Every blogger wants to have the most popular blog but it doesn’t
always happen for them. This year needs to be different, you need to do
all you can to make your blog more popular now than ever before.
So, how do you make your blog popular.
There are several things that you can do to make your blog popular but one thing is to just keep blogging. A lot of people fail because they don’t see traffic coming to their blog as fast as they would like and therefore they just stop writing. Do yourself a huge favor and make sure you set a blogging schedule for yourself and stick to it. Trust me, a blogging schedule will work better than you think.
Ok, lets get right to it.
Tip: I would highly recommend setting a goal for yourself as to how many more followers you would like to get each month. I did this last year and the results really paid off. The trick is to do everything you can to ensure that your following keeps growing no matter if you get 50 new followers or 500 each month.
Tip: In my experience a good post length is between 800-1500 words. If you are trying to do more of a pillar style post, then I would recommend writing one that is at least 1,500.
Do you see how these 5 tricks can help you make your blog popular in 2012? There are a lot of things that you can do to make your blog popular but I would start right here with these. The last thing I want you to know is that the best thing you can do is guest posting and if you can fill up your weekends with these, then you will see a huge jump in this years popularity.
This is my list of 101 ways to make your blog more popular and successful. Most of it I tried myself, other measures have been taken by numerous other bloggers with success so I have to catch up on them myself.
1 – 5: Twitter
1. Get social on Twitter, the people on Twitter will support your blog if you do it right
2. Follow some people on Twitter who share your interests but not too many
3. Reward people tweeting and retweeting you, or say “thanks” at least
4. Tweet only good stuff, so people get interested in you and visit your blog
5. Add a retweet button like the one above to your blog posts or web pages
6 – 10: Niche social news sites
6. Target niche social news sites like Inbound.org, Earners Club or BizSugar
7. Become a power user at the one that fits you most
8. Tweet good articles from the niche social news communities
9. Use a striking avatar like the sombrero guy image I use
10. Socialize with other (power) users and add them as friends at Facebook or LinkedIn
11 – 20: Your blog
11. Add an unforgettable image or huge headline in your blog header
12. Use WordPress, as it’s the most widely used blogging platform and makes socializing with pingbacks easier
13. Use a great design or customize a great WordPress theme
14. Allow pings, trackbacks and real links in comments (dofollow)
15. Reply to your genuine commenters who add value in the comments
16. Link to other bloggers, most notably your peers, not only the well known ones
17. Create pillar or flagship content like huge lists, thorough tutorials, breaking or unique news
18. Be the first to say something: break news, uncover scams, debunk myths
19. Review and address other bloggers
20. Create a blogroll of blogs that are similar to yours and/or a good supplement
21 – 30: Other blogs:
21. Accept and support authorities in your field
22. Make a list of the top 10 blogs in your field and try being like them and better
23. Contribute guest posts on other blogs
24. Notify other bloggers if they have “Page not found” errors or their design is broken is some browser
25. Get inspired by other bloggers
26. Comment on other blogs, out of interest, not only for marketing purposes
27. Meet other bloggers in real life and connect
28. Submit others’ blog posts to your favorite social media or vote there for them
29. Do not expect other bloggers to like you just because you’re there, actively befriend them
30. Do not annoy other bloggers with IM, email or other means, only contact them if it really matters
31 – 40: Copy writing
31. Write about popular topics but not those everybody else already covered
32. Find a new angle to a story instead of mere repeating or linking
33. Use striking, funny, easy to remember post headlines like “The Day I was reborn, twice”, “I ate my iPod“, “10 Ways to become a Millionaire in 5 Weeks”
