If you want to hook readers, the first thing you need is a great headline. With the way blog posts are shared (Twitter, Facebook, voting websites, etc.), most people decide whether or not they’re going to click and read a post based solely on the headline. So if your headline sucks, you’re not going to get much attention.

Thankfully, it’s not all that difficult to write a powerful blog headline. The best headlines share these 4 qualities.

1. Clear—No one is going to take the time to click on your blog post if they don’t have a decent idea of what it’s about. I’m not saying you can’t get creative and clever with your blog headlines. By all means, go for it. Just make sure you don’t sacrifice clarity along the way. Someone should be able to look at just your headline and know what topic the post is focused on.
2. Unique—Your target audience is constantly being bombarded with content from all across the web. Everyone is fighting for their attention. If you want to stand out in the crowd, you need to have a unique headline that forces people to stop and click.
3. Interesting—A great headline creates intrigue. It compels the people you’re targeting to read the rest of the post because their interest is piqued. For this post, I chose to ask a question in the headline. You probably clicked on it because you wanted to know what the 4 qualities are that I was referring to and if your blog headlines had them.
4. Useful—Headlines that promise practical information are considered useful. There’s a reason “how-to” posts are so popular. They provide solutions to common problems faced by readers.

What are some other qualities the best blog headlines boast? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment. 

Running a blog takes a lot of time. You have to come up with ideas for your posts, write them and polish them up to be the best they can be, reply to comments, promote your posts across the web, engage in social networking…the list goes on and on and on.

That’s why so many bloggers get burned out and give up. The good news is that running your blog doesn’t have to be a chore or feel like having a second full-time job. If you work smarter, not harder, you can make the most of the time you devote to your blog.

• Schedule time to work on your blog—If you don’t schedule time to work on your blog, you’re going to have a hard time getting around to it. You’ll tell yourself that maybe tomorrow you’ll write another post, if you can find the time. You need to create a blogging schedule, based on your available time. Find slots of time where you could work on your blog, and put them on your schedule. This ensures you work on your blog regularly, while also keeping you focused on getting the job done in the allotted time.
• Find times for multitasking—There are certain times throughout the day where you can do a couple of things at once. For example, if you take public transportation to work, you could write your blog posts during your commute. Or, if you find yourself doing some menial task that doesn’t require a lot of your attention, you might be able to scratch out some content then.
• Moderate comments in bulk—You don’t have to moderate and respond to comments in real-time as they come in. You’ll constantly be getting distracted. Set aside some time each day (maybe a few short blocks of time throughout the day) to deal with all of your comments at once.
• Build a network of promoters—Promoting blog posts effectively takes time, but if you get help from others, you don’t have to do it all on your own. Try to build a network of people you can rely on to help promote your posts. In exchange, you can help them with their promotional needs.

What are some other tips for blogging more efficiently?

“Write every day. It doesn’t matter what you write, but just write something.”

How many times have you heard that piece of advice? As writers (more specifically, bloggers), we’re told that we need to write every day to keep our writing muscles strong. The idea is that the more you write, the better you’ll get at writing. It’s like a basketball player shooting hoops every single day. If he keeps shooting, he’s bound to refine his shot, right?

Honestly, I’m not so sure.

I used to think the advice to write every day was brilliant, but lately, I’m not so sure.

That’s because, as a writer, I know that writers tend to get stuck in a rut, writing the same types of things over and over. We develop little nasty habits over time (some try to call this “their style”), and by writing every day, those little habits and shortcomings we have as writers tend to only worsen.

Then there’s the whole quality vs. quantity argument. Who would you rather read: the blogger who writes every day just for the sake of writing or the blogger who only writes maybe a couple of times each week whenever he is truly inspired?

To me, “write every day” just isn’t great advice. I understand that it sounds good in theory, but the reality is that writing every day is useless unless you’re actually truly working on bettering your craft.

In other words, if you’re going to write every day as practice, try to truly focus on developing your style and challenging yourself as a writer. Try different styles of writing. If you’re normally a corporate blogger, try writing more personal stuff. If you write news pieces, try exploring creative writing. This is what will help you truly grow as a writer. Writing the same thing day in and day out will only serve to stagnate your writing.

