About the author: VM edits grammar for a living and writes about reading, writing and storytelling on his blog mypajama.com.
"To be successful, you have to be unique." -- Walt Disney
"Everyone is an expert on something." -- Larry King
Generally, blogs that do not cover a specific topic or issue are difficult to market. The obvious reason being you can't tell people why they should visit your blog. Because you don't know yourself! You write what you are passionate about and on issues you feel strongly about. There is nothing wrong with that and there is no reason you should have to pay for that.
I am not talking about marketing tools. Heavens know there is plenty of information about those out there and in here (bloggst I mean
). Marketing tools can only help you get the word out. That is why it is important you choose the words carefully.
General blogs can't be promoted as general blogs. What you need to do is push a certain aspect of your blog upfront and market it as what your blog is about. Your blog isn't really general. In fact, it is impossible for your blog to be 'about everything' (am totally sick and tired of that phrase). I can name a gazillion things that find no mention in your blog. Your 'everything' is just a small slice of the Internet's 'everything'.
You probably blog about your life, hobbies, and job. You write on the books you read and the movies you watch. So what you ask? Lots of people do that you say? They do. But they are not you.
What makes your experiences unique is the fact that they belong to you and no one else. When you realise how important that is, it will become easier for you to define your blog. After you do that, you can tell people about your blog without looking vain and self obsessed, or worse.
In short, instead of having a blog description that says:
Quote:
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"Everything about me and my world."
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...have your blog description really say something. Like this:
Quote:
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"This blog chronicles the adventures of a tech-support guy and features his musings on science fiction, animation and comics."
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Once you have done that, you will find a set of invisible guidelines determining what you post. Then you can start veering towards one or more of those topics (it will become easier) until your blog becomes known for insightful posts on life as a tech-support guy (or sci-fi, or animation, or whatever).
Use this description of your blog at a very visible place on your blog. If possible, have it on every static page and post page. Use the keywords in it plenty of times in your post titles. Use them when submitting your blog to RSS aggregators.
Also, do make an effort to educate yourself on the topics that you write about. That way, you will earn credibility of your readership. In their eyes you will become something of an expert rather than just another hobbyist blogging about things that interest him/her. This gathering of expertise doesn't even have to be something back-breaking.
Invest in books and subscribe to blogs that are well-known in your field. You could even do an online course and flaunt your 'qualifications' on your blog's about page. Keeping your readers updated with your progress would also help. Imagine a post every now and then on how you have been reading this ultracool book called "
A Brief History of Science Fiction".
Lastly, perish the notion that the only way to succeed with your blog is the way those before you have followed. Remember that those before you had no one to follow. I am always amused by the phrase 'formula for success'.
If you blog for the love of it and would like to see your blog grow (as opposed to just seeing it as a moneymaker), consider this friendly advice from my own experience.
