If you’re a blogger, there are many issues to consider when creating content, promoting it, and designing the aesthetic of your blog. Whether you work for a marketing agency like Quick Sprout with a number of different online clients or are launching your own blog, ask yourself these six questions in order to get yourself on the fast track to success:

What is your niche? Don’t blog in a vacuum. Decide who your blog is for and actively write for that audience. If your blog is about graphic design, specify what medium of graphic design—online, advertising, manufacturing, etc. Any general category you think of can be drilled down into at least a half dozen other sub-categories. Honing in on the most lucrative sub-category and niche audience will allow you to focus your content, marketing, and publishing outreach.

Do you update multiple times a week? One of the best ways to make sure your blog rises to the top of search engine queries is to frequently update your content with media-rich posts. In fact, fresh content is one of the most important and fundamental elements in search engine optimization as well.

How familiar are you with your content management system? Most CMSs, from popular ones like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla to smaller, simpler systems like PageLime, Konductor, Zimplit, and Perch, allow bloggers incredible tools for customizing their content and aesthetic.

Do you study your analytics? Most content management systems allow you to monitor your inbound links and see what search engine results are leading readers to your blogs. This affords you many useful ways to calibrate your keywords and tailor your marketing strategies. The further you dig into your blog’s stats the more you will learn about what kinds of people are reading your content, how long they are staying on your site, and whether or not they’re sharing your posts.

What is your approach to SEO? Hopefully you’re utilizing a combination of keywords, meta-tags, link building, social bookmarking, and a wide variety of other search engine optimization tactics. SEO isn’t just for online marketing agencies. Bloggers can employ on-page SEO strategies that can greatly improve their page views and value.

Do you use social media? You should integrate social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and YouTube as well as social news aggregators like Reddit and Digg. Notonly do these sites expand the reach of your blog across the Internet, it opens you up to new readers.

Answering these questions will not assure you of blogging success, but it’s hard imagine you won’t be headed in the right direction. The all-star blogger will be simultaneously considering how to improve his/her content, aesthetic, stats, and outreach strategies.

About the author
Guest post by Nick Jameson. He is a freelance writer specializing in business and marketing

If you do, publish a post about it and besides impressing your readers with the techniques and strategies you put into building your blogs success, you’ll also have a chance to win some really cool prizes!

Alex Cristache of Blogsessive is hosting his very first group writing project and is offering a prize with a branding twist: it’s basically everything you need design wise to build a powerful online brand. And yours truly is in the jury!

On to the Rules

• Your post must be new.
• To be valid, you must include the a specific paragraph mentioning the sponsors.
• Recommended: link back to the announcement post.
• To submit your entry, use Blogsessive’s contact form. Choose ‘Group Writing Project’ in the subject, fill in your name, email address and use the Website field for your , entry’s permalink. Give a short description about yourself in the Message field.

I imagine some of you might have a problem with linking to the sponsors, but Alex got some really cool prizes from those two sponsors for you and we should be supportive. To improve my argument here’s the prize list:

1. One identity package – logo, business card and letterhead design – by Alex
2. One “Personal licence” for the Edge premium WordPress theme, created by Blog Design Studio
3. 500 business cards printed using your newly won design by U Printing

All these goodies will go to the contest winner. Also, there will be 2 consolation prizes, each of 250 business cards by the same U Printing.

Deadline: September 30, midnight

To find out more about this group writing project, read Alex’s announcement entry.

Good luck everyone!

Guest post by Alex Cristache

The list of blogs and online magazines offering tips and advice has been growing exponentially every year. Even I am the founder of one such “blogging tips” blog.

With all the hype created around this type of blogs and the (in)famous “make money online” blogs, people seem to overlook one significant thing: these blogs offer tips and advice, but encourage you to experiment.

Experiments – Trial and error

The keyword in the phrase above is “experiment”, which is something that too many start-up bloggers understand as a step-by-step implementation of the tips provided by the multitude of “Simon says” blogs out there.

Bloggers are human, and just as in the real life, you won’t find two bloggers that will react the same way in similar situations. Tips should be always passed through your own filter and compared to past events from your own online experience.

To experiment around tips means to elaborate on them, to select not simply the working solution, but the best working solution. To achieve that, you’re likely to pass through a few unsuccessful steps, each telling you where you did wrong and what can still be improved. But you know the old saying: “No pain, no gain”.

Take it one step further

Before you start implementing new ideas, try to take your analysis one step beyond. THINK about the impact of what you’re about to do. Could what you estimate as the end result be in conflict with any of your existing achievements and targets? If so, in what way could you improve or adapt the new idea so that it will perfectly fit in your blog’s general line of evolution.

Don’t be afraid to experiment! Don’t do what “Simon says” or “Simon does”. Interpret and adapt.

Alex Cristache is 27 and has been working for top Romanian web design, development and consultancy companies for over 9 years. Quite impressive for his young age, don’t you agree?

He’s tried a lot up to now: web designer, senior web, print & logo designer, occasional copywriter, web & SEO consultant and project manager. Although he focuses on design, he’s also been working with PHP & MySQL on the side. He also fell in love with WordPress the moment it appeared on the market and changed our lives.

He currently blogs at Blogsessive.com and runs CREATIVEurope, a website bookmarking the best European creative portfolios available.