How Participating in Other Blogs' Activities Can Drastically Improve Your Blog

Spontaneously on Labor Day Weekend, I decided to go back through my entire blog and see how many comments I've gotten over the three years I've had this blog. I had noticed that this year I've gotten more comments than I have any other year so I decided to analyze the data and figure out why. Views are great and all, but reader interaction is the key.

Here's some of the data I've found put into handy dandy charts:

And I'm not even through the year yet. This is only to August 2015.
I scheduled this in advance so plus the September 2015 comments it's up to 479. 

September's comment count is 103!

So what in the world happen in April 2015? I went from having a crappy amount of comments per month to averaging sixty. (Maybe you other better bloggers have more but this is a pretty big leap for me. XD) What changed? Before the Great Leap of 2015, I was already blogging consistently, replying to every comment, staying on topic, gotten Blog Lovin', and changed my commenting system to better one (Thanks for the advice Cait @ Paper Fury).

The trick was that's when I started participating in a lot of blog activities. Link-ups, guest posts, tags, you name it. I did a ton of them and I'm continuing to do them. Why? Well, let me tell you.

1.) Readers Want to Get to Know You - When you run a blog like mine, which is a personal blog, like many people I know run, people need to get to know the writer of the blog. The blog is about you and if the reader can't relate to you, it's hard for them to like the blog. Tags and link-ups that ask questions about you help the reader get to know you and find common ground. I've had a lot of great conversations in the comments with people geeking out over a show or character I've mentioned in a tag.

2.) People See You in Tags, Link-Ups and Guest Posts - One of the things you do in tags is you link back to the place where you found the tag thus the line starts then the people you tag link back to you and so on. In a link-up, a bunch of links including yours are posted in one place for people to check out. Guest posts are more work, but you're doing another blog a favor and in turn they link back to your blog. People can click on the links and find you.

They'll hopefully not see you in a malicious Sauron-type way. ^ ^'

3.) You Can Find More Blogs and Interact With Them - Just because you participate in a lot of these and want a bunch of people to click on your links, don't be a snob and not click on anyone else's. Visit other blogs and get to know them. I've found so many cool people by doing this. I make it a habit to check out six new blogs a month who link up in Paper Fury's Beautiful People link-up. A lot of the people who I've done this with comment on my blog regularly and I do likewise. I'll give a few examples and use this opportunity to brag on my awesome readers.

Found through link-ups:

Sara Letourneau @ Sara Letourneu's Official Website and Blog - I found Sara through Beautiful People. I love geeking out with her about tea and reading her writing advice and about her books on her blog.

Ely @ Teas and Titles  - I also found this blog through Beautiful People (I find most other blogs through that link-up). I love her comments about my characters and her blog is really fun as well.

Found through tags: 

Jamie Terry @ Jamie Talks Anime - I found her either through a tag or a the BP link-up. It's been so long. XD But I love geeking out about anime with her and I especially love her Tuesday Tunes posts.

Sunny Smith @ Splashes of Ink - I also found her either through a tag or the BP link-up. I love reading her comments on my posts and I love her posts about how to use your camera.

Guest Posts:

Tracey Dyck @ Adventure Awaits - I found her through a guest post on Bryan Davis' blog a while back. I decided to visit her blog and now I love reading about her deep posts and her writing journey.

Liz Brooks @ Out of Coffee Out of Mind - I found her through a blogger spotlight over on the Librarian Files


You're probably thinking that this takes a lot of time and yes, it does. But if you want something to succeed you have to invest time into it. And hey, you may discover some really cool people and blogs like I have. In return, you'll get some lovely comments, but don't forget to give them too. Everybody loves comments. ^ ^

Have you participated in link-ups, tags, and guest posts? What are some of your favorite tags and link-ups? What is your favorite one of these sorts of posts you've done? Link? 

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If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Twelve Tips for Writing Blog Posts

Blogging is a funny thing. It's easy and free to create a blog, but a successful blog is tough and takes commitment. I'm still building mine, but here are twelve tips on composing a good blog post I've gathered from my almost three years experience in blogging.


1.) A Catchy Title - A good title will grab your readers. Posts with titles such as "Twelve Tips for Writing Blog Posts" (like this one) and "My Top Ten Most Influential Books" are often clicked. Clever titles such as "Reeling In Your Reader" are also popular. Be creative!

2.) Keep the Length Just Right - You don't want your posts to be a pointless paragraph (unless they're a quick news update or something of that sort) and you don't want your posts to be a short story either. Keep your posts around 500-1500 words is usually the best length. Too short can not give enough word count to get your point across and too long can have your reader skipping.

3.) Make Sure They Have A Point - I've read many blog posts where at the end I'm thinking, "And the purpose of that post was what?" Make sure you have a clear goal about what you want to say and really think about how you are going to get that across especially if you're writing an advice post. I've read a few posts where they tried to give writing tips but it was more a summary and no tips and I was disappointed.

4.) Bullet Points - A great way to organize your thoughts and get your point across is to use bullet points kind of like the ones in this post ... They don't necessarily have to be numbered, but having a header per section can help you construct a more thorough and informative post.

5.) White Space - Don't have your entire post by one humongous chunk of paragraph. This can be vastly intimidating for the reader and isn't pleasant to the eye. It just makes people want to scroll past it. Use white space on average every four or five lines. It's okay to have an occasional longer one, but ten plus lines is not recommended.

6.) Let Your Personality Shine Through - Everyone has their own writers voice, so let it shine through your writing! Your audience wants to get to know who you are. Don't worry about being too formal, but don't be text talk casual. Write with skill, but let any excitement, sadness, and so on beam from your writing.

7.) Don't Swear - One of the most frustrating things about reading a blog post to me is being constantly bombed by profanity. It doesn't matter how mad or excited or whatever you are it appears lazy. There are so many alternative phrases you could do to express yourself. This also limits your audience because if many people see a swear word and may avoid your post(s) all together.

8.) Edit Before Posting - Don't just write a blog post and immediately post it. I've been guilty of this in the past. Typos, misspelling, atrocious grammar, and such look unprofessional. This isn't to say that mistakes don't happen, but many times they can be prevented from one or two read throughs.

9.) Link In Other Posts - A great way to show people other posts is to embed the link in some of the text like shown earlier. This can be helpful for the reader if the post is relative to the topic and give other posts some extra views.

10.) Be Careful of What Images You Use - Copyrights are a tricky thing. Using images from movies and books aren't a bad thing, but using private art can be breaching some lines. Some people don't mind as long as their credited while others consider it stealing. Usually the best way to go is to either use your own art or photography or use royalty free images. I frequently use pixabay, but here is another great post that shows some other handy sites.

11.) Customize Your Graphics - A great thing to make sharing easier is to customize your main post graphics. Using a viable graphic, edit it in a photo editing program such a picmonkey with a the post's title and your blog URL. Images catch people's eyes and when this image is shared that title will be the most likely one to pop up on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

12.) Get Your Posts Up Consistently - The toughest thing about blogging is consistency. Figure out what will work in your lifestyle and stick to it. If you can only post once a month on Saturdays at eleven a.m. do that. If you can post Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays do that but make sure you can keep up with it. Don't make a commitment you can't keep or you're not staying faithful to your readers. If you can't stay consistent then why should your followers depend on you to keep posting?

Blogging is tricky, but rewarding. I hope these tips help increase your following!

P.S. Gifs are also fun too.

Have any of these tipped helped your blog? Do you have any other advice to share?

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If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)