Where do you begin when you decide that you want to start blogging? Everyone has something to say and blogging can be the perfect way to say it. The choices that you make can make or break the success of your blog. Use the information from this article to help you craft a blog that accomplishes your goals.
Since blogs are written on a more personal level, you should avoid writing in formal tones. This will make it easier for the reader to relate to you on a personal level. This will keep your readers coming back later on to read more of the blogs you write.
A common mistake on sites is to overload viewers with Adsense ads, plug-ins and keywords. Overusing your tools will cause search engines to mark your website as spam, which will put you behind. Make sure to write naturally in a way you would want to read.
Don’t forget to add social media sharing links on your blog. This will ensure that people can share your blog on their profiles for free. Doing this can increase your traffic by quite a bit. It will keep increasing if the content’s good because people can tell their friends which puts you on multiple pages at once.
Remember that you have a life outside of blogging. You do not want to burn yourself out, so plan on staying away from your blog at some point in the day. Take a short walk, call a friend or take a quick break for a few minutes. This time will let you come back to your blog ready to produce some great content.
When blogging, you should make sure that you make your RSS feed as obvious as possible. You can not expect other readers to find it if it blends in with all the text in your blog. This is why you should put it in a prominent position on your blog, and try to make use of the orange RSS icon if possible.
Your blog must offer compelling and unique content in order for it to be successful. For example, you should not simply provide news updates that can be found elsewhere. There are many blogs that already do this, and many of them are not successful. Make your blog stand out by offering your own unique opinions, or by creating content that cannot be found elsewhere.
Study the different blog platforms that are available on the web and their feature sets before choosing what you will use. WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr are three of the most popular and they all have their own pros and cons. Do your research on the different platforms and see what works best for your goals.
Structure your posts so the reader can simply scan them to catch the gist. Those who read blogs are, as a rule, an impatient bunch. They flip back and forth between pages practically at the speed of light. If you want to get your message across, give them something that will catch their attention with just a quick scan.
You want to make sure your blog stays healthy. You should do maintenance every so often to ensure your blog is easy to navigate and that everything is working properly. You can also update your layout as your site evolves. This will prevent boredom from setting in with your readers. It will also keep your blog running smoothly.
If you want to increase your blog’s traffic, you want to ensure that you have high quality content that will keep people coming to your blog. Visitors will return to your blog again and again if they find high-quality, inspiring content every time they visit.
Link building is a great way to traffic to your blog. In order to generate enough quality links you need to submit your blog to web directories like DMOZ, Aviva and other blog directories. Doing this creates incoming links which help your site get spidered, indexed and ranked higher by search engines, all of which drives more traffic to your blog.
You may want to have contests or giveaways on your site. This helps readers to become a part of your blog and increases their excitement about visiting. Readers are also likely to send links to contacts interested in the content of your contest. The giveaway can vary, depending on your site.
When blogging, use a font that stands out and is easily readable. When a reader accesses your blog, you need to grab his or her attention, and make him or her interested right away. Provide the image and content that will appeal to the reader. This engages the readers, and they are likely to come back again.
Try balancing the blog’s category distribution. This is a very important blog metric to follow and it can easily be tracked via a blog audit plugin. Retaining a balanced category can help your writing and improve your search engine rankings. Excess content under one category can make a lot of duplicate content in your archives.
Try to make sure that you are always writing with your readers in mind. Do not partake in keyword stuffing where you throw a ton of keywords into your blogs to get the search engines attention. Ultimately, your content and writing style will have the final say in whether your blog succeeds or not.
If you are looking for some good blog content, try posting lists. We’ve all seen them: “Top 5 tips for weight loss!” or “10 ways to keep your husband happy”. People love lists. They are easy to scan for interesting information and good for giving tips and advice. Give it a catchy title and readers will be hooked!
As previously noted, there are so many decisions to be made when you begin blogging. Knowing what you want to say is usually easier than deciding where and how to get your message across. The information and ideas from this article can help you to create a blog that gets your message to those that you want to reach.