You main objective for setting up a blog is most likely to attract the specific type of readers that you want to have. Beyond this primary objective, there are other goals that the best bloggers all strive to achieve.
These 5 blogging goals all require you to keep the big picture in mind. Your team needs to understand the value that each goal contributes to the overall success of your blog. Like websites, blogs also take time to rank high—and stay on top. These 5 goals will make optimization easier and at the same time, help you build a better and a mutually beneficial relationship with your readers.
1. Have a stash of good content ready for posting
Having a stock of pre-written content is a very good way to avoid cramming. However, even with a good stash of pre-written content, you still have to make sure that they’re relevant and updated before you post them online.
Editing for currency and timeliness becomes easy if your writing team is clear with the focus and the communication objective of your blog. Make it a habit to check for grammar and spelling errors before publishing.
2. Turn your readers into a community
Your reader base starts off as a bunch of regular visitors. As your writing evolves to become more targeted and more directly conversational, people will naturally find themselves making your blog a part of their daily routine.
Effective writing elicits a reaction—whether a call to action, a positive comment, or a negative comment. When you’re consistently successful at getting reactions, your readers will build themselves an online community within your blog. People are naturally social creatures whether online or not. To achieve this goal, your job is to make your writing relevant enough for people to ponder on, make them wonder out loud and ask each other questions.
3. Earn the respect of other top bloggers
Earning the respect (and links) of fellow bloggers requires very good credibility. You have to know what you’re talking about. You content cannot be a paraphrased version of someone else’s.
Visit top ranking blogs in your category and those related to your focus. You’ll learn a lot from these. While you’re at it, leave useful and relevant comments and spark interesting, on-topic conversations with other readers.
4. Listen and interact with readers
Never neglect your readers. Acknowledge when they post a comment, and take negative posts as constructive criticism. Have the initiative to take out spam comments so as not to annoy your readers.
Take their suggestions to heart. You don’t have to apply all of them, but do promise that you’ll take their suggestions into consideration. Thank the right people when you actually decide to apply a suggestion.
5. Turn mistakes into lessons for improvement
Acknowledge when you’ve made a public mistake. Fix it at once if you can. If you need more time, post something that tells people when you expect to get it done. Learn from each mistake, and tell your team about it. Find out how it happened, and discuss the different ways to avoid the same problem.