7 Blog Etiquette Rules That Can Skyrocket Your Growth

Are you new to blogging? If so then you might not be aware of the blog etiquette rules that can help you grow your traffic and your income.

Still, haven’t started your blog? Check out this step by step tutorial to help you get WordPress installed in just 5 minutes.

Before we get into the rules of blogging, let’s talk about how following these modern-day manners can help you grow your traffic and income.

You might be wondering how can following some unwritten rules help me grow my income?

When you start following these etiquette tips then you’ll notice more people talking about you and this, in turn, will grow your blog. Not only that, but you’ll start making online friends, which can help you get further than you would on your own.

So let’s get started on creating a blog that everyone will love.

#1 Rule of Blogging Etiquette: Don’t Copy Other’s Content

You never want to start using other people’s content on your blog. Not only is this bad for SEO, it’s just bad business.

You’ll probably get hit with an FDCA takedown notice plus they could contact your hosting company and have your blog removed.

When I am talking about copying people’s content I am referring to all their intellectual property rules and regulations.

This not only includes their content, but it also includes their social media images, (reposting their pins as if they were your own) or stealing their photography.

Even if you give credit when you post a crafts post or keto recipe, and report their entire post on your blog. It’s wrong.

Plus most bloggers don’t want people just posting their work word for word. There’s a better way to share their work without stealing their content.

How to Repost a Blog Post

We’ve all seen that one amazing blog post that just speaks to us. Since we’re writing about the same blog topic, there’s absolutely no reason not to use part of it in our blog.

Right?

Wrong, instead of copying and pasting someone else’s work into your blog. You can try linking to other blogs that talk about the same thing.

Bloggers love it when they receive a mention and not only that but it will help Google notice that you don’t mind linking out.

If you want to take this a step further, after you hit publish, reach out to the blogger and let them know that you linked to them.

It may lead to more traffic for you because they may be compelled to share the post on their social media channels.

#2 Guest Blog Etiquette to Be Invited Back

As you start focusing on growing your blog, you’ll be tempted to reach out to other bloggers in hopes of being invited to guest post.

I’ve written a post that will teach you how to start guest blogging if this is something that you want to venture into.

Related: 3000 Blogs That Accept Guest Blogging and How to Get Started

You might be tempted to write low-quality content because it isn’t your blog. If used correctly, guest posting can take your blog to the next level and will help you get in front of a whole new audience.

Make sure that you follow all the rules that the blogger has in place. Most bloggers have a page on their blog that will explain everything they expect from their writers.

Take the time to read the rules and follow them. Once the post is published make sure that you take the time to promote the post on your social media channels and respond to all the comments.

Just by being a good blogger and following these rules, you have a better chance of being invited back.

#3 Sharing Is Better Than Commenting

Back in the day, it wasn’t uncommon to get hundreds of blog comments on a blog. Today, blog commenting is not as big as it used to be.

Yes, there are some bloggers that still drive tons of traffic to their blogs just by commenting. However, most people would rather share the post on social media than take 5 minutes out of their day to leave a thoughtful comment.

When you share someone’s post to your followers, that usually means that you found it to be an invaluable piece of work.

Plus it puts you on their radar and can lead to new friendships online.

#4 Social Media Dont’s

Maybe you’ve done this in the past because you wanted to grow your social media following. You end up playing the follow/unfollow game.

It’s one of the easiest ways to grow your vanity numbers on some of the social media platforms. There’s nothing legally wrong with it but it could be considered a “grey area” because those followers are not really interested in you as a blogger.

Instead, focus on sharing content that organically draws people to you and in turn, you’ll gain loyal followers and blogging friends.

Your true followers and friends are the ones that are going to share your content and help you grow. Without your blogging friends, it will be virtually impossible to grow all by yourself.

Other Social Media Dont’s

Never ever steal pins from other bloggers by redirecting the pin to your URL. This is a huge problem that I’ve seen on Pinterest. People are stealing pins and redirecting them to their own blogs.

The unspoken social etiquette blog rule is to create your own pins. You can use PicMonkey or Canva to create templates for every blog post.

This is what I do for every blog post I write. Since using pre-built templates I’ve been able to get my pins created in a few minutes.

The hardest part is finding an image to use for my images. I purchase all my images from DepositPhotos and it helps me save time and money on my pins.

#5 Pay Attention to Your Blog Format

Your blog format can be the difference between getting new loyal readers on a regular basis or having people jump from your blog the minute they land on it. (which is known as the bounce rate)

Try to make your blog easy to read by adding:

• No more than 3 sentences per paragraph
• Adding H2 and H3 headlines
• Creating bulleted lists and numbered lists
• Using visual elements like images and videos
• Black text on a white background
• The right size font which that is easy to read, which is 18pt
• Line spacing to make it easy to read your posts

#6 Link to Other Blogs

One of the best things that you can do to grow your blog is to link out to other blogs. This improves your SEO, this article reveals the positive effects it has on your blog.

Even if you’re not big on SEO, linking out can still be beneficial. Whenever you link out to another blogger, WordPress will notify them if they have pingbacks set up on their blogs.

If you really want to make sure they know that you’ve linked to them, send them a message to let them know that you’ve linked to them.

I always do this whenever I link to someone, especially if I link to them in a guest post.

It doesn’t take long and it puts you on their radar that you’ve done something nice for them. Here’s a response that I received when I linked to Persuasion Nation in my latest guest post.

Don’t be upset if some people don’t respond. Unfortunately, the life of a blogger is a busy one and some people just have too much on their plate.

#7 Give Your Readers The Very Best

You don’t have to be the next Hemingway to create a helpful blog post. You should, however, be as professional as possible and put your readers first.

Check for issues like:

Grammar and punction errors: Writing blog posts can be time-consuming, especially when you’re trying to have a life outside of your blog. I suck at spelling and grammar and that’s why I use this free punctuation checker and corrector to help me catch my mistakes.

Readability: Have you organized your content in an easy to read blog format? Have you made it as interesting as possible to read? Did you break up your text with headers and sub-headers and bullets?

Links: Did you link out to other blogs that will provide your readers with more information on the topic you’ve covered?

Visuals: Are you using at least one image on your blog post. Did you optimize your images with ShortPixel to improve your SEO?

These things will not only keep people on your blog longer but will keep your readers coming back for more.

Here are some more tips you can use to make your blog sticky and keep readers on it longer.

Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to write a blog post, especially, if you are trying to get good rankings in Google.

This is why it’s so important to choose a blog topic that you actually enjoy and want to become an expert in.

You’ll spend a lot of time writing content. If you hate the topic you’ve chosen, you’ll give up before your blog becomes a success.

Final Take Away

Blogging takes a lot of hard work, that’s why it’s so important to plan in advance of what you’re going to write.

You also want to make sure that you’re using the right keyword tool to help you find keywords you can actually rank for.

If you follow these general blog rules, you’ll eventually start to see some growth. Just make sure that you give it time and treat your blog as a business.

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Blogging etiquette for business is not as hard as you might think. Basically, it just comes down to treating other bloggers the way that you would want to be treated.

If you think that something isn’t right, it probably means that it’s NOT.