expect it to be a huge success. However, this is not how it works. If you want your blog to be a big success, you shouldn’t forget the most important element of your blog: your audience. The more subscribers you have, the more popular your blog is. In order to get more subscribers, you will have to do things they like. Here are few tips you must use to make your blog successful.

Give Your Opinion

Instead of writing very specific, informative article, give your opinion about it. People like to read blogs because they aren’t written by companies selling their products, but by an average individual with many things in common to them. Tell people what you think about the topic, and ask for suggestions.

Provide Resources

If your aim is to educate your readers as much as you can, provide useful resources in your post. Provide links to web pages that has more information on the topic. This will bring the visitor time and again on your blog to search for information and additional resources.

Write Less

If you can explain something in 400 words, don’t unnecessarily make it a 1,000 word article. People forget long post easily because they hardly read it. However, shorter points with proper sub-headings are more effective and attractive. Provide knowledge quickly at the speed of sound to your readers.

Write Attractive Headlines

If headlines are attractive, people will certainly look into the content of the post. However, this wouldn’t work if you don’t have relevant content inside. So, write a brilliant post, and use whatever you have to develop an attractive headline.

Have Convenient Format

Instead of letting people search for information from bunch of words and sentences, arrange them in proper manner. Don’t write essay-type posts, but posts with many headings, sub-headings, and bullet points, where finding relevant information would be easy.

Be Consistent

People subscribe to your blog because they like your writing style. If you are inconsistent in your style by providing information in random way, they will unsubscribe in seconds. Create your own style and be consistent.

Use Keywords

Jot down most-searched keywords in your niche and use them in all your posts. Put them in sub-headings, headings, headlines, and in the body. However, make sure it looks natural and don’t over use them.

Edit

Every time you edit the article, you improve its quality significantly. Before you click on ‘submit’, re-read your content and remove unnecessary information. Check for grammar and spelling mistakes.

Whether you accept it or not, your writing will decide the fate of your blog. If your content is not persuasive, your blog design or search engine optimization wouldn’t work. And worse, if you make spelling mistakes, you will turn off most visitors, who would never visit your site again. Here are few common spelling mistakes you must avoid.

1. All Right & Alright

Incorrect Usage: Sam wasn’t keep well until last night, but he is alright now.
Correct Usage: Sam wasn’t keep well until last night, but he is all right now.

Although ‘alright’ is being widely used in place of ‘all right’, it’s still a grammatical error.

2. Accept & Except

Incorrect Usage: Kindly except the gift.
Correct Usage: Kindly accept the gift.

Except means to exclude something, or with the exception of. On the other hand, accept means to receive something. The team visited every room except the King’s private room. In this sentence, the usage of ‘except’ is correct.

3. Advice & Advise

Incorrect Usage: He didn’t take my advise.
Correct Usage: He didn’t take my advice.

Advice is a noun, whereas, advise is a verb.

4. Its & It’s

Incorrect Usage: Keep the book back in it’s place.
Correct Usage: Keep the book back in its place.

It’s = It is. So, you cannot put ‘is’ after ‘it’s’. Besides, ‘its’ is a singular possessive adjective, used to show something that belongs to the noun.

5. Quiet & Quite

Incorrect Usage: It was a quite evening.
Correct Usage: It was a quiet evening.

Quiet, an adjective, means peaceful or without any activity. However, ‘quite’ means to a significant extent. For instance, the children are quite happy today, is a right sentence.

6. Then & Than

Incorrect Usage: Sam has more money then Andy.
Correct Usage: Sam has more money than Andy.

‘Then’ is used to indicate time. For instance, Sam opened the door, and then slammed. However, than is used to make comparisons.

7. Every Day & Everyday

Incorrect Usage: He goes for a walk everyday at seven in the morning
Correct Usage: He goes for a walk every day at seven in the morning

Everyday, as adjective, means daily. On the other hand, ‘every’ is a simply phrase that’s used before the noun ‘day’. For instance, He goes out every day. But people striding on the pathway, is an everyday occurrence.

You have picked a hot topic that your readers are eager to know about. You write the post with extreme authority as you already know much about it. You even put in your opinions and write it from a very interesting perspective. In short, you write a killer post that must, ideally, attract thousands of new readers to your blog.

You realize the significance of your post, hence you send an email to all the top bloggers with a link to your post. You then simply wait back for links to flood in.

