I’m very pleased that several people have found this short series on the basics of blogging to be helpful.  I know of several new sites that will be showing up and several redesigned ones that will be coming along soon as folks have worked through this series with me.  This will be the last part of the series.  In Part 1 we walked through registering a domain name and setting up self-hosting for WordPress.  In Part 2 we setup WordPress and got a basic site on the internet.  Today we will look at some quick tips for publishing, polishing and promoting your content.

Publishing Quality Content

If you want to build a readership you have to give people a steady feed of quality material.  There are various strategies for accomplishing this:

• One post a week.  This needs to be a home run every week!  In the blitz of material that is available online, your stuff will need to be informative, solid and sharable every time.  I would suggest making sure that you publish the same day each week.
• Several shorter posts a week.  This is probably the best way for most people to start, but can be a bit challenging to maintain.  Using keywords in the body of the post and in the title will help drive search traffic.
• Post and media combo.  Several bloggers use multiple forms of media very effectively.  Perhaps at the beginning of the week you write a post and at the end of the week you publish a podcast or an instructional video.

If you’re going to start blogging you really need to commit to at least one new piece of content every week.  The most important thing is to start writing so you can build a library of searchable posts for your blog.  As your library of material grows, your search hits and traffic will grow as well.  Even on your non-publishing days, your site can generate a large amount of traffic with solid posts that use keywords.  Michael Hyatt sums it up well – “Amateurs write when they are inspired. Pros get inspired when they write. It’s a subtle but significant distinction.”

Polish Your Content

This is the part of blogging I have really been working to learn.  If you’re not familiar with the term SEO then you need to learn it.  SEO = Search Engine Optimization.  Search engines crawl your site looking for keywords in your posts and even in the photos you use with your posts.

One huge thing you can do to generate traffic is give all your photos a name.  Don’t go with IMG1234.jpg.  Instead call it “chicken-in-a-santa-suit.jpg.”  I’m entertained just looking at the image searches that drive people to my site.  Every post needs to have a photo, and if you didn’t take the photo you need to make sure you have the right to use the photo and that you give proper credit for the image.  I try to use only my own photos in my posts to keep things simple.

A great place to learn SEO is at Yoast.com.  This guy and his team will teach you just about everything you need to know about making tweaks to your site.  Another great resource is following successful bloggers on Twitter.  Many of them write about SEO and other blogger related issues from time to time.  It is also helpful to validate your site with Alexa, install Google Analytics and verify your site with Google.

Promote Your Site

Being a bit shameless comes in handy with this next part.  If you feel strongly about the content you’re publishing, you should be willing to promote it and promote it hard.  If you don’t feel strongly about what you’re writing, you probably don’t need to publish it.

Harnessing some of your social media power is a great place to start.  Sharing a post on Facebook and Twitter in the morning is good.  But sharing it in the morning and the evening is even better.  Very few people are on social media at all times of the day.  This is just the start.

Start networking.  Find blogs that are similar to yours.  Subscribe to them, read them, comment on them.  Most blogs allow you to promote your site and sometimes your latest post in the comments.  Use this to your advantage.  I have found several great sites and made many good contacts with people through comment sections on bigger blogs.  As you publish more material and get your name out there you might be able to do some guest posting on other blogs.  Again, a lot of this is about connections and relationships. You will need to spend time in your non-publishing days building relationships with other bloggers through Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Wrap Up

I just hit you with a ton of information!  Don’t worry if you feel overwhelmed.  Just start writing and posting.  You will learn along the way what works for your site and what doesn’t.  What types of posts will drive in visitors and traffic and what won’t.  Experiment and have fun!