13 Good Blogging Habits That Will Keep Your Blog Alive

1

Post at least once every week. Make regular posting your first and most important blogging habit. It may take a while until posting regularly becomes a habit, but keep on at it. Whether you run a personal blog or a commercial one, you need plenty of content.

2

Post on the same days. If people know when to expect your posts, it will be easier for them to follow your blog.

3

Keep a list of blog post titles. The best posts are often spontaneous, reflecting your own state of mind or recent experiences. But having a list of titles you can turn into posts will prove useful on those days when you don’t feel particularly inspired.

4

Schedule posts in advance when you’re away. If you’re going on a trip or need to disconnect from the web for a time, you can schedule one or two posts to be automatically published at a chosen date and hour. If you don’t feel like writing anything in advance, you can schedule a selection of some of your best posts to be reposted.

5

Comment on other blogs. Interacting with other bloggers is important to keep your blog alive. Read blogs and use the Reader to discover new ones. There are many bloggers out there.

6

Be personal at least every once in a while. It’s not only the quality and usefulness of your posts that matters, but also your connection to your readers. Proving that you’re a real person with real problems makes you and your blog more likable.

7

Discover new topics that interest you and post about them. Don’t limit your blog to one topic. Posting about the same thing over and over again can make your blog sound tedious.

8

Share your blogs on social media. Even if you’re not that much into social media, automatically sharing your blog posts on Facebook or Twitter can help people keep up with your blog. You’ll find that over the years, some people stop updating their blogs or using WordPress. But they may still want to see what you’re up to, and social media can act as a bridge between them and your blog.

9

Follow up on comments that you get. Some comments can lead to good conversations and make people return to your blog.

10

Keep your blog design clean. Over the years, widgets and graphics may pile up. Not all of them are essential. A clean blog design isn’t only less distracting but often loads faster on mobile.

11

Update your theme now and then. Small changes like rearranging widgets, changing link colors, or adding a better author photo add freshness to your blog. Also, some themes become outdated sooner than others, which is why you want to take a look at the new themes every now and then.

12

Keep your posts short (unless you really have to make them long). Long posts can seem a bit daunting, especially since WordPress.com shows the word count in the Reader. After all, reading on a screen isn’t the same as reading words on a piece of paper. It’s not only more tiring, but there are more distractions, especially on mobile. I find that many people prefer posts between 300 and 600 words.

13

Update your About page. Probably the most important page on your blog, the About page is a small window into your life. Change it when you have to to make sure it always reflects what your blog is all about.

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