However, nothing happens.

You don’t receive any links days after sending the email. You don’t even receive any reply from any of the bloggers you sent the email. Worried and anxious, you check your blog’s statistics, and you realize not many even clicked on the link that you had sent them.

Yes, they have ignored you. And you also realize that no one is even paying attention to your blog. You wonder is it practically possible to exchange links from top bloggers?

Yes, it. You simply don’t know the right method. Let us discuss why doesn’t your blog attract links and how you can get them.

Biggest Blogging Myth

‘Content is King’

Theoretically, it’s right. If you write a remarkable piece of content, readers should ideally be attracted and links should flow in.

It worked practically too, but many years ago. The internet is now much better place than it was years ago. It’s full of remarkable content, and bloggers don’t really have time to read them all, let alone linking it.

If you want links, especially in times like this when competition is much beyond your imagination, you need something more than just great piece of content.

How To Build a Popular Blog

This wouldn’t have been relevant to blogging industry years ago. However, it is very much true today: ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’.

If you are an exception writer with no online blogging friends, it will take years for your blog to become successful. On the other hand, if your friend is a mediocre write, but friends with Technorati Top 100 bloggers, he will be popular much faster than you.

Why?

This is because most bloggers link to their friends more than any one else. If you have written remarkable content, and if they link to you, it may not because of the content, but, simply because they know you personally.

So, the secret of building a great blog is not just writing great posts, but having good connections.

Is there any way to be friends with popular bloggers?

Traditional method asks linking to popular blogger’s post, and wait for them to notice your blog. If they like your blog, they may link to you as well. It may work for you sometimes. However, I believe you will need more creative method. Here are some tips that might help:

• Write guest posts for top blogs that receive many comments and lots of traffic
• Go to conferences that talks about ‘Who’s Who’ in your niche. This might help you get started.
• Actively vote or digg any articles they post on social media networks
• Send them emails asking irresistible questions. Ask questions that sparks a healthy discussion
• Post many comments, most of them should be really useful and memorable
• Interview them and ask intelligent questions

Give More to Receive More

Most top bloggers aren’t self-sufficient. They too have problems like everyone else and they need someone to help them. If you can help them resolve any of their problems, they will remember you for a long time.

The key is to find ways to be useful to them. Once you have established a reputation in their eyes, use it for your benefit. Yes, it involves lots of hard work and patience. If you put effort in building relationships as much as you do for writing content, your blog would become popular within no time.

Besides, you will be friends with few of the best minds on the web.

Not many bloggers, except for those on the top of search results, are happy with Google.

Yes, Google has a lot of influence over online business right now. However, with tremendous increase in number of bloggers and webmasters, it will eventually lose its power.

Since the beginning of BloggingWithChris.com, I have never bothered much about search engines. It’s not that I have something against them or I don’t entertain people coming through search engine. Not at all. It’s simply that I don’t rely on search engine for the success of my blog.

You obviously get some traffic from search engines. But you also need to realize you get most accurate traffic through direct links, and that’s where you need to focus in order to get remarkable results. Simply pretend that search engines doesn’t exist as far as your blog’s traffic is concerned. Instead, work towards building sources that no one can take away from you.

Here are three things you can do to eliminate the Google (or any search engine, for this case) Syndrome.

Focus on Subscriptions

Don’t worry about search traffic or page views. Instead, simply focus on getting more number of subscribers. After all, that’s our ultimate goal. As an online publisher, getting the right people to spend time reading your content is the greatest gift you can get. Try every possible way to get more subscribers. But avoid trying to please search engines.

Social Media

Instead of trying to please search engines, try to get direct traffic from social media networks like Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Sphinn, and so on. You will get more targeted results through these sites than search engines.

Instead of writing more everyday and targeting specific keywords, take time to write quality content. This is a sure-shot way to attract traffic from social media network. You will generate amazing results by writing less but unique content.

Selling

Most bloggers who try to please Google have their income coming in from Google AdSense. In most cases, however, the income is very low, unless you are among the top ten blogs.

When you target increasing number of subscribers through social media network, you build trust among your subscribers. And if they trust you, they can buy products sold by you online. You can sell e-books, start affiliate marketing programs, or simply have paid subscription. You will surely earn money once people start trusting you.

This is how you can eliminate over-dependency on Google and become an independent blogger.