It's All Virtual

Introduction

I recently published my 333^rd blog post here at “It’s All Virtual” (this one is my 334^th!).

It’s been a fun ride: thanks for coming along. In December 2012, this blog will turn four years old. So going with the theme of 3’s, I thought I’d share 33 lessons learned over my 3 (almost 4) years on this blog.

33 Blogging Lessons

1. Blogging is a whole lot of fun.
2. Your blog will be most effective if you write about what you’re most passionate about.
3. When you think up ideas, write a few posts at once (rather than one at a time in sequence).
4. Add social sharing buttons to your blog, so your readers can promote it on your behalf.
5. Author guest posts on related blogs. It helps drive awareness of your own.
6. Set aside dedicated, “turn off your devices and email” time for writing your posts.
7. Place your blog’s URL in your Twitter profile.
8. Configure you blogging software to tweet the link upon publishing.
9. Tweet your blog content. Repeat those tweets later on, in case followers missed it the first time.
10. Always respond to comments, even if they’re negative.
11. Only delete comments that are obviously spam.
12. Turn your blog into a book! There are a number of services that will do that for you.
13. Turn selected blog postings (topically related) into an eBook. Publish the eBook on your blog.
14. Use your blog as the foundation of your social media activities.
15. Write once, publish many: turn blog content into videos, podcasts and webinars.
16. Embed your YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations (and more) into posts. It’s so easy.
17. Share selected blog postings with family members. They’ll get to know you even better.
18. Use blogging to discover what you think.
19. Ask yourself questions on your blog, then answer them. Why? It’s good for SEO. The question you ask yourself is the same term (question) someone may enter into a search engine.
20. Keep a regular heartbeat to your publishing schedule. A blog that hasn’t been updated in weeks can be taken for dead, even when it’s not.
21. Another reason to publish regularly: apparently search engines like that, so your SEO will be the better for it.
22. Join a tribe on Triberr to help promote your posts.
23. Invite the community to contribute relevant guest posts.
24. Monitor blog stats regularly to help inform your future posts.
25. When making cultural references, try to keep in mind that your blog has a global readership.
26. You blog, therefore you are.
27. Create a pinboard on Pinterest to feature images contained within your posts. This helps drive traffic to your blog.
28. Publish contact info on your blog, as you may receive inquiries related to business or job opportunities.
29. Think about SEO when crafting titles for your posts.
30. Spend as much care and attention on your title as you do writing the post.
31. Write your posts outside of your blogging software (I use Microsoft Word), then copy/paste in the text when you’re done. I find that this approach helps me focus.
32. It’s OK to take a brief vacation from blogging.
33. But, never stop blogging, it’s great!

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