Build A Blog You Can Be Proud Of.I was looking around at some blogs to see what things I liked and disliked about them. There is no doubt that there are things that attract people and there are things that totally turn people off.
I have made a list of 12 tips that can help make your blog more successful. Most of them are simple but quite effective at making your site more user friendly.
Make Your Blog More Successful
1. Make your site simple – With all of the bells and whistles available, too many people are trying to see how impressive they can make their websites. They may be attractive but unless your goal is to win a contest for best site, impressing people with glitter will not make sales.
2. Make sure your blog loads quickly - You do not have long to grab your reader’s attention. Make sure that you at least get a fair shot at grabbing his attention. If your site takes too long to load, you will lose a lot of potential readers without even giving your blog a chance.
3. Don’t have too many items on one page - You do not want to confuse your visitors. You want to make sure that they understand the purpose of your blog. Too many items on one page can make this difficult for some. Don’t take the chance. Make all of your pages simple.
4. Make sure every page links to your home page - It is much easier for your visitors to navigate if all of your pages link back to the home page. You will not lose as many potential customers if you make your site easier to navigate.
5. Get your own domain name – Free servers are great for some things but trying to gain credibility in the blogging world is not one of them. It is well worth the price to get your own domain.
6. Make sure your hosting service offers full support - Make sure your web hosting service offers the things you need before you choose. Choosing the best web host now can save a lot of headaches down the road.
7. Offer as many options for following as possible - The more options you provide for getting updates from your blog, the fewer readers you will lose. Offering the minimum options to follow by Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or Google+ can increase the number who will actually follow you.
8. Offer free information on your site - You will want to offer some type of free material on your site. Free material such as courses are a very good way to build yourself as an expert in the eyes of your visitor. Free ebooks are another good thing to offer. Make sure these freebies are good solid information that can help your visitors – then offer them to those who sign up for your mailing list.
9. Get your visitor’s email address - You can accomplish this in quite a few different ways. Giving away the courses or ebooks is one great way. You can publish a newsletter or ezine that your visitors can sign up for on your site.
10. Make sure to build your blog with purpose in mind - If you are trying to sell a product on your site, then sell that product. If you are trying to get addresses and make the sale later, perhaps using affiliate marketing, then make that your purpose when building your blog.
11. Encourage feedback - Make your visitor feel like his opinion is important. Offer him the chance to provide you with feedback via comments or polls posted on your blog. Don’t be too proud to make changes if you start hearing some of the same things from your readers.
12. Remember that you are building this blog for your readers - This is not a site to fulfill some fantasy of yours. Remember the purpose of your blog. Keep your readers’ wants and needs in your mind as you design it.
Your blog design and functionality is one of those things that will determine if you are a marketing success. Make sure that you make it user friendly. Also make sure that you don’t lose sight of the purpose of your site. If your blog does not come across directly to your visitor, you are going to lose many visitors before they even really see your content.
What blog elements do you like and dislike?
Please share your opinion in the comments below!
Kimberly Vogel
Michelle
Chelsea
Dana
Gwen
This is a very helpful post, especially for new bloggers like me. Hope you can visit my blog too and tell me what you don’t like (and hopefully, find something that you like)
Cham Cuartero recently posted..Our Not-So-Junkie Junkfood Dinner
This is very helpful as always. Thanks!
Stephanie@MakeMoneyOnline recently posted..Best Websites to Find Freelance Jobs
I like clean, easy-to-navigate sites (#1) and recently reorganized my own so that my homepage was much less cluttered. For me, the look of the post itself is also important; white space between paragraphs makes it easier to read, proofreading and grammar checking means I don’t stumble over confusing sentences, and a few pictures (but not too many) add interest to the post.
Bonnie Way recently posted..I’m a Guest at the Young Wife’s Guide!
Yes that’s right good advise ,Good tips they can apply.
I agree with them, it’s one the best tips on blogging and it’s very helpful to everyone especially on newbies who need guidance on building a blog.
Blogging is not easy but we all know that there are some things we can do to make it successful and be a profitable business for us.. Thanks!
An important thing for me is that it is easy to leave a comment or ask a question. It is very frustrating for me when I take the time to type out a reply and then cannot figure out how to post it or have to sign up for an account to do so.
Lisa recently posted..The Chicken and The Ham
Puting some freebie content also can help your blog, and in this list, i fount feedback appreciation is the most valuable. Anyway a helpful post.
I think it’s important to itemize exactly which traits or objectives are important to your blog/business before starting so that you can ensure you’re meeting those goals.
For example if building a list is number one then make sure you’ve invested the time and web page real estate toward that goal. If number two is increasing followers/fans or whatever then make sure that is your number two priority.
Too often people try and make multiple goals number one, and to be honest there can only be 1 number 1 goal.
Great list!
One is originality. If you want your blog to succeed, it really *must* be unique! There has to be something that will make everybody who visits your blog exclaim in delight! Your main topic does not need to be unique, but your writing style, your design, your ideas… they must be special! You must offer your visitors incredible value for their time.
I would like to add that the best thing you blog should be is unique. There are thousands of blogs now, thousands of copycats and similar content. Although Google has a hard time determining who was here first and who should rank number 1, humans don’t, that is why if you are unique and have content that is worth something for someone, you will be shared and you will be succeceful.
It seems to me that the most important things to make your blog successful are to give your readers fresh quality content that they want and to make the navigation of your site as user friendly as possible. Great article and very good info in it thank you.