Blogs are written to target a specific audience, so its only right that we cover how to blog successfully. Bloggers want to attract traffic and to receive comments so your writing should be of interest to a certain type of person ( your target audience ).
Regularity
Make it regular – blogs should look active so by writing pieces regularly, your followers will return to see new posts and in turn will start to add comments to your pieces.
To Read or to Skim
Some readers will read a whole post so keep it short, don’t be scared to use bullets and headers, and for those that only have time to skim the text add ‘action’ words that get noticed.
Commenting
Blogging is an interactive project, something that lets your readers get involved so let them leave comments and ask you questions and respond quickly. You can use widgets ( add-ons ) that can let you do this, and by using one that lets readers message each other adds value and interest.
Home Page
Use your home page as an inlet to the rest of your blog. Use eye catching headers with images that attract your readers, let them read the first sentence or two. If they’re into the header and the taster sentence they’ll click through to read the rest of it, give them the option to read it or not – the text isn’t in your readers face and they have the choice to click through to the piece they ‘need’ to read.
Things to Avoid
Avoid being over opinionated – people don’t want to be told how to think. Talk with your audience and get their opinions too.
Don’t fill the post with too much information, instead spread your info out into a couple of posts. Give little pieces of good strong info and add value to it by asking for comments or opinions.
Try not to fill a page with blatant key words, search engines favour blogs which are relevant and active so focus on interesting pieces and add pages to the blog regularly.
Posted on November 1st, 2010
