What one tip would you give another blogger?!

[valiumpoptarts]

I went to a blogging conference recently and it was alright, but I didn't learn all that much. As since I have pretty much found out every thing I needed to know in life from mumsnet (and to save me conference fees in future!) I thought I would ask what one tip would you give another blogger? Practical ones especially appreciated! Mine is this:
Use buffer to pimp your blog across twitter while you're getting on with real life. I started using it a couple of weeks ago, it's saved me loads of stress and almost doubled hits to my site :)

[marilynn1982]

I'm not a very experienced blogger (started 6 months ago) so this is probably crap advice, but something which helped me in the very beginning was to not compare my blog to other blogs. I think getting a blog up and running is hard enough. Getting a layout you are happy with, finding a writing style, struggling for inspiration and struggling with stats. You have wobbles and wonder if it is worth the effort sometimes... It was hard enough without looking at all those shiny perfect blogs out there and feeling inadequate, it just de-motivated me more. I thought of binning my blog a few times thinking I'd never be that good (in reality I'm still not). But now I try to look at it this way... I think we all have something which will appeal to someone and in truth , someone else is probably looking at your blog enviously too (well I'd like to think so anyway). All blogs grow at different rates and in different ways. It just takes time I suppose!

[Gusthetheatrecat]

That is very good advice, thank you marilynn. I still consider myself to be just starting out, and you're right - I am constantly at risk of looking at these amazingly professional blogs and feeling very inadequate.
I don't think I'm in any position to offer advice myself, but certainly my personal strategy is that the first thing I want to do is concentrate on putting some really good content on my blog. Everything else I think can follow: trying to get more some readers, thinking about where it might go, linking up with other blogs, doing anything at all to promote it. I reckon good content first.

[eccosse]

I feel like a bit of an old timer...mine has been going for just over 2 years! It's not possible everyday (or every post) but I try to post little 'how tos' or tutorials. I also take notice of which posts get the most comments which gives me a clue to whether a particular topic is of value / interest. But other than that - I tend to stay close to my original reason for starting the blog - just as an online sketchbook / ideas pinboard.

[duchesse]

Try to avoid picking up nutters would by my advice. I've been on a blogging break since 2009 when it became apparent that I had a blog stalker who was also local to this area. It was a bit scary as I was quite easily identifiable due to our set of circumstances and the small number of people living in our area. I started blogging in 2003 and I kind of miss it. Think I may start again.

[eccosse]

Ohh, duchesse, blog trolls! Sounds horrible. I have heard of these. To this end - I don't ever refer to my children by their names on my blog and I don't show their faces. Good luck with starting it all back up again!

[duchesse]

I've never used my children's real names, nor even their nicknames! I started my blog in 2003 when we were abroad for a year and hadn't quite appreciated that the place in the UK that we moved back to was about the size of a pocket handkerchief socially.

[QueenMaeve]

duchesse that must have been a bit scary, hope they weren't threatening towards you.
My tip would be don't think you have to post loads. I've been blogging about a year and a half. At the start I was posting 5 plus times a week. Now I just post once or twice. I'm under less pressure, I feel the content is better and I get lots more comments as more people actually get a chance to look at the post, since readers don't visit every single day.