Do you write every day? Do you really think it has helped you grow as a writer?

I’ve been blogging now for a few years at various sites around the web. Some of the blogs I write on are for pay (I’m a freelance writer for hire) and others are my personal pet projects on blogs I’m trying to grow myself.

During the past few years, I’ve learned quite a bit about blogging. Hell, I’m still learning things today, and I’m sure a couple of years from now, I’ll still be learning even more stuff I wish I’d known earlier.

There are a lot of things I wish I’d known when I was just starting out as a blogger, but as they say, experience is the best teacher. Hopefully though, there are some newbie bloggers out there reading this post who can learn something from my experiences.

Here are 5 lessons I’ve learned as a blogger.

1. The “design” of your posts matters—I’ve heard the phrase “content is king” so many times that it makes me want to put my head through a wall. Yes, content is important. Very important. But good content alone will not be enough to bring in readers by the droves. This is especially true if you’re trying to get a post to go hot on a site like Digg or ReddIt.

Simply put, the look of your posts matters too. You need to have a clean blog design, and your posts should contain images and be laid out in an easy-to-read manner.

2. Overnight success just isn’t realistic—Sure, we’ve all heard of blogs that have come out of nowhere to grab instant success (e.g. People of Walmart), but for the typical blogger, that’s just not how it goes. Unless you have a really special idea, it’s going to take you several months before you start building up a good audience. It might take even longer. You need to understand this in the beginning so that you don’t lose hope and give up.

3. Writing posts is only a small, small part of blogging—When I first started, I thought that blogging was just writing posts. Boy, was I wrong. That’s probably the smallest part of blogging. Not only do you have to add images and format your posts, but you also have to spend time promoting your posts, responding to comments, soliciting guest bloggers, and doing everything else that goes into maintaining a successful blog. Blogging is time-consuming, but if you work smarter, you can get more done in less time.

4. Hosting matters—Sure, this is a hosting blog, so you might be a bit skeptical when I bring up the topic of hosting, but the truth is, it’s incredibly important. When I first started blogging, I skimped on hosting. It came back to bite me in the @$$ whenever I had a post that was going hot and the servers crashed. Oops!

5. You don’t have to let old posts die—Too often, our posts have very short shelf lives. We write them, promote them, and move on. I’m the kind of guy who likes to get every last bit out of the toothpaste tube, and I take the same approach with blogging. I don’t let old posts go off to die. I link back to them whenever I can, RT them on occasion, spin them into articles for article marketing, publish follow-up posts whenever I have something more to add to the subject, browse the comments to get new post ideas, and much more.

What are some things you wish you’d known when you first started blogging?

Being a successful blogger is about giving your readers the content they want. You need to give them quality content on subjects that interest them enough to read your posts on a daily basis.

But how can you know which topics your readers really care about?

It’s actually pretty easy. You just have to pay closer attention, and your readers will leave you little clues that can help you pinpoint their favorite topics.

• Look at your most popular posts—Installing the Popular Posts plugin on your blog will help you instantly see which posts your readers responded the most to. Popular Posts clearly displays the posts on your blog that have received the most comments, views, or average daily views. Once you get it installed, take a look at your most popular posts. What do they share in common? Is it a particular topic? Is it the style of writing…the way the headline is phrased?
• Monitor what people search for in your blog—Do you have a search box on your blog? If so, Search Meter can record what people are searching for. This gives you a clear idea of the topics that interest your readers, allowing you to create content that matches their interests. It also allows you to improve the categorization and tagging of your posts to make searches more successful.
• Track your search engine traffic—I’m going to assume you already have some sort of analytics plugged into your blog. You should be studying these analytics on a regular basis, monitoring where your traffic is coming from and what visitors do once they land on your site. Take note of the various keywords searchers use to find your blog. This helps you see the type of information they’re looking for, allowing you to target these phrases better in future posts.
• Read your comments closely—What are your readers talking about in the comments? Are there any topics they bring up that you can expound upon in a future posts? Be a good listener, and get in the comments and talk it up with your readers. You’ll get to know them better, and as a result, you’ll be able to write content that better matches their needs.
• Follow your readers on Twitter—Most of your readers are probably on Twitter. Find them. Follow them. Pay attention to what they talk about. Look at the links they drop in their Tweets. The more closely you pay attention, the better able you’ll be to see which subjects they find most interesting.

