The Writer’s Coin

One of the first links I bookmarked that is still in my Favorites toolbar when I began blogging was Problogger’s page titled 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. I remember reading it in a frenzy, trying to absorb as much knowledge as I could. Some of the tips I had seen in other places and so I figured I “knew them” already. So I didn’t pay much attention to those. But others were brand new and it was exciting to feel like I would soon be trying new things to make my blog a better blog.

But it’s just one of those things that you eventually fade out of. I stopped doing a lot of those things (or never tried them) because I felt like they “didn’t work.” Which was a mistake, of course.

Today I saw the link again in my Favorites and decided that, hey, why don’t I just systematically follow the advice the way it was meant to be followed—in 31 days? So that’s what I’m launching today. I’ll be doing one of the tips each day and trying to measure (traffic-wise) what kind of effect it has on the blog. I figure this gives me some good content to work with that will help this become a better blog, no matter what.

I’m not expecting this to turn my blog into a blockbuster or to cause thousands of readers to start subscribing, but I know it’ll be a good experience either way. Sometimes you have to just trust in the advice and blindly follow it. And who better to follow than the person behind Problogger?

So today’s tip is “Email a New Reader.” This is pretty straightforward and it’s easy to slack off on. But it’s important to put as much as possible into each task. Otherwise, what’s the point? So I found a really insightful, helpful comment on a recent post and am sending a nice email saying thank you. It may not sound like much, but at this point I don’t care about that—I’m just treating it like practice: work hard and don’t expect much. In the long run, I’m positive it’ll pay off one way or another.

Coming up tomorrow: Running a first-time reader audit

Tags: , 31 days to building a better blog, Blogging, email a new reader