New bloggers often mistakenly focus too much on the design, rather than the content on their blog. As a result, they end up having a lot of elements on their pages that distract their readers. Here are some tips that will help to ensure that your blog will get read and not just glossed over.
The most important tip is to blog every day. Blogs that are powerful enough to attract large volumes of traffic and therefore get great results are those that are updated regularly. Search engines will pick up the new content and this will therefore increase your ranking on these search engines.
Many bloggers who just start out feel it's enough just to put a few posts out there and then sit back to enjoy the traffic but you really must put some effort than this into it or it just won't work. You must also reply to your readers' comments. Be interactive with them, even see if you can get an intelligent conversation and talking point going and you will begin to then see a huge difference in your traffic. People will want to come back to see how the conversation is flowing and perhaps chip in a few useful comments of their own.
Speaking of comments, you must make sure that you moderate what goes into your blog. Spammers are everywhere on the Internet and blogs are no exception. Luckily, if you use Wordpress, you can add a plugin called Akismet which does a great job at catching most of the spammers before you even need to see them.
Have an About Page and Contact Information
This is something that is often overlooked, but people are nosey and they really do like to see who it is that is behind those posts. You get an air of credibility too from this; you are a real person. You don't have to put anything on there that is too personal, just let your readers know that you are friendly and approachable and eager to interact with them.
Make sure you can be contacted by your readers. This will be unlikely to happen, but people do like the trust factor. If you don't want your email address to be targeted by spammers, at the very least leave your comments enabled. You can also write your email something like joeblogs (at) hostaddress (dot) com and this will reduce spammers who scan content for addresses.
Great Website Design and Usability
Don't put things on your blog that simply are not needed. You really want to make your blog as easy as possible on the eye for your readers; they don't care how many social networks you are on or see lots of flashy graphics.
Don't hide your writing in dark backgrounds, use an easily readable font color, style and size. Readers generally visit sites for information not fancy schemes, music or irritating jumping words.
Don't Put Too Many Ads On There
While it's a good idea to put advertising on your blog and use affiliate links, don't put them all over the place as it just puts readers off. It's a waste of useful content if the reader has to dodge a big ad smacked right in the middle of your article to read what you have to say, he is more likely to just switch to another blog for his information.
These tips will help keep you focused on what is important when it comes to blogging.
If you are looking for actionable, step-by-step action plans to learn how to make your blog more effective, then check out the resources below.
Related Blogging Resources
ProBlogging Action PlanBuild a Better Blog in 31 Days:Guaranteed @ Problogger
ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business : @ProBlogger
If you would like to become a Super Affiliate like Karen Thomson, rush on over
to =>http://simplecashblogbonus.com and find out more! While you're there, grab yourself some FREE resources to kick off your new successful career.
