In today's media and information saturation age, readers tend to skim as well as abandon websites and blogs before finishing reading the current page.
How do you set up and maintain a blog that can not only catch a reader's initial attention but also turn this person into a loyal reader who consistently returns and shares your content?
(drum roll please... )
Blogging Best Practices
* First, consider why you want to set up a blog. This consideration should influence the theme that you choose as well as what kind of navigation your blog should include.
* Second, you must blog frequently and on a regular schedule. At least once a week, but two to three times a week is best. Even better to post at the same time on the same day. Readers love consistency!
* Third, keep your posts between 200 to 300 words. Think KISS: Keep It Short Smartypants! No one wants to read your magnus opus online.
* Use lots of images to help your reader move quickly through the content. Quickly comprehending your content motivates reading and brings them back!
* Interact with your commenters. How? Send a thank you or add a thank you for commenting plugin and visit commenters' websites (if they link to it). When you engage your commenters, you build loyalty!
Homework: In 100 words, can you think of any other best practices for creating the kind of blog that will win a weblog award? Comment away!
Ways in which to engage blog readers is to use charismatic, casual language. This makes the blogging experience more interactive (again, valuing the individual) and makes the reader feel as if they have some kind of personal connection to the writer, even though they probably know nothing about them.
ReplyDeleteUsing this blog post as an example, the way you added "(drum roll please...)" and "comment away!". Both of these animate your post, giving it more of a personality and making it more engaging to read.
Also, to win a weblog award I think the writer has to be at the top of their game. That is to say, they must have new ideas or are constantly educating/updating themselves on the topic of the blog. For example, if you have a fashion blog you have to know the cutting edge of the fashion industry, or at least your niche, to be relevant and worthy of a weblog award.
In order to engage readers you have to constantly be bringing them in. One way to do this is by creating scenarios to which they can relate and by using tones and speech that level the playing field between you and them. This will make you as the author seem like a friend or acquaintance who they would here a story from. Another way to draw interest is, instead of sympathizing with them, is to highlight the differences, knowledge, or experience you have in comparison to your reader. Knowing they have a lot to learn from you on any given topic will make them stay on your blog. To win a weblog award, a writer has be one of the best at their trade. They have to be bringing fresh information and a new point of view about a topic. Most of all their presentation has to be on point, whether it be with pictures, voice, or overall style of the blog.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important practices in blogging is showing a true passion to the subject which you are writing about. I mean, obviously the reason people start blogs is because they’re interested in something and want to express that interest in some way or another, but if they don’t put any emotion into their writing or make it clear that they are passionate about what they are writing about, it’s going to come off as bland, no matter what. For example, a fashion blog: someone could write about new trends, styles, whatever, with pictures. And that could be it. Or, they could write about the anticipation of waiting for it to arrive in the mail and trying it on, and loving it. The difference in the two is like night and day, at least in terms of how well it will draw readers in.
ReplyDeleteLike Stazi said, a major aspect of a blog is to consider how engaging and interactive it is with the audience it is intended and catered. Your blog has to be a representation of you and your passions and this has to permeate through your blog. You want to create a blog where your readers and followers will be inclined to comment and continue the discussions and topics within your blog both outside of the internet and on the blog itself. Blogs should be a mixture of writing and visual representations to convey your ideas and thoughts. Pictures and video are a great way to balance writing. A goal for a blog is to not overwhelm or scare away potential readers and followers so having a large chunk of paragraphs can be intimidating for potential readers. An award winning blog has to be up to date with whatever you are blogging about and needs to be simple for the average internet user to access and navigate. Nobody wants to be frustrated and overwhelmed with a jumble of words and unorganized thoughts. In order for a blog to affectively be appealing, it needs to show something unique and distinct that catches the readers attention and inclines them to follow your blog.
ReplyDeleteCreator of blogs needs few steps to attract readers into their blogs.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, try to minimize the length of reading amount. Since people tend to be bored when they read extensive sentences, creator should pay attention about it. If bloggers have a lot of things to post, then try to write in separate paragraphs or in separate days so readers would not be bored. Also, try to post different topics if you can. New topics would attract more people than same old topics.
Secondly, the title and thesis should be really attractive enough to bring readers to read contents. Many people, including me, decide to read its contents depend on title and thesis. If both of them are not attractive enough, people would not pay attention or do not read it.
I think these are the most important parts for winning awards.
I don’t think length of the blog matters as long as what you write is creative and interesting; the blog I picked for homework, Hyperbole and a Half, has gigantic posts, and although they are filled with images, it still is a completely time-consuming affair to read them. But I read them anyway, because they are filled with intelligent and entertaining information, while also telling a story, hooking me in and demanding that I finish the post. And Hyperbole and a Half also blogs rather infrequently, yet it remains one of the most popular on the Internet, and quality enough to win a weblog award. This is again, because of its high attention to detail and wealth of interesting stories, which has more to do with building a dedicated fanbase than anything else.
ReplyDeleteSu Chan's comment
ReplyDeleteSo I think at this moment there is a very important thing in blogging that we are undermining: designing!
yeah Ive read all of your comments, and I buy those, but really, a blog with just a bunch of untangled strings of words?? Ugghh!
Just stop and think about that in a moment.
Designing is just SOOO important in blogging, especially when you are looking to make it big and successful.
you want to make the design intuitive and tidy. you want that potential subscribers to stop and study your blog as soon as he glances at your page just momentarily. Otherwise, you have alreay failed in this game. It does not matter how good the content is, how passionate you are about the topic; blogging is done in a virtual space! you have to be aware of that and prepare for it accordingly. To do this, neat and intuitive blog designing is just vital.
I think a way to engage readers is to be personal, and make the reader feel like they can relate to you. I also think that having a focus to the blog really helps, because it targets a certain group of people. Hopefully, this group will have similar questions about a topic or the same curiosity, so they will use the blog as a form of research.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find that having a theme that is clean, simple, and without a lot of ads and filler material, to be pleasing to the eye. Even if a blogs writing is well done, if the theme and look of the blog is too busy, readers may be overwhelmed and be turned away.