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When I started blogging, I came across a lot of confusing things. I didn’t know what to expect or how to best use my resources, so I thought I’d help other new bloggers by sharing some important tips I wish I’d known.

Growing your readership

Once you’ve started your blog, you’ve probably realized the readers don’t come to visit all by themselves. You have to put forth some effort to make them come back again and again! Here are a few things you can try:

Choose your content with care

I’ve seen a lot of blogs do 5-7 posts a week, but the content might be average to not compelling at all. That’s not going to get you more readers, so you need to change your game. Choose quality above quantity! Combining your own opinion with researched facts gives you more credibility and makes it interesting to read. Honesty is the best policy, so don’t lie. Don’t say you like something if you really hate it. People appreciate honesty more than you think.

Here are 10 tips I use that guarantee growth for your blog:

1. Write something newsworthy
2. Write something insightful
3. Write something that elicits an emotional response
4. Write something inspirational
5. Write something that tells a story
6. Write something that gets a laugh
7. Write something opinionated
8. Write something about something cool
9. Write something controversial
10. Write something unique

Develop your unique writing style

The best tip I can give you is to write as if you’re talking to someone. Express your true opinions and don’t try to write like someone else – find your own voice. Find topics that keep your readers interested and take risks! Don’t be afraid to experiment with different subjects.

Learn accurate punctuation and check your spelling and grammar. This is very important because you want the readers to understand what you mean and to avoid miss communication. Use quotation marks when you’re writing something that is not your own words, and remember to link to those who inspire your ideas.

Make your blog search-friendly

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. It helps search engines direct people interested in what you talk about to your blog. SEO requires a lot of work, but there are a lot of websites that can teach you how to use SEO to your advantage. The two sites that are the best in the field are Problogger and SEObook.

Participate in communities and social networks

Participating in different communities and social media is also a great way to increase your readership and establish new friendships and business opportunities. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help! I’ve spoken to a lot of bloggers to see how they’re doing and mutually broaden our knowledge by sharing information.
Some popular communities include:

• Independent Fashion Bloggers
• Delance Fashion Community
• Lookbook.nu
• Chictopia

If you’re leaving comments on other blogs, try to make them more worthwhile. Instead of just saying “cute dress!”, try writing something more in depth, describing why you like something, or what you thought was unique about the post.

Send newsletters

I’ve recently discovered something cool: newsletters. There are loads of benefits to starting a newsletter for your blog, including traffic building, monetization and building a rapport with your readers. As I’m working on my own newsletter, I’m thinking about what makes a good newsletter and what makes me mark the sender as spam!

I advise keeping your newsletter small and personal–people love blogs because they have an individual touch. Campaign Monitor offers 30 free email templates, or you can use Feedburner to automatically send RSS newsletters to every subscriber.