If you want a blog that will be popular and have loyal followers you need to keep in mind the following things.
1.) Make sure your blog is set up on the right hosting service. – By this I mean, should you be using a free blogging services like WordPress.com and Blogger.com or should you be setting up a blog on your own domain.
If you are blogging for profit you should be on your own site with your own domain name. Yes, it is possible to make money with the free blogging services but you will either have to be lucky or work much harder.
If you are running your blog as a business having your own domain name and site will make your blog appear much more professional. Plus it is much easier to optimize your site for the search engines and drive traffic to your site.
2.) Choose the right blogging software – There are a number of different software programs you can use to create a blog such as Joomla, TypePad, Concrete and WordPress. I recommend WordPress because it is the most highly supported when it comes to plugins, themes and even support. There are a number of sites that will help you with your WordPress blog besides the support that you will find at WordPress.org.
3.) Only blog about one topic – stay on target with your blog. Yes, you can have all kinds of sub-topics but they should all be related to your main niche.
Staying on topic for your specific niche will make you the obvious expert and will help on conversions whether you are selling your own product or are referring your readers to affiliate products. You will become known for your niche.
Speaking of niches, your niche should be something that you have an affinity for. You don’t have to be the expert but you need to like the niche enough that you are willing to put in the work and it helps if you do know enough to know if the post you are entering is good information or bad information.
4.) Do some keyword research – Keywords are the heart and soul of your blog. If you are relying on the search engines to get traffic to your site you need make sure you are using keywords that are being searched and are targeted to your niche.
There are a lot of free keyword research tools out there but Google’s Adword Keyword tool is by far the best free tool you can use to do some quick research of your keywords and it will suggest keywords that you might not of thought of.
5.) Make your blog reflect you – this simply means that your blog should be something that reflects your personality or the personality of your business. This can be the tone of voice you use in your posts or it can be something as simple as putting your name and picture on the blog. Let people know who is doing the talking, let them see you, let them put a face to the voice and you will find that you will get a better following than trying to be the anonymous expert.
If you know all of these things then you are ready to start blogging. If you follow these policies and you stay true to yourself, your readers and your niche you will succeed with your blog.