This article isn’t about how to make your blog good, it’s about how to be a good blogger. I don’t mean a skilled author; I mean a beneficial member of social networking society. Doing the right thing seems to be missing in many of our sites.
There are tons of ways to do good things, but this is about promoting and giving needed validity to your fellow community member’s articles. Being a “good person” is far more important than being popular or making money.
What is important in a blog? Obviously, the content is supposed to be. How do you make your content count? Making other people’s content count is my favourite method. Much of it depends on what yours is about and who your audience is. I could cure cancer in an article and put a picture of a cute puppy in another; the puppy will get all the attention and nobody will care if I save the world…haha (I’m ok with that and I love being sarcastic).
Unfortunately, mine will not be a “keyword targeting” success story. I’ve seen authors who incessantly game the system with a dedication to creating landing pages while they say viral marketing only brings useless, unrelated links.
They think they are better than someone who goes the viral route. I have news for you, it’s of the same ethical value; it’s gaming the system. One is more complex and difficult to employ than the other, but are both essentially “cheating the system”.
I don’t care which method of self promotion you use, it’s all cheating. Is it wrong? I say absolutely not. I am trying to get over my aversion to self-promotion because I do have something to say, and I want as many people as possible to hear my message.
I write about what I think humanity needs. I call people out on doing the wrong thing, and write about world peace and how each of us need to take responsibility for living. Without any effort on promotion, I am limiting myself.
Many of us, after writing for a while, say things like, “I don’t care about links, I don’t care about popularity. People that do are greedy idiots!”
What if your favourite music artists felt like that, saying, “I don’t care about recording an album or having listeners.”
I suppose all your favourite artists, musicians, writers and actors wouldn’t exist. What kind of world would that be? I have done nothing to promote my blog in a very long time. My page rank is still an unjustified zero. I’m not complaining though, because I do have a great base of readers and do well in natural search engine queries.
Some Solid Ideas For Your Blog
One thing many of us don’t do is write a weekly link post. Why don’t you? Like many people who put a lot of heartfelt work into valuable posts, I feel disappointed when no one notices or links to my good work. It’s not a “me thing”, it’s a “we thing”! I’m always on the lookout for good articles on lesser known blogs; you should too if you aren’t already.
I believe that if I have any popularity, it is because I give to others. It’s a byproduct of giving and helping others, not a goal. Here are my recommendations for some good things you should try:
- You really should do a weekly link post; start one now (mine’s every Sunday)!
- Find great articles written by your community members and link to their posts. Try to actually find and link to good work even if it’s unrelated to your content.
- Look through their archives and find past posts that need a link.
- Create a list of your most valuable posts and put it in your side bar (I’m working on that). You may have already written your best posts. Let people know what they are and you’ll increase your chances of being read or linked to.
- If a niche blog is good enough, it could be a big hit with only a dozen posts – hardly ever adding a new one. It can become a well known reference for a plenitude of any type of content.
- Remember, blogging is a social communication technology. It’s alright to want attention in moderation. Just don’t develop “Britney Spears Syndrome” or what I call BSS (it’s BS with an extra S). You may need to check into a blogaholics clinic to get clean if that happens…haha!
- Memes and awards are great, but a link to deserved post is the greatest of all awards!
- Be sure to check your incoming links regularly on Technorati. Go thank people for linking to you. It’s also a great way to see who maybe scraping your content.
- Stick by your friends and don’t let money affect your judgment. Never forget where you came from.
- We all start equally our first time here.
- Don’t go around asking for links. Give, give and give some more. Participate in this digital society and it will come back to you.
- Nothing is better than good Karma!
