It’s hard to stand out with a blog in this day and age. Every other person seems to be writing about their lifestyle, work, interests or personal dramas. Many businesses expect their employees to contribute blog posts to their company’s website, and some expect graduates to prove their interest in a job by writing a blog and show off their writing, technical or analytical skills. Particularly in the creative industries, a blog is almost a requirement. But how do you launch and run a successful blog that attracts enough interest to make it worth your while?
Blogging is an art that requires time and effort to perfect. You can’t just rely on your blogging platform (WordPress, Blogger, Blogspot, Tumblr etc.) to do all the work for you. To be found online and to pick up a steady amount of followers, you need to do a lot of the graft yourself.
Topics
First off, you need to have a clear idea of what you will be writing your blog about. Think about your interests and how you could make them seem interesting to others. Try not to follow the crowds, and seek out a niche that not many people are discussing online. It’s always going to be harder to stand out if there are thousands or even millions of people addressing exactly the same subjects. Fashion and vintage-inspired lifestyle blogs are an example.
Basically, the more original you can be, the easier it will be to build up a following as likeminded individuals are intrigued to read what you have to say.
Once selected, be sure to stick to your original theme so as not to lose followers and not have to satisfy more than one target audience. If you decide to write about something completely different, it may be worth launching another blog instead of trying to make articles fit into your existing blog.
Sticking to the one subject area will also make your design work easier as your blog will be designed to reflect the topic with the layout, the use of specific fonts and visuals.
Content
It’s obvious that content needs to be fresh and updated on a regular basis, otherwise readers will simply go elsewhere. Make sure it addresses the reader somehow, for example, ask questions at the end of each blog post so as to spark a conversation in the ‘comments’ section.
If you know how, perform a bit of keyword and market research to see what might see you get ranked highly in search engine results pages for specific search terms. Always be sure to include these keywords in page titles, meta descriptions, headings, within the first 100 words of your blog post and image file names and captions. To avoid too much keyword saturation, also target synonyms.
All content should flow smoothly and entice the reader from the first paragraph by giving a clear description of what the article is going to be about.
Clichés should be avoided, as well as adjective-crammed chunks of text. Use colourful language by all means, just remember to always be original and straight to the point.
Don’t over-categorise your blog. Each post should adhere to strictly one category so it’s easier to come across both for humans and for search engines.
Publicity
You can start publicising your blog by linking it to your Twitter and Facebook accounts so that every time you publish a new post, the message is automatically passed onto your social network buddies and followers.
Tagging blog posts is also a simple trick that can work wonders. People seek new blogs to read by looking up relevant categories on their preferred blogging site. Who knows, your blog could be the perfect match.
Communication is key to gaining followers. Make sure you actively comment on other people’s blogs to draw their attention to you and your blog, and always respond to comments left on your page so readers can see you enjoy engaging with them.
Blogs can be a great hobby or a great way to show off your interests and talents. Nowadays, it’s not only individuals who fill their time by blogging, but also businesses that have realised the potential of blogging to spread the word about something or attract more attention. To get advice on how you could use a blog to increase site visits and improve site rankings, consult a team of digital marketing specialists whose services span from affiliate marketing to SEO, to CRO UK, to paid search. All these services have the potential to help you gain more readers or subscribers.