How do you know which topics your readers are most interested in?

By now, you’ve probably at least heard of TMZ at some point. In case you haven’t, TMZ is a blog that covers all the latest celebrity gossip and news. The blog has exploded in popularity, earning thousands of comments each day. In fact, the blog got so popular that TMZ now has a nightly TV show covering the latest news and paparazzi videos.

Now, you might be saying to yourself: What does TMZ have to do with my blog? I don’t cover celebrities or silly gossip.

That’s fine. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn anything from the way TMZ approaches blogging. Here are just some of the lessons you can gain by following TMZ.

Lesson #1: It’s all in the headline

The importance of a good headline can’t be overstated. No matter what niche you’re in, there are other blogs, podcasts, and articles pulling at your reader’s attention. You need to stand out from the crowd and hook readers to draw them in. A great headline can help you do this.

Consider TMZ. The headlines on this blog are successful for a few reasons. They’re interesting, short, and a combination of clear and clever.

Here are just some of the top headlines I see when I visit TMZ right now.

Lindsay Lohan—I don’t need prison or rehab

Kobe Bryant—Six-figure silent treatment

Michael Madsen: Little Crazy? Yes. Suicidal? No!

Daisy Fuentes: Good Genes or Good Docs?

For people who are interested in celebrity news and gossip, these headlines are like magnets. You almost can’t help but click on them to find out the details of the story.

You need to create the same sense of interest with your headlines.

Lesson #2: Be timely

One of the top reasons TMZ has gotten so popular is their propensity for being the first to break a story. The TMZ photogs seem to be everywhere, getting exclusive shots and details on stories that even the top networks don’t have yet. TMZ was the first place where most people heard about Michael Jackson being rushed to the hospital and ultimately passing away. Most mainstream media was hesitant to confirm the story, but TMZ had inside sources and scooped the competition.

TMZ was also the website to first break the story of Mel Gibson getting arrested for driving under the influence and making anti-Semitic comments during his arrest, and they were the first to break the report of actress Brittany Murphy’s death late last year.

The point is TMZ is always covering the latest topics. Even when they aren’t the first to break a story, they have a knack for going into deeper detail and offering a unique perspective that no one else sees.

Lesson #3: Humor is your friend

TMZ isn’t mean spirited, but they do poke fun at the ridiculous things celebrities say and do. People love to laugh, and it’s one of the things that attracts readers back to TMZ.com and to the TV show day in and day out.

The TMZ website has a very distinctive voice that is edgy, sarcastic, and gets people talking. It’s important for you to also create an identity as a blogger.

Lesson #4: Know your stuff

You can’t fake your way through blogging because sooner or later, you’ll slip up, and when you do, your readers will call you out and never let you forget it. The bottom line is if you want to position yourself as a trusted resource, you need to know your stuff inside and out. You need to always be learning new things so you can know more than your competition.

Here, TMZ succeeds. They seem to know every single detail about all celebrities, from the A-listers to the Z-listers. Like them or not, TMZ is one of the authorities when it comes to Hollywood and celebrities.

Lesson #5: Make your blog interactive

TMZ is known for including polls in many of their posts, hosting contests, and even having fun games visitors can play. They understand that the more interactive their blog is, the longer visitors will stay and the more connected they’ll feel to the brand.

What are some things you can do to make your blog more interactive?

As someone who has been blogging for several years, I know how easy it can be to start slacking off on my blogging duties. But I also realize that if you want to be a successful blogger, you have to keep working at it, because as soon as you get comfortable, another blog will pop up to try to take your place and steal your readers.

