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Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers – Group Writing Project

Posted By Darren Rowse 23rd of May 2006 ProBlogger Site News 0 Comments

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This is a slightly long winded announcement post inviting you to participate in a ProBlogger.net project. For details of how to participate read on:

Today I set myself the task of writing a list article titled ‘X Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers‘ (the ‘X’ was going to be a number determined by the number of points I wrote).

I thought it’d be a fun article, written in the style of ‘7 habits of highly effective people’ that would outline some characteristics that new bloggers wanting to grow in their ‘success’ or ‘effectiveness’ might find useful.

I got off to a great start and listed off 10 habits that I’d write about.

The problem as that as I constructed my list of habits that effective bloggers have that for each habit I came up with I found both examples of bloggers who embodied the habit and also examples of bloggers who obviously blogged successfully without the habit.

I found myself arguing with myself constantly as I wrote and ended up quite frustrated through the process.

I came to the realisation that while I might desire to define or describe an ‘effective’ blogger that there are many ways to being one.

Effectiveness as a blogger can only really be measured on a fairly individual basis as one looks at a bloggers personality, topic of choice, style of blogging, intended audience, goals and circumstances.

I found myself realising that a list of ‘habits of effective bloggers’ would differ from blogger to blogger and I’m sure that there would be some similarities between lists but lots of discrepancies also.

ProBlogger Group Writing Project

As I pondered these things I thought it’d be fun for numerous bloggers to write the habits that they think make an effective blogger and to put them side by side.

It’s been a while since we did a common writing project so I’d like to invite you to write a post on your blog on the topic of ‘Habits of Effective Bloggers’.

I will still write my list of habits this week (in fact I’ll write it as a series) but want to invite you to write yours also.

Write it up on your own blog (if it’s not appropriate to do so because it would interrupt the flow of it see below) and then email me via my contact form to let me know where you’ve written it up.

I’ll then link to everyone’s lists/articles during the week ahead so that everyone can surf by and read our collective wisdom. You’ve got until Friday to submit your post.

This is of course a voluntary thing. If you don’t have time, energy or desire to do it – feel free to not submit anything – but if you feel like reflecting upon what makes a successful blog successful or effective then I’d love to hear your thoughts.

My list will not be a generic one size fits all kind of list but rather a list of habits I’ve developed over the last few years and others that I’m working on. Feel free to take this approach also – or to tackle the topic in any other way you’d like to (humor, rant, short post, long post, series of posts, poem, video post, podcast – whatever you’d like).

If you don’t feel it’s appropriate to write such a post on your blog (ie if your blog is about playing chess, hoola hoops, metaphysics or recipes and such an article would break the flow) I’m happy to publish your piece here at ProBlogger on a ‘page’ (ie it won’t be on the main blog but a standalone page on this domain which I’ll link to from this blog. You can include a link back to your blog).

To submit your posts this way I’ll need you to include your post, your name and a URL back to your blog and if you can for you to write it up ready to be posted in html (if possible – as this will save me time if there are a lot of these submissions).

Hopefully through this little group project we’ll see some interesting themes emerge between us all but will also see some of the diversity of approaches that we as bloggers are taking in our efforts.

PS: feel free to use the image in this post if you wish to tie your post in with other submissions.

update: See a list of readers submissions so far here.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Will try to.

  2. Sounds good – count me in. Will take some time out for it in the next couple of days.

  3. Great idea, Darren. I’ll certainly post about this and try to get my KMM colleagues to do so as well.

  4. would will interesting to see how this project goes.

  5. Absolutely! What a great way to get not just a snapshot of what bloggers feel works to their benefit – and for their readers as well – but also get a wide view across niches and specialties. Sort of like a camera pan instead of a screenshot.
    I’m in, Darren.

  6. Great Idea Darren,

    I will Try !

