This is a guest post by Jack Harold of Affiliate Home Business.
Blogging has probably revolutionized the Internet in a way that few other trends have been able to accomplish. Anyone who has access to the Internet can setup a blog to write about themselves or voice their opinions. It is that easy!
However, not every blog really appeal to the general public.
Why? I wouldn’t want to know what a particular blogger is having for dinner, what time he is going to bed or which show he is currently watching on TV etc. The trouble is, no one other than the blogger himself really cares about such things.
If you are an aspiring blogger and want your blog to succeed, this post will provide you with all the tips you need to keep your blog buzzing and thriving with life! You could have applied some of these tips already but I am sure that you will definitely find something that will benefit you today! It is time to make your blog ROCK!
1. Reminisce With Readers
Probably you have written some fantastic posts and amusing anecdotes before. If you are thinking real hard on what to write for your next blog post, look into your own past for inspiration.
2. Show Your Passion
Why bother starting a blog if you are not passionate about the things that you are going to blog about? This is one important ingredient towards the success of your blog.
3. Stay Up-to-Date
Subscribe to your industry’s top blogs in the market. Read about the recent developments and happenings in your industry. Update your blog audience about the events that are coming up and which they might be interested to attend.
4. Be a Consumer
You have just stumbled upon a great product which is able to solve all your problems. On the other hand, your blog audience has been looking for solutions in the market that will solve the same issue. Give that product a genuine and honest review; use it and tell your blog audience what you think about the product.
5. Publish Your Learning Experiences
Blog about where you have failed previously and advise your blog audience on what not to do! Case studies are definitely popular!
6. Keep It Simple
Write in a conversational manner as if you are just talking to a friend. Write in bite size chunks and use bullet points so that your blog readers can easily consume what you have written. Have fun writing your posts and occasionally add a bit of humour into your posts.
7. Engage Your Blog Readers
Reply to their comments to keep the conversation going. Take the time to email them directly and thank them for their comments. Ask your readers what they want you to write about. This will definitely create a WOW factor and your blog readers will then spread the word about your blog for you. This could be the making of a tribe!
8. Catch Your Blog Audience’s Attention
Attach an eye-catching image at the top of your blog posts. Take some time to craft out great headlines that will catch people attention and will make them want to find out more about the rest of the blog posts.
9. Don’t Leave Out Social Tools
Provide Share This buttons to Facebook and Twitter. Invite your blog audience to subscribe to your blog via RSS or email. Promote and distribute your posts on to other social media platforms such as Digg and StumbleUpon.
10. Make It Mobile
Make it easy for people to view your blog on their mobile phones as smartphones increases the connectivity to the Internet. There are simple WordPress plugins that enable you to do that in a matter of minutes. I just did a check on my blog’s Google Analytics and it tells me that there is an increase of 10% in the number of people who are reading my blog from a mobile platform from last week. This trend will only continue and the percentage will definitely go up.
11. Video Blog
Create a video blog post by interviewing a successful client – this can be a powerful avenue in providing authentic evidence of authority and credibility for both you and the client. Turn your existing “How-To” posts into short videos with you doing the demonstration.
Your Spicy Tips
Give the above a try! I believe you will be able to create a lively blog real soon and a happier you as well. And let us know your spicy tips for making your blog rock!
About Jack Harold
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
I need to focus on making my blog mobile. I’ve tried visiting my blog with my mob. Will try it with different devices as well.
Mani Viswanathan @ Blogging Tips recently posted HowTo Add Buffer Button in WordPress
@Mani, mobile is indeed a good way to capture your audience on the move. You will be amazed by how many new subscribers you are going to obtain through mobile platform!
Hi Jack, you mention some very sound strategies here. I use most of them already but I might have slipped a little on following top blogs in the market (except this one of course)
Thanks for the reminder and the list.
Ileane recently posted How to update WordPress manually via FTP
Yes me too, reminds me to follow you more Ileane
Alex recently posted How to Really Tap Into the Power of Social Media No- it’s not just about Traffic
@Alex, do subscribe to my list too!
