I have now been blogging for more years than I care to admit to. In those years I have picked up a lot of knowledge. I will now be sharing this knowledge with the readers of Frost. To get started here is my five top tips for your blog.

Avoid Duplicate Content.

Google penalises duplicate content and it will affect your SEO. If you want to put the same post on your blog, or as a guest post service on another site then give it a rewrite. In traditional publishing articles are ‘topped and tailed’ and then resold to different publications. You can do the same by keeping the essence of your article, but rewriting it. If you have writers ask them not to cross publish their articles. Original content is best.

Engage With Your Readers.

You should engage with your readers in two ways: emotionally and physically. Most writers write to connect with people and tell stories. And people read to feel connected with the world and other people. It is also important to respond to readers. If someone tweets you or makes a comment under your post, thank them and respond.

Share Your Post on Social Bookmarking Sites and Social Media.

So many people write a great post and then expect people to be able to find it. If you do not share your post then people will not know it exists. Sure your regular readers will go to your home page, but not everyone will. Share your post on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Google + and Pinterest. You can use a plugin which shares your post to certain sites automatically. I recommend this as it can be time-consuming. After a while focus on the sites which give you the most traffic and drop the others. Ask your writers to share their posts. Also: encourage your readers to share articles.

Don’t Just Copy and Paste Press Releases.

There is nothing wrong with publishing press releases. Frost does sometimes when we think our readers will be interested in the story, but do not fill your site with them. It is also a good idea to personalise them. Whether or not you completely rewrite them is up to you. Some people think they should be rewritten but I think a tweak is fine. Tailer it to your site and make sure it does not end up as duplicate content (see above) and then you have some free copy. When it comes to press releases resist the urge to just bung one up to add content. No new post is better than a subpar post which brings down the tone of the entire site.

Be Authentic.

You are unique. You have a voice: use it. No one else can do what you do. Always be your authentic self. You can use your experiences to connect with other people who have been through the same thing. Write from the heart and people will connect with you. Never sway from your beliefs or do something solely for money. As Bob Dylan says, ‘Your reputation is something that you can sell, but that you can’t buy back’. Bob knows his stuff, listen to him.

You can buy The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Successful Blogger here.