New Blogger Wisdom
Here’s my advice for new as well as some older bloggers.
- If you’ve never blogged, don’t worry at all what your blog is about. Just read other blogs, make friends and write whatever. It takes time to learn what you want to write about.
- The most important thing to do is read and comment on other blogs. Don’t comment on 50 different blogs, pick 10 and comment daily. You can start without a blog for a month. Then tell your 10 friends your ready. You’ll have 10 readers. If anyone says this isn’t the best way, they are wrong. This is the only way. It’s impossible to know everybody that come by. As you get better, you’ll find ways to be friends with bloggers you never read. Thats weird but true. Some people help the distressed with their blog. They may not read yours regularly, but they migrate where they are needed. That’s how it is.
- After you start your blog, join Technorati. Don’t be a Technorati snob like some people who have 3000 fans but only have 7 favourites of other blogs. I see these guys with shallow, refabricated, stolen and rediculous content; and they try to look like other authors!!! If you dress like another blogger, etc. - you are a ridiculous moron:) If you are faved by someone, then fave them! Check once or twice a week and keep it straight.
- Don’t be a dork copycat. If you write a money blog then chances are you copied John Chow’s blogroll. I’ve seen tons of people who have 0 readers, 0 comments and yet they only have the most famous rich bloggers on their link list. That is really ridiculous. Most of the big money bloggers have terrible, boring blogs. Most of them arent bloggers. They are rich guys who happen to have a blog! My friend Mike mentioned how he hated a sports car header. If I see a guy next to a red sports car on the header, I can’t click away fast enough!
- THE BIGGEST MOST IMPORTANT RULE - Be you. Try to find you. Never try to do anything like someone else.
- How to gain true, faithful readers: Here is the only way- Go read a regular set of blogs. Comment at least once every time you visit. Don’t worry about writing, just read and comment. Make sure they know you well and expect you. If they arent reading yours by then, ask them to read! Ask bloggers you know to write a comment for them. They will. Don’t ask strangers to come comment. They usually never will. Make friends. There are bloggers with thousands of friends who actually don’t read them. Some guys comment only on rich bloggers, as if to leave their handprints on the sidewalk in Hollywood. Those aren’t friends or good bloggers.
- Always help others and have fun. If you have a great idea, don’t be greedy, share it. Friends make great ideas better.
- Buy your own domain before you start blogging. You”ll be grateful in the long run. Have a lot of diversity in what you read. Before blogging I had never met anyone from Malaysia. Now, I have more than ten Malaysian friends! Stick with your blogging buddies through thick and thin.
- There is no better advice than this, if there were, I’d have written it here. Lots of folks say the same things I’m saying. They are right.
Also, please don’t take offense like I think I’m the only person with the answers. It’s just that if you are are a real beginner, you probably don’t even know what Technorati is yet. There is lots of good advice everywhere, but as a beginner you should limit yourself to really just reading and commenting. This will give you a great headstart:)
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37 Responses to “New Blogger Wisdom”
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Right to the point. Great post!
Hi Terence, I’m not writing on this subject anymore. There’s nothing else to say on the subject of a beginner blogger.
Thank youhttp://revellian.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif
Great tips Bobby…
Hi Amber, I read 40 or so articles on beginner tips. Some were right, but most were terrible. I don’t want to give a green pea
blogger who is lost, anything but the essential truths:)http://revellian.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif
Very good points, Bobby.
I wish I’d read the bit
about getting your own
domain name before I
began blogging! I got
my own domain name, but
not until AFTER I began
already over at Blogger.
For now I just have the
domain name pointing at
my Blogger site, and I
give it out to friends
because it’s easier to
remember than the
Blogger url.
Jaya, Thanks! I was going to do that but I want my traffic coming directly to me. You should consider it:)
Great advices, down to the essence of blogging
Karenlim: Yes, the most important part. I want my readers to feel what I put in it. Thank you for readinghttp://revellian.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif
Hello! Great post Bobby, am happy that you got to know some of us friendly Malaysians, including yours truly LOL!
Mariuca: Malaysian people are great! You are the coolest chic I have ever methttp://revellian.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif
Once again, thanks for another great post from a beginner Blogger.
When I started surfing around looking for information on how to (presumably) do this right, I found tons of crap and regurgitated filler. Frankly, I could care les about site optimization and page views and all that. I don?t think that is what blogging is about when you strip it down to its core. As I heard from you, and some others I consider ?top-tier?, its all about relationships.
And I think I?ll take your advice on getting my own domain. And I’m working on the biggest most important rule…
great tips, bobby! easpecially about having fun & making friends. I am so glad that i joined MBL and started blogging. That’s where I know you great guys/gals. Hope we’ll stay by each others thru thick and thin. ^^
Really make somebody ponder here, especially me
Anyway nice advise all that Mr Bobby. I really like this post.
And hey , nice new template here, i’m jealous with it huhu
And one more, you are fan of Jazz right? Me too, only now i just seldom hearing music, but i once crazy about Jazz long time ago, and not just hear it but learn and play it hehe. It is the most difficult music genre to be played right?