So, to help out myself and my fellow bloggers, I’ve come up with some of the ways we tend to slack off over time. By identifying these dangerous mistakes, hopefully we can all avoid them and continue to grow our blogs.

1. Decreased posting frequency—When you’ve been writing on a daily basis for years, it can be difficult to keep up the pace. Over time, a lot of bloggers start to write less and less, because they’re burned out. I’m not saying you need to write every single day, but I am saying that decreasing your posting frequency can be a slippery slope that leads to you writing less and less until you’ve reached the point that you’re losing readers and your blog rarely gets updated.

2. Uninspired content—After writing hundreds or thousands of posts, it can be pretty hard to find fresh topics to write about. This can lead to rehashed, uninspired content that readers won’t respond to. The best way to combat this is to make sure you stay in tune with the latest news and developments in your industry, and you should push yourself to keep learning new things so you’ll have something new to write about.

3. Less blog promotion—When you first start your blog, you have to promote it like crazy just to get people to read it. Over time, your readers start helping you promote your blog by ReTweeting your content, submitting it to voting websites, emailing it to their friends, etc. However, that doesn’t mean you’re promotional duties are over. There are always more readers to be had, and you need to keep working to spread the word about your blog.

4. Forgetting to moderate comments—If your readers’ comments take days to get approved, they’re going to eventually stop commenting. Blogging is supposed to have a conversational element to it, and to capitalize on that, you need to moderate your comments on a regular basis.

5. Not taking the time to respond to comments—Speaking of comments, approving them isn’t enough. Now, as your blog starts to grow, you’ll start getting more and more comments. Responding to them all can be time-consuming, but you should do your best to be active in your comments section. This helps to build relationships with your readers, keeping them coming back.

Have you ever slacked off on blogging? Share your experiences by leaving a comment.

A few weeks ago, I was reading a sports article on the Houston Chronicle’s website. For those who don’t know, the Chronicle is Houston’s main newspaper. Anyway, the Chronicle has switched to a blog style format that allows readers to comment on stories. In this particular story, a reader respectfully disagreed with the reporter. Apparently, the reporter is having trouble accepting that readers now have power, and he responded with insults and a mini-tantrum.

It was totally unprofessional, but it highlights an important subject that often gets overlooked: blog etiquette. Here are some blogging etiquette guidelines that would make Emily Post proud.

1. Never repost someone else’s content without asking their permission.

2. If you quote a small excerpt from another post, provide a link to the original source.

3. Thank those who link to you.

4. Respond to your comments in a timely manner.

5. Let readers know when you’re posting affiliate links.

6. Don’t attack others personally; respect should always be given to those who disagree with you.

7. If you comment on other blogs, add value to the conversation. No drive-by comments like “Great post” or “I agree.”

8. Don’t use a keyword for your commenting name. It’s a cheap tactic that makes you look like a spammer.

Do you have good blogging manners? Which rules of blogging etiquette would you add to this list?

For the past few years, I’ve been blogging on a daily basis. I don’t just blog here on the SEO Hosting blog; I also contribute to many other marketing blogs. I even write for some blogs in totally other subjects (health, shipping, real estate, and more). Of course, getting paid to blog is certainly one reason I’ve been so active.

But blogging is more than a job for me. It’s something I truly love to do. I’m passionate about it, and I’m always trying to improve my blogging skills. I still have a lot of improving to do, but I think I’ve learned quite a bit over the past few years. Today, I want to share some of the blogging lessons I’ve picked up along the way.

Lesson #1: You have to write regularly if you want to get better

Michael Jordan didn’t become the world’s greatest basketball player by sitting on his butt all day long. He was famous for his work ethic. He practiced longer than everyone else, and as a result, he became better than all of his peers.

The same concept applies to blogging. You can’t expect to become a better blogger if you don’t spend time writing. I’m not saying you have to write a new post every day, but you need to blog on a regular basis. You don’t even have to post everything you write. Just write and push yourself so you can grow into a strong writer.

