Eric Gray just posted a good article with tips on blogging. His article was based on the series by Brent Ozar:
Are you hesitant to start your own blog because you want to “do it right?” Would you like to hear some step-by-step start up tips directly from an expert blogger? If so, you are in luck! No, I’m not talking about me, folks – Brent Ozar, the SQL Server Expert who has been blogging for ages, just wrote a 5-part series on this very thing.
Read Eric’s article if you want to start blogging, and check Brent’s articles for more detailed information. I think the most important section can be found here, look at when to blog and how often.
Brent is right on, I see the same curve. From Monday the amount of unique views build up til thursday, which is usually my peak day of the week. Friday usually hits lower than thursday and during the weekends… it’s depressing.
Brent also states that you should blog at least once a week. Well in my opinion you should try to write at least three times a week. It doesn’t need to be a 4 page blog article every time you write, but try to keep a constant flow of useful content. If you’ve got a useful one-liner tip/trick just drop it and don’t worry about the length of your post.
Also take a look at your statistics, schedule your posts on days that you have the most visits traditionally. Don’t do 5 posts in a row and nothing for the next 4 days. If you’re in a creative mood just schedule the articles so that your visitors have got a reason to return. You hardly see me blogging during the weekend. Although I’ve written a vast amount of articles during the weekend, I always schedule them to be published during weekdays.
Have fun, keep posting and always try to give your own opinion / twist to someone else’s articles if you refer to posts or re-post. I think that in the end it all comes down to this: Perseverance.
Brent Ozar says
You’re totally right: the only way you can be successful at it (if there’s such a thing as “successful” blogging) is to persevere. The first few months (or even year or more) of blogging can be like digging a ditch in the dark. You can really tell the difference between the people who are doing it because they WANT to, versus the ones who think they’re going to make money or something. When you WANT to blog about a particular topic, the stuff comes much more naturally – and more often!
Roger Lund says
Thanks for the post.
I started http://rogerlunditblog.blogspot.com/ in Nov, and I try to blog almost every day if I can. Now, I try to post other blog entry’s with “” that I deem worth reading, and put in my own thoughts as well. I find that simple, but I think the hardest part is, without knowing others that blog, is trying to get linked, without being linked you are only relying on search engines to show your content.
Duncan says
This is the way, start commenting on other blogs. place links to yours if it’s related to the topic your commenting on. Spend time in user fora and put the link in your signature. And just ask people if they want to exchange links…
Duncan