  7. […] I thought I’d rise to the challenge and respond with a post concerning Problogger’s Writing Project, which is a group effort to outline truly effective blogging methods. While the basic ideas may vary, I would still expect that this might result in numerous similar posts, but we’ll see. The whole point of collaborating is to see how different people approach the same problem. Here’s a number of principles which apply to blogging […]

  8. Cool and done. Hope you enjoy.

  9. Great idea! Count me in!

  10. […] Darren over at problogger.net is doing a group study on habits of “effective bloggers”. We all have an opportunity to participate in it and so I’m in I guess. What he has asked us to do is come up with a list of things we think are traits of an “effective blogger”. What are those characteristics and what types of habits would you see from a blogger who is effective? […]

  11. This must be intresting one. Sure thing, I wanna join. :=)

  12. Kewl! I think is actually one of those once-in-a-million opportunities which can kickstart anyone’s new or ailing blog!
    And certainly thanks to Darren for giving it to us!

  13. […] I was thinking of writing an article about this and how timely of Darren Rowse’s invitation to participate in a Group Writing Project regarding habits of highly effective bloggers at Problogger.net. […]

  14. Done! Thanks for the invitation, Darren.

  15. […] Darren has started a group writing project over at Problogger titled “Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers“. Now, I’m not the most effective blogger in the world, but I know how to be effective, it’s just sometimes I’m easily distracted (or as she who must be obeyed would say…nearly always distracted). Sometimes I wonder if I was a child today whether I might suffer from ADHD somewhat, only because focusing over long periods of time can be difficult, but with such an amazing resource such as the internet and blogs, lets face it, its easy to be distracted. (try visiting Wikipedia, if I end up there looking for something sometimes I can spend an hour there looking at other interesting stuff….because its interesting ). […]

  16. Sounds like a great idea .. next time you have one for “habits of ineffective bloggers” .. I’m in!

  17. Aaah…. Something to break my writers block! Awesome.

  18. I have already done :)

  19. […] As part of the ProBlogger writing project, Habits of highly effective bloggers, I thought I’d offer my own thoughts on the topic. […]

