Current Discussion: What is Important When Starting A New Blog?

Adventure Bay Media is a new blogging network.  Being a new network carries the problem of having new blogs.  Some of us have blogged over an extended period of time.  Others have not.  What are some of the ways that a new blog can receive a successful start?  What are some of the tricks that you may use to garner a readership and expand your audience?

Click below to read a few things that I do and to comment with your answers.  These may be put together for a nice post on the Adventure Bay Media site, so please share your knowledge and experience on growing your readership audience.

I am going to outline a few of the things that I feel are important when starting a new blog and trying to gain readership.  These things range from the mundane (things we should all know) to some of the more ‘hidden’ aspects of having a successful blog and keeping your readership happy.  Ready for the list?  At the end of the list, feel free to add your two cents.  If I decide to use your thoughts in a future post, you will be credited with the information and given a link back to your site.  Here’s mine:

Have A Plan

Many new bloggers and even some of us who have been around for awhile have a tendency to just jump right in and go with the flow.  Over time, this method can be successful, but in order to get off the right foot, I would suggest putting together a ‘Blog Plan’.  Quite simply, a blog plan will put down on paper what you are looking to achieve.  My first successful blog started out with a goal of having 10 readers (I know.  I was new.)  After I had reached 88,000 people in one day and been read by over 1 million readers, I still set a list of goals and try to stick to them.

Reach Out

There can ever be enough said about linking and commenting on other blogs that you find of interest.  Many others will tell you to only read, link, and comment on blogs and sites in your niche.  My personal experience is that these people will visit and become familiar with you, but in order to keep growing, you need to experiment with reading, commenting, and linking to other sites that may not be in your niche.  These are where the ‘new’ readers will come from and also the new fans.  You may just spark an interest in somebody that they didn’t know existed.

Tip Off

There have been many times where I have written an article or blog post that I wish would generate more traffic.  When I find myself in this situation, I will usually head to my email address book and call on a few friends.  I simply tell them about my post and may even suggest why they might be interested in reading it.  On more than a few occasions this has led to links in articles and posts coming back to my original article.

Social Networking

Is it a waste of time?  Many sites like FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, Stumble Upon, Twitter and on and on..can take up much time if you let them.  The key is to grab some widgets that will automatically update your profiles with your latest blog posts.  I spend most of my social networking time on FaceBook.  By using this technique, my friends, family, and associates can ow follow along with what I am doing and recommend the items to their friends.  It is a never ending cycle and also well worth the time.

What other things can be done to help spread information about your blog and gain a bigger readership?  Make your comments below.