The Fundamentals of Successful Blogging

As any blogger will you tell you, creating and maintaining a blog is a major commitment. To build and maintain your audience, you need compelling content, a regular posting schedule and a willingness to keep pace with your industry.

Even when bloggers dedicate their time and energy, many blogs fall short: They make it difficult for their audience to engage and participate. They lack meaningful, search engine-friendly headlines. They fail to consider keyword placement. And important web-writing fundamentals – such as concise paragraphs, bulleted lists and helpful section headings – aren’t followed.

In other words, a blogger’s effort and enthusiasm must be balanced with those critical elements of successful blogging.

The Business 2 Community blog recently provided a useful blueprint for the perfect blog post. The infographic recommendations include:

• Provide easy social share icons.
• Post a relevant image, if possible, and include a keyword-rich caption.
• Include your main keyword/phrase in your title, and make it compelling.
• Reference your main keyword/phrase in the opening paragraph.
• Encourage comments.
• Link to related posts.

The blueprint post – and the comments – are worth your time, but here’s the main takeaway: Successful blogging requires a mix of passion, dedication and online savvy.