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Blogging Lesson #4 – Stay Focused

Today, we’re looking at the fourth lesson I have learned while blogging since 2005 – Stay Focused.

Remain On Topic – Stay laser focused on your topic. When readers visit your blog, you want them to have an idea of what they are going to find there.  So, don’t write one day on agriculture and the next on advertising – unless you can find some effective way to tie them together.

Be Consistent - If you are going to blog, you need to approach it with consistency. There are millions of blogs out there, but only a handful are kept current. Only about 12% of the US internet population blogs and keeps those blogs updated at least monthly. That is not often enough if you want to build your readership. Also, maintain consistently good quality content.

Post Regularly, Frequently – I’m not saying you have to post very single day, but you need to set some sort of schedule so that readers get into the blog’s rhythm. When they come to the blog, readers have the expectation that they will find something new. Fulfill that expectation and your readers will be loyal. Additionally, frequent posting results in higher search engine indexing and in more backlinks. How frequently? That’s your decision, but I can tell you that if I post at least four times per week, my traffic volume takes off.

Be Responsive – If you have a blog you need to make a commitment to real time response. When someone makes the effort to post a comment on your blog, you owe them the favor of a rapid response, even if it is only, “thanks for your comment.” A blog is supposed to foster conversation, but too many people preach from the blog pulpit instead of trying to carry on a dialogue. Another element of responsiveness is to take advantage timely topics. If a topic is trending on Twitter, the blogosphere is jumping on a subject or it is in the news, you should jump on it if you have something worthwhile to offer.

Do you have any blogging lessons to offer? Tell us about it.

By the way, here are our first three lessons:

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Harry Hoover

Harry Hoover is a partner in My Creative Team, the agency that makes Fortune 1000 clients look good. His communications career spans 35 years and runs the gamut from print and broadcast journalism, government and corporate communications to advertising and public relations agencies.

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