  20. Sounds like an interesting application for a wiki!

  21. […] Habits Of A Highly Defective Blogger / Habitudes d’un blogueur hautement défectueux 24 May, 2006, 01h23 by / par brem Darren Rowse of Problogger.net is most often known to give advice to bloggers rather than ask them for any. During the course of writing an article about “habits of highly effective bloggers” however, he realised that even though his habits were good for him, they might not necessarily apply to others. Since he has a great deal of readers, and that most of them are bloggers, he initiated a group project: sharing our blogging habits. Even though I do not consider myself a highly effective blogger, I thought I’d participate in the project by enumerating habits I have, or I wish I had. Here’s my list, with explanations as to why they are included here. Some Habits Of BREM, a highly defective blogger. 1- I answer all commentaries I receive, so people feel involved and see that I care. A boss I had told me once that even though he was the president of the company, he always replies to any email, even just to acknowledge he received and read it. A simple “thanks” goes a long way. This can build up a community around your blog and also direct the discussion and open new areas for debate. 2- I write commentaries on other’s blogs. Almost every day. I try to share my opinions on topics, and try to bring new ideas to the discussions. This has the advantage to reveal yourself and get the blogger’s attention as well as developping relationships with the blogger and his/her readership. On most blogs, it also gives you a “free” linkback to your blog, so if someone finds that your comments are wise and clever, they can click and check your other opinions on your own blog. Sometimes, if I have a lot to say on the topic, I’ll simply trackback to the blog article, which has more or less the same impact. 3- I post regularly. This one, I struggle with. I personally try to post at least once a day, but it’s an ideal I have yet to achieve. At least, I’m trying. The frequency is important to build up regular readership. Posting every saturday, or every saturday and wednesday, can be better than posting a lot one day and nothing the other day. Unfortunatly, I tend to do much of the latter. 4- I spell check before publishing. Okay, I admit sometimes I’m just too eager to publish and spell check the published article. It’s important to be properly indexed in search indexes, and is common courtesy for your readers. 5- I take the time to translate before hitting the publish button. This one, I do religiously. My blog is bilingual (french & english) and I took upon myself to translate every blog entry. This way, I widen my potential readership. As a prerequisite, one has to be fluent in both languages for this habit to work on such a blog. I do not use a dictionnary or a grammar, I use google’s language tools if need be. Basically, I write the whole article in one language, whichever feels right at the time (I’m writing this one in english first, thus translating from english to french), then I copy paste the article and translate it. I do not try to get every translation perfectly. I’m not a linguist and I do not trying to translate my article as I would litterary work. The important thing (for me) is to convey more or less the same idea. So sometimes I have to work out different expressions and idioms for some situations as the translation is awkward. The time it takes to translate is fixed and determined only by the length of the article and the vocabulary used (I try to keep it simple). The most demanding task is writing the article itself. Most of the time, I’d say my time is spread 60% writing, 40% translating, for average length articles. 6- I read fellow bloggers blogs and other information sources every morning and during the course of the day. The reason for this is twofold. First, it allows to know what happens in “my” part of the blogosphere, secondly, it spreads the time at which I reply with commentaries. I spend probably 85% of my time reading other’s blogs and 15% actually writing on my own. I should probably do the opposite, but that’s how it goes for now. 7- I keep some stories in reserve in case I get in a situation I have nothing else to blog about. I realise that this is highly dependent on the niche of the blog, for instance, entertainment and hollywood blogs don’t need to do that, but my blog being so heterogenous, I sometimes keep stories for later. 8- I let time fo some topics to sink in. Sometimes, I’m just not sure whether an article or a story is “blogworthy”. What I do is that I’ll save the information on how to retrieve the source of the story, and maybe a few quick words about my ideas at the time. If after a day I don’t feel like talking about it anymore, I leave it at that. This declutters my blog of less interesting articles, to me at least. What seemed awesome at the time might end up being something rather uninteresting given a good night’s sleep’s insight. 