{"id":207436,"date":"2024-02-23T20:51:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T20:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/23\/a-bloggers-guide-to-success\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:21:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:21:40","slug":"a-bloggers-guide-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/23\/a-bloggers-guide-to-success\/","title":{"rendered":"A Blogger&#8217;s Guide to Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1184382 jetpack-lazy-image\" alt=\"Mastering the Art of Listening: A Blogger's Guide to Success\" width=\"1024\" height=\"573\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=1024%2C573&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=768%2C430&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=635%2C355&amp;ssl=1 635w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=150%2C84&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=70%2C39&amp;ssl=1 70w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?w=1430&amp;ssl=1 1430w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=1024%2C573&amp;is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1\"\/><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" data-lazy-fallback=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1184382\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=1024%2C573&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Mastering the Art of Listening: A Blogger's Guide to Success\" width=\"1024\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=1024%2C573&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=768%2C430&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=635%2C355&amp;ssl=1 635w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=150%2C84&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?resize=70%2C39&amp;ssl=1 70w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/problogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Mastering-the-Art-of-Listening-A-Bloggers-Guide-to-Success.png?w=1430&amp;ssl=1 1430w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Once upon a time, I <a href=\"https:\/\/problogger.com\/confessions-of-a-blogger-slide-deck\/\">shared a set of slides from a presentation<\/a> which outlines a variety of lessons that I\u2019ve learned as a blogger. Over the coming months I intend to expand upon many of the points in that presentation \u2013 starting today with \u2018Listening\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>When I began blogging in 2002 I made a lot of mistakes and had a lot of false assumptions about blogging. One of the things I quickly found out didn\u2019t work when trying to grow a blog was to use it purely as a broadcast tool.<\/p>\n<p>In the first few weeks of blogging it was almost as though I was using the blog as a platform or a stage where I stood with a megaphone in hand blasting out my message for anyone who might happen to be passing by to hear. It\u2019s no wonder that only my wife read my blog that first week (and even she never really came back).<\/p>\n<p>Nobody likes a loud mouth. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of someone talking AT them.<\/p>\n<p>The people we tend to be drawn to in real life are people who pause in conversation to let you have a say, people who ask questions about you, people who have a genuine interest in what you\u2019ve got to say.<\/p>\n<p>The same is true (in most cases) when it comes to blogging.<\/p>\n<p>Of course there are cases where blogs are successfully used as broadcast tools with little interaction between blogger and reader \u2013 however in most cases there is at least some element of \u2018listening\u2019 going on by the blogger. Let me explore a few ways that a blogger should consider \u2018listening\u2019:<\/p>\n<h3>Listen to the culture of the blogosphere<\/h3>\n<p>This is one for those yet to start blogging (and it should also be applied to those getting into new social media tools like Twitter, Facebook etc).<\/p>\n<p>I was chatting with a new blogger recently who described her first week of blogging as being similar to travelling to a new country and having to adjust to a new language, climate, etiquette and customs as an outsider.<\/p>\n<p>When travelling overseas for an extended stay (perhaps for a new job) most travellers know that one of their first tasks as a new resident is to make some cultural adjustments.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>learning some basic words in the local language<\/li>\n<li>finding a local who can talk them through the etiquette<\/li>\n<li>getting a map so that they can find their way around<\/li>\n<li>learning to use systems like public transport\u2026. etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a similar way \u2013 when you\u2019re new to the blogosphere (or any new part of the social media-sphere) it\u2019s important to pause, take stock, learn about the culture, learn to use the tools, discover what is acceptable (and not acceptable), learn the rhythms etc<\/p>\n<p>The danger in not learning the culture of the blogosphere is doing something that not only doesn\u2019t work but that offends \u2018the locals\u2019 and hurts your reputation.<\/p>\n<h3>Listen for where your potential readers are gathering<\/h3>\n<p>One of the key tasks that any new blogger who wants to grow their readership should do is identify where their potential readers are already gathering online.