Deep Jive Interests

So Neil Patel has written an informative article over at Pronet Advertising on how to build a better blog. I think its great. As a start. :)

The five steps Neil’s written about so far (and I hope he forgives me for paraphrasing with my own descriptions):

1. Content: People come and read your blog for a reason — and that’s what you’re writing about.
2. Usability: If people cannot find their way around your blog, or cannot read your blog, you’re out of luck.
3. Visibility: If someone blogs in the middle of a forest, will anyone know? Translation: promote your blog so you’re not blogging in the wildnerness to yourself (unless that’s your goal)
4. Uniqueness: Stand out, be better, separate and differentiate. Without a unique voice, you’ll get caught up in the noise that is the blogosphere
5. Readers: Be responsive and attentive to your readership; they’re no different than customers are to a business — they’re your lifeblood.

After these five Darren Prowse over at ProBlogger.net has asked “are there any more?”

I would add an enthusiastic “hell yeah!”

Focus: Before you even begin blogging, you should ask yourself — what am I going to blog about? And once you decide what you’re going to be writing on, ask yourself if the topic you’ve chosen could be more refined, tighter, and more focused. Blogs that focus on Nascar, crotchet trends and middle east policy are few and far between — and there’s a reason for that. Pragmatically, focus on one topic. The advantage here is that if you blog long enough and well enough — presto, by virtue of experience you’ll be regarded as somewhat of an ‘expert’ in the area. Bonus #2: you’ll be able to submit your blog to submission sites and blog networks without any additional difficulty. If your blog lacks focus, both of these cannot apply, and you’ll be in danger of blogging aimlessly, losing the attention of your readership.

Relevance: In day to day posts, sticking to what your blog is about is critical. Focus is a ‘structural’ tip; relevance is a ‘process’ tip. Relevance is focus in action. If you’re going to be blogging professionally, in particular, you can’t start waivering and begin to blog about your other hobbies; readers interested in penny stocks, for example, are not likely to want to hear about how you just toilet trained your baby boy — unless you’ve already made it your focus that your blog is going to be on investing and how it affects your home life, that is.

Freshness: Not every blog will post on news; sometimes, they’re ‘evergreen’ topics that are fresh throughout the year (such as this one). But if you’re going to post on something newsworthy, then post as early as possible. “News” has its greatest currency as long as its fresh. News that’s stale is hardly worth anything, and as they say in the newspaper industry, is hardly worth the paper its printed on.

Passion: Steve “the crocodile hunter” Irwin was many things; I think one thing we could all learn was the palpable sense of passion and excitement he brought with him every day he went to work. It certainly translated to the small and silver screens. Blogging, by its very nature, is a more intimate conversation between blogger and blogee (is that a word?) than merely posting, or broadcasting “news”, “tutorials”, or “whitepapers” on a website. Inject that conversation with the hot load of passion, and it will add something that your readers will find magnetic and can’t ignore.

Integrity: Once you’ve taken a position (focus), stick to your guns and be ready, if necessary, to defend your position. At its core integrity is doing what you’re going to say you’re going to do — and doing it even if no one is paying attention. It also embodies honesty and transparency. Recognize your sources and acknowledge your limitations (tip of the hat: ownmyseat.com for this part), and you’ll gain a great reputation for being someone to deal with — and you’ll probably get more work and traffic this way. Connectivity and communication are the linga franca in the blogosphere; double deal, and backstab your way up the pagerank ladder, and you’ll soon find yourself isolated in the blogosphere, which I would argue, is worse than being on the D-List.

Are there even more steps to building a better blog? Perhaps! I’m interested to know what else the blogosphere cooks up. Let’s see how many we can add in total. ;)