When you first start to blog, you may feel somewhat overwhelmed with all the information overload.  There is so much to learn, that it is often quite difficult knowing where to start.  Whether you are new to the blogging world or an experienced blogger, these 7 blogging tips are still relevant.  If you are serious about wanting to learn to blog, these basic blogging tips will set you in the right direction.

Learn the 7 blogging tips now!

1. Save your posts in a word document.

By saving your posts in a word document rather than straight into your blog editor, you could potentially save yourself a lot of heartache, and we all want that right?  There is always a chance that something could go wrong and if that happens during the course of writing your post directly in the blog platform, then you will loose the lot. This may sound daunting, but can be easily solved by keeping a copy of it somewhere safe.  If the unthinkable happens, you don’t have to start from scratch every time the unexpected happens.  Write the post in a word document and then transfer it to your blog once complete.

2. Have a back up of your blog.

This follows on from tip 1 and if I have to highlight one of these blogging tips, it would be this one.  Loosing the content of a site has happened to the best of us.  No matter how careful you think you are….the contents of your blog can be lost in an instant.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a back up of your site, so that you can easily recreate it if something was to happen.  Most hosting services will have a back up feature in place, so check this out and ensure your hard work is saved forever!  Trust me….if you loose your work, the first thing you will be doing is getting your back up running so it doesn’t happen again.

3. Take note of your comments and respond to them.

This is one of those blogging tips that you hear all the time, but do you actually do it?  One of the best things about having a blog is connecting to people all over the world.  What is the point however of having the contact, if you are not going to bother responding to it.  It really is a one way conversation.  If people have commented on your blog, and you have chosen to publish that comment, then it is highly likely that this comment is worth a response.  Not only does this increase your connection with others and potentially turn a one off visitor into a subscriber, but it gives more attention to the search engines. Search engines like to give attention to those blogs with a high number of comments, so you want to make sure you are encouraging and responding to each and every one.

4. Install a spam filter

Whilst we all love comments, we hate spam!  Install a spam filter on your blog to filter out all those unwanted comments.  Askimet is a free plugin which you can use on WordPress blogs.  Simply locate this on your control panel for example: www.yourblog.com/wp-admin and select plugins.  Askimet is a fantastic plugin for detecting a majority of the spam comments you will receive and will give you the time to concentrate on the worthy comments.  The more popular your blog becomes, the more spam you will receive so it is important to get onto this from the beginning.

When you are starting up your blog, it is tempting to let any old comment be added, but don’t  do this.  You only want to have constructive and meaningful comments on your blog, so steer clear of the spam.  Likewise, a lot of people will try to siphon your site’s link juice, so  don’t allow comments that have spam in them!  Stay clear of unsavoury sites or ones with blatant advertising in them.  All this will do is bring down the credibility of your blog…so what is the point!

5. Create your social media profiles

This is one of the best parts of blogging, it is connecting with others.  Set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc, and use these sites to build your social following and increase your traffic.  There are plenty of plugins available that will help you install your social media profiles on your blog.  Simply insert the html code into your widgets area (found in the dashboard) and it will then automatically be seen on your page.  Not only is this one of those incredibly important blogging tips, but it is also one that makes blogging a whole lot of fun!

6. Try to learn something about HTML.

This can be daunting for many new bloggers, but if possible, it is important to learn about html.  When I started blogging I had never even heard of html, so trust me when I say I understand how you feel!  However, if you are prepared to spend some time on this, it will make your life a whole lot easier!  I am not saying you need to become a programmer, but it is important to know how to make basic changes to your blog and some basic skills will set you on the right track.

7. Never think you have learnt all there is to learn!

If you have come to the point where you feel you know it all….I guarantee your blog will become stale!  There is ALWAYS so much to learn, and the more you learn, the more you find out there is more to learn.  If you keep up your interest and learning in blogging, you will reap the rewards, and these blogging tips will help you do just that!  Your skills will improve, your online experience will be more pleasurable and in turn you will succeed at having a successful blog.  There are so many avenues that you can explore to learn more about blogging, including books, e-books, you tube, blogging blogs (like this one) etc.  Continue to increase your skills and your knowledge and you won’t regret it.

These blogging tips are the very basic of what you need to know to have a successful blog, but if you follow them it will certainly put you onto the right path.

What have your experiences of blogging been so far.  Do you have any blogging tips you would like to share?  Please leave your comments below.