Blogging is a skill.
Don't let anybody fool you.
Some desperate or outright clueless bloggers may say that you can master blogging in 3 to 6 months but this is an absolute lie. What human being can master any skill in 3 to 6 months? Most of us take years if not decades to become highly proficient in any one discipline.
Thank goodness blogging doesn't require a heavy learning curve but you still need to spend 2-4 years at least to sufficiently practice your skills in order to become a full time, professional blogger.
After being a full time blogger for many years and observing other established bloggers these are 4 tips to follow to improve your blogging skills.
1: Write 1000 Words Daily in a Word Document
Write.
Then write some more.
Writing daily just for practice helped improve my blogging skills like no other daily ritual.
I recall submitting my first guest post here on Basic Blog Tips back in 2012. I was one part terrified, 1 part confident. But only because I had been writing 1000 words daily – or more – either in a Word document or on my blog or via lengthy comments I published on top shelf blogs. If I had not written 1000 words daily I would just be terrified, not confident, and would never have submitted the guest post.
Write in a Word document to:
- improve your writing skills behind the scenes
- find your writing voice
- develop a sense of detachment about your writing
Most bloggers struggle to drive traffic or to land guest posts on top blogs because they have poor writing skills. Few bloggers write unless they are publishing a blog post, which is insane in my book. How can you improve as a blogger unless you're writing 1000 words or more daily?
Write!
2: Comments Effectively on 5 Blogs Daily
Blog commenting is the core of my blogger outreach campaign.
Promoting other bloggers through social media and through your blog rocks but learning the skill of effective blog commenting can take you and your blog to places you never envisioned.
Through blog commenting I:
- appeared on Richard Branson's Virgin blog, Forbes, Entrepreneur and Fox News
- spoke about blogging at NYU
- gained 2 tweet eBook endorsements from a NY Times Best Selling Author
- circled the globe as a professional, full time blogger
Blog commenting has been good to me but I had to be good to blog commenting by patiently and persistently developing my skills in this area,
Most bloggers mindlessly blast through comments and wonder why they rarely make an impact and never build friendships through commenting.
Effective blog commenting requires mindfulness, practice and a commitment to sharing robust, thoughtful, personalized, polite comments on authority blogs from your niche over the course of months.
Practice commenting on top blogs from your niche daily. Share a 2-3 paragraph – or longer – personalized comment that fleshes out a point made in the blog post.
Be polite. Be pleasant. If you disagree on some point ensure you find a point to agree upon. You are a guest in a fellow blogger's cyber home. Take your shoes off and be polite or risk muddying up the house and getting kicked out for good.
3: Create 1 Live Video Daily
I am obsessed with live broadcasts. In a good way.
I broadcast a live video on Facebook, Periscope, Instagram and YouTube as of this writing.
Creating live videos is fun and freeing but also helps me develop my blogging skill set. Video is the wave of the present and the future. Readers want to see a talking head associated with a blogging name, more than ever. Toss in the fact that broadcasting live videos gives you a confidence boost that you can apply to your entire blogging campaign and you see how creating live videos augments your blogging skill set tremendously.
Create a live video 2-3 days a week for starters. Pick one platform. Broadcast. Or if you want to put things into overdrive broadcast a live video daily.
If you need a tutorial, watch Ms. Ileane's series called Learn to Live Stream with Ms. Ileane. She has tutorials for all the major live streaming platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Periscope and much more.
4: Learn from Skilled Bloggers
Practicing proven, intelligent and effective strategies helps you become a skilled, successful blogger.
Learn from skilled bloggers to figure out what you need to work on daily to promote your blogging success.
If you wanted to learn what skills you'd need to start a blog check out this post from Web Hosting Secret Revealed:
How to Start a Blog (Step-by-Step Newbie Guide)
Reading this article points you in the right direction for skills to practice regularly to become a rocking blogger.
Your Turn
How are you becoming a skilled blogger?