9- I share my information sources, via linkbacks. It is much appreciated, bloggers like to have links. This way, you make a blogger happy and you gain credibility and respect by not claiming a story to be yours exclusively. Don’t be afraid to “lose” sources to your readers, they are already available to the entire web anyway. It takes time to review these sites and most people don’t have the leisure. If the content of an article is genuinely mine, then I expect others to do the same. To me it’s simple common courtesy. 11- I linkback to my own previous articles on the blog related to the same topic. Whether it’s a follow up story, or even if it’s only somewhat relevant to the current article, I try to linkback to previous article. It allows new readers to have access to older material, as well as giving search engines a link closer to the “root” of the website, which is a good thing. Of course, you have to have a good enough memory about what you’ve been blogging about. If all else fails, I use the search feature of my own blog. 12- I pay attention to include enough keywords in my articles. What I mean by that is that I try to give complete information so that search engines will retrieve my articles instead of others. For instance, I prefer the less casual “Darren Rowse, of Problogger.net” rather than the more casual “Darren, of Problogger.net”. There’s tons of Darrens, there’s few Darren Rowse. Now, this was supposed to be a top 10, but I have one more to go and I’ve already busted that number and they say it’s bad luck to have a number 13, so I’ll juste give it no. 0, okay? 0 – I try to stay myself while blogging. Nobody likes phony or fake. It’s okay to keep some information private, but the opinions I give on my blog are my opinions, and I can defend them. I also reserve the right to change my mind on any topic. So there you go Darren. Now, you have to tedious task of compiling everybody’s list. Good luck. You asked for it! brem Darren Rowse de Problogger.net est le plus souvent reconnu pour donner des conseils aux blogueurs plutôt que de leur demander leur avis. Durant l’écriture de son article au sujet des “habitudes de blogueurs hautement efficaces”, cependant, il a réalisé que même si ses habitudes étaient bonnes dans sa situation, elles ne s’appliquent pas forcément à tout le monde. Puisqu’il a une affluence appréciable de lecteurs assidus et que ceux-ci sont le plus souvent eux-même des blogueurs, il a créé un projet de groupe: partager nos habitudes de blogueurs. Bien que je ne me considère pas comme un blogueur hautement efficace, j’ai cru que ça serait un bon exercice que de participer à ce projet en énumérant les habitudes que j’ai ou que j’aimerais avoir. Voici ma liste, avec les explications du pourquoi de leur inclusion. Quelques habitudes de BREM, un blogueur hautement défectueux. 1- Je réponds à tous les commentaires que je reçois, de telle sorte que ces gens se sentent impliqués et voient que ça m’importe. Un ex-patron m’a déjà dit que même s’il était président d’une compagnie, il répondait toujours à tous ses courriels, même pour simplement accuser réception et dire qu’on a lu. Un simple “merci” peut faire un bon bout de chemin. Il peut bâtir une communauté autour du blogue et aussi rediriger les discussions et ouvrir de nouvelles avenues de débats. 2- J’écris des commentaires sur les blogues des autres. Presqu’à chaque jour. J’essaie de partager mon opinion sur plusieurs sujets en essayant d’apporter de nouveaux arguments à la conversation. Ceci a l’avantage de se faire connaître et obtenir l’attention du blogueur ainsi que de développer une relation avec le blogueur et ses lecteurs. Sur la plupart des blogues, on obtient par ailleurs un “linkback” i.e. un lien de retour vers son propre blogue, “gratuitement”, alors si quelqu’un trouve que le commentaire émit est particulièrement pertinent, cette personne peut cliquer et en savoir plus sur vous sur votre propre blogue. Parfois, si j’ai beaucoup à dire sur le sujet, alors je crée un article sur mon blogue en créant un lien vers celui du blogue qui a initié la discussion, ce qui a sensiblement le même impact. 3- Je publie régulièrement. J’ai aussi un peu de problèmes avec celle-là. J’essaye de publier au moins une fois par jour, mais c’est un idéal que je n’ai pas encore atteint. Au moins j’essaye. La fréquence de publication est importante pour bâtir une base de lecteurs réguliers. Poster chaque samedi, ou chaque samedi et mercredi peut être mieux que de poster beaucoup un jour et rien du tout l’autre. Malheureusement, j’ai tendance à faire dans l’irrégulier. 4- Je vérifie l’orthographe et la grammaire avant de publier. Okay, j’admet que je suis parfois trop vite sur la gâchette et je fait la vérification sur l’article déjà publié. C’est important pour être bien indexé dans les engins de recherche, et ça montre que l’on respecte nos lecteurs. 