Forgot to check this thread hehe. Yay! I'm glad to see some other bloggers! I'm in dire need of tips for how to keep up a blog and make it gain some followers. My idea was for the blog series to bring in some readers that liked the premise, but...my novel and college/work almost stopped that project dead.
As for Wordpress. I'm still a big newbie to blogging, but I feel like it's really easy to get a hang of the basics. I haven't really tried to customize too much of it yet though.
I make it a point to update my personal blog every day. It's just something I do, no matter how busy I am that day. As far as the professional blog goes, I have to put some thought into what I need to write, and that can take time. So what I do is I schedule posts. So when I'm free, I'll write a few posts and have them ready to go. And then I publish them one at a time. The idea is to put as much effort into your blog posts (no matter what they are about) as you would in a day job. The moment your blog becomes "not as important" is when it starts to die out and is going to start losing readers.
A good way to gain followers is to use social networking websites to blast information about your blog posts. Whenever I publish something on my professional blog, it goes out on Linkedin and Facebook. Husband evangelizes his posts on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and some other websites that are related to what he's blogging about. For example, if it's a post about photography techniques, he'll post on photography forums. He's gained a few followers that way.
I also find that joining online communities or commenting/reading other people's blogs that are about the same topic you write about, is quite helpful. I've gained a few followers that way.
