Do you have a blog? Have you wanted to start one but not sure where to start?
I have some tips for you to think about before you start or help you develop a strategy for your current blog.
Start by doing a some research on who you want to reach as your target audience. Take some time to do a short survey on your blog or even talk to other bloggers who share the same or similar target audience. Once you know more about your audience you can share your blog posts in places that your audience will most likely be visiting. You also want to consider what their favorite social media platform is and use that to share your links. That will give them the opportunity to connect with your blog on their favorite social network.
Stay up to date and read other blogs or sites on your topic. I would even suggest going to the grocery store and pick up a magazine in your niche. You can pick up great ideas on blog post headlines. Magazines do a lot of research so it’s a great place to pick up trends that you can write about now. Make sure you make your content valuable it is most likely that readers will not come back to your blog if your articles are not as useful as other sites or blogs.
If you are a business owner trying to promote your product or service, write about your extensive experience, what makes you unique, share with your audience why you are so excited about what you do or sell. Try to also make it easy to read and understand. The best posts are list posts, for example the Top 5 ________ or 5 Tips to Make_______. Make things more fun by creating videos or info-graphics to share your content with your audience.
Once you learn more about your audience it is time to do some search engine optimization. You can get more traffic on your blog by targeting keywords that your potential readers are searching for. Start googling words you would use to find articles you would talk about. As you start typing the words see what google suggests and take note of those auto suggestions. Those words can potentially be keywords you want to target. Finding strong keywords will help you create eye catching headlines. You will also want fill your articles with those targeted keywords.
When choosing a theme/design for your blog make sure you organize your blog so that it is easy to read your content. I gravitate to a 2 column design where you have left column for the article and the right side for your widgets/advertising and a place where people can optin to your list. More readers will browse through your content if your blog is easy to navigate. Most blogging platforms will automatically organize your articles in order so you want to create a well-organized archive so readers can browse through your articles by theme or category. You should also add a search bar so visitors can type in a keyword.
Find a way to engage with your audience. You will get some comments on your articles, but you can interact with your readers by replying back or asking them to send you emails if they have questions or comments. Use social media to share your links to your latest updates and ask for comments to interact with your audience. Make your readers feel comfortable about contacting you and try responding to anyone in a friendly and helpful way.
These methods will help you become a better blogger and reach out to a much wider audience. Take action and apply them and monitor your results to make sure you are on the right track, for instance, by using your google analytics tool or sharing a survey on your blog.
If you like these tips and want more check out my next blogging class….
Date: November 14th, 2013
Time: 6:30 – 8:30pm
Location: Hyatt Regency in the Pacific Place Boardroom
900 Bellevue Way Northeast
Bellevue, WA.
Cost: IT’s FREE
To RSVP Go To: http://www.Meetup.com/bloggingwithstacia