I will not focus on micro-optimizations like changing your call to action from blue to orange. Instead, I’ll concentrate on the major wins.

Tip 1: Find out who your readers are

Try to gain insight into who your users are so that you can understand what kind of problems they face and how you can help them.

Tip 2: Make your posts as useful as possible

The guiding light for your writing should be bringing as much value as possible to your readers. This is why knowing who they are and what problems they face (aka Tip 1) is so important.

When you are writing a post, ask yourself, who is this useful for? Am I solving a real problem here?

Tip 3: Focus on a topic

It is tempting to write about everything that interests you, but in my experience, one achieves the greatest amount of success as a blogger when focusing on a particular topic.

This makes sense when you think about it. People discovering your blog thanks to a particular article are likely to be interested in articles on the same topic.

Tip 4: Make it obvious what you are all about

Related to the previous tip, not only should you focus on a particular topic, but you should also make it obvious what your blog is about.

Use your domain name, site header, sidebar, anything really, to get people to immediately understand the subject matter of your blog.

Don’t leave people guessing.

Tip 5: Be vulnerable

Although you want to be an authoritative voice, don’t forget to be human, honest, and even vulnerable.

In the same vein, feel free to share your doubts, questions, and even tales of what went wrong. It won’t likely damage you.

Quite the opposite, it can really help you and your blog to be more relatable.

Tip 6: Be bold and opinionated

While you should be honest and even vulnerable, don’t be afraid to also be bold and opinionated.

If you are passionate/certain/serious about something, have the courage to boldly show it.

Tip 7: Don’t mock anyone

The easiest way to get people to dislike you is to waste time mocking others.

You can criticize people, but if you come across as a bully, you’ll lose nice people in favor of those who thrive on drama and gossip. Not a worthwhile trade.

Tip 8: Write at least once a week

As with all endeavors in life, the more you write the better you’ll become at it. Especially in the beginning, practice as much as you can fit in your schedule, and make sure you publish at least one article per week.

If you run more than one blog, consider consolidating (something I’m now considering myself) so as to increase your output frequency.

One blog that publishes three articles per week is apt to have a far better outcome than three blogs, each publishing once a week. 

Tip 9: Create series

Consider writing small guides and other longer content that can be split across a series of posts. These tend to do well in helping you grow your following.

People who liked the first part of a tutorial are likely to want to read the rest. Make sure you prompt people to subscribe via email or feed (though less adopted these days) to receive updates on the series.

You can even do reoccurring series where you write a given type of post ever so often. For example, a weekly round-up of articles within your niche that have recently caught your eye. 

Tip 10: Write epic content

I know it takes a lot more time and investment but, as I mention in my book, nothing is as rewarding to readers (and Google) as epic content. Content that is radically useful and extensive, covering a given topic with a great deal of attention.

You can think of these types of posts as guides or mini-books of sorts. I’m talking about 3,000-10,000 words. Chances are, you won’t be able to publish a post this size every week, but if you do pen entries in this size range periodically, you are likely to grow your blog much more quickly.

They are also backlink magnets, as other people are more likely to link to your epic content than they are to your smaller posts.

Tip 11: Read other bloggers

The best way to improve as a blogger is to study those who are successful at it. Use your feed reader to subscribe to the best bloggers in your niche. Read what they write and how they write.

Feel free to incorporate those elements that jump out at you into your own writing. Also, staying abreast of sites in your niche is a great way to help ensure that you don’t run out of ideas for topics to cover on your blog.

There you have it. 11 tips that can truly transform your blog. The hard part is putting them into action. Not because they are complex – indeed, they are quite simple. 

However, simple isn’t always easy. You will still need to put in the hours and work required to succeed, but doing so is certainly possible.

The post 11 Tips for Becoming a Better Blogger appeared first on Technical Blogging.

This header introduces the subject

This header introduces the subject I’m going to discuss over the next few paragraphs. Namely, the importance of headers.

Paragraph breaks and headers prevented this post from being a wall of text.

Visual breaks are important because most readers skim a post online. Headers like this one anchor the user as they scroll. Bold words can also serve the same purpose, but don’t overdo it.