@Ileane, that’s how you keep abreast of the happenings and developments around you!
Super duper blogging tips, Jack — thanks.
#’s 2, 6, 7, and 8 are my top picks and personal favorites!
Melanie Kissell @SoloMompreneur recently posted How To Get More From Google Analytics
@Melanie, my pleasure always if I am of any help to you! Keep applying the tried and tested techniques consistently and you will reap the rewards.
This post reminds me of one of the great quotes of blogging:
“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
– Brian Clark, CopyBlogger
Great post, and nice succinct tips. Not entirely sure I agree with all of them, but what fun would it be if I did right?
Alex recently posted Article Marketing Challenge – Day 40 Traffic and Income Report
@Alex, I really like that quote from Brian. I do visit his blog sometimes and his posts do really inspire me to blog more and help the blogosphere. Yep, just try my suggestions out…some may not turn out fine but some may just take you to the next level!
There are several blogging strategies in here that not utilized by me yet. I think I will start to utilize them. As additional, Publishing our learning experience is surely a good strategy — I have experienced some good results by using this strategy.
Dana recently posted Android Kindle App Supports Android 30 Honeycomb
@Dana, try one or two of my suggestions…master them well. Just one good technique or two will raise you to the next level.
I try try to follow as many of these tips. Because I am not full time blogger, however I need to manage time more wisely. Thanks for the nice tips.
Suresh Khanal@Bivori recently posted Don’t Wait for Clicks to Make Money Blogging
@Suresh, I totally agree with your approach, mate. Just stick to one principle that you are comfortable with and master it well!
Very good, easy to follow tips. Especially the mobile one, I’ll have to check my analytics to see if I can tweak some advantage out of this. Thanks very much.
rohan recently posted 53 Washington DC Carnival
@rohan, not a problem at all my friend. It seems that going mobile is the way to go given the trend. Even Google has gone Andriod!
Hi Jack,
I have been trying few of the it presently and plan to give a try soon, not able to balance my time still I am working 16 hrs a day and cannot manage the time..
I should think and rethink on trying different methods and manage time wisely.
Thanks for sharing.
-Imran
Imran@Shariffdotorg recently posted Best Alternative For BuySellAds
@Imran, if you have read the comments from Suresh… he is not a full-time blogger..so what he suggested was to balance your time well. Time management is crucial or else you might spiral your way into failure. I think for you..just select one or two of the techniques and apply them diligently. That will do you good in your future blogging.
These are all great tips that I myself try to remember any time I am writing for my blog. In my opinion, I think #2 is the most important for anyone who wants to become a blogger. You shouldn’t blog about your dinner, or what you think will make you money online. You should blog about your passions. This is the only way to have a successful blog because the passion will translate to the readers and keep them coming back.
Engaging with readers and their comments is very important too. Good list!
Hi Sarah, can I first comment that you’re really beautiful? hahaha.. and yep, I totally agree with you that passion keeps a blog going and your audience wanting for MORE! That’s the only way that keeps a hungry crowd coming back to you! That’s the only way that makes them feel as if you are the authority…the expert…the one and ONLY!
Thank you Jack! That is a very nice compliment. Appreciate your response!
Hi Sarah aka Babe, is Adiamor your brand? I would love to be your affiliate marketer so I am not sure if you have an affiliate program in place. Really great stuff that you are selling there. Hope we can strike some kind of business partnership!
Passion really struck a positive chord with me too, Sarah.
You can’t go wrong when you follow your bliss (genuine passion). The energy emobodied in passion is transformative, sometimes magical.
Thanks for beautifully spotlighting this among Jack’s great hit list. Excellent reminder!
Lil / Authentic Abundance recently posted 5 Things Every Authentic Entrepreneur Needs to Know
Simple, practical tips. Thanks, Jack, for sharing. I like #5, especially.
