Attention to things like grammar and spelling are a crucial part to having a successful blog. By its very nature, a blog is going to be less formal than, say, a magazine or newspaper. The blog author is totally free to change point of view or type of content offered.
But do put effort into making sure that each piece you write looks professional. Havi g thgs lk dis may look gr8t in a txt but are annoying in a blog post. Don't use text abbreviations or tons of slang. Make a point to go back and read through every post to check for spelling errors.
If you want people to take your blog content seriously, you must show that you care about your work. Remember that your most popular posts are not always going to be the most recent ones. Often times it will be the posts that have been around for awhile and have had time to filter into the internet.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Make Your Posts Shareable
Many free blog hosts have sharing options as a default setting. By "sharing options" I mean quick buttons that allow readers to tweet or email or share your post on Facebook. If your blog host doesn't have these automatically added as a default, make a point of doing so. Usually these buttons can be added in your blog's layout settings.
Even if you don't use Twitter or Facebook, it is extremely important to make your blog shareable if you wish to generate more traffic. Don't make your readers work more than they have to in order to share your blog with their friends.
This type of word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective methods of spreading your blog around. Again, we go back to how you would react to things. Are you more likely to click on an ad link or a link your friend shared with you?
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
It's a Blog, Not an Essay
Believe it or not, a pitfall many bloggers succumb to is trying to write "an essay." Paragraphs and paragraphs of well thought out content will be presented before the readers.
"Why not?" you may ask. "Shouldn't good writing have a solid beginning, middle and end?"
Well, if you were exploring a thesis topic, yes. But this is a blog. On the internet. Your readers are generally going to be people who want light reading that entertains them for a few minutes. They are not a professor you are trying to impress for a good grade.
Most readers only want a few simple paragraphs. They want a single point rather than a fully expressed idea. Ideas can have many facets to them and will, therefore, lead to more content. While it's not taboo to delve into complex ideas, break things up into multiple posts rather than trying to cram it all together in one post.
The length of your blogs will, of course, vary depending on the topic. Just remember to think about how you would react to your blog post if you came across it on the internet.
"Why not?" you may ask. "Shouldn't good writing have a solid beginning, middle and end?"
Well, if you were exploring a thesis topic, yes. But this is a blog. On the internet. Your readers are generally going to be people who want light reading that entertains them for a few minutes. They are not a professor you are trying to impress for a good grade.
Most readers only want a few simple paragraphs. They want a single point rather than a fully expressed idea. Ideas can have many facets to them and will, therefore, lead to more content. While it's not taboo to delve into complex ideas, break things up into multiple posts rather than trying to cram it all together in one post.
The length of your blogs will, of course, vary depending on the topic. Just remember to think about how you would react to your blog post if you came across it on the internet.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Grab Your Reader's Attention
Your blog post is not a novel. You have one, maybe two, sentences to grab a reader's attention.
A blog reader is not in it for the long haul. They don't want a clearly developed thesis that is developed from approaching the topic from multiple angles. They want one point. One interesting point.
If you want to develop that point, use multiple blog posts. But pretty much everything you want to say should be covered in the first two sentences. You want to pull them in and get them to read the rest of the post.
The internet is not the same thing as a newspaper or book. It's extremely fast paced and subjects change with the click of a button. So catering to that type of audience does not diminish your skill as a writer. It's merely accepting who will be reading your blog and what type of mood they are in.
A blog reader is not in it for the long haul. They don't want a clearly developed thesis that is developed from approaching the topic from multiple angles. They want one point. One interesting point.
If you want to develop that point, use multiple blog posts. But pretty much everything you want to say should be covered in the first two sentences. You want to pull them in and get them to read the rest of the post.
The internet is not the same thing as a newspaper or book. It's extremely fast paced and subjects change with the click of a button. So catering to that type of audience does not diminish your skill as a writer. It's merely accepting who will be reading your blog and what type of mood they are in.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Your Reader's First Impression...
...is your post title.
I've talked before about choosing keyword savvy titles. Keyword oriented titles are important for search engine purposes. They help people to find your blog on the internet.
But it's also important to keep those readers once they do find your blog. Your blog title is your reader's first impression. Much of what makes someone decide to continue reading is how a title is phrased. Think of newspaper headlines; which article would you rather read?
Man buried himself alive!
or
An interesting thing that someone did.
Regardless of content, you are automatically going to be attracted to the more interesting title. So, yes, this takes practice. But the title of each post is incredibly important. Make an effort to include one or two keywords. Then work with rearranging them in a way that would make you want to click on your article.
I've talked before about choosing keyword savvy titles. Keyword oriented titles are important for search engine purposes. They help people to find your blog on the internet.
But it's also important to keep those readers once they do find your blog. Your blog title is your reader's first impression. Much of what makes someone decide to continue reading is how a title is phrased. Think of newspaper headlines; which article would you rather read?
Man buried himself alive!
or
An interesting thing that someone did.
Regardless of content, you are automatically going to be attracted to the more interesting title. So, yes, this takes practice. But the title of each post is incredibly important. Make an effort to include one or two keywords. Then work with rearranging them in a way that would make you want to click on your article.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Google AdSense for Blogs: Is it worthwhile?
Let's first start out with what Google AdSense is...
