5 Ways to Become a Better Blogger

By Jonathan Walker

It never hurts to go back over the basics of blogging, something all the more important today as bloggers abandon their sites in favor of Facebook. You can make your site stand out, providing a respite for web users who are weary of all the social media noise.

1. Customize

A blog should not just be a blank web page with your thoughts scribbled on it. No, a blog is how you express yourself. It is how you choose to show what is important to you to the whole world. When you design your blog, make sure you customize it to better represent who you are and what messages you want to get across. For example, if your blog is about living green in an eco unfriendly world, you may not want to have a plain black background template with boring fonts for your text. Make it yours! And make sure that your post-customization product is readable and fun to look at.

2. Post

It may seem like a given, but remembering to post articles is a big boost to your blog readership. Many bloggers start out on their first blog swearing that they will post every day. In a few months they have fallen rather short of that goal, disappointing readers and themselves. For your blog, be sure that you pick a blogging schedule that you know you can stick to. If you are busier than others, tell readers upfront that you will only post something once a week. That way readers won’t simply believe that you are lazy or don’t care about what you’re doing.

3. Comments

When your readers comment, I’m sure you read them. But even more important that checking on those comments that they post is communicating with them further. If a reader has taken the time to read a post and to comment on it, the least you as the blogger can do is to let them know that their comment is appreciated and that you encourage them to keep reading and interacting. This is important to the readers, and readers are important to the success of the blog.

4. Guest Posts and Themes

One good way to shake things up a bit if your blog is becoming stale is to get a guest blogger to post send you an article. A featured guest blogger of the month may be a fun way to get a fresh voice out to your readers. It may even excite them that they may be chosen as your guest blogger one month. Also, try having a theme to each week or month. This will give people something new to think about and will add structure and excitement to your articles and topics.

5. Interaction

Finally, be careful what you post about. Though readers generally love to hear about what is going on in the blogger’s life, it is always nice for them to be able to express how their lives and situations relate to yours. When you write a blog post, be sure that you make some part of the post interactive. Inspire thought; ask questions; maybe even play the devil’s advocate once in a while. This leaves readers with the sense that they are not only spectators, but that they are actually significant contributing members to the success of the blog.

Author Information

 

Jonathan Walker is a blogger and writer for Car Insurance Comparison. Over there he most recently wrote about New Jersey Car Insurance.

I Will Be Back….

It is time for me to give a few of my sites an important makeover, something I have already done with my Word Journey blog. A small window in my article writing calendar has appeared, affording me a break to take care of some much needed business. Therefore, I will cease musing until next week, at least on this website!

So exactly what do I have in store? Several things including two or three theme updates and swap outs as well as moving my flagship car blog to its own URL.

That site will mark its fourth anniversary next month, with more than 1450 articles posted to date. By moving it to its own site I hope to improve its visibility while allowing the site to break free of its current constraints.

This morning, I purchased shared hosting and am waiting for a go ahead from my web host to upload my files. The most challenging aspect is making sure that the old article addresses forward to the new site, but even if there are some problems, I will take the momentary hit in order to have a site that should enjoy some long term benefits in the form of search engine optimization.

I also believe that this move will enhance the site’s monetary value, something I always keep in mind in the event that I choose to sell. Not that I have any plans to let that site go, but….

Photo Credit: mrudi/sxu