What I Know About Blogging

1. Be Yourself. 

Sounds obvious. But most of the time everyone is trying to be everyone else. Trying to shape their reviews to sound like that guy from The Guardian, or they're trying to replicate the style of already established magazines/websites (perhaps in the hope of getting a job). The blogosphere is flooded, there are too many of us. The only way you stand out is to be YOURSELF.

2. Being Yourself Is What Brings You Your CORE AUDIENCE.

Your core audience are those people who comment on all your posts. Who read every article. Who feel you like are an extension of THEM in some way. Your CORE AUDIENCE is never big. After a few months of blogging, you may have ONE. After two years you may have NINE. But these are the people you're writing for. And I don't mean you have to try to write specifically for them, you just have to truly write for yourself; by being yourself. That stuff resonates, and that is the kind of writing which makes people stick around. Your core audience will grow gradually in time.

3. Focus on the Specifics. 

I once wrote articles solely about 'The Apartment' for a week. By the end I had a valuable insight, that even though many of my readers didn't care for it, 1% were PASSIONATE about it. It became a motto of mine; write for the 1%. The 1% who truly GET IT. They'll share the articles, they'll tweet about them, they'll tell their friends. When we ALL write about the latest Tarantino movie, we become part of the flood; and nobody cares.

4. Write on Popular Topics. 

Yes I'm hypocritical. This is the exact opposite of rule number 3. But the fact of the matter is; I can write four hundred articles about unknown films and get three new visitors. Or I can write about the American Pie Franchise and get thousands of visitors. Occasionally; you should definitely write about things which are either popular or topical, because they're things the wider world are processing. And your view on them may well be unique.

BUT, if you solely blog about the things everyone else blogs about, you'll be lost in the onslaught. Pick the moments that resonate with you. I wrote about 'American Pie' because I absolutely love it.  The new visitors it brought to me were a bonus. Many of them have stuck around.

5. Don't Accept Advertising Offers For Small Amounts of Money from Unrelated Businesses. 

After you've been blogging for a while; you'll start to get offers from insurance companies and loan companies offering you $89 to put an advert on your site for six months. It seems like free money; but you're hurting yourself in the long run.

Firstly; it will annoy your readers. Secondly, Google will penalise you. Because they know when a website has integrity; they know when things are as they should be. If you're writing a blog about movies and you have links to a dodgy site about life insurance; Google will take you less seriously and no-one will ever find you in Google searches.

6. Vary Article Length. 

People want short and sharp bits of entertainment. They also want to sit down for twenty minutes to read something lengthy and intelligent. Celebrate both sides of yourself. Write at length about your passions and subjects you have expertise in, but also share errant thoughts, ideas and pictures.

7. Make Peace With The Fact That Sometimes People Do Not Care

It's like with movies; you never know what will connect and what won't. Sometimes you'll pour your heart into something, and nobody will read it. Maybe your core audience are on holiday, or maybe people are just feeling quiet, or maybe what you wrote sucked. It's just part of it. If you're going to be a writer; you have to know that sometimes people just aren't around to witness it. Make peace with that inside yourself.

8. Take a Break. 

Your writing is so much better when you've taken a rest from churning out material.

9. Be Personal 

Share your hopes. Your anxieties. Your worries. Your dreams. The internet has a way of being so impersonal; but we are here to CONNECT. If you're yourself and you connect in a personal way, people will stick around.

10. Enjoy it. 

It's only blogging. Have fun with it. If it's stressing you out, refer to rule 8.