While blogging can provide writers with an alternative productive career, it isn’t for everyone. Some writers equate blogging with monotony. Blogging used to be a series of conversation posts designed for informational purposes. But now, it has grown into a commercialized industry and it continues to draw an audience from different demographics, making it an invaluable marketing tool. Not only that, but blogging has given an equal footing to everyone’s voice.

I believe it was Joan Didion who once said in an interview that “Speak your mind” is an overrated virtue because it aggrandizes the speaker at the expense of the poor listener. Nothing could be further from the truth. Blogs are used as a venue for their owners to rant or troll over things they find undesirable. I still thank the Internet and search engines though, for coming up with sophisticated ways to index quality blogs and articles. Now if you want attention, self-centeredness and narcissism won’t help. It has to be a two-way communication wherein you reach out to your audience to provide good information or help solve a problem.

Consider these reminders when blogging:

1.) Have a niche

Some writers would say that having a niche confines the blogger to a specific topic and loses the momentum to explore other ideas. Therefore, having a niche is counterproductive. This doesn’t have to be the case. The point is you can’t jump from one niche to another. You have to send the message to your readers that you are an expert on a particular topic. It makes sense that way. For example, if you are blogging about relationships and managed to draw an audience, they would subscribe to look forward to more of your relationship articles. You then shift to writing about car insurance. It doesn’t make sense, right? What some bloggers do is to put up multiple blogs catering to different topics of interest. Now, this is a lot of hard work. If you want to put up multiple blogs, be sure that you can commit to the time and effort.

2.) Be consistent with your posts

Stick to your schedule. Blogging is a telecommute job festered with distractions. If you find yourself napping rather than hitting the keys, or playing Halo Infinite, do yourself a favor and quit blogging while the quitting is good. Remember that the responsibility to deliver rests on your shoulders. You have no co-workers to make follow-ups and no boss to scream at you when the deadline is near. As Gretchen Rubin said, we have to self-parent ourselves because nobody’s coming.

3.) The beauty of simplicity

The Classic Elements of Style by Strunk and White will tell you that keeping your words simple and conversational is important if you want people to keep reading your piece. Do not inject unnecessary clichés or tasteless jokes. Never draw attention by putting yourself in your article just for kicks. Think of it this way: If you are in a bar, would you listen to a bore? There you go.

4.) Bow to the robots

Search engines continue to grow smarter and more sophisticated. With millions of blogs and websites flooding the Internet, search engines like Google are using bots to monitor site activity. They look at webpages and sift through content. These bots index quality articles and rank them higher than the mediocre ones. This is another reason why you need to posts articles regularly because blogs are aggregated and updated regularly.

5.) The Importance of RSS

Whether it means Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, your RSS is your Elder Wand to the wizarding world of the Internet. RSS feeds help to spread and increase your message to anyone who will listen. It contributes to distribution and finds a specific audience for your blog.

6.) Spelling matters a lot

Not all bloggers are good spellers, but they have no excuse to let those typos find their way into their content. Spelling checkers exist to help you, so use them. Nothing ticks a well-informed reader off faster than a screaming typo. For names, especially famous people, double-check how their names are written. I have seen a lot of blogs misspelling celebrity names. How would you feel if somebody misspells your name in an important document? Maintain your quality and traffic will follow.