58 ways to build a better blog

Not satisfied with your blog yet? Looking to improve and optimize your chances of blogging success? Need inspiration for how to get your blog to the next level? This is a list of 58 simple things that you can do to improve your blog today.

1. Get a domain name

Forget yourname.wordpress.com or yourname.blogspot.com. Get a domain name for better branding, user-friendliness, search engine optimization and a more professional image. Bluehost is recommended by WordPress and gives you 1 free domain name for as long as you host your blog with them.

2. Include keywords in the domain name

You can try to go with your full name, but if you are not a household brand like Seth Godin it won’t work. It takes years to build a brand. Search engines like keywords in the domain and will rank you.

3. Install self-hosted WordPress

WordPress.com is a light version of WordPress. See how to install WordPress.org for full customization possibilities and the full freedom to make your blog truly your own.

4. Don’t be just another WordPress blog

Think of a catchy tagline, include it in your blog and let it brand your blog.

5. Focus on a niche topic

It is much easier to attract visitors if you have a very focused blog topic. You brand yourself as an expert within that field and your readers know what to expect from you.

6. Be SEO friendly

Search engines can send you a lot of traffic, allow them to do that by changing your blog permalinks to include your post keywords in your URL.

7. Write a new blog article

Write the best article you can, share your experience and know-how and publish it.

8. Write catchy how-to and top-list headline

Write “how to” and “top list” type of headlines. They work the best for getting the attention from readers and are very shareable.

9. Include links to internal pages in your blog article

Always make sure to link to at least one older article of yours in the new post your are writing. Blog internal linking makes your blog more sticky, it increases page views and introduces your visitors to some older articles.

10. Include a Related Posts list at the end of your articles

Allow your visitors to easily discover relevant articles from your archives. This brings you more subscribers, more page views and longer time spent on site.

11. Activate Akismet

Akismet saves you a lot of time and protects your blog from spam comments. Activate it, relax and let is do the dirty work.

12. Be focused

To succeed in blogging you must have a goal, and you must stay focused on reaching it. Work constantly towards it for a longer period of time without losing the focus.

13. Make your blog harder to break into

Do not use the generic admin username. Create your own unique username and delete the admin one to keep your blog more secure.

14. Consider a premium theme

Premium themes build on top of WordPress software and give you even more possibilities for customization. This blog utilizes Thesis theme.

15. Be consistent in your branding

Use the same avatar, same nickname, same logo wherever you are spending your time online. Make it all consistent with your blog to get the best branding effect.

16. Brand your blog with a header image

Create a unique blog header image to brand your blog better. It is the most prominent position on your blog and the first thing visitors see.

17. Move your RSS feed to Feedburner

Feedburner gives you more options with your feed, you can see subscriber stats and offer your feed as an email newsletter as well.

18. Let your visitors subscribe via email

RSS may be great, but many people still do not know how to use it. For many e-mail is the preferred way to subscribe to content, so make sure not to neglect them.

19. Allow visitors to subscribe to comments

Allow your visitors to subscribe to comments on your blog and get notified when a new comment has been posted. It makes them return back to your blog and comment again.

20. Sign up for Google Analytics

Get Google Analytics to track and learn more abut your visitors. Analytics offer a wealth of data that can improve your blog.

21. Build a sitemap for your blog

Build the XML sitemap for your blog to allow the search engines to easily find and index your blog archives.

22. Make your content scannable

Majority of Internet users do not read word by word, they scan the text. Make your articles scannable by using sub-headings, short paragraphs, bulleted lists and so on.

23. Declutter your blog

Do you have too many social media buttons? Do you have too many widgets in your sidebar? Think of the usability and user-friendliness and remove the unnecessary once.

24. Backup (just in case)

In case someone hacks into your blog, you may lose all your articles and comments that you have built. Make sure to avoid that and do a regular backup of your blog.

25. Verify your blog in Google Webmaster Tools

Verify your blog in Webmaster Tools and let Google tell you what to improve on your blog.

26. Include at least one picture in each article

Adding images to your blog articles is the simplest way to grab the attention of your readers, make your blog articles easier to read and make your blog look better.

27. Be self disciplined

To succeed in blogging, you must be disciplined, write blog posts regularly, and work consistently over a longer period of time even without seeing the big results.

28. Register at StumbleUpon

Join StumbleUpon, start sharing the articles you are reading and start connecting to stumblers interested in the topic you are writing about.

29. Remove broken links

Search engines do not like broken links, your visitors do not like them either, make sure to remove all the broken links from your blog.

