Beginners guide to blogging

I can certainly attest to the power of blogging from my personal experiences over the past 3 years. We’ll save some of those stories for future posts, but today I’d like to tackle some basic blogging rules for Divas. These specific rules are for those who actually blog for a purpose and actually expect people to read, participate, and take action on the blog (but of course Divas never blog without a purpose right?). Here we go:

Rule #1: Divas focus first on providing value

A big mistake people make when they hear that you can make money from blogging is they immediately start thinking “How can I start making money from my blog in the next 30 days?” Slow down, buddy…wrong focus. Divas focus on creating VALUE primarily. What are you going to share? Why will people want to listen to you? How are you going to help solve others’ problems? Those are the types of questions you should start with. Show love for your readers first so they know, like, and trust you before you start presenting offers to them (whether it be your own product offer or an affiliate offer).

Rule #2: Divas keep things fresh and interesting

The rule is simple…don’t be boring! Inject humor, tell stories, show a personality! All of these things really help in the “don’t be boring” department. Additionally, you can keep things fresh (and avoid writer’s block) but mixing things up on your blog with a variety of different types of blog posts. Here are just a few examples:

• Lists: People love lists and they are easy to write…like the one you’re reading. This is “Top 5″ list. So think of topics of relevance and create some valuable lists. Your audience will love them and will want to share them with others.
• Instructional: “How To” type of information — if you can deliver this with various media (such as screenshots and/or video) this can be very powerful and valuable to your audience. Do enough of these and you’ll have yourself a product that you can sell at some point too!
• Reviews: This could be a review of a product, service, a website, a book…whatever! Anything that will be of interest to your audience.
• Interviews: Interview others in your niche and give your readers the benefit of learning from others’ experiences and expertise.

Rule #3: Divas always respond to comments from their blog readers

Divas respect their readers and seek to build relationships and community through their blogs. One highly effective way to do this is to respond to the comments and questions that your blog readers take the time to post. Is it possible that at some point you could get so many comments on your blog that it would take too long to respond to every single one? Sure, that’s possible and it would be a terrific problem to have! When that happens, respond to as many as you can. Until then, respond to everyone. Not only does this build relationships with your current readers, but it also tells new readers that they should stick around because there’s something valuable…something special going on on your blog (and that’s VERY diva).

Rule #4: Divas use self-hosted WordPress blogs

There are two key words to this rule: self-hosted and WordPress. WordPress is the most powerful blogging platform available right now. You don’t have to waste time playing around with other blogging platforms first to prove this to yourself…just keep it simple and go with what works. WordPress.com provides free hosting for blogs, but Divas don’t rely on free web hosting. Divas buy a domain name (only $7.49 at GoDaddy.com!) and secure a reputable web host (we highly recommend SimplePayday). If you choose free WordPress.com hosting you will miss out on banner advertising income, unlimited blog theme options, and a variety of features offered by free and premium WordPress plug-ins.

Rule #5: Divas view their blog(s) as a hub that can enable multiple income streams

The blog itself isn’t always the big money maker. Don’t get me wrong because some bloggers make substantial monthly incomes just from banner advertisements, Google AdSense, and affiliate links on their blogs. However, Divas understand it’s not the end of the world if you’re not one of those bloggers because your blog is your hub. Your blog enables you to build an audience and a community that will want to purchase products from you (or from people you recommend as an affiliate), attend your events, and hire you for coaching or consulting services. When you start building a subscriber list (don’t delay, do that right away), you’re building a captive audience. So there you have it. Quite honestly I could’ve added another 5 rules to this list, but since one of them would’ve been “Divas don’t overwhelm their readers with insanely long blog posts” I’m going to stop right here.