34. Do not write too short or too long posts
35. Write timeless blog postings not just yesterday’s news
36. Know your audience and offer it what it wants, not only what you think is appropriate
37. Be yourself, do not write like you would write for an employer, write as if you write a letter to a friend
38. Offend offenders
39. Do not offend people weaker than you
40. Ask questions and incite discussions
41 – 50: X/HTML and CSS
41. Use clean, lean HTML and CSS for website speed
42. Use headings, lists, bold, italic and other means of making a text readable
43. Use large headlines
44. Use the h2 tag for post headlines (h1 is for the blog name)
45. Use image replacement to make your headlines look better
46. Do not use fonts for headlines which are not meant for them and look ugly (Verdana)
47. Make your font size readable in your posts but not too big, your readers are not half blind
48. Use colors that contrast but not too much and not too many of them, black on white is still king
49. Be original but let people recognize that your blog is a blog, by using some well known elements
50. Use compatible CSS rather than CSS 3 tricks only newer browsers support
51 – 60: Images
51. Use images in posts
52. Use striking images in your posts, like collages, bright colors, images that metaphorically illustrate your point
53. Be original, do not just display the Google logo when you write about Google
54. Do not steal images without proper attribution
55. Use a list of images to attract large audiences, but don’t forget #54
56. Use .png screen shots or parts of them as images for your blog posts
57. Use pictures of beautiful women
58. Do not use pictures as the only content of a post if it’s not a list
59. Do not use images that are bigger than 100 kb, not everybody in the world has a fast connection
60. Use thumbnails for bigger images
61 – 70: Topics
61. Cover the most important things in life: Love, peace, happiness, community, freedom
62. Do not write about SEO (it’s too late for me)
63. If you write about SEO call it blogging tips
64. Write about how you feel
65. Interview interesting and well known people
66. Write about stars, people love stars: Angelina Jolie I love you!
67. Write about what you know first hand, what you have experienced
68. Concentrate on positive topics, do not just write how bad everything is
69. Do not write about your wife, kids, where you live, how much you earn or what you bought unless you’re properly armed or live in Sweden
70. Write you earned thousands of dollars by blogging to get known
71 – 80: Blog SEO and promotion
71. Contribute to blog communities like the ones on LinkedIn or BlogCatalog
72. Tweet your blog posts
73. Ping Technorati and Google Blog Search (default in English WordPress)
74. Use WordPress 3.+ as it’s already SEOed to the max out of the box
75. Link out to others to get linked, do not engage in link exchange, link buying or selling or any automated link schemes
76. Do not use keywords like “california real estate” as your name when commenting unless it’s your blog’s name
77. Don’t overdo conventional SEO on your blog, it’s in most cases counter productive
78. Do not write content – write articles, reviews, interviews
79. SEO is not Spam, Blog SEO is not trackback spam
80. Do not automate your blogging efforts
81 – 85: Getting Subscribers
81. Display a (big) orange feed icon where everybody can see it
82. Use Feedburner to enhance your RSS feed
83. Let people subscribe by email via Aweber or Mailchimp
84. Offer a full feed not just excerpts
85. Explain what RSS is for people new to the concept and offer a choice of the best RSS readers
86 – 90: Branding
86. Create a personal brand. Don’t blog as “admin”
87. Get a unique and remarkable name for your blog
88. Get a short and easy to remember name for yourself, Tadeusz Szewczyk = Tad Chef
89. Use your blog URL and/or avatar throughout the Web
90. Trademark your blog name
91 – 101: Miscellaneous
91. Do not offend people for being different than you
92. Be open minded, let anything and everything inspire you
93. Treat your readers and other bloggers like real people, with respect and compassion
94. Explain stuff that you know, there are always some people who don’t know
95. Be different but stay true to yourself, do not pose as somebody else
96. Do not overload your blog with ads
97. Do not use Google Adsense or Text Link Ads unless you have to or depend on it
98. Become an expert in your trade, be a specialist for your topic, don’t try everything at the same time
99. Do not try to do everything or be everywhere, concentrate on the stuff you like, prefer and are good at
100. Cooperate with others, altruism is the best egoism
101. In short: Practice SEO 2.0
So, how do you make your blog popular.
There are several things that you can do to make your blog popular but one thing is to just keep blogging. A lot of people fail because they don’t see traffic coming to their blog as fast as they would like and therefore they just stop writing. Do yourself a huge favor and make sure you set a blogging schedule for yourself and stick to it. Trust me, a blogging schedule will work better than you think.
Ok, lets get right to it.
