Everyone that has started a blog and wanted it to become the next rad thing on the Internet have struggled with the one fact of how to get the word out there. It’s not such a complicated endeavour as one might think but it takes time and hard work. When first starting Minervity.com (one of my other blogs) I really wanted it to become just as successful as all the other design blogs that I had looked at and in awe gotten inspired fast. But what I quickly discovered was that there are no shortcuts.
The main thing you have to do is to work hard and write good articles that really inspires people. That gives people what they want. And it is right here where it gets tricky. How do you know what people want and like? Well, there is no short answer to that and if there were one I would suggest it wouldn’t be a good one. You just have to get inspired of what people tend to look at on the other blogs, trends so to speak.
Bit Rebels was really another thing as I already had the initial “influence” on Twitter and people kind of wanted to see what this new blog was all about. Mainly, of course, it is with the help of all the wonderful writers of Bit Rebels that really made all the difference. Bit Rebels is and will always be a team effort.
So the pointers here are really just to work it. Get in there and do the dirty work that needs to be done for you to get a good blog going. I remember putting in, and sometimes still do, 18 hours a day just writing for Minervity.com and creating tutorials that really interested me but also that I thought could shed some light on some of the techniques that I use in my daily work as a designer for other people.
Choose good subjects and depending on what genre you’re in try and find topics that are really wide in their performance. Try and speak to all of your visitors however in small parts of the articles. You will be surprised how much fun it is to really write about something that you really love and know other people like to read about as well.
All of the writers here on Bit Rebels are specially hand picked because of their talented way of expressing themselves. Even if it is in short form sometimes. One in particular is Diana Adams who I have great respect for as a writer and who is continuously churning out super inspiring and interesting articles that speak to the masses. Here at Bit Rebels we have unofficial contest for fun to see who will get the most views on our articles. It’s just for fun but it’s a really great motivator to really put that little extra bit of hard work in there to make your articles a little bit more interesting and enjoyable.
Images are also a great addition to your articles. The more stunning they are the better your articles and blog will look in the end. This can really boost the returning visitors. If it looks good it’s probably good. That’s what people usually think of when they get that first impression. But, the content has also to be good otherwise your empire blog will soon crumble from it’s own deflation of not so good content.
So take the extra time to really get in depth with what you want to write about. It doesn’t have to be a long article as long as you’re keeping the content clean and simple and full of good pointers. It’s really what makes a good blog or article. Good content is king. There are no short cuts, just hard work and dedication. If you want it, you work for it.
I found a great little clip done by Pro Blogger’s own Darren Rowse where he talks about how he promotes ProBlogger.com and some of his other websites. It’s quite inspiring and gives a good perspective of how easy it can be to promote your blog if you just know where your targeted visitors are located.