On a side note, you should also be reading other blogs to see what works for other people. Don’t rip off their style, but you can pick up helpful traits from others that will make you into a better-rounded blogger.

Lesson #2: It’s important to mix things up so you don’t fall in a rut

I admit it. I tend to fall back on the list style post a little too often. Hell, I’m doing it right now, but I have been making an effort to mix things up. I try to write differently formatted posts, and I try to play around with different styles of writing (e.g. straightforward vs. telling a story).

Don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s the best way to grow into the blogger you want to become.

Lesson #3: Passion is more important than knowledge

A while back, I wrote a post talking about the importance of passion in blogging. Rather than repeat everything I said in that post (I encourage you to go back and read it), let me just say that I truly believe passion trumps even knowledge in terms of blogging skills. That’s not to say you can be successful by writing about things you don’t know about, but my point is that even if you’re an expert, if you lack passion for your subject, your blog won’t last. You won’t be able to create quality, interesting content on a daily basis for years to come.

Lesson #4: Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come

Too many new bloggers think that blogging is some miracle tool that will get their company in front of millions of eager customers with just a few short posts. That’s not how it works. There are hundreds of millions of blogs out there. Whatever subject you’re blogging about, you can be sure there is plenty of competition. So, just starting your blog isn’t enough to get results.

You have to put the time and effort into truly promoting your blog. This means not only writing quality content, but also networking with social media influencers who can help you promote your posts far and wide.

Lesson #5: Readers do judge a book (blog) by its cover (design)

Your blog’s design is important. You can’t expect to draw readers in with a boring, poorly designed website. That’s not to say you need to drop thousands of dollars on a custom WordPress theme, but you do need to use a catchy, creative theme that fits the tone and personality of your blog. Check out these 5 SEO friendly WordPress themes for some ideas.

How long have you been blogging? What have you learned during this time?

You already know about the major blogging mistakes, like not posting regularly and not promoting your content. However, there are several overlooked mistakes that even good bloggers continue to make. Are you making these 5 blogging mistakes?

1. Taking too long to approve comments—While blogging isn’t quite a real-time conversation like Twitter, it still moves pretty quickly. Readers comment on a post, interact with other commenters for a little bit, and then move on to something else.

If you’re taking several days to approve comments, you kill the momentum of your post. This removes the conversational element of blogging, turning your blog into a one-way channel of communication, thus defeating the purpose of having a blog. You need to stay on top of moderating your comments. Get them approved as quickly as possible to keep readers engaged and talking.

2. Allowing low quality guest posts—Allowing guest posts on your blog offers many benefits for you and the blogger. However, you do need to remember that your blog is a brand, and a low-quality guest post can cause you to lose readers and create a poor image for your blog.

So, while I encourage allowing people to guest post on your blog, you need to make sure you review the blogger’s work before giving him (or her) the nod of approval. Check out his blog and other guest posts so you can decide if his posts are up to your standards.

3. Not starting a conversation—Like I said earlier, the conversational element is what makes blogging so popular. As a blogger, it’s your job to get the conversation started. You can’t just expect readers to start commenting in droves. You need to give them something to talk about.

One easy thing you can do is simply ask your readers to leave a comment. Think of it as a call to action. Another thing I like to do is to leave some information out of my posts so that readers have something to add to it. After all, if you’ve covered everything there is to say about a topic, your readers won’t have anything to say.

4. Rushing a post—Everybody has different opinions on how long you should spend blogging. However, I think we can all agree that being productive, no matter how much time you spend, is extremely important.

That being said, you need to be careful that in your quest to be a productive blogger, you don’t rush your posts. When you quickly crank out content, you’re much likelier to make mistakes and to write low-quality content.

5. Not having drafts saved for creative lulls—Every blogger suffers from writer’s block at one time or another. Rather than writing a sucky post or no post at all, the ideal solution is to have a backlog of drafts saved so you can publish one of those. Whenever you’re feeling creative, write some drafts and save them in WordPress. Trust me, they’ll come in handy.

What are some of the biggest blogging mistakes you’ve made? Share your experiences by leaving a comment.