How to blog

Blogs are certainly nothing new. They started to gain traction around 2003-2004, and have been increasing in popularity ever since. Here some tips for new blogger.

1. Find a blog provider. Wordpress and Blogger are the two most popular blog providers, and they are both free to use.
2. Find a theme or topic and stick to it. You want to stay focused on a specific topic, so your readers know what to expect. This helps to create a loyal fan base.
3. Reach out to everyone you know. You have to start somewhere, and people you know are going to be the most receptive to reading what you're writing about. If you write about interesting topics they will forward it to their friends, and hopefully the chain will continue. You can also do things like put your blog URL in your email signature.
4. Think about your readers. Ask yourself: "Why would anyone want to read my blog?". If you can't answer that question, then you may need to find a new theme or collection of topics. Although your friends and family may be regular visitors to keep tabs on you, casual visitors are only going to be loyal readers if you write about something they care about.
5. Establish a writing routine. The best way to ensure your readers come back is to set the expectation that your blog will frequently have new content. Additionally, blogs that are more frequently updated rank higher in Google searches.
6. Reach out to other bloggers in your area of focus. The number one way new readers will find your blog is via links on other blogs, so establish relationships with other bloggers. Leave comments on articles you find interesting. If you write on a topic that another blogger covered recently, provide a link to their article. You can also branch out by creating a blogroll that has links to other blog owners. It is important to note that you want to do this after you have a few quality posts under your belt. You want people to link back to you, and they aren't going to if your blog is lacking content.
7. Create podcasts. Creates audio podcasts of your creative posts to help reaching more audionces.
8. Set up a Feedburner account. You want to create loyal readers, and readers become loyal by subscribing to your blog via a feed reader such as Netvibes or iGoogle. By using Feedburner, you can track how many people are subscribing to your blog.
9. Tying it all together. Create connections to and from your blog with the other places you have a presence online.