Hundreds of thousands of blogs hit the ether every single day and every single day is filled with aspiring bloggers who are striving to become entertainers. The trouble is, those blogs are written, published then forgotten because nobody thought to update them a few months later.
how can I fix my blog?
If you’re not aware of the actions it takes to make a blog successful, we’re here to show you the whys, hows and wherefores. Firstly, don’t delude yourself. A blog takes a hell of a lot of work to produce, and there are several underlying factors that relay its success rate. That is long before any money can begin rolling in. It may take several months to update a blog twice or three times a week before any financial return is recognised.
We don’t want to be the ones to deflate the balloons and we won’t be because you’ll have heard a slice of this advice before. Your blog will not become successful overnight. It’s going to take time and a lot of it. Particularly when you’re writing it. It’s going to take you a fair few hours to get it squeaky clean, worded properly, so it flows and grammatically correct and its readability flowing. Not only that but if you’ve got visions of making this a financial avenue so that you might quit your day job, think about that move carefully. You’re going to have to prepare yourself for many sacrifices in your personal and social life. As far as blogging goes, however, there are many “How To Blog” blogs, but one remains the trove where techniques aren’t just thrown at the wall in the hope that they’d stick. BloggingTips.com sold in 2010 for $60K and from the well-authored advice we’ve cottoned on to some common sense advice that through trial and error has been proven valuable.
Write Through Your Passion
Passion is fluent and speaks every language. But the thing is too many people are hell bent on writing their first blog on a topic they have no interest in. If they believe it will make them money, they go ahead and write it anyway. Mistake number one. For a blog to work, it needs to speak the words with emotion and feeling. Writing about something you’re not passionate about is the first ingredient in a recipe that will create disinterest. While you lose the incentive to update your blog you’re letting down your own team if you’re the one writing the majority of the content.
What is Your Business Model
Inspiration is fleeting, but when it arrives, it is followed by attractive thoughts that have you checking out domain names, launching your first blog, publishing articles that make no compliments to your niche because you haven’t thought it out properly. Your website, your blog … nothing about it is setting the world on fire. Research is key when you are looking to make a blog successful. And that means doing a lot of it.
Go deep and ask yourself questions you know you’re going to answer:
- Who are You writing for?
- Who and where are your competitors?
- How do they make money?
- How are you going to present your blog?
- How are you going to monetise it?
- What could go wrong after launching it?
You need to be honest with yourself when you ask and research the correct answers. You’re paving your own path for less problem and more enjoyment.
Your Domain Name is Paramount
If you’re serious about branding your blog, you need a domain name that reflects who you are. Dot com is still the preferred extension and if you have the opportunity to use something really catchy, go ahead and do so, or better still, buy them both. For more extensive information on that front head over to Domain Registration Services Australia where there’s an answer for every question concerning domains ready for you.
If you need a hand with inspiring names, you might like to use Panabee or Wordoid and when you’re ready to register, use KnowEm or BrandChecker to see if these names are available on your social media platforms. You can then go and register your choice name with NameCheap, GoDaddy or Bluehost.
Reliable Blog Host is a Must
Investing five bucks per month on a cheap shared hosting account may be okay for the first few months, but when you start getting the traffic, it’s time to move on to a host that is reliable and offers fast response times.
Head on over to WordPress Hosting Review to get the mail on hosting companies.
Don’t Skimp on Design
It goes without saying that when a blog loads, within seconds it has already been judged. With that in mind, you have one chance only to make the first impression a lasting impression.
It is important to use a professional blog design that supplies clean lines and uncluttered simplicity. You might check out Divi for some inspirational ideas.
Include a search bar, a list of recent posts and an archive page so that your content is found quickly and easily.
Be thoughtful about adding banners in your first instances. You don’t want to look desperate to become financially secure in your first month’s launch and too many banners clutter a website which is precisely what you want to avoid.
Your aim is to establish a following and readership.
Hasten Your Blog
Blogs that load slowly are dangerous to the point where they frustrate readers killing any likelihood of their reading, let alone sharing your blog. They’ve clicked off your page before the load has made it to the half way mark.
If this is the case, then your first job is to optimise your blog so that pages load rapidly. Bear in mind also, that search engines prefer to rank fast loading websites which mean more search engine traffic.
Speed Up Your Blog by:
Web hosting with fast response times
Optimise your images
Remove excess plugins
Keep only the post revisions you want
Use a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache
Use a content delivery network
If you would like further information on how to optimise WordPress, check out Optimise Your WordPress Website Using These Simple Tips.
Search Engines, Your Blog and Optimisation
The WordPress fundamentals allow you to use attractive permalinks and offer an option to change your article page slug.
But you can optimise your blog even further by installing an SEO WordPress plugin like WordPress SEO or All In One SEO Pack. A sitemap will also assist search engines to index your content because a lot of your traffic is going to come from search engines.
Know Your Topic
You’re going to be writing twice a week on topics that are key to your niche, therefore you will need to be in tune with what you’re talking about.
This is where passion makes its entrance. Talking about something you love doing will come easily as the words are transferred to a page.
However, further research on your subject is also advantageous for both you and your readers; there will always be something further to learn about your passion.
Researching your articles is to better advantage to support your views with facts, figures and infographics.
Keeping up to date means reading literature about your topic, subscribing to blogs on your niche and remaining constantly up to date with the latest news in your niche. You can never be too knowledgeable, but you can be caught out if your facts are incorrect.
Content Is King
Have you ever wondered who coined that phrase? It was Bill Gates who in 1996 published an article of the same title because he truly believed Content is King and that the money was in content.
If you want your blog to enjoy, longevity write great content. And keep your blog constantly fed on a consistent basis.
You need only to improve your writing skills and you can by writing every day.
Proofread, grammar correct and spell check your articles before you publish. There is nothing more off-putting than reading an article that is peppered with grammar and spelling errors.
If you have an opinion, set it free; write it and let the strength of your emotional pull speak the truth of your opinion.
Be original always. Your own style is your trademark. It is what will have your readers returning once you’ve been discovered.
It is very flattering to have someone learn from your blog. In order to arrive at that status, it’s up to you to learn from the best. Study their writing style and heed what hits the mark and then adapt those techniques into your own style of writing.
What you’re offering to your readers is quality. And there are many ways you can share your expertise.
Through News
Reviews
Your Views
Tutorials
When you’ve helped a reader and given value, they’re going to return for your future articles. They’re returning to your style, your impressive standard and your presentation through your grammar.
This is the standard you’re going to create and protect once your reputation is in place. If an article is not up to the standard you expect from yourself, and you’ll know it, don’t publish it until it is.
When you write link bait articles and feature articles you’ve given yourself a better chance of being discovered and shared. Shared blogs rank high in search engines thus generating more traffic.
Consistency is King
When you’re consistent, your readers begin to expect and when they expect you must deliver.
Choose a frequency and adhere to it. When you have a scheduled deadline to meet each week, you’ll form a habit, and you’ll meet it because you expect it of yourself.
Don’t, when you’re first starting out, publish so many blogs that nobody can catch their breath. You’re in a new world, and it’s exciting; your enthusiasm is contagious but posting too frequently at first only boils the kettle dry.
Use the time you have to create two high quality articles per week. Two is sufficient, and it gives your readers a chance to digest what you’ve written until next time.
When you’ve got yourself a notch, and you’re publishing once or twice a week, adhere to that and don’t budge. Your readers will appreciate it.
Conclusion
Share your articles on social media so that you can boost your traffic source and you’re in a position to make a brand for yourself.
Most of all, enjoy what you write about and the flow will occur naturally. When you love what you do, and you do what you love, it shows in your writing.