A blog is a great way to express yourself, start interesting discussions, meet amazing people and help your business. Blogging is quite easy, but creating a successful blog can be a very challenging task. Whether you’re just starting out in the blogging world or have been blogging for years, here are 10 ways that you can boost your blog success.
1. Have a Focus
The wonderful thing about blogs is that they can be about anything. If you can put it into words, you can blog about it. Successful blogs have a specific focus and theme to their posts that allows more people with similar interests to be consistent readers. For example, if you want to blog about TV shows, you shouldn’t be making posts about current events and politics unless they correspond with a TV show. The focus can cover a wide range of areas as long as they hold a similar theme. However, you want to at least keep the theme there to hook in readers and make them interested in staying.
Keep in mind, however, that blogs with a more narrow focus tend to get more attention. For example, the previous example of a TV show blog might do better if it purely focused on one type of show such as sitcoms or dramas. If you have other topics that you’d like to talk about, you can always start a separate blog and link them together.
2. Have a Passion for the Topic
Writing about things that disinterest you makes for boring content. In addition, it makes it a chore to write for the blog, making for fewer updates and less interactions with readers. The best blogs always have a drive behind them. The desire to learn more, to share information, to start discussions, to discover new things about the topic and much more should all be present in a good blogger.
3. Strive for Quality
A good blog should have high-quality content in as many ways as possible. The posts should be interesting and informative. If you want to have more of a focus on serious topics or comedy, try not to change the tone too much throughout posts. Try to solve problems for your readers or answer interesting questions. Formatting makes posts much easier to read, and high-quality relevant images can help break up longer content. Good grammar, spelling and punctuation are vital to ensuring that your content is valuable and professional.
4. Condense Your Posts
People like when blog posts are short and get to the point as soon as possible. Many readers aren’t going to sit and read page after page of one blog post without getting to the main point. Any good writer will tell you that condensing a paper can make it much easier and more enjoyable to read, and that many long papers can easily be reduced by a page or two if you know what to cut. This doesn’t mean removing vital information from the post. If you have something that you feel you need to say, then it’s perfectly fine to keep it in. However, try to avoid overly long sentences, skewing from the main topic and including filler. If there’s something related that you’d like to talk about, consider making a follow-up post exploring that topic.
5. Self-Promote
There’s no shame in self-promotion. It’s incredibly difficult to make anything popular without putting yourself out there and advertising. This doesn’t mean spam your social media pages or pestering people for advertising. However, a quick update here and there on social media, reaching out to potential readers and requesting some promotional assistance from well-known names in similar circles can be a great boost to blog success.
6. Experiment
A blog can stagnate in its style and content very easily. That is why it’s so important to regularly experiment in your content. Look through previous posts and look for topics that garner the most attention from readers. Take these topics and see if there are ways that you can expand upon them for new and popular content.
You can also try your hand at a new series in your blog to see what catches interest and what doesn’t. Guest postings are a great way to get new and different content started on your blog, and it allows you to network even further.
If you can’t get a good idea of the kind of new content you’d like to explore on your blog, ask your readers through a poll or through social media about the types of content and changes they’d like to see.
7. Above the Fold
First impressions are incredibly important, and this is even true of blogs. That is why it is so vital to test how well your blog does above the fold. The content that is above the fold is the content on your home page that can be seen without scrolling, making it an introduction to your blog. If you have valuable information, eye-catching pictures, attention-grabbing headlines and more above the fold, you’ll be sure to hook in plenty of readers. If not, they may leave soon after landing on the page.
In order to test the effectiveness of this area, send out a request on your blog or related social media pages for a test of first impressions. If the results are negative or mediocre, feel free to try out some new things and accept reader input for suggestions on improvements. Even the effort of changing and improving can boost your blog success.
8. Make Your Blog Sticky
Sticky blogs are blogs that connect themselves to other webpages to further interest readers, generate more traffic and encourage readers to subscribe to your blog. For instance, a blog post about nutrition can link to references, similar content within the blog and websites where readers can purchase suggested nutritious foods. This provides a lot of additional information to the reader in a few short links that may prompt them to further explore the blog, share it with friends and keep returning for more content.
9. Expand Upon Your Blog
Feel free to venture out and expand upon your blog in various ways. Become a valuable member of message boards, forums and chat rooms related to your main topic. You can include the link to your blog in your signature and profile to generate more traffic, and if you consistently provide valuable and professional contributions to the conversations at these boards you may even find some people to affiliate and collaborate with.
You can also hold contests, send out newsletters and updates on site developments, make a series of podcasts and videos, guest post on other blogs and more.
10. Regularly Update
If a blog looks inconsistently updated or even dead, readers will turn away very quickly. In addition, new content means gaining a better chance to generate traffic with links, search engines and tags. Don’t update so often that you burn yourself out on content, but try to set a solid and reasonable updating schedule and stick to it. If something keeps you from posting for an extended amount of time, make a brief update regarding the blog’s status and give a sneak peak at what you may have planned for the future. If possible, try to remain updated on the social media pages connected to the blog as this shows that you’re still active with intent on updating the blog in the future.
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