5- Je prends le temps de traduire avant de peser sur le bouton de publication. Celle-ci, je la respecte religieusement. Mon blogue est bilingue (français et anglais) et j’ai pris sur mes épaules de traduire chaque article de ce blogue. De cette façon, j’élargis mon lectorat potentiel. Comme prérequis, on doit évidemment être bilingue dans ces deux langues pour que cette habitudes tienne la route. Je n’utilise pas de dictionnaire ni de grammaire, mais j’utilise les outils linguistiques de google si j’en ai besoin. En faire, j’écris l’article au complet dans une des deux langues, celle qui me vient natuellement sur le moment (par exemple, cet article a été écrit en anglais et ensuite traduit en français), puis je copie et retranscrit l’article pour le traduire. Je n’essaye pas de traduire tout parfaitement. Je ne suis pas linguiste et je n’essaye pas de traduire mon article comme je le ferais pour une oeuvre littéraire. L’important (pour moi) c’est de véhiculer à peu près la même idée. Parfois je dois trouver des expressions différentes et des idiomes car certaines traductions sont embêtantes. Le temps que ça prend pour traduire est fixé et déterminé seulement par la longueur de l’article et le vocabulaire utilisé (j’essaye de le garder le plus simple possible). La tâche la plus ardue c’est d’écrire l’article en soi. La plupart du temps, je dirais que mon temps est partagé environ de la façon suivante pour un article de longueur moyenn: 60% écriture, 40% traduction. 6- Je lis les blogues de mes collègues blogueurs et d’autres sources d’information à chaque matin et au courant de la journée. La raison pour ça est double. En premier lieu, ça permet de savoir cequi se passe dans “ma” partie de la blogosphère, deuxièmement, ça répartit le temps auquel je répond avec des commentaires. Je dois utiliser environ 85% de mon temps à lire d’autres blogues et 15% à écrire sur le miens. Je devrais probablement faire le contraire, mais c’est la situation pour l’instant. 7- Je garde des sujets en réserve au cas où je sois dans la situation où je n’ai rien d’autre sur quoi bloguer. Je conçoit que cette habitude soit très dépendante du type de blogue. Par exemple, un blogue sur hollywood ou le monde du divertissement n’ont pas besoin de ça, mais mon blogue étant très hétérogène, je garde quelques fois des sujets pour plus tard. 8- Je laisse le temps à certains sujets de s’assoir.. Quand je ne suis pas convaincu du fait qu’un article soit fait pour être publié sur mon blogue, je sauvegarde l’information pour retrouver la source de l’information pour le sujet, ainsi que quelques bribes d’idées. Si après un jour ou deux je ne sens plus le besoin d’attaquer le sujet, je laisse tomber. Ceci permet de ne pas engorger mon blogue d’articles moins intéressants, pour moi du moins. Ce qui pouvait sembler incroyable alors peut devenir banal après une bonne nuit de sommeil où l’on prend conseil. 9- Je partage mes sources d’information, via des liens vers les sites d’origine. Les blogueurs apprécient les liens vers leur site. De cette façon, on rend un blogueur heureux et on gagne en respect et crédibilité en ne s’appropriant pas un sujet en exclusivité. Il ne faut pas avoir peur de “perdre” une source au dépends de vos lecteurs, ces sources sont disponibles sur le réseau de toute façon. Ça prend du temps pour faire le tri de ces sites et la plupart des gens n’ont pas ce loisir. Si le contenu de l’article est original, alors je m’attends au même genre de respect de la part des autres. Pour moi, c’est tout simplement de la courtoisie. 11- Je crée des liens vers d’anciens articles sur mon blogue en rapport avec le sujet courant. Que ce soit la suite d’un événement, où même si ça a plus ou moins de lien fort avec l’article courant, j’essaye de créer ce lien vers l’article archivé. Cela permet à de nouveaux lecteurs d’avoir accès à du matériel plus vieux, et permet aussi aux engins de recherche d’avoir un lien plus près de la racine du site web, ce qui est une bonne chose. Évidemment, on doit avoir une bonne mémoire pour se rappeller de ce sur quoi on a déjà blogué. Si ça fait défaut, j’utilise la recherche sur mon propre blogue. 12- Je fais attention d’inclure assez de mots-clés dans mes articles. Ce que je veux dire par ça c’est que j’essaye de donner une information complète pour que les engins de recherche trouvent mon article au lieu de celui des autres. Par exemple, je préfère la phrase plus officielle “Darren Rowse, de Problogger.net” plutôt que la forme plus bon enfant “Darren, de Problogger.net”. Il y a plusieurs Darren, il y a peu de Darren Rowse. Bon, cet article était censé être un top 10, mais j’ai encore un item et j’ai déjà dépassé le chiffre et on dit que c’est d’invoquer la malchance que d’avoir un numéro 13, alors je vais simplement l’inclure en tant que 0, okay? 0 – Je fais un effort pour rester moi-même en bloguant. Personne n’aime ce qui n’est pas réel et authentique. C’est une chose de garder certaines informations privées, mais les opinions que j’émets sur mon blogue sont mes opinions, et je suis prêt à les défendre. Je me réserve aussi le droit de changer d’idée. Alors voilà, Darren. Maintenant, tu as la tâche fastidieuse de faire la compilation des listes de tout le monde. Bonne chance. C’est toi qui l’a voulu! brem   […]