<\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned a couple of weeks back \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/problogger.com\/the-myth-of-great-content-marketing-itself\/\">it\u2019s not enough just to build a good blog with great content in order to find readers for your blog<\/a>. If you want people to know about your blog you need to \u2018get out there\u2019 and interact with them and develop a presence in the places that your potential readers are already gathering.<\/p>\n<p>Of course before you can find these places you need to have an understanding of who you\u2019re trying to attract \u2013 so do a little work on defining who you want to read your blog and then begin to look for where that type of person is already gathering (I talk more about how I did this in this recent video on <a href=\"https:\/\/problogger.com\/how-to-promote-a-blog-2\/\">how I use promote my blog<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h3>Listen to what others in your niche are saying<\/h3>\n<p>One of the most powerful things that I did which helped take my early blogs to the next level was to begin to monitor what others in my niche\/industry were talking about.<\/p>\n<p>I discovered the power of this accidentally one day when I just happened to be surfing on another small blog that broke news of a big story. I picked up the story on my own blog (linking to the first) and then my post got picked up by a massive blog which drew in a lot of new readers. Knowing what was happening in the niche helped to break stories but also build relationships with other bloggers in the niche.<\/p>\n<p>Back then the tools for monitoring other blogs and topics were primitive and meant some manual hunting around (I remember in the very early days having to manually bookmark the blogs I wanted to track and visit them each every day to see if they\u2019d posted anything new) but these days it is a lot easier to set up and automate.<\/p>\n<p>My own monitoring of my niches generally happens in two ways:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b>Subscribing to Feeds of Key Sources of Information<\/b> \u2013 these days most sites have some way of subscribing to them, usually via an RSS feed. I have a folder in my feed reader for each of my main topics which contains a number of key blogs and news sites in that niche. I used to follow close to a thousand blogs to do this \u2013 but these days have refined the list to much less for each topic.<\/li>\n<li><b>2. Keyword Alerts<\/b> \u2013 using Google\u2019s news and blog alerts I have a number of alerts set up so that if any news site or blog uses a keyword that I\u2019m interested in I know about it. Choosing keywords that are specific enough can take a little time (some words just generate too many alerts) but on almost a daily basis these alerts identify important posts in my niches.<\/li>\n<li><b>Recommendation Sites<\/b> \u2013 the other listening tool that I use to help me know what\u2019s going on in my niches is to subscribe to sites that are in the business of looking for popular content in my niches. These sites can be a little hard to find depending upon your niche but because I\u2019m largely working in the Tech space there are a few including <a href=\"http:\/\/techmeme.com\/\">TechMeme<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.delicious.com\">Delicious<\/a>. TechMeme looks at what content key blogs are linking to in the tech space and Delicious is a bookmarking site that produces a list of popular content being bookmarked at any point in time (it\u2019s not purely tech related but does consistently produce good results for me). Both of these sites have RSS feeds you can subscribe to to monitor what\u2019s hot.<\/li>\n<li><b>Twitter\/X<\/b> \u2013 I also find that being active on Twitter and developing a Twitter account that has a niche focus can also help you listen to what people are saying about your niche. This partly happens naturally (those you follow in your niche will share links) but there are also great tools including Tweetmeme (which shows you what is being retweeted in different categories) and other monitoring\/search tools such as Twitter search (you can set up an RSS feed for different search terms) and tools built into Twitter clients (like TweetDeck which allows you to set up a column specifically for alerts). More and more useful tools are being set up for Twitter to help monitor what people are saying about your industry.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Listen to what is being said about you<\/h3>\n<p>The other use for some of the tools mentioned above (keyword alerts and the Twitter keyword monitoring) is that you can use them to alert you when someone is talking about you, your business, your blog or your brand specifically.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve talked previously about setting up a <a href=\"https:\/\/problogger.com\/reasons-to-have-a-vanity-folder-in-your-news-aggregator\/\">vanity folder<\/a> in your feed reader to help you do this so won\u2019t go into great detail about it here \u2013 however it\u2019s something that I\u2019ve found particularly useful for a couple of reasons:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b>Building Relationships<\/b> \u2013 when another blogger links to you it is useful to know about it so you can go and build a relationship with that blogger and their readers.