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Blogging 101

Part 2

As you learned earlier, blogging is an art.  A good blog can take a bit of work to create and maintain, but there can be many rewards to doing so.  This is true whether your blog exists for personal or business reasons.

Whether you already have a blog or are thinking about creating one, these tips can help you make your blog one that your visitors will enjoy.

1. What is the purpose of your blog?

There are many reasons to create a blog.  Is this a personal blog, to keep distant friends and family informed of your doings?  Or will this be a business blog?  If it is a business blog, what is your goal?  Do you want to promote your products through the blog, or are you looking for branding and exposure?

Knowing the purpose of your blog will help you in choosing the best blogging platform for your needs, determining whether you will need your own domain name, and other such technical issues.  It will also help you answer the next question.

2. Who will be reading your blog?

If your blog is personal, you should have a good idea of who will be reading it.  For example, Grandpa Joe and Aunt Betsy might be interested to know you have started your own business, but they probably won’t be interested in the details of your purple widgets.

If your blog is business oriented, details of your purple widgets might be just what your readers are seeking.  This is the time to think about why someone would visit your business blog, and what they would expect to be able to find there. 

Age group, gender, geographical location, and income level are just some of the other factors you should consider about your readers.  It is important to provide information that your readers will find interesting and relevant.

3. Visual appeal

The first thing to consider is the theme of your blog.  There are literally hundreds of blog themes available, and if none of them strike you as just right, you can have one created that is to your liking.

Choosing an appropriate theme may be the most important aspect of visual appeal for a blog.  This is because the theme you choose is the “template” for every page and post on your blog, so make sure it reflects the purpose of your blog and the tastes of your readers.

Adding images to blog pages is easy and provides visual interest to go along with your writing.  Personal blogs might include pictures of family, friends, pets, your home and/or car, and so forth.

Business blogs should always include the business logo on every page to help with branding and recognition.  If you are advertising or reviewing products, pictures of the products are extremely helpful to your readers.

4. Content is your tool – make it work for you

The internet is sometimes referred to as the “information highway.”  That being said, there are many forms information can come in, and blogs seem to be able to handle it all.

Blog content can include text, images, video clips, audio clips, and almost anything else than can be posted to a web page.

As always, remember your reader first when posting content to your blog.  One of the best ways to get visitors to read your blog is to solve a problem for them.  Other content that may appeal to your readers is specific information about items, reviews, information that tells them how to do something, and entertainment of all kinds is always popular.

If you have a scientific blog, then technical language and complex documents may be perfectly acceptable.  For most other blogs, including business and personal, it is better to use easy to read language.  Many people who use the Internet do more scanning than reading until they find what they are looking for.

5. Let your readers speak, and let them know they are heard

People who read blogs can be quite passionate about their beliefs and feelings.  You will know folks are enjoying your blog when they start posting comments.  Be sure to approve appropriate comments and respond to them!  Your readers want to know their opinions count, and they appreciate knowing that they have been heard.

6. Keeping it fresh

There are probably thousands of “dead blogs” sitting out there on the internet, forgotten even by their owners.  To keep yours from suffering the same fate, make sure you post to it on a regular basis.

Often, when readers like a blog, they will return to it to see what is new.  By posting on a regular basis, there will be new content for them to view when they return.  If they return too many times and there is nothing new to see, they will probably stop visiting your blog.

Another way to help keep your blog “fresh” is to make it as interactive as possible.  Encouraging, approving, and responding to comments is a great way for your page content to grow.

If your blogging platform offers features like surveys or polls, you could also try using these.  Not only do they allow the visitor to actively participate in the blog, you can gather important and useful information to help make your blog, web site, and products better.

7. Organizing blog information

If you are posting content to your blog regularly, after a while it may get difficult for readers to sort through all the posts.  Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for by categorizing your blog posts.

For example, a personal blog might have categories for vacations, holidays, general news, and pictures.  A business blog might have categories for company information, products, promotions, and so forth.

Use this information to help you create a blog that is tailored to the wants and needs of your potential visitors.  The better you can do this, the more popular your blog is likely to become.  And the real reason for having a blog is getting it seen!

Learn how to make your blog really work for you using the secrets of the experts!  Become A Blogging Guru and watch your site and blog gain tons of traffic.

Read Blogging 101 Part 1

Read Blogging 101 Part 3