Whether you're just looking to type about a hobby you have or if you want to attempt to run a business, starting a blog might be worthy of your consideration. Before you get started, first take a few minutes to read these expert-provided tips below. Once you learn about blogging, the process becomes a lot simpler.
Make use of a mind map. Organizing your blog into a mind-map, using the categories, posts, promotion and all of your income sources can be a great method of organization. It creates a way for you to see where your blog is lacking and what you can do to make it more successful.
Use the correct spam filter for comments. If you require registration to comment, a CAPTCHA on the registration page is usually sufficient to keep spammers away. If you allow anonymous comments, an "advanced CAPTCHA," that is, one that asks the user for "the number of hours in a day" or something similar is usually enough. Avoid services like Akismet, as these produce lots of false positives.
Make sure that you have SEO friendly themes, plug-ins and templates. This will allow your blog to load very quickly. The faster something loads, the more people are going to be willing to look at it. If a page takes to long to load, more than likely a visitor will just close the page.
Ensure that the titles of your blog posts are very catchy. Imagine that you are someone who is just browsing the internet and you see your blog post among thousands of others. You should ensure that your blog headline sticks out from the rest.
Blog about what you are most passionate about. If you are passionate about your blog topics, you will ultimately draw your readers in and your interest in the subject will show through (How to write a research paper?). Readers will want to hear what you have to say about the topic because you will be knowledgeable and passionate.
Try writing for your readers. A blog is generally personal, but if you wish to grow an audience of more than a couple of people, try writing for the readers too. Try thinking about how the readers can benefit from your posts. If you wish to be a single beneficiary here, you should create a private journal.
Make sure your posts don't elicit the "It's too long so I didn't read it" response from your readers. Studies show that people stop paying attention more quickly when reading on the web than they do when reading print. For this reason, try to keep posts under 300 words or so. Some types of posts, such as scholarly articles, don't suffer from this loss of attention of much as others, so know your audience.
The content of your blog should consist of high quality work. Before you post it, proofread your blog entry, to ensure that it is free from grammatical and typographical errors. You may also wish to have someone else read it, as a secondary proofreader and to ensure that the content is interesting to read.
To help you get more traffic to your blog and keep up with the latest trends, you should focus some of your attention on submitting your post and blog links to social bookmarking sites. Sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, are all great places where you can submit your blog links.
Read your reader feedback and respond to it in a neutral, positive manner, and don't let it get to you emotionally. Regardless of the topic or your thoughts, there is always someone who will see it differently. Use any constructive criticisms to help improve your blog. If the criticisms are harsh or baseless, simply respond politely and do not engage further. This will show your readers that you are respectful and mature in all situations, which will gain you more readers in the future.
When setting up a blog the most essential element is identifying the purpose of the blog. Do you want to post your creative writing (How to write a thesis)? Or, maybe you want to blog as a way of speaking out about a topic that interests you. Promotion of a business is another common reason to blog. Knowing your purpose will help you decide what kind of blog to set up and will reveal the audience you are hoping to capture. Both, are essential elements of a good blog.
Having accurate information to refer to through the blogging process is a big positive. For every successful blog out there, you can bet that there are hundreds that it not. Use what you've learned in the article and avoid becoming one of the many; you should aim to be one of the few.
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