This first header is where the premise of the article is further developed. I introduced it with the title, clarified further in the first paragraph, and now, in its own dedicated section, I can expand on it.

The rest of the post will literally describe itself, stretching self-referentiality without, I hope, becoming unintelligible.

As meta as this post is, I’m injecting myself, the author, into it to make it less impersonal.

This header takes the reader somewhere

With the premise developed, this post needs to go somewhere. Every article should tell a story. Everything you write, even technical posts, should narrate a tale or arc of some kind.

I was in the shower thinking about my next post. What could I write about? Then it hit me. Somebody must have flushed a toilet. The idea and the scalding water hit me at the same time. I should write about the structure of posts by writing a post that describes itself.

A post about nothing, Seinfeld would have called it.

Paint pictures with words. Ok, me in the shower is not the picture I really want to paint. Inject humor in your posts.

Literal pictures on top of literary pictures are also a good idea.

Don’t forget to include relevant quotes:

I always have a quotation for everything – it saves original thinking.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Quotes offer:

• Validation about what you’re claiming;
• A different perspective;
• Indirect clout via association;
• Amusement to the reader;
• A visual break.

The last trait is also shared by bullet-point lists.

This is the conclusion

A conclusion should summarize what just happened, allowing the reader’s brain to quickly recap the information it processed.

The recap for this post reminds the reader to start with a strong title that captures the essence of the post. Telling them to enthrall the user in the first paragraph, before introducing what the post is about. Without forgetting to mention why they should care.

Then this post used headers to guide the user’s attention as they scrolled. Offering a visual break and separating the post in mini-sections.

Images, sparingly used bold, bullet points, and quotations all enriched this post and provided further visual respite.

Speaking of images, this post included a small anecdote and used its headers to complete an arc describing how the post itself is structured.

Injecting humor and the author’s personality, elevated the post from a mere thought experiment to a masterpiece reminiscent of Shakespeare.

Closing your recap with a joke or some self-deprecating humor is okay.

Once you’re done with your recap, invite the user to comment and share their thoughts below. Finally, if so desired, bid the user goodbye.

Until next time.

The post This Is a Post About Itself appeared first on Technical Blogging.

I’m not alone. We call it thinking.

I think about a lot of things each day, though I capture very few of these thoughts on paper.

Sometimes I’ll share them, summarized, wrapped in a blanket of humor, on Twitter.

Even more seldom, about once a week, I’ll elaborate them a little and share them through my blogs.

The funny thing about these conversations is that the very act of writing them down requires a formalization of sort, and the process itself elaborates the ideas further, thus purifying them.

The real tragedy is that a lot of worthwhile thoughts and conversations with myself are never published anywhere. They’ll die with me.

Some of these ideas, trust me on this, deserve better. They deserve to be shared, discussed, evolved, changed, and perhaps, at times, even debunked.

For that to happen, other people’s minds are needed. I can give birth to the thought, but the proverbial village will be required to raise it to all that it can be.

Sometimes I doubt myself. I think, “Nah, this idea is stupid”, or “This is obvious”, or worry about what other people might think.

Perhaps, they’ll think less of me. Perhaps, it will be clear then I’m not as good as I hope to be.

Not sharing my thoughts and ideas feels safer. They can’t criticize what I haven’t shared.

But if my thought, idea, or ongoing conversation with myself is important enough for me to ponder at length, then it’s important enough to share with others.

To put out there in the universe, where it can mingle with other thoughts, invade other minds, contribute to the collective consciousness of the human race.

Fear be damned. Criticism be damned.

The more prolific we are, the more original we become. The better thinkers, artists, communicators we edify ourselves to be.

Write it down. Share it. Repeat as often as you can. Do it as if your life depends on it. Because, in good part, it does.

The post Share the Conversations with Yourself appeared first on Technical Blogging.

As Woody Allen famously said, 80% of success is showing up. He is right, you know. I believe that’s the case when it comes to blogging as well. Showing up on the blogging front means posting new content on a regular basis.

