Blogging is a great way to boost your business or enjoy a fun hobby. Some people do it all alone, as a journal-like endeavor. If you are thinking about starting a blog, though, you likely want to attract readers. This article will give you some great tips for building a quality blog.
Don’t forget to use search engine optimization when creating your blog. To attract your target audience, you want your blog to show up in search results for the topics you focus on. Use keywords throughout your blog to increase the site traffic.
Respond to readers and share information with them as much as possible. Spend time with them consistently. Try to make this a habit for both you and your readers. When you connect with your blog readers, they will expect that you will be around. You should remember that you have many readers who will be disappointed if you decide to quit writing a blog.
Commenting on other people’s blogs is an excellent method of raising interest in your own blog. Google Reader is a excellent method for organizing other interesting but related blogs. Visit these sites regularly and, when you do, leave comments.
Don’t copy anything at all. Plagiarism is a very serious offense, and being fingered as a plagiarist can destroy your reputation. Know that there are many successful bloggers out there who are not professional writers. There is no need to plagiarize, just be yourself and show your passion for your topic.
Frequently update your blog’s content. In order to increase your site traffic and maintain it properly, you must always post new content. Without lots of new material, visitors will not be motivated to come back to your blog. Ideally, your should post a minimum of once daily.
It can be very helpful to tie your blog in to all forms of social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others social networking sites are highly advantageous to your success and author recognition. These platforms provide many options for reaching out and communicating with current and potential followers.
Don’t forget about pursuits in your life other than your blog. You do not want to burn yourself out, so plan on staying away from your blog at some point in the day. Schedule time with friends, a walk or a 5 minute break into your day. This time will refresh you and let you create fresh content for your blog.
Give your readers the ability to comment on your blog posts and to respond to other comments. This is an easy way to engage your readers and make them feel more vested in your blog. When readers notice that you are willing to engage with them, they are sure to come back again to see how you responded to their comments.
Make sure posts are brief and concise. Your blog needs to be filled with information, but also be concise and readable. Most blog readers aren’t looking for Pulitzer-winning prose or poetic descriptions of every detail of a topic. They are interested in the meat of your topic, not the seasoning!
Do not get frustrated if your readership doesn’t explode overnight. People will not find your blog overnight, so you will need to give them time to locate it. There also won’t be much for people to read until you have built up a good backlog of content. You will get more readers as you create more content and let your blog grow naturally.
Try recruiting guest bloggers to write for you. This will develop a relationship between you and another blog owner, and you never know when that might come in handy. Cultivating quality relationships may allow you to reap unexpected rewards. If you are in need a favor, a blogger that you have a relationship with may be willing to help.
Roll out your blogs in as many venues as possible. It is important to get as many people reading it as possible. Don’t ever limit the number of outlets that you use. It is wise to get the largest number of readers out of every move you make. Use every possible outlet and your blog will get the maximum exposure.
Make the appropriate social network links available, so readers can follow your blog. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites can be very helpful in getting your blog recognized and having it become successful. By making use of every available avenue of communication, you can stay connected to your loyal readers and attract new ones, too.
Be sure to post new articles on a reliable schedule. If you are not consistently posting new material, you’ll be no competition for countless other blogs that your readers could be reading. Although readers might be more forgiving during the holidays and such, it is always better to post consistently.
Set your blog to accept comments from visitors and post answers to them. This will establish your readers as members of your community and enable you to develop relationships with them. When people see you acknowledge others, they will revisit your blog to see if you’ve responded to their comments.
Have a greater goal in mind when you begin to blog. Are you trying to build a business, or just make your name known. Do you want to use your blog to make money? You might have several goals in mind. It is crucial to know what your goals are, then build your blog accordingly.
The content of your blog should not be so formal. Blogs are, at their heart, a social format that is meant to be entertaining. It’s important that you keep that in mind when you’re writing blog posts. You want readers to keep coming back, so interact with them in an informal, pleasant way.
Entice your readers to comment on your blog. This gives your readers the feeling they are taking an active part in your blog. Make a serious effort to write responses to all reader comments. This will make your readers regularly return to your blog to read new comments and become producers of information, rather than just passive consumers.
It is of the utmost importance that you make your blog fun, not only for the reader, but for yourself. If you find the topic uninteresting, your readers will also. Select a topic you’re passionate about, and put your heart into writing about it. If you’re enthusiastic about what you’re writing, others will get caught up in your enthusiasm as well.
Every blog MUST have a contact page. That way, readers will have no trouble getting in touch with you when they have a question. You never know what kind of people will be reading your blog, and you might get some valuable feedback when you allow them to contact you.
