5 Steps to Building A Better Blog
Content
What can I say about content? Content is definately the King and is one common feature of every single blog existing on this planet. Content is the thing that keeps getting new visitors to your blog and keeps the old readers reading.Here are some things that you should always keep in mind while writing..
1) Write something that helps your readers benefit in some or the other way. If people can make nothing out of your content then what is the point in reading your blog.
2) Keep it consistent. Post regularly. It doesn’t really matter how often you post, be it daily, weekly or even monthly. As long as you are regular it always keeps things going..
3) Participate in Conversations, it allows you to give your input on the latest happenings. This is also a great way to gain readers from other blogs.
4) Keep your content short and sweet. Don’t beat around the bush and waste the time of the reader. Come to the point straight away.
Usability
Steve Krug wrote a book called Don’t Make Me Think and that’s exactly what you should be aiming for when visitors comes to your blog. If a visitor wants to read the content, he should ne able to do so with ease. If he is looking to subscribe to your blog he should be able to find the RSS feed with ease. Whatever it might be, you want to make it as easy for your readers as possible.
Here are a few things to keep in mind.
1) Your website’s content should be easy to read as well as easy to navigate.
2) Make it easy for people to find your content by using categories and by having a search feature on your blog.
3) Make your RSS subscription button easy to access for anyone looking to read your content from a RSS reader.
4) Limit the options and features on your blog. Why have tons of features when 90 percent of your visitors only use a handful of them.
5) Try to avoid technical jargon when possible and when you cannot try to explain the jargon in as few words as possible.
Visibility
This is a major aspect in blogging today. You need to have your blog visible in all the Major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. You can use Search engines, Social Networks to drive visitors to your site.
Search engines – Make sure your blog is optimized for search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN…), that way you have a good chance of getting traffic from them. There are many online documents that give step by step instructions on how you can optimize your blog.
Blog search engines – ping the blog search engines through services like Ping-o-matic and Pingoat. That way when you post a new entry people can find it through blog search engines such as Technorati and IceRocket.
Social mediums – Get your content out on sites like digg or del.icio.us. If you can manage to get on the digg homepage or on del.icio.us popular you will get thousands of new visitors coming to your website within minutes.
Uniqueness
Try to differentiate yourself from your competition. Standing out is not always a bad thing, if your blog stands out from the crowd it will draw more attention and potentially make it more popular. You might be able to do this through tools, videos or even through your content; whatever it may be just try to stand out from everyone else in a good and unique way.
Readers
The most important thing that a blogger can do is listen to his/her readers. It is not all about you, it is all about the reader. You can have a great blog, but if you ignore your readers sooner or later they will ignore you and even stop reading your blog. So don’t leave your readers stranded, make sure you listen and respond to them. You don’t always have to do what they want, but you have to listen.