Many of us have either been a reader of a blog or have had one ourselves; but how do you go about creating and maintaining a successful blog?
Capture Their Attention
While running a blog can be a very rewarding experience, there are many things to keep in mind while trying to maintain traffic. One of the most important things you want to do with any blog is to create a lasting impression. When someone visits your blog; you want them to be intrigued and interested in what they see.
A top internet marketer said this to me on a chat:
You should convey what the RESULTS of your service are in the first 5 seconds of someone going to your site.
I agree with him and I would say it applies to a blog and a single blog post as well. Let your visitors know what they can expect from your blog and from a particular post very quickly.
Tell Them Who You Are and Let Your Personality Shine
A great way to get someone’s attention right off the bat would be to have an ‘about’ page with some sort of personal welcoming message. Having a photo of yourself is a must; you want to show readers that you are, in fact, human. This helps them relate to you on a more personal level.
Your ‘about’ page will let people know exactly who you are, what you write about and what they can expect to get out of your blog in the future. Try to keep this short and sweet, but also interesting. You want to really show off your writing skills here and allow people to decide quickly if this is the style of blog they are looking for.
If you leave people guessing, they may not stay more than a few moments. People online are typically in a hurry and they want their information fast; they rarely look through your entire site and may not be able to recognize how good you are at what you do if you do not show it off in your ‘about’ page.
Content Is Key
When writing a blog, I’m sure you can imagine how important the content is. Too many writers throw pieces together; thinking it’s going to be good enough. Your readers are going to pick up on that. Treat each piece with care. Show how much you know about what you’re discussing and feel free to ask readers questions so they will feel the need to comment and interact with you. Also, it’s important to make sure within a few seconds of reading any blog entry, your readers know exactly what the post is going to be about. The more interactive your site; the better. You want people to remember your blog and be inspired to share it with their friends and family.
Updating your content on a regular basis is going to give your readers a reason to want to come back as well as show them that you care deeply about whatever it is you’re writing. One thing you may want to try is to have a notepad with you at all times so you can jot down any ideas you come up with as you’re out and about during your day. This way, you’ll always have a place to start when you want to sit down and post a new entry.
Promotion, Promotion, Promotion
I cannot stress this enough. When you have a blog (or any website), you want to be sure to promote your site as much as you can. You can do this by posting links to your latest entry to sites such as:
- Delicious
- Digg
- Stumbleupon
Another great thing to do is add chicklets/bookmarklets to your blog entries, which are buttons that users can click on to share the current page on their profile on the sites listed above.