Blog smarter in any niche (and a rant for good measure)!

Okay, I warn you this article is going to start with a rant. Sadly the following rant is true and it’s what has motivated me to write this post about the simple, easy, smart ways you can be a better blogger.

But first I need to say something.

Bloggers, you should be ashamed of yourself. You’ve managed to go from being a vibrant group of supportive, encouraging, and involved bloggers to a bunch of self-absorbed, arrogant, fakes.

Yes, you heard me right. I’ve been around long enough and earned my place in the blogging world to voice my opinion.

Yeah, I know. I make no claims of being an expert or top influential blogger. But I’ve done and seen enough to know of what I speak.

So what’s got me going on this admittedly very blunt rant? Well here are a few examples that have run my patience dry:

Bad blogging practises;

• People who arbitrarily follow as many other blogs as they can just to get people to follow them back and therefore make their blog “look” attractive.
• Then, of course, once in awhile, the above people have to go on a massive “speed Liking” or commenting spree of their follower’s posts to try and keep all of them happy and still following them.
• People who create multiple irrelevant social media accounts and use unsavoury methods to boost the numbers of those accounts, then connect them to your blogs via publicize, (a Jetpack feature for those of you who are self-hosted). Once again, to make their blog look super popular!
• Over-posting! In other words, publishing ridiculous amounts of posts per day. Thank goodness wp.com has caught on to the insanity of this problem and now have the new small reader combined cards for mass posters.
• Posting, then unpublishing, and republishing, over and over, multiple times a day hoping, I presume, once again, to gain more attention. (This rude practice bumps the post to the top of the reader multiple times.)
• Reblogging or copy and pasting their posts so that it looks like those posts have much more wp.com likes and traffic than they actually do. Some people have even gone so far as to copy and paste people’s Gravatars in!
• Buying fake people or Gravatars to “like” their posts.
• Buying fake followers for your blog or social media accounts.
• Copy and pasting articles from the internet and claiming authorship.
• Claiming authorship for lots of things that don’t belong to you. Even using photos from the web as their bio photo and family photos, including their supposed grandmother and kids!
•  Lying, lying, and lying about anything and everything! I’ve heard it all. (I think, I hope. I’m so sick of the lying!)
• Practising every conceivable, short-cut, “game-the-system,” and black hat tactic possible. In fact, there are way too may bloggers who spend more time and effort looking for ways to game the system than actually blog!

Is it really that important, does it make you feel that much better to get a few more phoney followers? Does all of the above crap really enrich your life that much?

Because if so, go ahead because I’m bowing out of this pony show, you’re on your own.

But here’s the thing, none of it works! None of it will bring you real readers, followers, success, or sales! I guarantee it. Ask anyone (who knows what they’re talking about, that is).

But on a much happier note let’s talk about good old-fashioned quality wp blogging and what it’s supposed to look like. 

How to blog Smarter:

Here are a couple of examples of bloggers who are blogging better by using smart, simple, and easy ideas to create quality articles and posts. I’m not promoting anyone for any reason these people just came to mind as I wrote this article.
More specific explanations are included in each example.

Examples of Bloggers who blog better the smart way;

Photographers;

Steve McCurry, an award-winning, Top National Geographic, and world-renowned photographer has a blog on wp.com. Steve only publishes a post every few months, and that’s all he needs to do. He creates stories using multiple images and beautiful quotes to tell remarkable and informative stories. His blog posts are what good blogging should attain to be.

Also, Jane Lurie, another excellent photographer but not as well known as Steve McCurry also creates lovely and informative stories with her photographs in a similar fashion. Bravo to both of them.

Fiction Writers;

Eloquently Kate always produces beautiful and well-written pieces of fiction on her blog. She also often includes a piece of background information regarding each piece. Her posts are well thought out and always entertaining. Kate publishes enough that her followers always eagerly await her newest piece but never too often.

Jan Joe’s, Born in the year of the dog, is another fiction blogger who hasn’t recently been publishing often but when she does, it’s like a gift to her readers. Her last long fiction story was enthralling, to say the least. That story alone will bring her many guaranteed readers should she publish a book. And that’s what a writer’s or potential author’s blog is ultimately about.

Beauty/Fashion Blogs;

This section is going to only include general points because sadly I don’t have a wp.com beauty or fashion blog to refer to that’s doing a great job! Yup, sad isn’t it.

I get it, fashion and makeup are fun. It’s like playing with big girl’s toys and who wouldn’t want to set up a blog about that? Maybe your friends think you’re good at it so off you go to blogging land.

But wait, there’s a tonne more to it than putting together outfits that you like or trying out different makeup looks. You have to know what you’re talking about. You need to be a trusted, informed source!

For example. If you’re going to do an Instagram “baddie” makeup post make sure that you know exactly what it really is and how to execute that look. Don’t just put two inches of foundation on and call it a baddie look simply due to the tonne of makeup you have on. That’s not a “baddie” look.
Plus, you need to research and add helpful, data-rich information to all of the pretty stuff. People want to be informed! Correctly, of course.

You need to be able to put your blog next to any other fashion/beauty blog and have it be comparable, plus have a unique reason why yours is better!

Why do you need to have all of these things? Because fashion/beauty blogs are a dime a dozen. You need to raise the bar and then surpass it. It’s a saturated and tight niche.
Actually blogging in all niches is a saturated market and that’s why you and all of us have to raise the bar and surpass it!

You don’t have to be an SEO expert or a keyword wizard to be a better blogger. Just work smarter, be more gracious, polite, and attentive to your readers. It’s easy, promise.
Good luck.