Even though there are people who would like you to think that there are a lot of easy ways to get ahead in the blogosphere, the right ways to get ahead take time and patience.

This morning I read Seth Godin’s article about shortcuts people are taking to avoid certain obstacles. He described cab drivers who would take a 2 mile shortcut just to avoid a traffic light. This is compared to people who try all kinds of algorithms to fool the search engine spiders, hoping to get ahead.

Is all this necessary? Seth explains:

If you make great stuff, people will find you. If you are transparent and accurate and doing what’s good for the surfer, people will find you. If you regularly demonstrate knowledge of content that’s worth seeking out, people (being selfish) will come, and people (being generous) will tell other people. It turns out that it’s easier and faster to do that than to spend all your time on the shortcuts.

Let’s shed some light on the important information in this quote:

Make great stuff
When you produce quality content, people will find you and visit your blog. If you plan to serve the whole blogoshere with your information, make sure you have enough to write about. But if you plan to address a certain niche, make sure you focus on supplying “great stuff” to your readers. Which brings us to the second set of points.

Be transparent, be accurate and do what’s good for the surfer
Whether you choose to write for a specific group or for the whole blogosphere, make sure that you know what you are talking about. Even though blogging as a lot about one’s perception of things, be sure to check what others have to say about the matter. One example of this is Mitch Harper first out of 10 Tips For More Comments On Your Blog which says to disable comments for low traffic blogs, while most of the commentator on Darren Rowse’s Should Low Traffic Blogs Disable Comments? question, where Mitch also commented, think it’s stupid to first disable comments to later activate them. This crumbles a lot off the trust I have for the information that Mitch provides.

When writing a blog, it’s important to keep Search Engine Optimization (SEO) principles in mind. But it’s more important to write for human beings. Even if you tweaked your blog with the right keywords and work hard on choosing the right title, the right meta tags, etc, even if you spend thousands of dollars on ways to get yourself on top lists and on first pages of search engines, this all is of no use if visitors come to your blog only to find that this is not what they were looking for. Use emotion, write about people, write for people, express feelings, just let people feel that you are writing for them.

Regularly demonstrate knowledge of content that’s worth seeking out
The keyword here is regularly. Yes you should demonstrate knowledge of a subject, especially if it’s worth seeking out. But if there’s no consistency in the provision of this knowledge, people will not come back to see what you have to say, even if they want to. Because most of the time, after a couple of times they forget to look if there is something new and worth reading.

Summary
The main ingredients for becoming successful in the blogosphere are good, quality content, consistency and patience. All the other stuff is just to spice it up a little.

Just make sure you don’t overdo the seasoning.