5 Tricks To Make Your Blog Popular
Weekend Blogging
Something that I am currently contemplating is doing a little weekend blogging. Whether this would mean publishing posts on this blog or on other blogs for guest posts doesn’t matter, all that matters is that I am doing something to help build my community. I love publishing posts here but the fact of the matter is that doing a guest post will bring in more traffic. If getting your blog the popularity that it deserves is something that you really want to do, then guest posting is what you should be doing. Just know that with guest posts there really isn’t a way get penalized because Google loves to see authoritative links back to your blog.Email Other Bloggers
Have you ever email another blogger to let them know about your blog? If you have never done this, then it is about time. The entire point of doing this is to get the gurus and other big name bloggers to come and check out your site so that they mention it in a post of their own. Where the bigger bloggers benefit the most is from people reading a post they just wrote and then mentioning it on their blog. Think about it, how easy is this if all you have to do is write a post and the other bloggers do everything for you? My advice is not to just spam the bloggers though, you should read their latest blog post and then comment on it before you send them an email. I know it might seem like a little more work but the bigger bloggers will like this much better.Increase Your Social Media Following
How many fans and followers do you have on Facebook and Twitter? Are you starting to grow your circle on Google+? I ask this because in order to become more popular you will need the help of other people. One of the best ways to make your blog popular in 2012 is going to be with social media. With Facebook and Google+ on the rise there is no reason as to why you should not be using them to get more traffic and spread the word about your blog posts.Tip: I would highly recommend setting a goal for yourself as to how many more followers you would like to get each month. I did this last year and the results really paid off. The trick is to do everything you can to ensure that your following keeps growing no matter if you get 50 new followers or 500 each month.
Information Is The Key
Are you creating epic blog posts? Do you write posts that people have to come back and read more later because there is just so much information? In order to make your blog popular in 2012 you will need to spend a lot more time working on your content. I am not saying that you need to spend a week writing one blog post but it should take you longer than 20 minutes. Where a lot of bloggers make the mistake is they just try to get the most information on their blog as opposed to the best information. Check out Problogger.net and see how Darren write his posts, some of them are short and some are a little longer. He does this because it doesn’t always require 2,000 words to get his point across.Tip: In my experience a good post length is between 800-1500 words. If you are trying to do more of a pillar style post, then I would recommend writing one that is at least 1,500.
Establish Yourself
When I say establish yourself, I mean you need to establish yourself as an expert in your field. The reason I highly recommend doing this is because once you become an expert in your field then people will start to notice you even more. Not only that but you could make the pages of local newspapers, national magazines and possibly be seen on T.V. There are a lot of bloggers out there that have been on T.V. talking about what they do and why they do it. Just think, this could be you at some point.Do you see how these 5 tricks can help you make your blog popular in 2012? There are a lot of things that you can do to make your blog popular but I would start right here with these. The last thing I want you to know is that the best thing you can do is guest posting and if you can fill up your weekends with these, then you will see a huge jump in this years popularity.
This is my list of 101 ways to make your blog more popular and successful. Most of it I tried myself, other measures have been taken by numerous other bloggers with success so I have to catch up on them myself.
1 – 5: Twitter
1. Get social on Twitter, the people on Twitter will support your blog if you do it right
2. Follow some people on Twitter who share your interests but not too many
3. Reward people tweeting and retweeting you, or say “thanks” at least
4. Tweet only good stuff, so people get interested in you and visit your blog
5. Add a retweet button like the one above to your blog posts or web pages
6 – 10: Niche social news sites
6. Target niche social news sites like Inbound.org, Earners Club or BizSugar
7. Become a power user at the one that fits you most
8. Tweet good articles from the niche social news communities
9. Use a striking avatar like the sombrero guy image I use
10. Socialize with other (power) users and add them as friends at Facebook or LinkedIn
11 – 20: Your blog
11. Add an unforgettable image or huge headline in your blog header
12. Use WordPress, as it’s the most widely used blogging platform and makes socializing with pingbacks easier
13. Use a great design or customize a great WordPress theme
14. Allow pings, trackbacks and real links in comments (dofollow)
15. Reply to your genuine commenters who add value in the comments
16. Link to other bloggers, most notably your peers, not only the well known ones
17. Create pillar or flagship content like huge lists, thorough tutorials, breaking or unique news
18. Be the first to say something: break news, uncover scams, debunk myths
19. Review and address other bloggers
20. Create a blogroll of blogs that are similar to yours and/or a good supplement
