How to Write a Successful Blog

There are no secrets or magic wand that will bring success in the world of blogging but it is combination of good luck, hard work and consistency. When Lifehacker asked me how I work, I said “enthusiastically” and “diligently”. I enjoy what I do and do not see my blog as work, I am always thinking about ways to improve and look forward to working on the blog every morning.

Here I share some of my learnings and blogging tips that will probably help take your blog to the next level.

1. If you are on Blogger or Tumblr or another blogging platform, do your blog a favor and move to WordPress. The process isn't complicated and will definitely help you in the long run, especially from the search perspective. Blogger is a Google product and they have killed products mercilessly in the past even when they had a substantial user base. Remember Google Reader?

2. They say content is king but other than content, you need to develop a good and interesting writing style to attract a global audience. Good writing is a gift that comes naturally to some of us but if you happen to be in the other half, get some books. The Elements of Style, Stephen King’s On Writing, and On Writing Well offer good advice on writing. You can also get a style guide from The New York Times or the Associated Press and they'll help you develop a consistent writing style. These guides have accepted writing rules for journalism and you can apply them to your own writing style as well.

3. Always use a good images with your blog posts. This helps for two reasons — one, when people share your content on social sites, your story may stand out in the crowded news feed because of that image thumbnail. You can use images to draw the visitor’s attention to any part on the story that you want to emphasize and if you are articles are long, images can work as visual breakpoints. And it goes with saying that you should only use free images that are in the public domain or under Creative Commons.

4. The most important part of a blog post is the headline and suddenly everyone is trying to do Buzzfeed style headlines. “This is why the Apple watch is not round.” “You’ll never believe what Facebook will unveil next.” With such headlines, you raise the expectation level of the audience and when they read the actual article, they are often disappointed. Go for boring headlines that may not be cute or clever but accurate. Your readers should be able to guess what the article is all about by looking at the headline itself.

5. There’s lot of noise in the blogging world and there’s a mad rush to report something new. Take a step back back and think — are you really adding any value or just contributing to the echo chamber? It is probably the job of the mainstream blogs to publish news as it happens but for the rest of us, blog only when you have something interesting to say. You won't lose much if you aren't among the first few to report something.

6. Think of the reader first and the revenue later. Advertising is important but if you only focus on the commercials, it will be difficult to build a loyal audience. AdSense, BuySellAds, BlogAds are good ad networks but stay away from the networks that allow scam ads. Remember, you are responsible for what ads are shown to visitors on your website.

7. Keep updating your old articles so that they stay relevant and up to date. If something is useless, it can be removed permanently. For instance, I had a few Orkut related posts on my blog. They were relevant when I wrote them several years ago but now that Orkut is gone, I got rid of them and directed all the juice to something related but more relevant.

8. In all these years, I have tried to harness various social channels and I think that also helped in the growth of the blog. I have written an ebook for the Kindle, have a YouTube channel, do a podcast on iTunes, curate on Flipboard, put my slides on Slideshare and have Chrome apps for the blog. Only a few hundred thousand people probably know about my website but these channels are known to millions of Internet users. It thus helps to have a presence there.

9. Your “about” page is your chance to convert a new visitor into a regular one. Show off your best stuff, link to your popular stories, make it easy for people to subscribe to your content and include mentions in the mainstream media — this will make your bio more credible to someone who doesn’t know you.

10. Everyone can have a blog but what separates you other blogs is your expertise in the field, your writing skills and most important credibility. The editorial should be complete separate from the business side of the blog. Be transparent and abide by the journalists code of ethics, much like the team at The Verge and ReCode.