The Do's & Don't of Blogging!

In a blogging world that is quickly expanding and growing sometimes it's possible that our manners and etiquette can get left behind. We focus so much on trying to be the best possible person and blogger that we can be that sometimes we get lost in what's right and wrong. Today I’m going to break a few things down for you and discuss some of the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of being a blogger. These of course, are by no means official rules that all bloggers should or must follow. These will just give you the basic guidelines to make yourself into the best and most professional blogger you can be. Remember that as the blogging world continues to expand that means new and upcoming individuals join the market. To keep on top of your games and to be at the forefront of the change, we always need to strive to do our best job possible. Here are some of my tips on being that successful blogger:

THE DO'S OF BLOGGING

Updating Frequently:

Its important as a blogger to produce fresh, unique and personality filled content. Doing this allows our readers to come back time after time and allows our blogs to be active and the center of attention, so to speak. If you’ve seen my last post, Creating & Maintaining a Blogging Schedule, I talk more in-depth about having fresh content and how to achieve that. Updating frequently also means producing content that launches on the same days and same times each week so your readers get to know your schedules too.

Photography:

Just like producing fresh, and unique content we can also do the same thing with our images. While there are plenty of stock image websites out there to purchase from (which personally I don't recommend), chances are many bloggers are using the same images as you. Being able to take your own images and bring more personality to your blogs will increase readership and the uniqueness of your blog. Taking your own images is also really great for Search Engine Optimization!

Social Media Usage:

One of the biggest driving forces in the blogging community is the use of social media. It important to be able to use social media in the right way and under the right terms. Remember to update frequently on there as well, it can be a great means to be more personal with your readers or friends. It’s also a great place to promote your blog and gain the readership that you are looking for. However, as we’ll talk about later it’s important to use social media correctly.

Goal Settings:

While we all know blogging once started out as a hobby, we also all know that at the end of the day we want to reach a certain view goal or follower goal. It’s important as a blogger to set goals for yourself but make sure these goals are reasonable and attainable and reflect your readers not just your inward self. By this I mean that your goals should be based on previous views and follower increases you have seen, not based on the fact that you would like to gain 'x' amount of views and followers without seeing previous patterns of influx.

Blogging For Yourself:

It's important to remember as a blogger there can be a lot of pressure put on us to produce content, take images, write effectively and be all of these things. Blogging for yourself is one of the most important things I could tell to any blogger. Chances are you started your blog for yourself, whatever your story may be there was some part of you who wanted to put your thoughts and opinions online. You should never let this feeling and meaning go away in your blogging. As soon as you start blogging because other people want you to your blog can take major hits and things won’t be as real anymore.

Planning Ahead:

If you are serious about blogging, which is explained in more detail in my ‘5 Ways to Know Your Serious About Blogging’ post than its important to do some planning ahead. Planning ahead allows you to see weeks in advance of how your blog is going to look or how you want it to look. It also allows you to focus on high quality and unique content without getting overwhelmed by 50 drafts sitting on your blog that just don’t suit your needs.

THE DON'TS OF BLOGGING:

Create a Clutter Layout:

The very first thing that anyone see’s when they go onto your blog is your layout. Remember anyone can be seeing your blog from your parents to friends to anyone working for a company who’s looking to work with bloggers. It’s important as a blogger to not have a cluttered or unappealing layout. Try and keep things as simple as possible with small pops of color to accent the overall design. Don’t use fancy fonts or distorted images. You basically want everything to be clean, pretty and professional. (There is a whole post on blog design coming very soon to Little Beauty Bug).

Rude, Mean, Lying, Stealing or a Bully:

This is the #1 don’t of ANY blogger in ANY genre in ANY country. It’s really not that hard to be a respectful and decent human being. Remember anyone can be looking at your blog or your Twitter feed or any other account associated with you or your blog. If the first thing a new reader or a brand representative see’s is you cursing or bullying someone on Twitter chances are they won’t stick around and they won’t come back. Remember to get respect, you first have to give respect. It’s important in an internet filled world that we try to build other individuals up rather than tear them down. For more information on ‘Bullying in the Blogging Community’ you can visit my post where I go in-depth about a lot of negatively related issues.

Self-Promotion:

This is linked with my next post about social media. But it’s important to not self-promote your blog on social media accounts all over the place. Self-promotion actually does more (in my opinion) to hurt the readership of your blog than to build it up. And just to be upfront and honest, it's darn annoying when I follow someone if all they do is self-promote and have no substance to their accounts or even blog.

Social Media Usage:

Like I spoke about earlier there are many upsides to using social media platforms as a blogger. However, it’s important not to misuse these platforms because it can negatively reflect onto your blog. For example, you don’t want your Twitter account to just be an area of self-promotion. Use Twitter to interaction and be friendly and personal with your readers and friends. It’s also important to not overuse social media accounts. Generally I like to tell bloggers and friends to stick to 3-5 social media accounts as that is more than plenty. Having an outrageous amount of accounts could make a blogger appear desperate for followers, views and readers. It’s a fine line between being successful on social media and damaging your reputation.

Expect Free Things:

One of the biggest ‘issues’ in the blogging community is many bloggers coming in and starting a blog just for the free things. If this is the reason you are starting a blog, you might as well quit while you're ahead and rethink your blog strategy. It’s important to remember that just because you are a ‘blogger’ that doesn’t ever mean you will get free things and you shouldn’t expect brands to hand you out free things without hard work. PR work and sponsorship is something I plan to talk about in a future post, but for now it’s important to remember that as a ‘blogger’ you aren’t entitled to get free anything!

Overload Yourself or Your Readers:

Last but certainly not least, it’s important to not overload yourself or your readers. By this, I mean that you should always try and blog to the best of your abilities but don’t let it affect your time, health or financial status. Allowing blogging to do these things to your life can be extremely damaging and blogging is meant to be a fun experience. It's also important to remember not to overload your readers by publishing content every single day or even multiple times a day. Yes, there are bloggers who can get away with this sort of content but your average everyday blogger simply cannot. Remember to create a clear blog strategy and stick to it.