21 – 30: Other blogs:
21. Accept and support authorities in your field
22. Make a list of the top 10 blogs in your field and try being like them and better
23. Contribute guest posts on other blogs
24. Notify other bloggers if they have “Page not found” errors or their design is broken is some browser
25. Get inspired by other bloggers
26. Comment on other blogs, out of interest, not only for marketing purposes
27. Meet other bloggers in real life and connect
28. Submit others’ blog posts to your favorite social media or vote there for them
29. Do not expect other bloggers to like you just because you’re there, actively befriend them
30. Do not annoy other bloggers with IM, email or other means, only contact them if it really matters
31 – 40: Copy writing
31. Write about popular topics but not those everybody else already covered
32. Find a new angle to a story instead of mere repeating or linking
33. Use striking, funny, easy to remember post headlines like “The Day I was reborn, twice”, “I ate my iPod“, “10 Ways to become a Millionaire in 5 Weeks”
34. Do not write too short or too long posts
35. Write timeless blog postings not just yesterday’s news
36. Know your audience and offer it what it wants, not only what you think is appropriate
37. Be yourself, do not write like you would write for an employer, write as if you write a letter to a friend
38. Offend offenders
39. Do not offend people weaker than you
40. Ask questions and incite discussions
41 – 50: X/HTML and CSS
41. Use clean, lean HTML and CSS for website speed
42. Use headings, lists, bold, italic and other means of making a text readable
43. Use large headlines
44. Use the h2 tag for post headlines (h1 is for the blog name)
45. Use image replacement to make your headlines look better
46. Do not use fonts for headlines which are not meant for them and look ugly (Verdana)
47. Make your font size readable in your posts but not too big, your readers are not half blind
48. Use colors that contrast but not too much and not too many of them, black on white is still king
49. Be original but let people recognize that your blog is a blog, by using some well known elements
50. Use compatible CSS rather than CSS 3 tricks only newer browsers support
51 – 60: Images
51. Use images in posts
52. Use striking images in your posts, like collages, bright colors, images that metaphorically illustrate your point
53. Be original, do not just display the Google logo when you write about Google
54. Do not steal images without proper attribution
55. Use a list of images to attract large audiences, but don’t forget #54
56. Use .png screen shots or parts of them as images for your blog posts
57. Use pictures of beautiful women
58. Do not use pictures as the only content of a post if it’s not a list
59. Do not use images that are bigger than 100 kb, not everybody in the world has a fast connection
60. Use thumbnails for bigger images
61 – 70: Topics
61. Cover the most important things in life: Love, peace, happiness, community, freedom
62. Do not write about SEO (it’s too late for me)
63. If you write about SEO call it blogging tips
64. Write about how you feel
65. Interview interesting and well known people
66. Write about stars, people love stars: Angelina Jolie I love you!
67. Write about what you know first hand, what you have experienced
68. Concentrate on positive topics, do not just write how bad everything is
69. Do not write about your wife, kids, where you live, how much you earn or what you bought unless you’re properly armed or live in Sweden
70. Write you earned thousands of dollars by blogging to get known
71 – 80: Blog SEO and promotion
71. Contribute to blog communities like the ones on LinkedIn or BlogCatalog
72. Tweet your blog posts
73. Ping Technorati and Google Blog Search (default in English WordPress)
74. Use WordPress 3.+ as it’s already SEOed to the max out of the box
75. Link out to others to get linked, do not engage in link exchange, link buying or selling or any automated link schemes
76. Do not use keywords like “california real estate” as your name when commenting unless it’s your blog’s name
77. Don’t overdo conventional SEO on your blog, it’s in most cases counter productive
78. Do not write content – write articles, reviews, interviews
79. SEO is not Spam, Blog SEO is not trackback spam
80. Do not automate your blogging efforts
81 – 85: Getting Subscribers
81. Display a (big) orange feed icon where everybody can see it
82. Use Feedburner to enhance your RSS feed
83. Let people subscribe by email via Aweber or Mailchimp
84. Offer a full feed not just excerpts
85. Explain what RSS is for people new to the concept and offer a choice of the best RSS readers
86 – 90: Branding
86. Create a personal brand. Don’t blog as “admin”
87. Get a unique and remarkable name for your blog
88. Get a short and easy to remember name for yourself, Tadeusz Szewczyk = Tad Chef
89. Use your blog URL and/or avatar throughout the Web
90. Trademark your blog name
91 – 101: Miscellaneous
91. Do not offend people for being different than you
92. Be open minded, let anything and everything inspire you
93. Treat your readers and other bloggers like real people, with respect and compassion
94. Explain stuff that you know, there are always some people who don’t know
95. Be different but stay true to yourself, do not pose as somebody else
96. Do not overload your blog with ads
97. Do not use Google Adsense or Text Link Ads unless you have to or depend on it
98. Become an expert in your trade, be a specialist for your topic, don’t try everything at the same time
99. Do not try to do everything or be everywhere, concentrate on the stuff you like, prefer and are good at
100. Cooperate with others, altruism is the best egoism
101. In short: Practice SEO 2.0
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