  22. Seven Essential Traits Of Highly Effective Business Bloggers

    Darren Rowse, one of my favorite bloggers, has started a group writing project called "Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers."  I’ve taken a slightly modified approach to Darren’s topic.  I want to share with you seven essential cha…

  23. […] I’ve had writers block of late, and Darren has got me out of it by asking to participate in a group writing project on the habits of highly effective bloggers. I’ve often looked at blogs or bloggers and envied their readership, traffic, writing style or blog design and wondered what it takes to get to that point. Everyone’s story of how they got there is different, but they definitely share some sort of common factor. These factors or habits are what make them succeed and really stand out amongst the rest. […]

  24. […] Currently I’ve gotten a new wind, and have been working towards improving my blog. Darren of ProBlogger has a new Writing Project that’s given me an idea: I’ve written a list of habits of highly effective bloggers, and plan to attempt to follow the whole list. At the moment I follow barely even 1/4 of them, so I’ve got some work to do. […]

  25. […] Darren challenged his readers to come up with group project of sorts. In writing a post about the “X habits of highly effective bloggers” he found that he found examples both for and against each habit. The challenge was then put forth to post what you believe are the habits of a highly effective blogger. Now, I am most certainly not a “ProBlogger” in the sense that I make my living from blogging. I am a “ProBlogger” in the sense that I do make some money from blogging. Barely enough to cover my hosting, but that is beside the point. […]

  26. Great idea. I’m in. I’m glad you made me think about how I blog.

  27. Should be an interesting look into what people see as valuable in both the content they read and the content they write. I’ll submit my thoughts on the issue.

  28. […] Recently, I left my regular day job for various personal reasons and have been problogging full time since April. Currently, I am committed to regular blogging at CW’s Straight From The Doc and KMM’s The Pharm Voice. Both are science blogs that of course needed a know-how in science ( I majored in Chemistry) where one is a medical blog intended for patients and the other is a pharmaceutical blog intended generally for pharmaceutical industry, mixing business and science. […]

  29. […] Darren has requested some entries for lists of habits that people consider effective for blogging. I’ve seen some pretty good stuff coming from the sites people have submitted already. I also see a variety of people behind the posts. I think that’s awesome, because the diversity of people should surely bring out a good list of habits to read about. […]

  30. I wrote my submission via the contact form since I don’t think it seems to fit well with my Palm discovery.net blog.. If need be, I guess I can post it but my readers may find it a bit disorienting.

  31. Blogging habits that work with a Bangladeshi blogger

    ‘Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers’, this is the group writing projects at Problogger of Darren Rowse and already it has got good response from the blogging world and I have been greatly benefited by reading the blogging habits of the successful bl…

  32. Habits of Highly Effective Food Bloggers

    Greetings bloggers and food bloggers. In answer to Darren Rowse’s call for articles on the habits of highly effective food bloggers, I am turning it on it’s head a little bit and writing my habits of highly effective food bloggers. I’m not sure exac…

  33. […] Maureen McCabe contributed her list of good blogging habits to the ProBlogger project and I loved the last one she mentioned. 10. Try to remember what Columbus resident and writer / cartoonist James Thurber wrote: “Don’t get it right, just get it written.” […]

  34. […] INTRODUCTION Darren Rowse wrote about habits of effective bloggers, I thought that I would chip in by writing about habits of effective loggers – those who want to make their log home dream a reality. […]

  35. […] (Just wanted to say Howdy from those who have wandered thru from ProBlogger.net. Be sure to check out the full list of submissions.) Darren at ProBlogger.net has a group writing project going this week. He’s asking readers to post their Habits to Highly Effective Blogging. I thought: Let’s give it a go. At first blush, I didn’t feel qualified. I’m new to this whole paid blogging thing. (Got my first paycheck this month, thank you very much!) Then I re-read the project title. “Effective” Ah, now that I can contribute to. Bald Man Blogging has, after all been around for nearly three years. (Not the domain; just the blog.) […]

  36. The Six Habits Of Highly Effective Healthcare Bloggers

    Darren Rowse, author of ProBlogger, has launched a special blogging initiative, titled the “Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers Group Writing Project."  For the project he has asked bloggers to share tips on effective and successful blo…

  37. […] Darren at problogger has asked for volunteers to participate in group writing project titled Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers.  So, here’s my a snapshot of my daily blogging routine. […]

  38. […] Problogger Darren Rowse hat die Initiative Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers ins Leben gerufen, in der er seine Leser aufruft, ihre Erfahrungen und Tipps zum Thema erfolgreich und effektiv Bloggen mit anderen zu teilen. Bisher sind schon viele Beiträge eingegangen, die z.T. einen interessanten Einblick in die Gewohnheiten, Bemühungen und Ziele der einzelnen Blogger geben. No Tags […]

