Becoming a better blogger takes some patience and a bit of elbow grease - but it is worth it when you start seeing the results you have been looking for. It doesn’t matter if your goals are more traffic, making money online or interacting with others.

You can become a successful blogger! It doesn’t matter if you are young, old, educated or not. Patience, a little bit of work and experimenting with various products, programs and advice will have you accomplishing your blogging goals in no time at all!

When it comes to blogging, the most important thing is to write about things you love. If you do not have a passion for your blog’s topics, it will show in your writing and approach to blogging. Do not hesitate to ask other bloggers and even a blog consultant for help on topics, themes, posting frequency, etc.

One of the first things you should do as a new blogger is to claim your blog on Technorati, like I did. Now, I can track what other bloggers are writing about as well as what others say about my blog! I have been able to target my writing a lot more because of Technorati’s tools and free services. You can also claim your blog at Feedster.

Think about using Google Analytics to get feedback on how your blog is performing. Visitor stats are useful, but more detailed information can be even more helpful when it comes to developing your “Better Blogger” strategy.

Validate your feeds. Do not ignore RSS! More and more people are picking up on RSS functionality because it helps them read more websites than if they had to manually visit them daily or weekly. Like email, new posts appear in their RSS “inbox” for immediate viewing.

An offshoot of feeds is trackback and ping functionality. You want to edit your WordPress settings to enable automatic trackback and ping functionality. This will help you interact with other bloggers. How?

If someone mentions your website on their blog, you will get a notification and be able to thank that blogger in the comments of the post and communicate with commenters on their blog. You can monitor any mentions of your blog using Google Alerts or Technorati.

You also want to make sure that you are replying to your commenters and providing them with an opportunity to provide you feedback via comments after posts and an email webform. My favorite bloggers and the ones I look up to often ask for reader feedback and reply to emails personally.

Usually the blogger who will link back to your site is a blogger writing about similar topics, so it is good to continue to cultivate relationships with them online and offline, which will build up your readership in the long term. Think about attending blog conferences, so you can learn more about blogging and meet other bloggers in a more formal environment.

Some will suggest that you purchase advertising, such as through other blogs or a service like StumbleUpon Ads. It is really up to you on how to approach generating buzz for your blog, but remember, becoming a better blogger is about more than just pageviews and a nice WordPress theme!

You must edit yourself ruthlessly. I cannot stress this enough. During my early days as a blogger, I spent a lot of time writing, but very little time editing. Balance the two - and you will generate even better content for your readers. It isn’t even a bad idea to go back and edit your old posts - or even rewrite them for greater clarity. Don’t forget that your blog is YOUR voice - so your personality should shine through in every post!

As you continue to generate more and more great content, you may be approached to be a guest blogger on another blog - this is an honor that shouldn’t be taken lightly. However, think about the impact to your own blog - do you have posts stored for a rainy day? Will you have time to contribute to another blog?

On the other hand, consider asking readers to submit their own articles to your site for submission. Provide the opportunity for a free link back to their blog or website as well as feedback as to how successful the article was on your site.

As Dale Carnegie once said, “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”

Don’t forget that while blogging can be a “job”, you should still try to enjoy yourself! Happy Blogging!

This post covers steps 54-70 of 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger.

There are lots of ways to get more readers, but here are 12 really good tips, for novice to experienced bloggers.

1. Turn your articles into videos using PowerPoint to create an entertaining slideshow. Submit your video to all of the popular video sites, including Google Video, YouTube, and others. Video is increasingly popular with internet users, especially teenagers and young adults. What better way to capture their readership by posting a great viral video on YouTube?
2. Submit to blog carnivals. Blog carnivals can be a fun way to meet other bloggers in your areas of interest. Be careful to stick with topics that fit your blog - the last thing you want is to lose readers by writing about totally unrelated topics or losing your personal touch when it comes to writing in a carnival.
3. Participate in and submit to social web 2.0 sites, including Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Netscape, and Stumble Upon. Digg and StumbleUpon can be extremely helpful in gaining new readers, but don’t submit your own articles! Encourage your visitors to submit your articles if they enjoy them.
4. Turn your articles into downloadable reports/ebooks. Everyone loves ebooks and downloadable reports! What better way to capture new readers than to create a ebook of your best posts? There are several ways to do this, from the old fashioned copy-paste-print as .pdf to using a program like LaTeX!
5. Join Blogburst, which is a syndication service that places blogs on top-tier online destinations, such as CNN, MSNBC and more. Who doesn’t want to get quoted by one of the CNN Anchors and get thousands of hits?
6. Syndicate your articles to EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare, American Chronicle, and other high-profile article directories. Syndicating your articles is another way to generate traffic. If someone enjoyed your article or found it informative, they are probably going to at least visit your blog - and as long as you have been writing quality content on your blog, also, you should be able to convert them into a regular reader or subscriber! Note that you can’t recycle content from your blog to these sites, so put your thinking cap on and write some fresh, new content and submit it!
7. Exchange guest posts with other bloggers. One of the best things I did in 2007 was guest blog on a few sites - believe it or not, I got a lot of fresh visitors and I was able to increase my profile in the blogosphere. Contact some of your blogging buddies or bloggers who write about the same topics you do, and see if you can work out an exchange. Why not even offer to pay the other blogger for an article placement? The traffic you’ll generate will be worth it, in my humble opinion!
8. Participate in group writing projects and memes. I’m on the fence with this one, because it really depends on what your blog’s niche is as to whether or not memes can be a good way to generate buzz, but group writing projects do have some benefits. Why not partner with a couple of other writers and create a weekly series or write an ebook?
9. Create a Squidoo lens that links back to your blog and established you as an industry expert in your chosen field. This tip is pretty self-explanatory. Utilize the internet to enforce your authority as a blogger on a particular topic. Those who want an “expert” will find you - which generates more traffic and readers!
10. Interview industry experts. This is one of the best ways to create original, engaging content, if done properly. Ask engaging, yet open ended questions. Don’t hesitate to record your interview and transcribe later. Read “Twenty-five Steps to a Good Interview” for more tips.
11. Offer an e-mail newsletter in addition to RSS. Email newsletters, like those from FeedBurner or FeedBlitz, can be incredibly helpful when you are dealing with people who do not or cannot use RSS. Amit over at Digital Inspiration has a great article about why to choose FeedBlitz over Feedburner for email newsletters.
12. Ask your visitors for suggestions on how to improve your website’s content because in the end, it’s really all about your readers. Occasionally, I ask for feedback from my readers, but I love hearing from readers all of the time. A quick email to me about a broken link or a feature they’d like to see really helps me target my audience a lot more AND continue to get new readers.

This post covers steps 42-53 of 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger.

Give your readers another way to catch up with your latest posts. Turn your blog posts into podcasts!

The process is actually pretty simple if you follow these steps. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you have to record your posts or pay an actor to do it for you!

Odiogo is FREE and the quality is actually pretty good! After signing up, Odiogo will contact you to confirm your enrollment within hours. The computerized voice is easy to understand and very professional.

While there are other options out there, try Odiogo first - it’s a FREE service and has a good reputation for providing quality podcast service to its users.Check out the demo if you want to hear a sample or any of thousands of Odiogo sponsored podcast feeds!

This post covers step 41 of 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger.