blogging Archives - Page 3 of 3

The ‘Write Way’ To #Blog

Reviews · March 24, 2017

Is there a wrong way to blog? In a way – yes. By not committing to a regular and consistent schedule. While there is a right and wrong way to do almost anything – the wrong way to blog is to avoid it altogether. The right way to do it? Write.

Why blog? Well it can be a passion, a hobby – it can be the business you run from home or as part of the business you are already running. Blogging is content!

(source)

Content creation is a key cornerstone of any business marketing plan. Even the greatest products and services on the market can’t market themselves!

A blog and the content posted onto the blog (videos, podcasts and written content) creates interest in your brand. This interest can build into interest, or even a sale of a product. Sometimes – it is the blog that is technically the product, with visitors visiting your web page just to read your blog! Products are sold as an aside – this is called merchandise. The content created and cultivated by you might just make you some money!

What should you write about? Well, it really does depend on why your blog exists in the first place. If you want to write about technology, you’ll cover all manner of things from computing to gadgets and coding to inventions & science. Find brackets that you can fit yourself into. Some blogs might specialize and write about sports teams, or a single sports team. If it’s a personal blog, it depends on your interests. If your blog is professional, it depends on the industry that your business is based in! Companies that manufacture sports equipment will naturally blog about sports! It’s all situational.

The foundation of every blog is the internet – it has to be! The internet offers a lot of avenues for expansion, collaboration and marketing. Your blog should have social media accounts so that you can share your content across multiple fronts to increase your followers and thus your view count.

We mentioned product’s a while ago and some blogs do sell merchandise – that means you need to be a dab hand at packaging and postage too. Even if you aren’t – running a blog online requires you to have some form of home office address to conduct your business on. Assess your needs and if you are selling, make sure you can get your products out efficiently.

Now, your writing. It needs to be authentic and truthful, no matter if you are presenting a blog in a personal or professional environment. If you’re personal and you’re laying on the constant hard sell, people will get turned off of you. If you’re not professional enough in a business environment people will turn off of you easily. Just be yourself above all and tone it up or down depending on your writing environment.

(source)

Above all – be consistent and write to a schedule. Like a radio show people will be tuning in on a consistent basis for your writing, so don’t let your followers down!

The Art of Keeping People Coming Back to Your Blog

Reviews · March 21, 2017

ne of the most challenging aspects of writing a blog is encouraging people to come back time and time again. Often, people will only come to read a single post but will not stick around to look at what else you have to say in the future. With so many other competitors all clamouring for attention, you are certainly in a highly competitive marketplace. But with time, commitment and the right strategy in place, you are more likely to be able to attract the long term readers that you are looking for.

Photo Credit

Here are just a few of the top ways that you can hold people’s attention and keep them coming back to your blog.

Establish Your Expertise

People often come to blogs because they are looking for expert advice. One of the most common types of blog post is the ‘how to guide’. If you can provide people with solutions to specific problems, they are more likely to come back to you when they need some advice. Everyone will listen to someone who knows what they are talking about. That’s why it is a good idea to focus your blog on some core subjects if you are running it all by yourself. Otherwise you could risk spreading yourself too thinly and people will not have as much faith in your expertise.

Stick to a Blogging Schedule

You should have a schedule of posts that extends several weeks or months in advance. Nothing looks worse than a blog that hasn’t been updated in a long time. People are likely to turn back as soon as they see your page and not come back again. Some of your posts may not be time specific, so you can be flexible with them if there is any breaking news that you would like to cover. Other posts will be about specific times of the year, so these will need to stay in place. Stick to your schedule as closely as possible to show that yours is an active site that is worth coming back to.

Respond to Comments

Photo Credit

If you continually write interesting content, people are likely to want to comment on your posts. You should make sure to respond to each comment individually, therefore encouraging more people to get involved. This shows that you actually care about what your readers think and you’re not just focused on creating content that fills your site. It also demonstrates that you’re committed to your blog. As well as this, it helps you to build up new relationships – potentially with other bloggers who write about a similar subject area.

Connect with Social Media

The best bloggers nowadays are active on social media, as well as keeping their page updated on a regular basis. This can be one of the most effective tools to attract new readers, as well as keeping the ones that you have already. Once you have a big following, you may want to do a Facebook privacy checkup to make sure your account is safe as it is likely to be a valuable commodity to you. Social media allows you to let people know about your latest blog posts, as well as post shorter comments reacting to developments in your industry. It is another way to get in touch with your audience to gage what posts are working best and what type of content they are looking for.

