The 10 fundamental principles of blogging

After reading several blogs and several materials on blogging, monetizing your site, internet marketing etc., I’ve come to the conclusion that almost all bloggers agree on certain basic principles that each successful blogger has consciously or unconsciously followed throughout the years. Among the principles observed are as follows:

1.) Blog on your passions – Write on something that you are passionate about. Something that you have somewhat achieved a level of expertise in, something that puts you on fire, something that makes your eyes wide open when discussed about, something that awes and amazes you and opens your mouth wide open.

2.) Blog for people – Although search engine optimization is something that should be seriously considered by all bloggers, it should not take precedence over people. Blogs should not be all about keywords, tags or any other gimmick out there in order to make sure that we all each get a higher search engine. What is important that people keep coming back to your site because your post actually helps them or is relevant to them. I believe it was legendary marketer John Chow who said “People First before Google.”

3.) Blog frequently - The length of the post is not as important as it’s frequency. Posts may be long or short depending on the topic covered. What is important about the blog is that the blogger frequently updates his blogs.

4.) Just blog – If you are a new blogger, don’t worry about your site statistics or that you still do not have comments on your site. Just blog away ! It takes a while for search engines to index your site. Also if you write good posts and you are blogging for people the traffic will just flow.

5.) Learn more about blogging – Bloggers should not stop learning about how to be more effective in their craft. Learn more about topics on how to be effective on your blogging, about search engine optimization, etc. The moment you stop learning, you stop to blog.

6.) Bloggers are readers – Personally I believe that there is nothing to blog about if you do not read about your passions. You must have an insatiable thirst for learning and a passion to communicate what you have learned to your readers.

7.) Blog with a schedule – This is something that I have not read but something I am personally trying to implement. I believe having a blogging schedule will force you to think of something to blog about. This may not work for others as they just blog whatever comes into their mind. Being a structured person, I work best when I submit myself to a structured way of doing things. Using a blog schedule will also ensure that I have balanced the number of articles on the categories that I wish to blog.

The following is My Blogging schedule which I plan to implement:

Sunday – Theology / Life (Anything about)
Monday – Technology including Word press tips
Tuesday – Financial Management
Wednesday – Law, Law Practice, law students
Thursday – Financial Management / Technology
Friday – Leadership/entrepreneurship/ business
Saturday – Life (Anything about)

8.) Personalize your blog – When readers read your post they must feel that it is as if you are personally talking to them. Don’t use highfalutin words nor should you be too scholarly that your readers will have to look into a dictionary before they could even understand what you are saying. Talk to them in layman’s term as much as possible, no matter how technical the subject is. Inject some humor if you like.

9.) Aim for excellence in your blog – Edit your posts, review your presentation and layout. Make sure it is user friendly and not an eye sore. The principle of excellence very much well applies when it comes to blogging.

10.) Blog for life – Don’t view blogging as something that you are temporarily doing just because you don’t have anything to do as of now or something which you do in order to achieve a certain amount of money and afterwards you will then stop blogging since you have already achieved your goal. Plan to blog for life. Blogging may bring you monetary “blessings.“ However always consider that such is only secondary. As you go about your day to day experience, having an attitude of blogging for life will make you further appreciate such experiences since you will looking forward to writing it to on your next posts.