Do you wanna be a “Big Deal”?

I don’t have the exact numbers but I suspect that a good 98% of my readers are fellow bloggers. Many of you are like me and desire to reach the next level and from their continue to climb in the blogging ranks. Certainly there are those of you who couldn’t care one way or another. This post isn’t for you. At least not as much as it is for those who desire more from their blog.

Over the past couple of days I’ve spent a little time analyzing a few of the established bigger blogs and a few of the more rapidly growing smaller blogs in order to hopefully discover what has made them a “big deal”. I’m going to speak in generic terms, but am going to list the blogs I was taking a look at.

Content, content, content!

Lots and lots of content. Content coming out their nether regions. Some good, some bad, but all of it content. Sounds simple right? Just slap on a bunch of content and you’re on your way. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work that way for most blogs. This was content built up over months of posting before there seemed to be any large spikes in traffic.

How did I figure out where the content of value (that which began driving traffic) began and that which was just “filler” ended? By looking at the comment counts, and quality.

Comments as a guide

I doubt anyone needs a refresher course in why commenting on blogs is so important, but if you do go have a look at Darren’s post about the power of commenting on blogs. For those of you who don’t need the reminder I’ll remind you anyways…

Commenting on blogs is essential to success. I’ll say it again, commenting on blogs is an essential element of your blogs success. And now I’ll amend what I just said. Commenting on your own blog is an essential element of success.

That’s one of the major patterns I noticed on these “A-list” blogs was the fact that not only were they getting comments made to their posts, they were responding to them. In some cases to each and every one of the comments. I’m not talking about responding after they exploded in popularity, but responding when for weeks at a time all they would get was one or two comments.

Harnessing the power of social networking sites

This is another topic that has been done to death (myself included), but what many of us have taken for granted these A-listers have taken to heart. I’m not about to try and throw together an effective guide to how to do, but I will point you over to Dosh Dosh’s social media marketing archive where you can pick through a few articles which are brimming with good information on the subject.

In a word it boils down to relationships. Building them, maintaining them, and honoring them. Therein lies the power of the social networking world. How do you accomplish these things?

• Write honest reviews of the articles you are submitting
• Don’t over do the submission of your own stuff
• Tag things properly
• Participate in the discussions, etc

By no means is that an exhaustive list, but hopefully it will get the gears turning in your head about what you might be doing. And like I said before go take a good look at Dosh’s articles on the subject if you haven’t already.

Search Engine Optimization is worth your time

To some, mainly me, “SEO” is nothing but a dirty word. It means more work, more trial and error, more annoyances. BUT more importantly it means more traffic. If done right it means more traffic. If done poorly it means less traffic. I won’t pretend to be knowledgeable in SEO matters so I’ll just refer you to another source. Namely to Mani Karthik’s Daily SEO Blog.

There’s no two ways about it. Proper SEO is essential to growth. After all if your blog about widgets and I go to a search engine and type “widgets” but you don’t show up until 5 pages deep what are the chances I’ll stop in at your blog to read what you have to say? SEO will help deal with that.

Soft skills can’t be overstated

I don’t often see this subject breached in the blogging world, but take it from a customer service professional. Soft skills are essential to blogging. What are soft skills? They are simply the skills you use in dealing with people. It is your mannerisms, your tone of voice, how you present yourself, the words you choose to use, and much more.

Consider this have you ever come across an A-list blogger who is rude and contrary? I haven’t. I’ve come across some linguistic snafus from time to time, and some simple misunderstandings that got everyone riled up. Never have I come across a rude and obstinant A-list bloggers. Even if they don’t realize it they are using soft skills.

Honesty and integrity

I don’t think I need to write much about this subject, so I’ll just leave you with this thought on the matter -

You only need one chance to build a bad reputation.

Are you a blogging hero or a blogging zero? How have you reached that point? Did you find this article to be useful either in a functional or a reflective way?