Serial Blog Post

Sometimes, you will have a blog topic that is simply too big to tackle in a single post. You should break this up into bitesize chunks and set up a schedule of when you will be posting the rest of it. It may well be a certain long anecdote, so you can leave cliffhangers at the end of each post encouraging people to come back. You should make sure to include links back to previous posts so people can catch up if they are late to the party. If you have captured people’s attention, this is one of the best ways to keep them coming back for more.

Send Out Newsletters

Photo Credit

When you create a blog, make sure to include a signup page so people can input their email address and you can get in touch with them whenever you have something interesting to say. Remember not to overuse this technique as people are likely to be signed up to a huge number of mailing lists these days. Try to make your content helpful or exciting, not just a deluge of self-promotional emails. A newsletter can provide a timely reminder to check back on your blog page for any content that they may not have read yet.

Vary Your Posts

People are much less likely to come back if they see that you are posting about the same type of thing again and again. Instead, utilise the range of different blog post styles that are out there. We’ve already mentioned the ‘how to’ posts, but you could also write ‘checklist’ posts, giving people a clear guide of the steps they need to take to complete a certain task. You could also write product reviews, either about a single one or comparing and contrasting different items.

News posts are a regular feature on many blogs, while you could also create ones which are more personal in style, drawn from your own experiences. To get a fresh perspective, you could interview an influential person in your field or encourage people to submit guest posts. This helps to take some of the burden off yourself. Surveys, polls or FAQ posts encourage your readers to get involved, and may also help you to come up with a clear direction for anything you choose to write about in the future.

Write Engaging Headlines

Photo Credit

Often, people will judge whether or not they want to read a blog post based purely on the strength of the headline. That’s not to say that they all need to be over the top or sensationalist, but you should take the time to make sure they are engaging and give a good overview of what is in the post. Try to keep them short and snappy if possible. People who glance briefly through your blog may see a whole range of things that they want to read, keeping them coming back at a later date.

You’re Only as Strong as Your Last Post

The best bloggers put a huge amount of time and thought into their posts because they know how quickly people can switch off and go elsewhere. Like a sportsman is only as good as their last game, you are only as strong as your last post. Again, this comes back to making a detailed schedule. If you just sit down in front of a blank page and expect magic to happen, you are likely to be sorely disappointed!

Link to Related Posts

As we said at the start, people are often drawn in to read a single post on your blog page and don’t come back on a regular basis. Make sure that single post is strong by linking it to other related posts on your page. People are likely to open this up and follow the links like a trail of breadcrumbs, showing that you are so much more than a one hit wonder! This is definitely a technique that you should use for all your blog posts as you never know which one people will be drawn to.

Share Your Personality

Photo Credit

Posts that tend to be dry and generic are likely to get passed over pretty quickly. With such a wide array of content out there on the internet, make yours stand out by making sure your unique style shines through. Show off your sense of humor and try to make people laugh. Share personal anecdotes and write as if you are only speaking to your best friend. If people get to know you and enjoy your own unique take on the world, they are much more likely to come back to read more of what you have to say.

Optimise Your Posts for SEO

If your posts regularly rank highly on search engines, people are more likely to see you as an authority on a particular subject and trust your site to provide them with the type of information they are looking for. There are numerous techniques for making your posts SEO friendly including using backlinks, keywords and making your content unique. If you are not well versed in these, now is the time to brush up on your skills.

Photo Credit

These are just a few of the best ways to keep visitors coming back to you blog time and time again. Ultimately it all comes down to creating fresh and readable content, and making sure you promote it as widely as possible. It may take some time to find your voice and a style that works, but always try to improve wherever you can and you are likely to build up the loyal readership you are looking for.

Better Blogging: Becoming A Pro

Reviews · February 14, 2017

Most of us have tried blogging at one stage or another, even if it was only an activity of leisure. However, the industry has become huge business in recent years. If you’re a creative that loves the thought of making money from expressing your views, those online opportunities are amazing.