<\/li>\n<li><b>Reputation Management<\/b> \u2013 from time to time you might also be mentioned on another site\/blog\/press in a more negative way. Knowing quickly about this is also important as it enables you to respond (if necessarily) or at least monitor developments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Create Listening Spaces on Your Blog<\/h3>\n<p>Have you ever had a \u2018conversation\u2019 with someone where you simply could not get a word in edgeways? The person talked so fast and without taking a breath \u2013 to the point where there simply wasn\u2019t space for you to be listened to.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I get that same feeling while on blogs. It\u2019s not that the blogger isn\u2019t interested in their reader \u2013 it\u2019s just that they get so excited about what they\u2019re blogging about that they just don\u2019t stop long enough to let others have a say.<\/p>\n<p>One of the simplest ways to create these \u2018listening spaces\u2019 on a blog is to ask questions. Ask them at the end of your posts, ask them half way through the and even write posts that are nothing but questions.<\/p>\n<h3>Listen to the Questions Your Readers are Asking<\/h3>\n<p>One of the most important things to be on the listen out for is questions.<\/p>\n<p>I remember one of my first teachers drumming into the class I was in that there was no such thing as a dumb question and that if one person asked a question it usually meant that others also had the same question going around in their minds.<\/p>\n<p>As a result \u2013 when a reader asks you a question, you can bet that they\u2019re not the only one thinking it.<\/p>\n<p>Questions reveal potential topics to write about, problems with your site and opportunities to expand what you\u2019re doing on your blog. Pay careful attention to them in the following areas:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b><b>comments section<\/b> \u2013 this is the most obvious place for your readers to ask questions<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>your inbox<\/b> \u2013 what questions are you getting from readers via your blog\u2019s contact form?<\/li>\n<li><b>search engine referral terms<\/b> \u2013 often people arrive on your site having plugged a specific question into Google. Most stats packages will reveal these terms and phrases \u2013 keep on the look out specifically for questions \u2013 also check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.103bees.com\">103bees<\/a> \u2013 a tool that specifically monitors and collates questions being asked in your search stats.<\/li>\n<li><b>questions typed into onsite search boxes<\/b> \u2013 this is a goldmine of information, monitoring what people are searching for when they\u2019re actually on your site will show you all kinds of needs, problems and challenges that your readers want to learn more about. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lijit.com\">Lijit<\/a> is one tool that helps you track these questions.<\/li>\n<li><b>ask readers for questions<\/b> \u2013 from time to time it can be worth writing a post on your blog that specifically invites readers to ask a question.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Listen to what is working (and what isn\u2019t)<\/h3>\n<p>The last thing I\u2019ll add on the topic of listening before I open this topic up to others to share their thoughts is to listen by tracking what is and isn\u2019t working on your blog.<\/p>\n<p>This means setting up your blog with a good metrics tool (I use Google Analytics but there are other great ones out there) and regularly using it to work out what is readers are responding to on your blog.<\/p>\n<p><b>Some places to start include:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What posts are being read most?<\/li>\n<li>What posts are generating good conversation\/comments?<\/li>\n<li>What posts are being linked to by others most?<\/li>\n<li>How are readers using your design? (use a tool like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crazyegg.com\">CrazyEgg<\/a> to create a heatmap)<\/li>\n<li>What days of the week are people reading your site most on? What times of the day?<\/li>\n<li>What pages are people \u2018bouncing\u2019 from your site on (bounce rate shows how many people arrive on your blog and immediately leave)<\/li>\n<li>What posts are people spending most (and least) time on?<\/li>\n<li>What posts are you getting most negative feedback on?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is easy to obsess on some of these stats \u2013 but it\u2019s also easy to ignore the useful stuff in them that could help you improve your blog.<\/p>\n<h3>How else do you Listen in your blogging?<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019ve talked for way too long on a post about listening \u2013 so now it\u2019s over to you.<\/p>\n<p>What would you add? Do you use some of the above techniques? What has worked well for you? I\u2019m all ears!<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"tve_leads_end_content\" style=\"display: block; visibility: hidden; border: 1px solid transparent;\"\/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1420262834888800');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/problogger.com\/listening-successful-bloggin\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Once upon a time, I shared a set of slides from a presentation which outlines a variety of lessons that I\u2019ve learned as a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342694,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207436\/revisions\/342694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}