i remember blogging since all the way back when i first got onto the internet, but it doesn’t mean i’m professional at it. there are people who are paid to do that kind of thing. but i’ll save that for another blog. but for those of us amateurs who try to keep up or who want to get into the big leagues, what can we do to create better blogs? because if nobody bothers to read your blogs, you might as well just write your blogs and thoughts on a napkin in some random bar. blogging is the new pastime. it’s an activity that spans all age groups and occupations. there are personal blogs, social blogs and professional blogs. whatever the topic, someone has probably blogged it. but regardless of your reason for blogging, you can make your blog better, more readable and more popular. is that sentence even structured correctly?
first, define your purpose.
this is the first step. ask yourself why you’re blogging. is it a public version of your diary? is it more of a journal where you preserve ideas and projects? is it a social site for interaction? is it an editorial page? is it a professional or hobbyist site?
sure you can have “just a blog” that combines all of these, panicstarter more specifically, but sometimes readers will prefer you to be specific. and speaking of readers, an important element is to know your audience. that will help determine your style of speaking, or blogging, which is appropriate for those you’re addressing. you should have a defined theme. if the purpose of your blog is to express political opinions, the theme should be to promote a low-tax, nonintrusive government.
create visual appeal
content isn’t the only thing that matters. your blog should also be visually appealing. the best visual design for the page depends on the audience and theme obviously. you can mix color, font styles and graphics to set the mood and tone. just make sure that tone matches the content.
use the proper tools
you can create whatever blog you want from scratch. however, blogging is made much easier, faster and more convenient if you use a dedicated blogging program or software such as blogger or wordpress. these options offer various useful features including automated archiving, comments, switchable themes, widgets and more.
make it easy to navigate
if you’re designing your blog from scratch, it’s important to make it ea sy for readers to get around and do what they want to do and to find what they want to find. if you want people to comment your blogs, make it easy for them to find. if you want them to read your previous posts, make it available to them. make sure archives are organized logically and/or in categories.
you should also make your blog searchable, if possible, so users can find posts using keywords.
stay in one place
many famous bloggers are known to jump from one place to another, guest blogging on other blogs. while this can be good for social bookmarking and marketing, it’ll be much harder for your readers to keep track of you and your official blog. if you have an established blog and you need to move it to a different address, try to publish a last post on the old blog that can inform readers of the address change.
engage your readers
this is a huge factor in attracting and keeping your readers. establish a relationship with them. don’t optimize your blog for the search engine, optimize it for your readers. you can even engage with your readers by replying to their comments and interacting with them.
establish a blogging schedule
blog readers are high-maintenance. once you’ve drawn an audience, they expect to find new content when they visit your blog. that doesn’t mean you have to post every day, but you should establish a minimum blogging schedule and stick to it. let readers know that you will update your blog daily, weekly, monthly, whatever. even if your blog is a few sentences long, unless you keep at your schedule, your readers will abandon you once you abandon your blog.
keep it concise
don’t think you have to wait until you have something brilliant to say before you post. honestly, most readers have short attention spans and busy schedules themselves and sometimes would prefer a short, pithy post rather than a long one.
if you do post lengthy blogs, break them up into short paragraphs to make them more readable. huge blocks of text = bad.
proofread before publishing
it’s easy to end up with typographical errors and misspellings if you don’t proofread your blogs. this happens especially if you’re writing in the heat of passion or inspiration, your typing fingers can get ahead of your thoughts and cause words to be omitted or transposed, commas to appear in the wrong places or sentences become jumbled.
it’s difficult to catch mistakes in your own writing. this is immediately true after writing. if possible, have someone proofread your blogs. otherwise, let your blog sit there for an hour or so and come back to proofread it when you cool off.
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