BluePop13

My Google Reader account is full of blogs. So full in fact that I have to talk myself into using the damn thing because more often than not I can remember out of just thinking about it what blogs I visit on a daily basis and get there myself, without the help of the reader.

That being said, I feel now that there is a time you should look into actually adding a blog to your RSS reader because it matters. You might be thinking… But don’t all blogs that have something useful to say matter? Yes, if it’s going to add value to your daily life. Not if it’s just something you can remember easliy and has a few good articles every once in a while.

My point with this has to do with a few factors about blogs in general which are…

Amazing And Catchy Titles

I write the title of my articles first and I recommend you do the same. I heard about this from CopyBlogger.com and the reason it’s recommended is because it’s a starting point to what you’re going to talk about in your article. Have a great title and use some key words each time. Make sure it makes sense and that it will catch attention of certain people and make them want to know more. This is where it all starts because if no article catches their attention then you’re never going to have them visit that article.

Amazing Content To Backup Your Titles

This is just as important in my opinion. Make sure that you provide extremely useful content that is related to your title in some way and that really stands out in how you present it. At first you might suck at writing but if you’re writing about something you’re passionate about it really shouldn’t take long before you really do become better at it. Let your article inspire people, teach them something, allow them to think about what you’re saying, have solid and meanginful points and ask them questions to really get something going on in their heads. Do all of this each and every time you write an article about anything and watch what happens.

Interact

Everyone knows about commenting and it’s important to do so. If you want to know what everyone thinks about what you have to say you need to ask them to do do this. More important, whether you have 50 comments a day or 2 comments a day is replying back and interacting with people. This shows so much about your blog and about you. Do this and watch what happens. On top of this you need to at least visit the blogs that comment on your blog to see if there’s anything you can find of value and return the favor with. If not, that’s ok. But you should at least put in the extra effort to show you appreciate something they have to say in case you do find something worth saying on their end of things.

Re-Tweet

There’s more than just tweeting out there to help spread the word about your blog and your fellow bloggers, I understand that. Tweets however, are one of the biggest ways of spreading information around so do something to allow your content to be spread because if it’s good enough (and you’ll know if it is) then you want to provide a way of doing this. Also, make sure you remember to return the favor to others who provide excellent content and value. Give them love too.

My bottom line with all of this is quite simple. This is just the basics of what I feel makes a decent blog… Yes a decent one. Look at these factors to see if that blog is worth keeping in your RSS reader. If so, keep it. If not, maybe it’s time to reconsider why it’s still sitting there.

Why am I putting this statement out there? Because this is one huge factor to look at to make sure you’re getting value for your time and maybe someone can think about doing all of this to maintain their stability in YOUR RSS reader for days and more to come.

Keep all this in mind when loading up whatever reader you use and consider why you read each blog there when you visit it. I make sure there’s enough good articles that really catch my eye and I make sure that they’re always interacting with their commenters and maintaining things nicely. Consistency is a big factor in keeping up with things.

Ok… Now to you my loyal friends, family and fellow bloggers.

What do you consider to be worth keeping certain blogs in your RSS feed readers each time you visit them?

I have to admit that I’m currently in the middle of another article as I’m writing this one and the idea for this post just popped out to me so I thought I’d do something with it.

Whether you blog about a hobby for fun or you’re trying to make money with your blog are you allowing your reader to understand that you’re real just like they are? Or are you sending the message that you’re nothing more than a robot inside your own blog that just wants their money or to steal traffic for no good reason.

I hope you’re real because that’s what it takes to make it no matter what niche you’re in. Connecting with your readers is so important and doing it in such a way that makes them feel like they’re wanted and like they’re number one is critical for your success. Help them. Solve their problems. Ask them questions. We’ve all heard that before and again. Along with this we’ve also heard add your personality to your blog which is a good idea too!

Just how real can you get though? Video blogging? Audio? Why not? These are both good ways of letting your readers know that you actually exist. If you want to build their trust why wouldn’t you consider at least giving these a shot once in a while if not on a regular basis.

Here I’m going to write about what I think will come about depending on which you decide to present yourself as and you decide which sounds better to growing your blog into a lasting career earning maybe even money.

Robot:

You talk at your readers or talk to yourself and there’s no knowledge of a real person behind the words. You don’t care because you don’t market yourself anyway and if you do for some reason you’re not doing a very good job because you’re not attracting repeating visitors, instead just visitors that may come back once and then they’ll never see a single blog post of yours again. You never ask questions and you never have anything truly important to say that could actually benefit anyone.

When people look at your blog they see spam and never return so you might as well keep this as an on line journal just for yourself and never worry about doing anything with it because you’re pretty much dead at this point.

Real:

You discuss real world problems with your readers that are important to them. You also do this in such a way that involves them completely in the conversation so as to allow them to respond with comments that help your blog out as well as any other comments on your blog also. You solve their problems and let them know you’re there for them day or night. You comment on their blogs and you market yourself to the point they know you’re a real person and you make your blog fun and enjoyable experience to revisit daily and maybe even a few times a day.

Your blog truly kicks ass and you make it work for each individual who visits and new comers as well.

Great job, you’re really making things real out there!

Is your blog alive or is your blog battery operated?

With 2010 finally upon us we are creating a new world of opportunities that will take us far beyond our imagination. I’m sure you have goals set for this year to take you as far as you can possibly go if not further. I am setting my own goals as well and doing what I can to make them a reality for me.

This being said I want to mention something I discovered last year that I was skeptical about at first and actually turned out to work great as I now have another blog project I’m working on and will announce more details about next month.

I didn’t know what to expect and I must say that I definitely got my money’s worth. It’s called Social Media Training Lab and it literally only costs you a penny. Seriously. How much cheaper can you get something for? Obviously you can’t go cheaper which is why it surprised me that this wasn’t something that was too good to be true.

The wait time was a big longer than they said it would be and I have to look at the fact that it was right around Christmas Day so that could definitely have something to do with it.

I will announce my brand new blog project next month and you will see what they did for me. I am glad I signed up and I’m glad I paid my penny. I actually bought a new domain so it didn’t cost me just a penny but had I not needed a domain it would have.

I would love to hear what you have to say about Social Media Training Lab. All you pay is a penny. What do you think about this?