The Successful Blogger

How does one go about creating a successful blog? Here are five basic recommendations:

1. Establish a Clear Objective

What is the general theme or topic you plan to blog about? This consideration may seem obvious, but thinking it through before launching a new blog is an important first step. Developing an outline of topics you'd like to cover can be helpful in narrowing your focus as well as building an initial pipeline of ideas to draw from down the road.

2. Be Consistent

New posts keep subscribers coming back, and they add juice to search engine indexes. Frequency recommendation: weekly is optimal. Every other week is OK. More often than that is hard to sustain (for author and reader alike) and a lesser frequency tends to lose traction.

3. Keep it Simple

As every writer knows, the space between staring at a blank screen and finding the groove that begins with the first few keystrokes can be daunting at times. The good news is that you're blogging, not writing the next great novel. Keep your blog posts simple, single-topic focused and not too lengthy and your readers are likely to appreciate your communication style. Plus, writing blog posts is apt to become as natural as tapping out email messages -- a skill you've long ago mastered completely.

4. Think Links

Building inbound links is a priority for most bloggers, and for good reason. They drive click-through traffic from other blogs, they increase your exposure around the blogosphere, and they help to boost your search engine rankings. Getting a few links from respected blogs can help with search engine traffic, but the added credibility that you get can be just as important, especially for newer bloggers.

5. Have Patience

New blogs generally take months, if not longer, before they gain enough juice to produce any significant search engine-generated traffic. Building a blog that is search engine-friendly is critical if you want to maximize search traffic. In addition, although posting needs to be consistent to keep traffic levels as high as possible, that doesn't mean that traffic levels will always be consistent. Every blog has ups and downs – be sure that you enjoy the times when traffic is high, and don't obsess over the numbers during slower times.