The internet is magic, isn’t it? You can set up a blog for free and immediately have a platform where you can express whatever you want, share your art or thoughts, and connect to people all over the world.
I’ve been blogging for over 7 years (3 of those here at L&R). I have made A TON of mistakes. Don’t look at the early archives of Those Crazy Schuberts. They are just a mess.
Eventually, after learning from experts and trial and error, I got a handle on this incredibly difficult but wonderful medium.
Every week when I am making blog decisions, finalizing my editorial calendar, planning for the next season, I keep coming back to these 4 primary pillars of great blogging:
Effective Design
Not necessarily pretty. Not necessarily trendy. Not even visually arresting. But … EFFECTIVE. If one of your blogging goals is to direct traffic to your etsy shop for your watercolors, you’d better make sure that your blog design both heavily features that etsy link, and shows that you have an artistic eye. If your blog is associated with your accounting practice, there’s far less of a need to establish your aesthetic vision, but instead you might have a design that heavily features testimonials of your satisfied accounting clients.
Figure out what you want your blog to do and make sure that the design reflects that.
Killer Content
I’ve done a whole online series and small ebook on why your blog content is key and how to get there. Especially if you’re just getting started I highly recommend going through those archives.
Bottom line is: Your content is WHY people come to your site. Unless you don’t want readers, you had better put effort into making sure you are creating something people want to read/see/watch.
Your content is nothing without these other pillars (as a BLOG, at least), but your blog would really be nothing without killer content.
Natural Monetization
Now, I realize not everyone wants to make money from their blog. TOTALLY GREAT either way. So, in this case think of ‘monetization’ really as ‘getting what you want’.
If you have started a blog because you want to eventually get a book deal, you will be directing your marketing, content and design toward that end. If you have started a blog because you want to attract sponsors and advertisers who will pay your bills, your marketing, content and design will be directed toward that goal.
You don’t need to want to make money with your blog – but know what you DO want. And integrate it naturally.
Readers and Marketing
RSS feeds, social media, guest posting, newsletters – these are all ways to attract and keep new readers.
Readers who will be reading (and hopefully sharing) your killer content. Readers who will be utilizing your effective design to help you monetize or otherwise help you get what you want.
Your blog without readers is really just a diary.
All four of these pillars are connected intricately. You can try to have a successful blog without one of them, but good luck with that.
What would you add to this list of KEY PILLARS of great blogging?
CLICK TO TWEET: I always come back to these – 4 pillars of great blogging : http://bit.ly/12UGQNP : from @amytschubert
NOTE: These are (not coincidentally) the 4 MAIN modules in my upcoming blogging ecourse. I’ll be *officially official* announcing my big big blogging ecourse in the next couple of weeks. Which means I’ll be posting about blogging a bit more regularly. Be sure to subscribe to L&R to learn all the details!