30. Comment on one other blog

Just read a good article you agree with? Just read an article you do not agree with? Comment on it, share your opinion and experience.

31. Respond to a reader comment

Read through the reader comments on your blog and respond if there is something interesting, or if someone has a question or an insightful thought.

32. Write a guest post for a popular blog

Contact the most popular blogger in your niche, send him a great article you have just written for him and let him publish it on his blog in exchange for a link back to you. See how to guest blog.

33. Need inspiration for the next post? Just read

Read as much as you can, take notes and get inspiration and ideas for your future blog articles.

34. Be active

Take the stairs, bike to work, run in the weekends. Live an active life and it will improve your energy levels and will keep you and your mind sharp.

35. Think outside “text-is-king” box

It is not all about article of blocks of text. Can you say something by using pictures? Can you say something by pasting a tweet into your article? Think outside the blog is text only.

36. Connect with another blogger

Reach out and establish new contacts with other bloggers. You can exchange experiences, write guest posts for each other and so on.

37. Learn a new skill

Be open-minded and be on the lookout for new things that can help you improve, learn and build new skills.

38. Make it easy for people to contact you

In case someone wants to get in touch with you, you must make sure it is easy for people to do so. Have a contact page with your details and a contact form.

39. Have a media kit ready for advertisers

If you are looking for advertisers, make sure to have a blog media kit ready to send them where you inform them about your blog, your traffic numbers and other details.

40. Make a video

Even if your blog is in a very saturated niche, you can differentiate your blog by basically making videos of all the information that everyone else is competing for with text articles only.

41. Don’t be passive, promote your blog

Get out there. Find your target audience. Connect with them. Show that you are the expert. Promote your blog wherever you can, whenever you can.

42. Thank your visitor

If someone comments on your blog, or shares your article on StumbleUpon or tweets it, make sure to thank them for the support.

43. Write an ebook, give it away of free

Ebooks are great for attracting attention and getting visitors, subscribers and links to your blog. So put your best tips on one topic and give it away for free, do not even ask for an email address.

44. Promote a comment from a reader into a full blog post

If you find a very insightful comment on your blog, publish it as your next blog post, style it, give the credit to the reader and share your thoughts on the subject.

45. Do not make assumptions about your readers

Simplify your blog writing, explain obvious things. You might know all about the subject but there are thousands of people who have never heard about it and to whom your article might introduce the topic.

46. Unclutter your workspace

Clean up, throw out useless things, unclutter your workspace to help you focus, keep you inspired and make you more productive.

47. Need sponsors? Go out and grab them

If you’re having trouble attracting sponsors to your blog, get out there to the relevant companies, get in touch with them and explain how you will help them spread the word about their product and sell more.

48. Going on a holiday? Don’t let your blog die

Plan in advance, write some good posts before you go on a holiday and schedule them to be published while you are away. This way you keep your blog active while you are away.

49. Automatize your blog comments moderation

Don’t waste your time moderating your reader comments, let a spam filter do it for you. Once in a while it might let a spam comment go through, but it is easy for you to delete that instead of having manually to approve each comment. Trust Akismet.

50. Register for a Twitter account

Go on Twitter, search for people in your target group, get in touch, connect to them and win them over one by one.

51. Add a Tweet This button to your articles

Tweet This works so much better than Digg This or Email This. It brings you instant results and spreads your blog to new people.

52. Read a book

Don’t just spend your time online, you can also get inspired offline. Pick up a book, read it and let it inspire your online work. Reading a book will give you a different and fresh perspective on online topics.

53. Don’t be a quitter

Blogging takes a lot of hard-work and it can take a long time before you start seeing the results. So do not quit after just a while.

54. Throw away the television

Cannot find the time to write for your blog? Stop watching TV, stop wasting your valuable time. Be productive and start creating that next blog post which will introduce your blog to many new users.

55. Follow the probloggers, and learn from them

Follow probloggers, see how they write articles, when they write them, how they style them, how they tweet. Don’t necessarily only listen to what they say, but analyze how they say it and why.

56. Don’t just consume blogs, produce blogs

Don’t just read blogs whole day long, it is important to take time and work on your own blog articles.

57. Write an ebook, sell it

Publishing an ebook is the easiest method for a blogger to monetize his blog without using the banner ads. So write a great book on a topic you know a lot about and sell it via your blog.

58. Stop planning, go blog it

Stop reading and planning, get out there now, publish the best post you can and go promote it to your target group.