I hope you can post some of your guitar plays, unplugged!!
thanks man, reading this is just what i needed.
Seiche: The basic essentials of communication, thats all you need:)
Jean: Thank you. I am finally having fun blogging, and much happier now that I don’t worry about following some plan written by a blogging expert. You’re a sweetie and have a great blog:)
Forumer: When I first read your blog, I saw very good content but not enough readers. You deserve more readers and I’ll be happy to help you get them:)
Jennifer: Thank you. Let me know if it serves you well:)
Hi, thanks for the tips.
I am already doing it now …. hahaha
Great post
Spot on advise!
Great advice! I have to say that I am in complete agreement as far as having regular blogs that you visit. I have a group of bloggers with whom I absolutely feel a deep comraderie, which makes for such a rewarding blogging experience all around.
Janice: Alright! I’m glad to hear it:)
Nick: Thanks, I’m not much on writing these advice posts, but I just wanted to tell beginners what they should strive for:)
Holly: Thanks, you are a sweetie:)
Peace n howdy again??
Bobby: Please, you help me a lot before, i got many visitors after you stumbled my page that day. So i just ashame to accept more. I want to stumble to give you visitor too, but i still not really understand with that stumble upon.
I was Stumbled all your recommended pages, is that the right way to do? Or what i must do? And how can i know for what i do will got stumble back from others??
Sorry for too many question, but maybe somebody else that don’t understand yet with SU can understand here , hopefully
Hey thanks for the tips!
Forumer: There is a forum at http://thingsbymike.com
click the forum tab at the top and join the forum. This is the ORIGINAL stumble group started by my brilliant friends Adria and Mike, two of the finest human beings I have ever met:)
I will see you there!
Kat: You are welcome, I wrote them as sincerely as I could:)
I agree 100% especially reading. Wish I had more time to more reading, but you hit the nail on the head with this blog.
John: It’s good to see you out and about in the blogosphere! Sometimes that nail needs to be hammered flush!:)
I can’t believe I didn’t see this post. With that beautiful Exocet font too!
My favorite one was “Don’t be a dork copycat” — that was beautiful 
Excellent post Bobby. This is definitely going in tomorrow’s brown batch
Thank you Brown Baron! I believe a person could become the worlds best known blogger and not even have a blog! Even with filler content or maybe every post just reprints of comment conversations occurring on other blogs. Great content is half and your social skills the other half. If you have both, then you are the kind of person that befriends every type of blogger from every level and loves doing it
[...] - New Blogger Wisdom Don?t be a dork copycat. If you write a money blog then chances are you copied John Chow?s [...]
[...] my old post for Newbies - Basic, solid information. [...]
Wow, I think is probably the single most helpful meta-blogging article I’ve read so far. This seems like great advice for building a successful blog without compromising who you are or resorting to gimmicks.
Bookmarked and taken to heart.
Orion: Thank you! I think the person and realness of a blog will be seen as important by big business eventually. Have a computer program write the dry stuff. So many folks are trying to be machine like, hiding themselves. Thats why I don’t read it
Thanks for writing this it’s quite useful.
Will: I appreciate it! It means a lot to feel useful
Will: At the bottom of my post you’ll see Sphere, related content. This is how I found you. It took a while before any related content showed up after installing Sphere, but I find it a very useful tool
Hi Bobby,
I only started my first blog a few days ago and started looking around at what to do and how to do it. I’ve made about three posts and then found your blog posts for beginners. Boy, did that make me realise how green I am!
I’ve had nothing to do with blogs, social bookmarking, myspace, or youtube, etc. I thought of myself as quite well-informed, but now I see what a huge part of the net I’ve missed out on.
Anyway, I joined up with Technorati a couple of hours ago, and I’m hoping you won’t mind me asking you a question or two (3 actually) about it.
I’ve been through the FAQ posts and know about authority and rank. I do have a question about what a ‘fan’ is, and the etiqette involved (should I become a fan of my fans???)
Also, when I go to the page about my blog (http://www.technorati.com/blogs/dailycat.blogspot.com), says “1 author” and lists a username under it. What exactly does that mean?
Lastly, have you written anything on how to get benefit from technorati? I promise I’m not blonde, but I just don’t seem to ‘get it’.
Thank you hugely for a great resource, and I hope you’ll bear with me as I stumble around in the dark for the next few weeks…
Cheers,
Janey
Janey: From what I understand you can choose 200 favourites. So, favouriting back your fans is important on technotati. Say you’ve faved 200 people but only 25 of them faved you back. You may have to remove those not faving you back so you can fave people that return the favor! This seems ridiculous but it’s necessary. By being faved 200 times in a short enough period of time can place your blog in the top 500 or better! I’ll have to check out your Technorati profile to answer the rest of your questions
[...] I do have one certainty in my blogging which is something that will never change, a strong sense of blogging ethics and business integrity. I am into good seo practice but it takes a backseat to my real purpose. I [...]