Tips for Writing Astrology Blog Posts

You’re a writer, right? You know how to put together words, sentences, right? Then you should be able to write a blog post, right? Maybe, maybe not.

Blog writing is slightly different then writing an article or a column. The number one rule of blogging is “Content is king!”. You are responsible not only for what you write in the blog, but the look and feel of it as well. Not only that, but getting that content to the your targeted reader is part of what blogging is all about.

First, let’s talk about the post itself. A post of two hundred and fifty words is a good length to start with, though some posts can and should be longer and some can be shorter. Write clearly and concisely. Just as your third grade english teacher told you, run on sentences are bad. Misspellings and bad grammar are worse. You are your own editor, so you need to be extra diligent about how your post looks! Write your post in your word processing program, spell and grammar check it, then post it. Many a blogger has a sad tale to tell about losing a carefully crafted post written on their blogging platform, only to lose it to some internet glitch.

Remember to add some relevant links to the material you writing about. This adds depth to your writing, provides a way to cite other authorities for your theories, and helps to promote your site by getting the attention of the bloggers to whom you are linking.

Add “keywords” in your post title and in the body of your post. Again, this helps the search engines identify what your blog is about and helps them rank your site. Google list these keywords as the most popular keywords for astrology:

monthly horoscopes
astrology readings
astrology compatibility
moon sign
zodiac signs
daily horoscope
horoscope
astrology signs
astrology and horoscopes
astrology online
free daily horoscopes
horoscope for today
astrology reports
astrology birth charts
astrology love

These are the search terms that come up most often in astrology searches on Google. Work them into your post to help to get your blog noticed.

Don’t forget to add “tags” to your blog. Tags help the search engines identify the content of your blog. If you are using WordPress 2.6 or Blog Spot there is a space below the blog to add your tags. Otherwise you can add tags to the bottom of your post by typing the following: [tags] tag one, tag two, tag three[/tags]

Post often enough to build a portfolio of good blog posts. Two to three posts a week is a good place to start. Eventually, your blog entries will create a critical mass that helps the search engines recognize you as an authoritative source

Add artwork to your post. A picture is still worth a thousand words and people find a post more interesting when a picture is on the page. While you need to be careful about copyright infringement, there are plenty of free art resources, many of them only requesting a link to their site. By far the coolest of these is Nasa’s Photo Journal This site has a plentiful and colorful supply of planetary photos and rendered art work, all public domain, your tax dollars at work.

If you have any questions about blogging, post a comment below

Choosing Your Platform

It is recommended by experts in the field that if you have a web site already, you should add a blogging component to your web site. Word Press is a popular blogging platform that you can install free on your web site. Go to WordPress.org to get the download to install.  You have a wide range of free templates to choose from, or you can get the person who set up your web site design to match the blog design to your site.

You can set up a free account if you don’t have a web site at Word Press.com. With a range of templates, some with uploadable headers, you can set up a professional looking blog. Another popular platform is Google’s Blogspot. The advantage to Google is its relative ease of use, plus having the advantage of combing a Google e-mail address with your site.

Other free platforms are Vox, Live Journal, My Space, and Stumble Upon.

Starting As An Astrology Blogger

As an astrologer, I’ve written a weekly column for the past few years for a local publication. As fun as it was to write a column weekly, I wanted to expand my audience. Searching the web I found this ad:

451 Press is always looking for bright, talented writers who want to have their voices heard. We are looking for writers with unique voices to contribute to our growing network of blogs. Our blogs cover a wide range of topics. If you have a passion for a subject then we just might have a place for you.

One of the subjects they need a writer: astrology! Perfect. I filled out the application, attached a couple of writing samples and waited about two weeks before I heard back. 

Thank you for your recent application to write for 451 Press. After carefully reviewing your application we think you would make a great fit for our Astrology blog.

What? That easy? No interview? No request for further samples? Whoa!

But, in going through the next step of the process, The Weblog Agreement, I soon learned a bit of what I was in for. I was to provide content and artwork, post a least five times a week, with appropriate links to other web sites and get this, put all this up myself on a Word Press template, putting in some information using HTML. 

That was the least of it. Blogging, as it turned out, is more than just putting up content and having a host of people find your wonderful web page. And unfortunately, belonging on a network didn’t give me an instant readership. As I found out, astrology is a very small niche. Very few astrology blogs gain the kind of readership that more generic blogs garner. You have to work at bringing in those readers.

Still, if you have a passion for writing about astrology, there is no better way to get your writing out there. You can post what you want to, on any subject you care too write about. But blogging is more than writing content. You have many decisions to make before you lay down your first words. Where do you want to blog? How do you want your blog to look? Once you set up your blog then you need to work on drawing in readers. How are you going to promote it? For those people with few technical skills these can seem like daunting tasks. In the posts that follows we’ll take on those subjects and more.