Jeff Goins recently posted 7 Ways to Get Noticed For Your Writing Now
@Jeff, a personal touch matters more than anything else I guess and it’s true!
Forget share this. Many of these tips boil down to provide compelling content to your readers. I agree completely. The key is to really provide content that is of value. A huge part of this for most people is to focus on your passion. A few excellent writers can be incredibly engaging about stuff they don’t care about. Most people can’t.
The video idea is good.
John Hunter recently posted Amazon Keeps Spending- Sales Growing But Not Income
@John, thanks for the like … and you must agree that videos serve as another avenue for providing a great personal touch as well!
All such great thoughts. Love the idea to reminisce, and keep things simple. It’s also been great for me to share what I learn each day on my blog – and that certainly helps.
Christian Hollingsworth recently posted Social Media Is Old
Thanks Christian and hope you will stay tuned for my other guest posts!
I sure will. Checking out your blog too now. Great work!
Christian Hollingsworth recently posted The Internet Marketing Man- Interview with Sam Beamond
It’s kinda down at the moment but it should be up within a day or two.
Since I made my blogspot mobile friendly, those stats creep up. 9% of my readers are not using a desktop or a laptop.
Elephant’s Eye recently posted Wildflower Week in April
Great work pal. Everyone, see the MASSIVE difference MOBILE made?
I enjoyed your input. A well-rounded summary of worthy tips. I agree with everything you suggested. I think I have a pretty good grasp on all your thoughts on blogging, except the idea for a video blog. This is something I have never tried. What do you generally try to capture? Do you just film yourself with commentary of your thoughts? Do you apply a lot of editing? I definitely would like to explore the video blog let me know if you have suggestions. Thanks.
Alright Matt..I would like to share with you on what I have seen so far.
You can capture a video sharing with people a product (that’s in your niche) that either has impressed you with its wonderful features or it sucks great time.
Next, let’s say you are in the fishing niche. You can do an interview with another fellow fishing buddy and talk about where are your favourite fishing spots, what kind of fish swims there..what sort of bait would be nice…what time do the fish come by etc.. you know what I mean. Just discuss anything that will be interesting to your niche.
Else, you can also share on the experiences that you have with thus far. As long as everything is niche-relaetd…and you’ll be fine.
Great tips Jack. Very worthwhile to read for new and old bloggers alike.
Cheers!
Jun Baranggan recently posted My Top 5 SEO Tools
Thanks once again and hope you will come by and have a read at my future guest posts as well.
I have enjoyed reading this post today. As a beginner blogger your tips are very helpful and helps to avoid some of the more common pitfalls first time blogger might potentially make, hopefully I have the tools to avoid those mistakes now.
BodynSoil recently posted Mother Earth Garden Planner Update
Yep yep, my job is to – as far as possible – help every single blogger to grow to their best potential and I believe everyone is capable of that. Work hard and play hard!
Great tips Jack, I’m happy to say I utilize most myself.
I do need to get on with the mobile thing though, I’ve known this for a while. One issue I have is the fact that i do not personally own a mobile phone, I have no way of checking it myself.
Dennis Edell@ Direct Sales Marketing recently posted How to Turn Human Spammers Into Regular Legitimate Members of Your Community
@Dennis, if you have read the comments above, quite a few have agreed that mobile is the way to go and you have known it yourself. To get around your problem, it’s quite simple actually. Go down to any telco shop and ask them to show and demostrate the use of a smartphone..try logging on to your website…haha, it’s FREE!
Good idea for a one-off. If I have tweaks to perform, they may not like me camping there. lol
Dennis Edell@ Direct Sales Marketing recently posted How to Turn Human Spammers Into Regular Legitimate Members of Your Community
Hey Jack,
Spicy tips, of course. To me, passion is the key and I can’t imagine myself blogging without it. And I can say that blogging is the only thing that I am never bored of.
So I can say that my passion gets reflected in the words I write. That is the secret spice I use!
Great tips, and a great post.
Cheers,
Jane.
