Top 10 Articles For New Bloggers
21. Jul, 2010 
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I have only been blogging for 7 months and while I am very far from being an expert, I have been amazed at how much information I have been able to acquire to help me to set up The Top 10 Blog and improve my blogging experience. This is the first in a series of articles which will be a compilation of the best resources that I have found that helped me and that hopefully will become a source of reference for others. You will find good practical advice here which I found most useful to me as a novice, if you are looking for in depth technical advice you are in the wrong place. (Although that may come later as my knowledge increases!) I will be adding my own thoughts and experience so that these authors are not doing all the work!
Please also visit the introduction to the series Top 10 Articles For…..
So you have decided you would like to blog, what now? So many questions going through your head, what to blog about, where to blog, how to blog and many, many more. By the time you have read these articles I hope you will have a much clearer plan of the what, how and where and be able to get cracking!
One piece of advice from me at the outset – don’t take it too seriously, relax and have fun, you are much more likely to be successful in my mind. Just click on the images or links to read the articles, I have also added Twitter links where appropriate.
1. Is blogging right for me?
That is a good question to ask your self at the outset. Read this article from Darren Rowse @problogger
23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You?
Problogger is a must read for all budding and more experienced bloggers, I could probably fill most of the Top 10 with articles from Darren but that wouldn’t have been half as much fun!
2. Five basic steps
This article by Misty Belardo @mistygirlph was published on Ink Rebels and sets out the basic steps you should consider when planning your blog. (You will see Misty’s name again, she is well worth following!)
When it came to the platform to use I started with Google Blogs to get the feel for the thing then moved to WordPress after a couple of months when I felt ready to add a bit more functionality. I suppose it all depends what you want to to do and where you want to go as to what will work best for you.
3. Layout
How do you want your blog to look, that will depend on what type of blog you have and who your target audience are. This article from The Blogging Meta Blog will give you some good pointers to the type of thing you should be thinking about.
A Rich Lush Template? Or a No-Frills Blog?
Have a good look around the free theme templates available on the platform you choose. Don’t be afraid to play around with them to get the right look and layout, you can always change later on. I found that the only way to learn what was right for me was to choose something then find out what didn’t work as I went along. When it then came to time to invest in a new theme I was much clearer in my mind about what I wanted.
4. Good habits
Excellent article from Annabel Candy in Copyblogger
This is the sort of advice I wish I had read before I started as developing these habits right from the start will stand you in good stead. I am trying Annabel, I am really trying but sometimes it’s hard to find the time to do some of these things. I will, I think return to these themes again and again as the series progresses as they form the bedrock of being a successful blogger to my mind.
5. Simple things to improve the look of your blog
OK so you have now decided what you want to blog about and you have set up your basic WordPress blog with a free theme. (I am using WordPress now so some articles, including this one will relate just to that platform.) This article from Shirley Osei-Mensah @ShirleyOM from her Shirley’s Zone sets out some simple things you need to do straight away.
5 Things To Do To Give Your New WordPress Blog A Great Start
I must admit That I didn’t like the ‘Hello Welcome’ page when I first set mine up but I really didn’t know there was an alternative. I suppose that’s why it’s a good idea to actually read this stuff and learn. Choose a Theme which will complement what you want to do. Check out the WordPress ‘Help’ pages if you need to check out how to do this stuff.
6. Plug ins
Plug Ins, a new concept to me when I began to blog. Put simply they are the things that you can add on to your blog to make them more interesting or easier to use. Have a look at this article from Nimit on COREBLOGGERS to learn more about the best of them.
There are many Plug Ins available and many versions of the same one that will do virtually the same thing so look around before you install one. A word of warning, some of them can affect how your blog operates, for example I was running the Disqus Plug In when I changed my Theme to Woo Spectrum and it meant that the Featured Posts feature wouldn’t work properly. It had to come out which was a shame, had anyone found a way round this one?
7. Images
I love putting images onto the posts, I feel it can add so much, but where to source them? There are loads of images on Google but I am aware that they might not be totally safe as I could be infringing someones copyright, not something I am keen to do!
I have come across this really helpful article from Petteri Ollila @PetteriOllila which was published by Famous Bloggers . Peter sets out the position with regard to ‘Creative Commons’ for which I am grateful and has links to some useful sites with free images.
8. Blogging as a business
Many people want to start a blog to promote a business, others want to use it as a means to bring out their creative side or maybe just to connect with other like minded people. For my part I started blogging as a hobby with a long term hope that I might make a few bob somewhere down the line ( I guess that will be a few cents in some parts of the world). Nothing has changed in my outlook, I am still doing it for fun but I am interested to keep an eye on how to make some earnings long term, you have to have a dream!!
This is an article that I found by @Denise Wakeman on Social Media Examiner . Denise looks at the additional things that you might want to consider if blogging for a business although it’s still well worth a read even if you are doing it for fun.
9. Content
I have heard it said that content is king and it is certainly true that if your content isn’t interesting then you won’t be getting many repeat visitors. There will be a lot to follow later about writing content but in the meantime I thought this article sums up the context of good content brilliantly.
It was written by @Dean Rieck and published in Copyblogger. Keep it by you as a reminder of how you should approach writing your content.
10. Common mistakes to avoid
So many mistakes and I have probably been guilty of making most of them. Diana Adams @adamsconsulting has compiled this excellent list of the main pitfalls to be avoided which was published by Ink Rebels.
Your new blog can only benefit from following Diana’s advice from the outset.
Tony’s Tip of the Week – If you are putting links in your posts check that they work and that they take you to the right place. I also like to ‘target’ the link to a new window rather than opening in the window you are in, that means that the reader is not leaving your site. (Just checked mine again, one not working, Phew!!)
If you are new to or are thinking of blogging I hope you have found this mix of great articles and the benefit of the experience of someone who has recently done it useful.
Please let me have your comments, Of course there are many, many more fantastic authors and articles out there and I can only reflect on those I have seen. So please let me have your favourites so that we can build a great reference resource for everyone to use.
I hope you enjoy checking out the sites I have featured, remember to leave your comments on them as well.
Please return next Wednesday for the next in this weekly series, Top 10 Articles for .. Writing good Content!
Other ‘Top 10′s Articles for….’ to follow include ‘Promoting your Blog’ and ‘Tweeting’.
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