THE 5 P's OF BLOGGING

THE 5 P's OF SUCCESSFUL BLOGGING

I grabbed this list from my sweet friend Beki's blog. (http://pamperingbeki.blogspot.com/)

She keeps up with her blog as much as I do mine if not more than me actually. Like her, I am repeatedly asked about my blog from family, friends, and even random strangers. I've been recognized at my local mall in J.C. Penny's due to my blog before. No, I did not know the person. Scary huh? I know her now though. :) Anywho, blogging seems to be intriguing to some and yet tideous to most. What most don't realize is that it literally only takes me 5 minutes to post an update on the blog each day. ("usually" just 5 minutes) Sometimes I get a little long winded but for the most part, blogging is quick and painless for me. I use it as an outlet as well as a way to network my business. Like the new blog header states above, it is life "behind the scenes with AGD." Thus, why I incorporate my family life, friends, favorite finds, etc. into my updates here. Either way, I thought I'd post these tips over here on my blog for those of you contemplating starting a blog yourself. I think Beki's tips are right on and will work very well for each of you considering a blog. A lot of you don't realize that I had a "family website" back before blogging was even cool. I started in 1999. I would post or "blog" on the website every Sunday night. We had quite the following - again...even strangers from other countries. Therefore, when "blogging" became blogging....I fell into it very naturally due to the fact that I had been doing it for years up to this point. It is always amazing to me how many people hit the site and or blog each day and from where they originate from. For example, within the last 24 hours, we've had visitors from the states of Ohio, Florida, California, Indiana, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Kansas, Illinois, Texas, New York, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, & Missouri. That is 21 states total just in the past 24 hours. As far as different countries....(get this now)...we've had visitors from Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Austrailia, France, Germany, & China. The out of the country visitors always intrigue me so very much! I love having the sitemeter so I can tell who has hit the blog/website and so I can see how they ended up there. (whether a link from me or a search engine that sent them there on their quest to find a specific item) So, it is my personal mission to make this blog as interesting as possible so my frequent visitors don't get bored. Especially my AGD clients. I MUST keep cranking out those designs to keep you buyers happy. :) Either way, thanks to each and every one of you who frequent the blog. If you are a stalker to this blog, it's time to give us a shout out and say hello. We'd love to hear from all of ya. Leave us a comment or two when you can and do keep in touch. Now for those 5 P's of successful blogging...

1. Post often. Blog readers like to see new content fairly often when they check in.

2. Pictures. There are a few rare successful blogs that are driven by words alone but for the most part pictures help tremendously. Many people view blog hopping like flipping through magazines. Which pages are you most likely to stop on? The ones with interesting pictures that grab your attention, not those with a lot of words.

3. Personality. Be genuine. Part of the appeal to blog readers is to get a peek into the life of the author. How personal you want to get depends, of course, on the focus of your blog and your intended audience.

4. Permutation. (Thank you dictionary.com.) It's great to have a specific topic that your blog is directed to, but the same ol' thing every day can get a bit boring. So keep it fresh by introducing new topics, jokes, tutorials, videos, etc. occacionally.

5. Particpate. I was completely shocked to learn that on the whole, there is a blogging community! Get involved. Visit other blogs that interest you and leave comments. Share the link on your own blog. Participate in the community and you'll be more successful than you can imagine.