  39. […] For Darren Rowse’s Habits of Effective Bloggers. […]

  40. […] Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has challenged his readers to come up with a list of the habits of highly effective bloggers […]

  41. My 8 Thoughts on 8 Must-Read Blogging Tips by Robyn Tippins

    You have to read Robyn Tippins’s tips for highly effective blogging (inspired by Darren Rowse’s group writing project).  I just want to comment a bit on Robyn’s tips here.  (Disclaimer: For a jabbermouth like me, "a bit" often me…

  42. […] Ups and Downs of Blogging In my attempt to start blogging on a “bigger” scale I have been doing some research on the best way to approach blogging.  The problem is the more I look the further away I get from actually writing.  I have been religiously reading ProBlogger which has some very detailed step by step guides for bloggers. Using this blog and a few others I am getting closer to embarking into the world of blogs.  If something can actually fall out of the sky and hit you in the head, Darren (from ProBlogger) has succeeded in doing this by putting together a list of habits of highly effective bloggers. What works, what doesn’t work and most noteworthy – the WHY it works or doesn’t. Of course, what works for each individual is going to vary but it is a great starting point. While I have done blogging in the past, I found that the biggest problem for me was consistancy.  Setting the time each day to sit and post starts out with the greatest of intentions and tends to fade away.  The old saying the squeaky wheel gets the oil speaks volumes when you have a LOT of noise around, and with three kids, a cat, a dog, 2 fish and a rat (the rat wasn’t actually invited into the family it just showed up one day and won’t take a hint!) there are a lot of sqeaky wheels louder than the squeaky gears of my brain trying to churn out some good content.  So far my solution to this is to do my planning for the post the night before and do my writing in the morning.  It works well this way in that if I try to plan and write in the morning it doesn’t quite go together for me as well as trying to think through how to approach the topic. The second thing I have found helpful is to have a way of writing things down no matter where you are, a notebook, piece of paper, gum wrapper if need be… I personally use a PDA which helps me to jot down notes, it is fast and easy and when I sync it up to my computer even if I choose not to write on the particular topic I have a list of ideas when I need them. It also really helps to know your audience and yourself, writing can be challenging enough but when you blog on a topic you know and love it makes it all that much easier to put together an endless amount of information. Blogging is work – hard work if you get right down to it.  When you want to work towards a successful blog it goes beyond just jotting some relevant information down and walking away.  It becomes a way of life to truly succeed.  The path to being a successful blogger is in my not to distant future and looking forward to learning and sharing is what makes me want to continue and love what I am doing even more.  […]

  43. How to I make money at blogging? I have more than enough to say, I’m just uneffective at selling my blog, and please speak plain, like the begining stuff. Oh Well, have a nice day I like how everyone expresses themself I just wonder what their saying…Pat

  44. […] Darren Rowse of ProBlogger had a group writing project going recently. He challenged the readers of his regular newsletter on Blogging to submit their top habits of highly effective bloggers. The resulting posts show some common threads amongst his readers, but also an amazing variety of approaches and perspectives. If you are at all serious about blogging, to the point of committing to becoming a “ProBlogger” (professional blogger), then you need to read Darren’s article at the very least. There are now dozens of other bloggers who have contributed their lists and comments on effective blogging (read their articles here). […]

  45. […] Just recently Darren Rowse from problogger.net asked people to participate in an activity. This blog jumped on the opportunity. I think we should ALL get involved when we can and not isolate ourselves so much. I think you’ll find your blog will continue to thrive when you actively get involved. […]

  46. […] Here is another blogger who has responded to Darren Rowse’s challenge on ProBlogger to list the habits of highly effective bloggers. This writer has made two lists, one called “What Works for Me” and the other (surprise, surprise) “What doesn’t work for me.” […]

A Practical Podcast… to Help You Build a Better Blog

The ProBlogger Podcast

A Practical Podcast…

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