You think blogging could be a great idea? Could making a WordPress Blog make you money? What are you looking to achieve from blogging? Who are you aiming at? Why do you want to share your words with the wider public?
These are all vital questions you need to answer before you commence your blog. However, below are our top tips to creating an effective and successful blog whatever your motivation is!
- FIND YOUR SUBJECT MATTER
The first thing you need to determine is what you want to say and, more importantly how you are going to say it. Say something original… or at least say it differently! If you can put a fresh spin on a subject, whether informing, educating, entertaining or all three, your writing will be compelling to read.
- FIND YOUR PLATFORM
Choose a platform that can offer a vast array of themes and feature-rich packages, such as solostream.com. This will give your blog a real professional shine. They also provide themes that are fully compatible with mobile browsing. Many people choose to read blogs out of home. Whether they are commuting to and from work or stopping for a coffee, your reader should be able to access your blog across all mobile devices.
- FIND YOUR VOICE
The internet is not short of bland and passively written blogs so don’t add to the list! You have an opportunity to bring your voice to life so allow your personality and passion to shine through all your posts. The best blogs can make people laugh or cry because the reader is rooting for the blogger. Many of us like to live vicariously through the exploits of others so take your reader with you on your journey and keep them coming back for more!
- FIND YOUR AUDIENCE
This is not so easy to do. How do you make sure you are not going to be sat in an empty room talking to yourself?! Well the good news is that a site like solostream will ensure your blog is SEO ready (fully optimized for search engines and able to generate the highest traffic). This will allow you to focus on writing a blog people will want to read.
- GRAB ATTENTION
In journalism the role of a headline writer is a very specialist function. It really doesn’t matter how well written a piece is if the headline does not hook the reader in. If you are going to email your blog to your own distribution list, make sure you make a splash with your subject line or you will never hook them in!
- KEEP THE READER ON YOUR PAGE
Now you have found your readers and brought them to your blog you want them to stay and read your post in full. Make sure you do not waste words. Never post a first draft you have written. Edit your post so it says what you need it to say – no more, no less. You want every sentence to have some impact or resonance with the audience. Don’t ramble on aimlessly or your reader will quickly drift away!
- ENGAGE WITH YOUR READERS
It can have enormous benefits for the blogger if they make themselves accessible to the readership. Invite comments on your posts. Always be polite and respectful and take the opportunity to add that extra personal touch! This will enable you to build audience loyalty.
- MAXIMIZING OPPORTUNITIES
The internet is a bountiful, never-ending landscape of opportunities. For bloggers these take the shape of sponsorship and affiliate marketing. If your content is drawing in an audience from a particular demographic, let’s say, 25-34 year olds with a keen interest in health and fitness; that will allow you to form affiliate marketing connections with product suppliers who will appeal to those readers.
As a blogger you can earn money from purchases made that have originated as a click through from your blog. Other businesses, able to see the traffic you generate, may approach you with offers to provide banner sponsorship of your blog pages. Solostream has a world class support team who can advise you on this.
- TIMING
You should not under-estimate the importance of timing. You want your blogs to always be relevant and ‘of the moment’. If you are writing about the best places to visit in the UK, it is better to do this before the peak season rather than just after! If you write on sport then those that preview major events or events in progress, will have much more appeal than post-event pieces.
- LOVE WHAT YOU DO
The question posed at the start was, “what is your motivation?” However you answer this it has to include ‘for pleasure’. It is key that you enjoy writing your blog and get satisfaction from the process. It should never feel like a chore and should always resonate as completely authentic.