If you’ve been following us for awhile, we hope you’ve learned why you shouldn’t should blog, how to leverage your blog with other online marketing tools, and even how to push through blogger’s block.

Recently we were asked to share the fundamental principles and inside secrets of how to create and maintain a successful blog. So here it is, folks: The 6 traits and secrets every successful network marketing blog has in common:

1. Confidence (and the Right Hosting Site)

The idea of blogging was intimidating for EVERYONE before they got started. But believe us, it’s not just for the MLM Champs – it really is so much easier than you could possibly imagine. If you can set up an email account and compose emails, you can handle a blog. In fact, you can start blogging minutes after clicking on one of the links below!

The first step is to choose a blog host. We recommend WordPress.com or Google Blogger. Both are completely free, user-friendly, mobile-friendly, and have an easily navigated layout and backend database. Although WordPress.com and Blogger are very comparable, there are strengths and weaknesses to each site:

WordPress.com

• Hundreds of template designs and themes to customize, while Blogger has a limited selection of designs and customization options.
• Better social media integration, allowing you to instantly share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr with a “Publicize” feature
• Scans blog posts and suggests category tags to improve your SEO

Blogger

• Since Blogger is owned by Google, it is virtually hacker-proof and more a bit more secure than WordPress.com
• Ability to edit the HTML code and add CSS
• No maximum storage space for the media you add to your blog posts, while WordPress.com has a 3GB limitation of free storage for posts and media.

Once you choose a hosting website, click one of the links above and follow the prompts to set up your account. You will need to choose a Blog Title and Blog Address. The most successful blogs include an SEO keyword in the title and/or the business name. Make sure you choose a name that is memorable, easy to spell, and preferably SEO-friendly!

2. Content is King!

It is always all about content – and that’s not going to change any time soon. The blogs with the most activity are the ones with interesting content that starts a conversation and encourages people to share. Here are a few tips we have found that greatly increase the quality of blog post content:

Engaging Topic

The key to blogging is to write about topics that your niche market will either find useful, interesting, or entertaining. This is not a platform for you to directly promote your product or services over and over. In fact, it’s not about your product at all; it’s about building an audience and a relationship with your readers. Find news stories that relate to your industry, tell true stories of your journey with your business, provide tips and tricks of the trade, and don’t be afraid to be edgy or appropriately controversial (those are the ones that go viral!).

A blog post is nothing more than engaging in conversation with your fingertips. You really can do this!

Click here for more ideas on how to generate valuable blog content.

Frequency

Take a look at the frequency of the blogs with the most traffic in your industry. They’re probably posting 2 or 3 times a week. Try to stay consistent – choose either 2 OR 3 days a week (the same days every week) to post on your blog. Your readers and followers will start anticipating your schedule and look forward to your next post.

The best way to stay organized and make sure you’re covering all of your topics evenly is to create a blog calendar for the month. Decide what topics you will cover in advance and which days you will publish each post.

Focus

Dedicate undistracted, sacred writing time each week that will be devoted to blog posts. Make it a habit!

Keywords

Think of your website and your blog as 2 structures on the same piece of prime real estate. They work together to improve your SEO and help you increase rank on search engines result pages. Whatever keywords you have used to optimize your website should also be included on your blog. Use them naturally and sparingly, but make sure to include them in your titles, headlines, and body copy wherever it makes sense and flows well for the reader.

Compliance

Your blog is not a dark hidden corner of internet. Stay away from non-compliant income claims and product claims that will certainly make you sound incredible and possibly jeopardize your business. Be willing to back up everything you post on your blog. The more honest and genuine you are, the more loyal followers will keep coming back!

3. Backlinks

You’ve heard us say plenty of times that blogging will drive more traffic to your website. One of the main reasons for this is inbound linking. Inbound links are incoming links to a website – when an interested visitor clicks and gets directed to another site. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than companies that don’t blog. That means 97% more chances for someone to navigate to your website! Toward the end of your blog post (and throughout), be mindful of how you can link back to a related page on your website (e.g. “For more information about topic of the post, click here”).

4. Comment Moderation

How do the MLM leaders get so much interaction? By including a call-to-action at the end of every post. Ask your readers to answer a question, tell you what they think, or provide feedback in the comments below. Continually regulate the comments coming in. This means you should approve the genuine comments and reply back to them in a timely manner. But it also means you need to sift through and delete the ones that are obviously spam. Here are a few ways you can identify a comment as spam:

• The author’s name is a keyword (that’s a tell-tale sign of an SEO spammer!)
• The comment is generic (“nice article”) and includes a link
• The same author floods your blog with multiple email addresses or website links
• The email address is obviously fake

5. Social Media Integration

Everyone connected to you on your social media channels should know when you have published a new blog post. Don’t be modest; shout it from the rooftops! Share it on all of your campaigns and ask people to read, like, comment, and share. The back-and-forth activity will increase your traffic and improve your SEO.

6. Blog Commenting

What made the Top Bloggers an authority in the industry? They continually provide their feedback and expert opinion on other blogs and forums. The more active you are online, the louder your voice will grow. Here are a few tips to successful blog commenting:

• Find popular blogs in your niche with a simple Google search. For instance, you could search for “healthy skin care blog”. This will lead you to other blogs in your industry.
• Provide relevant and thoughtful comments to the blog articles, proving that you read the entire post and have valuable feedback or opinions. Be specific and mention a certain point of the article you either agree or disagree with.
• Generally when you post your comment, there’s a field that allows you to post your own website or blog link.
• Your thoughtful comment will encourage other readers to click on your link and visit your website or blog.

Regularly posting and commenting on your blog is time consuming, but it is absolutely worth the investment and will put you on a path to wide recognition and influence!

Have you learned any helpful tips or techniques we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments below.