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10 Simple Tips to Becoming a Better Blogger

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Categories: Blog, Blogger, Blogging, Books, Social Media

It was in 1439 a professional goldsmith created an agent for worldwide change. This invention facilitated enormous evolution to society in Europe and globally. The machine he created called the “printing press” provided for the first time, the means for the mass production of books.10 Simple Tips to Becoming a Better Blogger

His name was Johannes Gutenberg and he was German.

Over 3,600 pages a day could be printed compared to the forty that could be produced by hand printing. This was an increase in production of over 9,000 percent!

This machine changed everything.

Francis Bacon, the English philosopher said in 1620 that printing was one of three things that “changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world”. It introduced the era of mass communication which changed forever the structure of society and culture.

Ideas Crossed Borders

Authors such as Luther and Erasmus became best selling authors and their thoughts and writing allowed the blossoming of the middle class. The status of the elite was challenged. Literacy rose sharply. The monopoly and power of the religious and political leaders was threatened.

It led to the unrestricted circulation of information and perceived radical ideas that now crossed borders quickly and efficiently.

The Age of Digital Self Expression and Creativity

In the 1990′s people started expressing themselves with online diaries. According to Wikipedia, Justin Hall was one of the earliest bloggers who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 as the Web started to become widespread.

The phrase was coined “web log“, which has through the wonderful world of language, been transformed into the term “we blog” and hence “blogging“.

The tools for blogging have evolved to the point that the less technical of the population can now publish text, video and images simply and easily without understanding a single line of coding or computer programming. Tools such as WordPress and Tumblr have broken the technical tyranny of the geeks.

Self expression and creativity has exploded online and allowed anyone with enough passion and discipline to publish their ideas via rich digital multimedia.

Blogging plus Social Media

The rise of social media has allowed bloggers to display and market themselves and their content globally without having to pay a cent to a newspaper, television mogul or to the mass media elite.

Bloggers that were previously undiscovered became global brands on topics as diverse as food, fashion and technology. Marketing your blog was no longer restricted to building an RSS or email subscription list.

Publishing and marketing has been democratized. Freedom to express yourself globally is available in seconds and it is also mobile.

The age of the printing press is now threatened after 573 years. Print media marketing has now been surpassed by digital media for the first time in history.

So How do you Become a Better Blogger?

It is quite simple really.

  1. Blog late or early
  2. Blog while travelling
  3. Blog on holidays
  4. Blog even when your friends think you’re mad
  5. Blog on the bus
  6. Blog on the plane
  7. Blog when the boss isn’t watching
  8. Blog when your partner nags you to stop blogging
  9. Blog when your passion has taken a holiday
  10. Blog when you think no one cares about your blog

How About You?

Stephen King the world famous best selling author was asked “how do your become a better writer?” He answered that question in two ways. One word at a time and write 1,000 words every day.

That is what it took for him to become the success he is today. Blogging is no different, you need to create content one post, one article or one video at a time.

What are you going to do to become a better blogger? The world is your oyster and it is the biggest opportunity in over 500 years. You are witnessing the biggest change to communication in 20 generations.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below.

 

Want to Learn How to Learn How to Become a Better Blogger?

My book – Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 121,000.

You can download and read it now.



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  • http://twitter.com/soldsie Soldsie

    I would add 11–read more blogs! The more you’re engaged in your community, the better idea you have of what you can contribute.

    • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

      Great tip and And I would add another one just plain “read” a lot !!

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  • http://joshuawilner.com/ Josh

    If you don’t read and write…often you will find it difficult to improve your skills.

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  • http://www.brickmarketing.com/ Nick Stamoulis

    Blogging while on a bus, train, or plane is a great way to spark creativity. Instead of sitting at a desk and feeling pressure to be productive, you are naturally distracted when traveling. Between fellow passengers and the views out of the window, your mind has a chance to be elsewhere for a few minutes. This mental break helps you recoup and become more focused on your own material.

  • Andi Leeman

    Blogging when on a train, plane or bus might make you a better blogger but don’t we blog so we can be free and have flexibility in our lives? We will miss the life around us, by all means have a note pad and write down a few ideas and points but life experience also makes us better bloggers and I for one don’t intend to miss out on that to create a few weak posts. :-)

    Just saying… great post though Jeff

  • http://twitter.com/Alwi_Eisner Mark Eisner

    Jeff, thanks for an insightful blog. Because you asked…

    I’m
    a for-profit scientific consultant. Economically, I continuously need to do what reasonably I
    can to “feed the machine” which means to find and get clients. Blogging
    is one of many tools to achieve that.

