Literally millions of blogs are inhabiting the internet today, some are bigger, some are smaller. The trick is to make your blog remarkable, make your blog unique. I have to agree with people who say that new blogs don’t have a chance, but there are subjects yet to cover and even in the most crowded niches options for new blogs are still open.

Photo by *Mickey

It’s all about how you present your blog, the quality of your content and the degree of dedication to your blog. Some new bloggers think it’s a world of money, subscribers and great content, but the truth isn’t that rosy. Hard work will be rewarded, but it takes time. It’s very important to understand that blogging is a long term project.

One of a kind blogs don’t exist, every subject seems to be covered by one or more blogs. With these tips, you can make your blog rise up out of the forest of excisting blogs and make it remarkable.

Before you start blogging

Preparation is everything, this goes in special for blogging (aswell as for webdevelopment). With a good planning, a clear idea and lots of time and effort, most projects will be succesful. Readers who already setup their blog and want to improve their blog can skip these tips, they are about setting up a new blog and preparation.

1. Determine your topic and setup some goals

Probably the most important in preparing the launch of a new blog. Determining the topic will be easy, you came up with the idea to start a blog, so you must have a topic to blog about. When you just blog, ‘to blog’, this could be harder.

Setting up goals is very important during preparation, although goals can be altered while you are blogging. With good goals for a blog, it’s important that the goals are realistic. Blogs don’t grow like grass (it could be as dull, though), so you have to think about the expected growth of your new blog.

2. Pick a great domain name, that covers your subject

If you have made up a topic and have determined what your plans are, the next thing to do is making up a quality domain name. A good domain name is easy to remember, is preferrably as short as possible and contains a link to your subject.

For instance, this blog’s domain name would be worthless for this subject, without the “web”-part. In the preparation, this could be the hardest nut to crack. In crowded niches, it could be (very) hard to acquire a quality domain name.

3. Select your blogging software

Wordpress is obivious the most know tool for blogging, but there are some alternatives. Google around and see what the possibilities are with a few blogging tools. If you’re planning using your Wordpress as a personal homepage or a CMS with loads op pages, Drupal could be an option.

If you’re Googling around, feel free to try some demo’s to get a impression of how the software works. Personally I’m hooked to Wordpress, but there are lots of bloggers who use Typad for example.

4. Prepare a few posts before going online

Nothing looks as dull as a (nearly) empty blog. It’s a well known fact that as soon as someone visits a blog or website for the first time, first impression will determine a lot. Show of some cool posts to convince everyone that comes to the opening of the blog, that you are going to post some quality on your blog.

Blogs that open, and do this in a good way, usually get some attention on other blogs. Imagine posts like; “New blog opened, etc. For the new kid on the block this is time to burst and show what it’s made of.

Photo by tinken

Once the blog is online

As soon as you’re blog goes online and is open to public, the real work begins. Off course, content is the most important, but for blogs in crowded niches there are more important points to think about.

5. Write with your heart

This may sound cliché, but there are no better articles than articles written with passion. Passion for the topic is also a good motivator and it will help you write remarkable content, content where people want to link to. And links to bloggers are like food to a dog. Without it, it will die.

6. Write your own content

I hear your thoughts; “I don’t copy articles, I always write my own articles!”, but that’s not what I mean. What I mean, is that you need to make up ideas for new articles by yourself. What a lot of bloggers do, is reading other blogs and start writing their own versions of it.

Off course, it is your own article, but your article needs to be worth reading. If I read the first article and minutes later I see another article about nearly the same, I won’t read it again. I started making up my own articles more and more a few months ago, and the results of me doing that are visible in the statistics.

7. Work on your SEO and start using social news sites

Search engines and social news sites are the tools from which blogs are found. That’s exactly why bloggers work hard to make their articles indexable for search engines and provide easy access to posting their articles on social news sites.

There are lots of plugins that help optimising blogs for search engines, the same goes for easy access to social news sites. This shouldn’t cause to much trouble, installing plugins is as easy as taking candy from a baby.

When starting to use social news sites like Digg or Sphinn, make some friends. People who known you will vote on your articles faster, as they normally would do. Friends can also help you give a article the final few votes your article needs to appear on the frontpage.

8. Take the chances you get (on other blogs)

To get known and respected, you have several options. Your own weblog is your base, the blog that you write your articles for. But you have other options, like guest postings. Guest postings are a great tool to improve your fame and introduce people to your writing style. Lots of bloggers are writing posts for other blogs, to get known in their niche.

But there are more options for bloggers who want to get know in their niche. Consider joining blog networks or group blogs, all to make your name (and the name of your blog) known in your niche.

Photo by mike warren

Things to do besides blogging

It’s obvious that there are lots of things to do, that all help your blog, but aren’t directly connected to your blog. Networking is getting more and more important in the blogging of the year 2008. But there are more things that help your blog, direct or indirect.

9. Start microblogging (via Twitter for example)

Twitter is one of the best known microblogging sites, where people post what they’re doing. This may sound dull, but it’s one of the biggest hypes on the internet lately. In short messages you can tell people what you’re doing, what you’re thinking about or what you see on the internet.

Via Twitter, you get to know a lot of people, who are often active in the same niche as you are. This is a perfect opportunity to support your weblog and spread some links. Twitter is also a great tool to hold small discussions and is often used as tool for brainstorm sessions.

10. Spend time away from the computer

Schedule a walk of half an hour, every day. Just do anything as long as it’s not connected with computers. Try to clear your mind and think about, exactly, anything except computers. This will relax your body, but is meant for your spirit.

Once you go back to your work at the blog, you will notice that new ideas keep coming and writing is far easier than before. If things aren’t going the way you want them to go, take a break and start doing something else. After a while, try again. You will notice a break takes of the heat and makes it easier to get things on track again.

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