8 Expert Techniques for a Successful Blog

With the torrent of creative blogs out there, you may find yourself grasping at straws in hopes of standing out from the pack. And while regimentation and consistency are the keys to supremacy in the blogging arena, we can help speed up the process with a few expert tips of our own. 
Here’s the Rundown:

• Collaborate with your audience
• Resort to useful blogging tools
• Employ link-building strategies
• Create the best content around
• Allow your personality to shine
• Maintain an uncluttered layout
• Focus on the marketing aspect
• Always proofread your content

1. Collaborate With Your Audience

Don’t think of blogging as a way of showcasing your expertise in a certain field, think of blogging as a way to build a community. By doing so, you help attract and maintain a loyal following that’s happy to contribute to your success. But how exactly can you build a community with blogging?
One of the best ways to establish a loyal following is to write content with your audience instead of writing for your audience. Let your audience know that your blog is a way for them to channel their message onto the world as long as their message complies with the blog’s orientation.
And we’re not saying that you should wait for your audience to reach out to you to help them get their message across, you can reach out to them first. Collaborating with your audience will help establish community goals, and by acknowledging these goals, your blog is bound to prosper.

2. Resort to Useful Blogging Tools

If you’re a beginner blogger, we recommend you disregard this tip until you’ve got a decent bit of traffic on your blog. However, if you’ve already got the ball rolling with your blog, it’s time you put some money to use by investing in a few blogging tools that your blog can benefit from. 
For example, most beginner bloggers utilize their phones in order to take pictures for their blogs, which is fine in the initial stages of starting a blog, but if you’re financially able, investing in a real camera should be on your list of priorities, as it will improve the look of your blog significantly. 
Gear aside, there are a number of tools that we strongly recommend you make use of, including WordPress and the Adobe Creative Suite. Further, it’s vital that you invest in a steadfast hosting package and an email marketing service. Such tools will help take your blog to the next level. 

3. Employ Link-Building Strategies

Link building is the process of getting natural backlinks from reputable sites in your niche. It’s an extremely effective strategy to rely on when it comes to earning a higher ranking with Google. In our guide on link building, we go over various strategies that you can use to get backlinks. 
As your ranking on search engines increases with the aid of link building, you’ll notice a boost in your blog’s ability to garner organic traffic, allowing you to stand out from the rest of the pack. To master the skill of getting backlinks, we recommend investing in Ahrefs’ Content Explorer. 

4. Create the Best Content Around

Succeeding in the world of blogging is all about persistence and consistency. In the beginning, it may seem impossible for you to outrank your competitors, but it really isn’t. It’s all about creating the best content around and building more quality backlinks to your blog on a regular basis. 
It’s not easy to get links to your blog if you haven’t established authority in your industry, but this is something that you can maneuver by building the links yourself instead of relying on others. It will take quite a bit of time, but you’re bound to get where you want if you provide good value. 
If you’re a novice blogger and you’re not quite sure how to write quality content or provide value, we highly recommend you check out our guide on creating quality content. Bear in mind that the content you put out must resonate with your audience’s interests and intentions, not just yours. 

5. Allow Your Personality to Shine 

When addressing your audience, it’s important that you let your personality shine through your content. The more personality you reveal, the more you’re likely to your audience’s trust, which equates to establishing a loyal following that heeds the value you’re presenting to the world. 
Keep in mind that people don’t like to feel alienated, so you need to put in the effort in order to make your content as relatable and as personal as possible. For example, if the object of your blog is to address dog owners, consider posting pictures of yourself with dogs of your own. 
Let’s look at another scenario, shall we? Assuming you use your blog as a platform to address people who are interested in fashion, instead of telling people how modish a particular outfit is, consider posting pictures of yourself in that very outfit, which is more up close and personal. 

6. Maintain an Uncluttered Layout 

Whether you’re designing a blog from the ground up or you’re creating one with the aid of online blogging platforms, it’s crucial that you keep your blog’s layout neat and uncluttered. The reason why is that it allows for ease of navigation. Not to mention that it keeps easy on the eye. 
One of the most common mistakes that a lot of novice bloggers tend to make is that they use as many features as they can, thinking that they’re taking their blogs to the next level when, in fact, they’re inflicting serious damage upon their platform. Keep your use of features at a minimum. 

7. Focus on the Marketing Aspect

It would be naive of you to believe that you can just launch a blog and expect it to attract a great deal of traffic without relying on marketing schemes. For your blog to gain the recognition you’re after, you have to put quite a bit of effort into actively marketing your content to other people.
There are several ways that you can go about marketing your blog, from utilizing social media to reaching out to other bloggers. You should also consider guest blogging for other blogs as it can help boost your profile significantly. Not to mention that it’s a solid strategy for getting backlinks. 
Proper search engine optimization is another thing that you should take advantage of by writing about topics that search engines perceive as popular. In our guide on long-tail keywords, we go over a number of tips that you can implement to find popular topics to write about. 

8. Always Proofread Your Content

This may not be perceived as an “expert” tip, which is exactly why you should pay attention to it. Disparaging the process of proofreading and spell checking your content before you publish it is something that you should abstain from doing if you wish to establish credibility in your industry. 
If you publish your content while it’s contaminated with common proofreading mistakes, not only do you run the risk of damaging your credibility, but you can also impair your SEO, which will be very apparent in your rankings. Do yourself a favor by proofreading your content thoroughly. 

Final Thoughts

Blogging is an excellent way to make a living by writing about the things that interest you, but it’s just not something that you can mindlessly delve into and expect to work out. With the aid of the above-mentioned tips, we’re confident that you’ll be able to hit a home run with your blog.