    In
    our modern and interconnected world via the internet, visibility to a
    prospective client includes consistently high search engine rankings
    using all the conceivable buzzwords a person could have entered in the
    search box.

    People who profess to know something about Search Engine Optimization,
    like my web site guy, tell me that changing and evolving content is
    what the bots seek. The easiest and cheapest way to have a changing and
    evolving web site, without paying the web site guy for each and every
    little change, is to have a blog.

    Blogs
    are the OK Corral of the internet, or perhaps I should say the Outback
    Steakhouse. No rules, just right. One can embarrass colleagues, piss
    off sources of funding, and generally put ones cyber-foot so far into
    one’s mouth that you gag. And one of the rules also is to be
    consistent. I’m taking to blogging once a week on Fridays. It’s sort
    of a down day for me, and I hope to have a little time for it then.

    Generally,
    I’m blogging about the relationship between my work and the greater
    world. Sometimes that’s driven by newsworthy scientific occurrences
    (Hurricane Sandy was low-hanging fruit and I got TWO blogs out of it).
    Sometimes I read a journal article and think “Hey, that has an
    interesting implication.”

    I endeavor to blog about technical matters pertinent to my business and the professional services it provides, but I do so for a lay audience. Finally, I adhere to this rule:
    it’s got to be able to be read in five minutes.

    Hope this helps. Let me know!

  • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

    I have found many benefits to blogging and one them is a quiet time for yourself and your thoughts I wrote more about it at the post
    http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/07/06/what-are-the-10-secret-benefits-of-blogging/

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  • http://twitter.com/t_maberry Tiffany Maberry

    Almost every blogger I know indulges in #7 :)

  • Bob James

    Blog when all about you are losing their heads and blaming it on you…

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  • http://www.theheidemans.com/ Aaron Heideman

    The biggest change to communication in 20 generations? What about the television, telephone, teletubbies, etc.? ;-)

  • Lucille Ossai

    Hi Jeff,

    Interesting post!

    I began my blog in March afte mulling for a long time about a newly-found passion of mine : communications.

    Not being a ‘technical’ person, I have needed to self-educate by reading through a lot and I am rather pleased with how my blog is turning out. I am still learning though.

    I produce (if I say so myself) high-quality posts and articles relating to my themes of communications, organisational effectivenes and workplace dynamics. The problem is that these posts tend to be over 1,000 words, (one being over 2,000 words), and even though I include visuals like gif animations and images, I am not sure if the lengths of my posts are making it harder to get more people to comment. My statistics show my blog is viewed by people from different continents but not many are posting comments! I have the usual share buttons to social media, RSS subscriptions etc and respond to each comment.

    I want to increase my ‘fan base’, followings and comments from viewers. Any ideas?

    By the way, I am now following you on Twitter. Great stuff!

    • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

      Type your reHi Lucille
      Thanks for the questions. They are short to ask but long to answer.
      If you read my book “Blogging the Smart Way” I reveal a lot more about building followers and fans on social media..
      You can download it at the link below
      http://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Smart-Way-Create-ebook/dp/B008UGCTMS ply…

      • Lucille Ossai

        Thanks Jeff. I would check it out. Cheers!

  • http://twitter.com/justBrentTzu brent tzu

    cool! gave mew new insights!

  • http://www.bizfix.co.uk/blog Chris Markham @Bizfix.co.uk

    Jeff, as ever spot on content. While everyone is digesting the turkey I’m voting for some strategy to make us all better bloggers. 1. Start with keyword research, we write for people, but search engines engines are the new gatekeepers. 2. Use data – we might think we know what our readers want, but the data shows us how many people read, click, like, retweet or show some other form of interest. 3. Add some style, life’s too short for dull blogging. Keywords, Data and Style.

  • http://twitter.com/dd_dienutza Diana Abu-Zuaiter

    Less than 10% of viewers actually comment. They read the blog, the hell, they even share it…but don’t comment. Why is that?

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