{"id":30408,"date":"2013-10-03T13:47:31","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T13:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandignitybeta.com\/demo\/brandlatest\/2013\/10\/03\/getting-into-action-what-bloggers-should-do-everyday\/"},"modified":"2013-10-03T13:47:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T13:47:31","slug":"getting-into-action-what-bloggers-should-do-everyday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/brandignitybeta.com\/demo\/brandlatest\/getting-into-action-what-bloggers-should-do-everyday\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Into Action: What Bloggers Should Do, Everyday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Everyday<\/a><\/p>\n

Blogging isn\u2019t easy, simple, or a single shot to financial freedom. It\u2019s not anything like you\u2019ve been trained to believe and buy into. The gurus can scam you all they like but you\u2019ll eventually get to a point that you\u2019ll understand. Either that or you\u2019ll just take my word for it and avoid years getting wasted away launching half-hearted blogging adventures.<\/p>\n

Avoid buying into the hype. If it were so easy, everyone would do it. Sweat, blood, and tears go into blogging that make it worth the effort. But what sweat? What exactly do you have to do? Here\u2019s what you should be doing every single, for years to come:<\/p>\n

Reading for your very life<\/b><\/h3>\n

You can\u2019t blog if you don\u2019t read. Reading books, magazines, and your niche specific sources is the single biggest investment into blogging that you\u2019ll ever make. While reading like your life depends on it is also one of the secrets that some of the greatest politicians, entrepreneurs, and other successful people rely on, we\u2019ll ignore that for the moment.<\/p>\n

Reading gives you vocabulary. It introduces to different styles of writing. More often than not, your mind begins to form patterns that help you to write stronger and better. Further, reading what others write not only expands your knowledge but also helps you explore your own inner voice. JJ Wong of Inspirationboost.com took the trouble to list out how exactly reading helps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blogging requires strong, opinionated writing justified by experience, deduction, insights, attitude, and of course, facts. Without reading, you\u2019ll never be able to blog \u2013 be it for yourself, your business, or others.<\/p>\n

Writing away into eternity<\/b><\/h3>\n

Writers could take long sabbaticals and head off to exotic tropics to get their mojo back \u2013 a break has the potential to revive their mind, give them inspiration, and help their brains get back to writing better. Blogging, however, isn\u2019t like writing a novel. Blogging is more like publishing a magazine, which includes working well into unearthly hours, tight deadlines, collaboration, and planning.<\/p>\n

Further, you can\u2019t spit out anything that doesn\u2019t make sense. You can\u2019t rewrite, regurgitate, and sew three other articles into one. According to Ashley Robinson, it\u2019s one of those 12 reasons you won\u2019t make it as a blogger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Your writing tasks don\u2019t end there: writing also involves email copy you send out to subscribers (you are building your list, aren\u2019t you?), reaching out to other guest bloggers for your blogger outreach programs, leaving comments on other blogs, and responding to comments on your own posts.<\/p>\n

Your writing will also include your contributions on forums, groups, and other communities. You\u2019ll also end up writing articles not only your own blog but also ones to go on your peers\u2019 and friends\u2019 blogs as \u201cguest\u201d posts!<\/p>\n

All of that writing, by the way, has to consistent. Consistency, according to Neil Patel of QuickSprout.com, is one of the keys<\/a> to your growth.<\/p>\n

Researching to the core of the blog<\/b><\/h3>\n

There\u2019s also the aspect of \u201cbeing in the know.\u201d Bloggers just have to know<\/i>, for which they have to use the right tools!<\/p>\n

Who visits your blog? Where are your readers from? What are the geographical areas that your reader base represents? If you are selling digital products or memberships, who are your customers? Do you know your shopping cart abandonment rate? Use Google Analytics to gather data on this. If you have WordPress as your CMS, use the Jetpack plugin<\/a> for insights on traffic, social sharing, subscription and other data.<\/p>\n

Are you targeting an authority site or reputed blog to share your thougths over there? What do you actually know about a site itself? While you can easily find out metrics related to your own site, it\u2019s a tad difficult to dig out those of sites you don\u2019t own. Don\u2019t despair \u2013 you can use Wmtips.com to fetch Whois info, Alexa, Compete, Technorati and other third-party stats. You can also head over to Who Is Hosting This<\/a> to uncover hosting information or even compare reviews of hosting providers.<\/p>\n

When you are interacting with others, contacting other bloggers, leaving comments, and responding to comments on your blog, pause to think \u2013 who are these people to whom you are talking? Not everyone has an \u201cabout\u201d page on their website so how do you find out? Drill down to any and every social media or Web 2.0 network they use \u2013 you\u2019re bound to get some<\/i> information from their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, or Disqus profiles.<\/p>\n

For most others, reading and digging is optional. Not for bloggers.<\/p>\n

Marketing like a true hustler<\/b><\/h3>\n

You started a blog, made an editorial calendar, and started blogging away. You\u2019ll begin to get marginal visits and trickling traffic to your blog and that\u2019s a good start.<\/p>\n

Marginal won\u2019t do for you though. You\u2019ll need more visits, and much more relevant traffic. So, you\u2019ll now have to sit and make a marketing plan. More importantly, you\u2019ll have to actually lift the boulders and sweat it out. Marketing a blog isn\u2019t easy, but it\u2019s not difficult either:<\/p>\n