How to Develop a Blog

Many people ask me, how should you go about developing your blog ? How should you start to attract visitors and how can you keep those visitors. It’s best to look at this in stages or phases, you need to have a plan of action as how you are going to bring your blog to the masses. So for this article I will assume that you have your blog setup completed and you have some visitors and commentators and you are listed on google, and that you know what niche/theme your blog is about.

Developing Your Blog

One of the toughest things in having a blog is getting visitors. Once you have a steady stream of visitors you are indeed presented with another types of problems, but this is something that I will cover at a later stage. So we are in search of visitors and we are wondering what we can do to increase the number. Blog visitors mean that you have traffic on your site, and traffic can be turned into revenue, by using some of the programs listed on the main blogging page.

Blog Preparation & Research

Alas, this point sounds easy, but it is indeed all about preparation & research. Before you go to the hard work of trying to attract your visitors, it is a good idea to have at least 1 months worth of blog posts ready. Of this 1 months worth of posts, I would post about 1/2 of these. This should be roughly 10 to 15 good articles, which should be well research and thoroughly check for such silly things like grammar mistakes and typos. As for research, you should check out and make a list of other blogs that cover similar topics to you. You can use tools like google’s blog search. Type in your keywords and see what is out there in the blogosphere. Another good place to find blogs is on Technorati.com.

Finding Interested Readers

By posting a few comments on these, and possibly contacting the author of the blogs, you will gain some extra exposure. People will see your link and they might visit your site, and blog authors may link to one of your posts, and you will get visitors that way. This is a great way to get visitors, as you are contacting your target audience. People who like to read and comment on blogs and are interested in the topic you are blogging about. If you read and comment on other blogs (this is pretty likely seeing as you are motivated to start your own blog) it would advantageous if you could squeeze a link on their blog roll, or a mention on those blogs.
Blogging is all about networking, and getting the word out that you exist and that you are producing something worth while. Keeping this as your mantra to blog by

Keeping your Visitors

Now for the second part of the plan, this is where the other half of your one month’s posts come into play. I would publish these every day or every second day, with these 10 t 15 posts your visitors will start to add you into their regular reading patterns. People will start to comment more and more, and you will also see that other bloggers are likely to link to your posts.

It is in giving that you receive

Don’t be afraid to link to other (worthy) blogs in your posts. If you find something interesting and you think deserves a link then share it with your readers. State and reference your sources of ‘inspiration‘. This will have a two fold benefit, 1) your readers will think that your have a little bit more creditability for showing your sources, 2) the blogs or pages you link to might return the favour and give you a link back or a mention in return.