Google AdSense is Google's way of giving blog authors the opportunity to make money on their blog. Essentially, you put advertisements up on your blog and when people click on the advertisement, you get a small percentage of the money Google made from that one click.
There are many types of similar services out there if you want to make advertising money but AdSense is definitely one of the larger ones. It's also one of the most user-friendly ones because Google does most of the work for you. You decide which spaces you want to allot to advertising and then Google will scan the content of your site to place applicable ads. So if you have a car blog, you will probably see a lot of car-related ads.
What's the other shoe, right?
The most obvious thing is that you have to have advertisements on your blog. You can choose how many and where these advertisements are placed. However, if you totally coat your blog with "flashing neon" it might be a turn off for readers.
But does it generate money? Yes and no. I have AdSense on most of my blogs and I get the occasional click here and there which amounts to a few cents to a couple of dollars a month. But all of my blogs tend to be very niche. So compared to, say, a gossip blog that follows Snooki's latest scandals, I'm going to have much lower traffic overall.
At the risk of sounding like a Debbie Downer, I feel like the age where you could make hundreds of thousands of dollars from blog ads has come and gone. The ads have actually become better and more targeted. But that just can't keep up with the fact that most of the USA's population has become internet savvy. Going back to my go-to reality check: when was the last time I ever clicked on an ad to find something?
Google AdSense is Google's way of giving blog authors the opportunity to make money on their blog. Essentially, you put advertisements up on your blog and when people click on the advertisement, you get a small percentage of the money Google made from that one click.
There are many types of similar services out there if you want to make advertising money but AdSense is definitely one of the larger ones. It's also one of the most user-friendly ones because Google does most of the work for you. You decide which spaces you want to allot to advertising and then Google will scan the content of your site to place applicable ads. So if you have a car blog, you will probably see a lot of car-related ads.
What's the other shoe, right?
The most obvious thing is that you have to have advertisements on your blog. You can choose how many and where these advertisements are placed. However, if you totally coat your blog with "flashing neon" it might be a turn off for readers.
But does it generate money? Yes and no. I have AdSense on most of my blogs and I get the occasional click here and there which amounts to a few cents to a couple of dollars a month. But all of my blogs tend to be very niche. So compared to, say, a gossip blog that follows Snooki's latest scandals, I'm going to have much lower traffic overall.
At the risk of sounding like a Debbie Downer, I feel like the age where you could make hundreds of thousands of dollars from blog ads has come and gone. The ads have actually become better and more targeted. But that just can't keep up with the fact that most of the USA's population has become internet savvy. Going back to my go-to reality check: when was the last time I ever clicked on an ad to find something?
Monday, March 5, 2012
How To Get Blog Traffic: Backlinks
I've already gone over before what a backlink is. So the focus of this post will be how to help increase the number of backlinks which will, in turn, increase your blog traffic.
So, bad news first: there is no quick and easy way to make your blog instantly popular. It takes work and, unfortunately, time. The top blogs in any category are usually several years old and have accumulated a following from natural growth.
But there are ways to "plant the seed" as it were. The first thing you should try is emailing the link for your blog to close family and friends. Don't pester them. But it is totally reasonable to announce to people you know "hey, I started a blog." The key here is to email the link. If you tell people, they will probably forget. But an email can be sent around.
The second thing to do is communicate with other bloggers in your genre. If you write about food, check out other food blogs. If you blog about computers games, check out gaming blogs. See if any of these bloggers/sites have areas where they list other websites. Those are the lists you need to be on. Even if the link never gets clicked on, it's important your link got listed somewhere else online.
Twitter and Facebook are also good tools. Oddly enough, a link on either of those mediums doesn't count as a backlink. But you can have people find your blog through those mediums and, in turn, possibly post the backlink somewhere else.
Online forums are also an extremely effective tool. If you become a regular forum member, you will have numerous opportunities to share blog links. Additionally, if people like you on the forum, they will be inclined to share your blog link all all the forums they visit.
Again, all of these suggestions are merely seeds you can plant. True blog audience growth will only happen with time.
So, bad news first: there is no quick and easy way to make your blog instantly popular. It takes work and, unfortunately, time. The top blogs in any category are usually several years old and have accumulated a following from natural growth.
But there are ways to "plant the seed" as it were. The first thing you should try is emailing the link for your blog to close family and friends. Don't pester them. But it is totally reasonable to announce to people you know "hey, I started a blog." The key here is to email the link. If you tell people, they will probably forget. But an email can be sent around.
The second thing to do is communicate with other bloggers in your genre. If you write about food, check out other food blogs. If you blog about computers games, check out gaming blogs. See if any of these bloggers/sites have areas where they list other websites. Those are the lists you need to be on. Even if the link never gets clicked on, it's important your link got listed somewhere else online.
Twitter and Facebook are also good tools. Oddly enough, a link on either of those mediums doesn't count as a backlink. But you can have people find your blog through those mediums and, in turn, possibly post the backlink somewhere else.
Online forums are also an extremely effective tool. If you become a regular forum member, you will have numerous opportunities to share blog links. Additionally, if people like you on the forum, they will be inclined to share your blog link all all the forums they visit.
Again, all of these suggestions are merely seeds you can plant. True blog audience growth will only happen with time.
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