However, after following a predictable trajectory, in the long run many – if not most – blogs end up being abandoned.

A blog usually starts with a bang. The author is hyper-motivated. They’ll publish a series of posts, share their blog with family and friends, get some good feedback, and then… Then life gets in the way, web traffic disappoints one’s lofty expectations, posting becomes less frequent and more sporadic, monetization efforts fail or fall very short of the mark, and so on until a blogger pretty much gives up on their site entirely.

But wait… they’ll be back here and there with an apology post for not having posted much lately, then they’ll publish a little more before, sooner or later, disappearing entirely.[2] Life, after all, keeps getting in the way, and it’s not like all of us can retire off of this blogging thing.

That’s the usual path to blog despair.

Several months ago I received the following email:

I just finished your book and loved it. I also read your blog from time-to-time. Why did you stop blogging?

The subject was “y u no blog”. Why I no blog, indeed. You see, if you follow the steps within my book you can avoid the predictable pattern of blogging abandonment that happens to most people.

Blogging is a river, not a lake. The constant stream of new content that you post on your blog is what gives it an edge over other forms of content publishing. It’s part of what hooks readers to follow you, rather than just consuming the existing content with no expectation regarding what is coming around the bend next.

Blogging’s nature is also a curse. That strength quickly becomes a weakness if you fail to produce new content.

Amusingly enough, I myself failed to follow my own advice. My pattern of abandonment was slightly different, however.

Thanks to my blogging expertise, I still managed to monetize my “semi-abandoned” blogs quite well. They continued to bring in a decent side, passive income. They still, relying on existing content, managed to keep a steady traffic of new visitors.

Lack of blogging success is not what lead me personally to stop blogging on a frequent basis. A lack of proper organization did. This was compounded by the fact that I run a multitude of blogs. So the degree of organization required to pull it off is much higher in my case.

Sure, I can sit here and blame the number of blogs I run. I can blame being particularly busy with my day job, I can blame the beautiful weather we have in the Okanagan, I can blame my recent renewed focus on my health. What about the government? Yeah, sure, let’s blame them as well.

The real reason is me. I failed to blog regularly not due to lack of time. We all have the same 24 hours in any given day. I failed to blog regularly because I prioritized other things instead. Including some things that weren’t actually worth my time.

In short, I didn’t have my shit together[3]. I often also fell prey to black and white thinking. “Yeah, I could write a random post now, but I want to get back into blogging when I can do so regularly”. And so over time, months, and then in some cases, years quickly passed me by.

The buck stops here.

After significant research into productivity, time management, and personal development I can finally say that I’m headed in the right direction. It’s a process of course, but I’m well into it and am now organized enough to pull off the multiple blogs regular posting trick.

I’ve already rebooted this blog (posts go live on Monday), and my programming blog (posts go live on Tuesday). Math Blog will also be rebooted this week.

I have another project under wrap, too, which specifically relates to said topics of goal setting, the systems needed to achieve them, personal development, and the general topic of attaining success. I will announce the specifics here when ready, so stay tuned.

Back to the topic at hand, here are seven key suggestions to avoid the abandonment phenomenon:

1. Set a frequency (publicly disclosed or not) of at least two posts per month.
2. Be predictable by always posting on the same day(s). Even better, have an editorial calendar.
3. Schedule in your calendar a time for writing posts. I find that two hours are generally sufficient for a good post. If you finish a post in less time, use the remaining time to write more.
4. Schedule your posts in your content management system (e.g., WordPress).
5. Keep a cache of a few posts to be used if an emergency that prevents you from writing that week arises.
6. Have an idea file accessible from anywhere (e.g., on your Dropbox, Evernote, or Google Docs) in which you keep adding future post ideas and headlines that come to mind.
7. Consume content that is relevant to your blog. Resources such as books, blogs, videos, courses, magazine, etc. This will stimulate your imagination and help you devise new ideas for topics that are worth sharing with your users.

In the near future, I’ll discuss some of these key ideas and provide step by step instructions where relevant.

The post Avoid the Abandoned Blog Phenomenon appeared first on Technical Blogging.