Be certain you keep your keywords italicized and bolded. This will help them stand out to your readers, and it is also something that the SE spiders like. If a keyword that is also a link is more visible to the reader, they are much more apt to visit the associated site, which helps your SEO and profits.
Make sure the text in your blog is sufficiently large, but not too large. You have to use a font that is not too large or small so that readers can access your written content–the most important piece of your blog. You need to strike a balance; text that is too big will make readers scroll endlessly, while readers will need to grab the magnifying glass to read tiny microtext.
Before ever starting a blog, decide what you want from it. Decide whether you are simply trying to make your presence known online or if you want to be seen as an expert within your field. Maybe you simply want to earn money. Maybe you want to do a mix of all these things. You need to clarify your goals and make your blog conform to those goals.
Keep each and every blog simple, to the point and focused on one single topic. Writing a bout many topics, at once, will cause your blog to be difficult to navigate. Focusing the content of your blog on one topic makes it clearer and more accessible.
Divide longer blogs into smaller sub-divisions. The longer the post, the harder it is to read. Think about keeping each page to just a few paragraphs. This will be easier for the reader and also help improve your number of page views. It is a win-win.
Link Bar
Consider putting a little extra effort into your blog’s home page. It’s not uncommon for basic blogs to have a generic homepage with simple links to each recent post, so spice up your homepage to help it stand out. Since most of your traffic will first arrive at your blog from a search engine or a link, this can come in handy.
Use concise and highly relevant content next to the link bar. The area near the link bar is considered a hotspot. Put the total number of subscribers in this spot. Just remember that the link bar does not draw quite as much attention as the beginning or ending of a post. Make it part of your overall subscription strategy without relying on it exclusively.
An excellent method of drawing visitors is to give away free items. Your freebies should always offer something of value but they don’t have to be expensive gifts or products. Offering freebies on a regular basis can be an investment that pays off very well in the future. If people anticipate frequent giveaways, they are likely to check your blog on a regular basis.
Create a schedule for posting on your blog and stick to it. Targeting specific days for your posts will build expectation for your input. Readers usually appreciate a predictable schedule coupled with fresh and exciting content. Whatever your interests are, make sure you have a myriad of topics to discuss so your content does not become repetitive.
Select an SEO friendly theme. Your blog will attain higher ranking with major search engines and it will also run much smoother. Things move at light speed on the internet and readers wait for nothing, including a great blog that is slowed down with fancy graphics and heavy plug-ins. If so, the reader is likely to head back a page and find another resource.
Search Engines
Don’t cram your blog full to the brim with keywords. Choosing good keywords is a crucial element in getting your blog seen; however, quality is more important than quantity. Search engines are constantly becoming smarter and more adept at analyzing content. When your site is overrun with keywords, it is a flag to the search engines that quality is not your priority, and your rank will drop accordingly. Choose a few effective keywords that specifically describe your page. Your keywords should be popular enough that many readers search for them if you want them to attract people to your site.
Use a theme that won’t make it hard to optimize for the search engines. Your blog will attain higher ranking with major search engines and it will also run much smoother. Your readers don’t have the patience to wait for burdensome graphics to load. They will head back to the search engine and look for another blog before they ever see what your content has to offer.
Include videos throughout your blog to spice things up. In addition to the videos you need to include lots of well written content. It’s important to briefly describe the videos you post using text. This lets you sneak your keywords into posts that would otherwise be hard for search engines to index properly.
Don’t overdo your keywords and phrases use. Keyword selection is crucial, but you should choose quality over quantity. Search engines are always tightening their criteria when it comes to good content. Blogs that contain too many keywords are flagged by search engines as being of low quality, and therefore undeserving of high rankings. Look for more organic ways to incorporate the most relevant keywords.
If you’d like to attract more people to your blog, try taking advantage of social networking sites. Invite all of your existing Facebook contacts to check out your blog and ask them to share it with their own friends. Tweet some of your blog posts to Twitter as well. Choose the most interesting posts to tweet. You friends may feel like they are being spammed if you send them too many links. However, links that are strategically placed can build both traffic and readership.
The advice in this article should have made it clear that blog posting isn’t all that tough. It’s mainly about knowing a few basic strategies, and writing lots of quality content. Armed with these key resources, you should feel prepared to get started. Now, it is up to you.
Train your readers to use your blog to learn how to do new things. Create written content or provide videos that show your readers how they can achieve these things. If your visitors like your blog, they’ll help you to promote it.
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