There are so many blogs out there these days that producing entertaining content and a slick design is no longer enough to guarantee the success of a young and budding blogger. To help you get off to the best possible start, we have put together five tips on creating an amazing blog that will keep visitors coming back time and time again.
Content
So content is not everything, but it is a significant part of creating a successful blog. For a blogger to gain traction in the early days, they need to be prepared to create high-quality content – and a lot of it! If people come to your blog and only see three posts, they will rightfully question how serious you are. Similarly, if they see plenty of posts but nothing for the last few months, they will likely lose interest and find a site that offers more regular and up to date content. It is important to make sure that each and every piece of content that you post is offering something to the reader, and has been checked for eloquence and spelling and grammar mistakes. If the first post that a visitor reads is of poor quality, then they will assume that all the content is like this, and be unlikely to read more.
Images
Images are naturally very important to any blog. People love images, as looking at them requires a lot less effort then reading! Good quality images will also liven up your blog and make it more attractive to first-time visitors. You do not need to worry about image resolution (that is an offline thing) but you will need to think about image size, to ensure that your page loading time doesn’t begin to drag. Video is also incredibly popular. As the great Mark Zuckerberg says, ‘video continues to be some of the richest and most engaging content for people and publishers.’
Design
Naturally, you will want to ensure that your website has an aesthetically pleasing design. Web hosts such as 1&1 will help you design your own website with a website builder. Most early bloggers do not have the budget to hire a professional website designer. However, with a bit of imagination and some attractive templates, you will still be able to create a good-looking website to impress visitors.
Social Media
Social media is one of the most effective ways of promoting your blog. Make it easy for your readers to share your content with their friends by providing clear social media buttons or the like on every page. Don’t simply consider Facebook and Twitter. If your blog is image-heavy, you should incorporate Pinterest and Instagram. Consider snapchat as well. If your blog is more corporate, have a look at LinkedIn and Google+. There are a lot of tools out there to choose from. Selected Best has reviewed a lot of different tools and apps for Instagram, for example.
Analytics
Analytics sound boring and scary, but good and solid data is the only real way to track how many people your blog is reaching and where it is falling short.
Google Analytics is an incredibly comprehensive tool that allows you to not only measure your site traffic, but learn about what kind of people are coming to your site, how they find your site, and what they are doing when they are there. Through data like this, you can ascertain where you need to up your marketing, and which pages and posts are not receiving the attention that you would like. If you are monetizing your blog or setting up an online shopping store, using Google Analytics will also help you increase your conversion rate.
Of course, there are a thousand more things to think about when running a blog. But in the early days, keep these five hints in mind, be diligent, and hopefully in time, what began as a hobby can turn into the most fun career you have ever had. Being a blogger is HARD work but can be rewarding! :-)