However, creating a blog for commercial reasons isn’t an easy challenge. It requires a lot of hard work and commitment. Nevertheless, when you get it right, it can become a fantastic side hustle. Or maybe it’ll even become your primary source of income.

Either way, those incentives are massive. Here’s what you can do to accelerate your rise to the top.

Image:

Make First Impressions Count

Ultimately, it’s the quality of your content that will keep readers coming back for more. Having said that, you’ll never have that chance to impress them unless your website makes an immediate impact. Modern audiences have high expectations regarding design and layout; your blog cannot afford to fall short.

Thanks to modern advancements, you no longer have to be an expert to create a great looking blog. WordPress is a particularly effective platform, especially when you install a professional theme. The best thing about taking this option is that the widgets offer a versatile approach that gives the user complete control.

Given that audiences have a sense of familiarity with the WordPress appearance, it can ease their navigation too.

Add Personality

Let’s face it; you aren’t ever going to beat the news corporations when it comes to breaking the latest stories. So why are online audiences becoming more interested in reading posts from their favorite bloggers? Quite simply, it’s because there is a level of transparency and honesty.

As a blogger, the only way you’ll ever build that connection is by showing your personality. People want to know about you, which is why it’s important to give an insight into your life while developing a writing style too. Ultimately, readers want to feel as though they know the person behind the blog. Once you achieve this response, you’ll have a far better shot at gaining loyalty.

Image:

Besides, your work will become infinitely better when you let your passion shine through. Have fun while working too, and it will feel like a hobby too.

Think Outside The Box Room

If you tend to work solely from your box bedroom, this could be limiting your success. Modern technology makes it possible to create far more exciting content. Don’t be afraid to embrace it.

A photo paints a thousand words, and using a smartphone will allow you to take snaps on the go. Meanwhile, blogging on the go will provide a far greater insight into the personal journey that is your life. Alternatively, a drone can allow you to grab unique video footage from the sky.

Aside from the increased insight, the mixture of different content can go a long way to keeping readers entertained. After all, this should be a leisurely activity for them; easily digested content is king.

Treat It Like A Business

Arguably the worst thing that any blogger can do is fall into the trap of treating it like a casual project. If you want to make money from the blog, you need to employ the same level of professionalism as you would in any other business.

Investing in your business with a domain name can instantly boost credibility. Meanwhile, hiring experts to produce additional content for your blog is a great way to maintain a regular source of work. In truth, a lack of updates is one of the most common problems holding back modern bloggers. Let’s face it; no reader is going to stay loyal if your blog updates only on a sporadic basis.

Conducting your business in a suitable manner now will encourage better habits for when it becomes your primary income. What more incentive could you ever need?

Interact With Customers

Image:

As already mentioned, readers want to know about the person behind the blog. And there’s no better way to generate those positive vibes than by getting to know them too. Learn to interact with them at every given opportunity, and the brand will soar.

Social media is a particularly useful tool for this function. Enter debates and discussions with your readers, ask for their opinions with polls, and let them participate. By playing a more active role, they’ll naturally want to visit your site on a more regular basis. Moreover, their friends and family will see that they are communicating with your blog, which could encourage them to follow suit.

If nothing else, this will help you gain a stronger understanding of what your audience wants from your blog. If that doesn’t point you in a better direction, what will?

Collaborate

It’s only natural for entrepreneurs to believe that it’s them against the world. While the fierce competition can be problematic in many industries, blogging is not one of them.

Frankly, there’s nothing to stop online audiences visiting dozens of blogs on a daily basis. With this in mind, you no longer need to view other blogs as competition. Instead, you can work with each other to produce guest posts, create backlinks, and boost the presence of both projects. Furthermore, you could even team up to run a joint campaign or competition.

Image:

Anything that grows the presence and readership can only be good news, even if it does the same for your partner. Do not underestimate its influence for a second.

Generate Money

As a business, your main goal is to generate money. Advertising is a great starting point, whether it’s through PPC banners or affiliate schemes. However, you shouldn’t let the task end there.

You can make additional money through many different methods. This could involve selling merchandise like phone cases and t-shirts. You might also get paid to create content for external companies and advertising companies.

Essentially, earning a greater level of revenue will only allow your blogging venture to grow at a more rapid rate. And the bigger you become, the more stable the project will be too. Get this right, and you’ll be a professional full-term blogger in no time.