Jane@Blogging Tips recently posted Effective Blog Commenting to build high quality backlinks
@Jane, passion keeps you burning..passion keeps the relationship alive. Remember this quote!
Jack Harold, thanks for the great tips above. Almost a complete guide into making a good looking blog post. But did you forget the promotion part of a good blog post out of your tips? or this one just focuses at the writing part or creation part alone.?
RonLeyba recently posted Thor Wallpaper – Thor Movie Wallpapers And Posters
Hi mate, thanks for the reply. I have actually mentioned promotion via the mobile platform and also sharing the content via social media platforms (using the ShareThis button etc). Do you have any other means of promotion to add? Please share..please share. We would want to learn from you. Of course, SEO, media buys, PPC advertising are some other ways but I do not want to go into that.
I mostly do point #5, as it displays a more personal level of writing plus it offers knowledge that is sometimes unavailable to other similar blogs to yours.
But I do have to try tip #11, I haven’t tried that yet, and I think that can certainly help my clients’ search rankings
Jason @ Link Marketing Services recently posted 7 Ways and Reasons To Win a Blog Contest
@Jason, you have to try them out before you know whether they really fit your strategy. Try it…and you will experience a difference.
Hey Jack,
Fantastic strategies you’re using here. I use most of them and they work well…
What a beautiful picture!
All the best,
Mavis
Mavis Nong @ Online Business Tools recently posted Blogging Success – The Magic Traits of Successful Bloggers
Thanks babe for the like! Glad that the techniques work well for u!
Really appreciated this post, Jack, esp. as a relative newcomer to all-things-blog.
I especially appreciated the clear, bullet point approach you used that aligns beautifully with the way I scan online info. Super.
And your first tip really hit home ~ to reminisce with the reader. Storytelling, when shared from the heart or our memory banks, has a palpable authenticity that sparks genuine reader interest and a bonding connection. In the best of cases, it triggers identification on the part of the reader, thereby touching that individual in a special, personally meaningful way.
Thank you for sharing these gems – look forward to seeing more
Lil / Authentic Abundance recently posted 5 Things Every Authentic Entrepreneur Needs to Know
Hi babe, really appreciate those comments from you… just make me wanna to write more to help everyone here!
I’ve not yet published any product reviews on my blog, and I like the idea a lot. Thanks for the tips!
doug_eike recently posted Ten Skills Your Children Need To Survive Globalization
Yep friend, you should!
Hi Jack,
Definitely 11 spicy tips for sure!
I really resonate with #5 in particular since many of my posts are experienced driven. I think this is one of the best ways not only for you to learn but for others as well. People want to know what has worked or not worked for you and why.
Well done. You’ve seemed to cover all the necessary basics.
Ciao!
Michele Welch recently posted The Power Of Social Networking- Have to Read it to Believe It!
Yes, people want to see proven success or recorded failure so that the learning curve is smoother for them.
Making your blog mobile-friendly is so important nowadays! The numbers of smart phones and people doing most, if not all, of their online stuff with their phones is becoming unbelievable.
This was a really fantastic list! I especially appreciated sharing your learning experiences. What’s that saying? “Even a fourth-grader is a god to a third-grader.” You are an expert to someone, somewhere.
Delena
Delena Silverfox recently posted GolfGarb Voucher Code
@Delena, am I a god to you or a first-grader? Thanks for the like!
Hi Jack,
i have been mulling over whether to start a blog for my dog site or not. I write great original articles for it, often based on Google raw data to provide unique info to my visitors, but obviously articles are not as updated as a blog might be. I was just wondering how time consuming doing a blog would be, and if it will actually increase visitor loyalty, or people wanting dog walking, just because I blog? Because at the end of the day, we all want to get paid.
My other concern is that I would need to do seo (link building) for the blog pages as well as my homepage, how do you get to do both? or is bring people to your site and them finding the blog enough for you?
@Bruce, with passion, blogging becomes a breeze rather than a chore. Don’t you agree? Rather than blog about something that you feel draggy to start with, why not start working on a niche that you will feel more passionate about?
I do SEO via lotsa link building methods … like guest blogging, article marketing, web2.0 linkwheels etc. Seems like a lot of work but I do have a team that I work with day in day out. If you are just starting out, you might want to start small and work on a less competitive niche.
Or you could become one of the top blogs others subscribe to. And video blogging is premium
@Ivin, glad that you agree with my point! Stay tuned for my other guest posts!
Great article with some great tips!
I think alot of them can be captured under the same thing: be honest and be true!
Bjorn recently posted Top 10 iPhone-iPad Apps for Photographers
hahaha…how i wish it’s so simple!
Awesome tips Jack! I am new to blogging atmosphere and still keep learning to spice up blog, useful information. Have twitted.
Rammesh @ Money Making Guides recently posted Does Facebook Comment Box Social Plugin will Trouble Your Blog SEO
@Rammesh, I am glad that I have helped you in one way or another!
Hey Jack,
These are very lovely actionable tips you shared here.
I love the part of keeping it simple. People simply like to complicate things and over-analyse contents without due consideration to their readers.
People want to see a writing that portrays a conversation. One that is not boring and complex. The person who excels in providing such is bound to be a favourite to its readers.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Jack!
Tosin
Tosin recently posted Automated Tools- Stop Hiding Behind Automation
As people always say, keep it straight and simple!
Dig the tips Jack, especially the plugin link for mobile phones. I’ll have to check that out.
Also, tip #12 – Add animated .gif’s to your blog to spice it up – they’re making a come back…:)
I have doubts on animated gifs … they tend to cause unnecessary attention which blog visitors may find annoying.
I have a problem with engaging visitors because so many of them are one-time visitors who will come to comment for a link and then leave. Any suggestions for this?
Techie @ TechGeeks recently posted Finding Your WiFi Password
Sometimes, I will visit the websites and blogs of my visitors and build a relationship with them. For example, I will read their posts and leave my comments on their blogs. That way, they will notice my presence more.
Nice tips, Jack. I think your point about making your blog more mobile is the one that’s been occupying my mind the most lately. With the success of Apple’s iPad, and other tablets like it, it seems that the future of print media will be on devices like these. I think we will all see a larger percentage of our audience visiting our sites from these types of devices. It’s something that we need to keep in mind as bloggers when it comes to our post length, style, format, and overall appearance.
Brad Harmon @ Big Feet Marketing recently posted Why Your Small Business Needs a Blog
@Brad, you are totally right and the longer we hesitate, the more blog visitors (and customers) that we are losing by the seconds and minutes!
http://kikolani.com/11-incredibly-simple-tips-to-spice-up-your-blog.html Thanks for the post jack. You’ve mentioned a very good strategies. Enjoyed the read. I’m looking forward to read more from you. Keep it.
Hello Jack,
Very Engaging And Informative Post About How To make Your Blog Post Open With Big Bang.. It Thinks Covers Lots Of points but I would like also from You Include some Of My Points in your Blog Post That will Make Your Blog Post Complete… Here Are Some Points That You Can Includes -
1- Ask a Questions
2-Share an anecdote and quote
3-Use an Analogy, smile or metaphor
Video blogging. I think that’s a marvelous way to spice up your blog. I’ve just started diving into doing a little video blogging, and I can already see the benefits. It’s already starting to help bring more exposure into my blog via YouTube and other sources.
I think readers really enjoy, too, watching their favorite bloggers on screen. It really helps them to connect and get a better feel for what you’re all about!
Christian Hollingsworth recently posted The Wink In Leeks: #9
Nice Jack,
Awesome post, I like all points, every points is essential to get edge to spice up your blog,
in all points best of the one is Engage Your Blog Readers, once you get familiar with your blog readers throw the post he/she will get engaged and respond with your all posts and share good points opinion etc.
Thanks for sharing this post Jack…
Brainpulse recently posted Major Accomplishments That Social Media Experts Must Focus Towards