Blog Marketing

What Makes A Great Blog?

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If you think there is nothing to a great blog, you might want to think again. While anyone can set up their own blog on the internet, it does take a bit of skill along with hard work and dedication to make your blog great – and avoiding some stupid blogging mistakes beginners make. If you are looking to set yourself apart from others, be sure to follow these great blogging tips.

Have a User Friendly Design
In order to keep followers coming back for more, you need to make sure that your blog is laid out in an easy to navigate manner. A simple design that allows readers to quickly find what they are looking for is a best. Don’t get too fancy or complicated.

Additionally, you want your readers to be able to read site content without being distracted to other areas of the page. In your design, make sure that the color scheme you chose, is inviting to the eyes and don’t put too much on any one page.

This blog runs on the Thesis Theme , which is one of the top search engine optimized wordpress themes for bloggers. With the Thesis Theme framework you can easily customize your blog design, so that it looks unique and different from the rest of the blogs.

Make Sure Your Blog Is Unique
While you do want to make sure you design is simple and user friendly at the same time you are going to need to make sure that there is something that jumps out to your readers. Make sure you have something that will stand out as unique compared to other similar sites. Pay close attention to small details that can help to add your personal style and touch to the blog.

Develop a Blog With Great Functionality
While it is important to make sure your site looks good, at the same time it is equally as important to make sure that your site is functional.

A blog that just offers readers content with no chance of interaction, is not going to stand apart from others. Your blog should allow for readers to interact with you. Having a comment section or another means for readers to correspond is essential.

Learn Why Content Is Vital To Your Blog’s Success
A great blog is all in the content and there is a lot to know. First, your content needs to always be fresh. This means consistently updating your blog. If possible, you should update every day, and if not, make sure you do at least a few times a week.

Second, you need interesting and engaging blog content. Visitors to your blog will not come back if you do not give them a reason to. Make sure your content is catchy, appealing to your audience and informative.

Third, never belittle your readers. Make sure you write on their level and engage them. Never put down your readers and always make sure that they can comment and join in a discussion about your posts. This will help to keep them coming back for more.

Fourth, try to give examples in your content and never get too “preachy”. If, for example you are advertising a product, instead of trying to persuade your readers on how great it is, use a customer review instead. Have a customer testify to how they used the product or service and what the benefits were to them.

If possible use the words of the user and not your own. You certainly can give your own examples, but having positive reviews from others is usually more beneficial.

Finally, when it comes to content make sure you diversify what you are blogging about, your readers do not want to read the same thing day in and day out. Many bloggers for this reason will use guest bloggers that can offer fresh new ideas and perspectives.

Advertise Your Blog
When it comes right down to it, you are never going to have a successful blog unless people know you exist. There are numerous ways to promote your blog and you should take advantage of as many means as possible. Ideas include social networking, social marketing, guest blogging on other sites, submitting to article directories, email campaigns and more.

This is a guest post by Barbara Montgomery, a freelance writer for ReliableWriters.com, an order-on-demand service of content writers. If you want to guest post, check out the guide lines

Image Credit: Alamodestuff

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22 comments

kristin konvolinka February 26, 2011 - 1:11 pm
You forgot to mention one very important tip, one that was followed brilliantly in this post...keep your posts short and to the point! We all have a tendency (especially me) to write too much. It's hard to keep a post short when you are so passionate about the subject, but when a reader scrolls down and sees no end in sight their eyes glaze over and they are prone to move on. I loved how you got in, got to the point and got out. Thanks
Kevin Lindgren February 26, 2011 - 1:15 pm
Great article on the basics of blogging. I am new to blogging, and I am hoping these tips will help me build a better blog Kevin Lindgren
Jobs in Ghana March 10, 2011 - 6:57 am
Surre it will. It is a great post and covers virtually all the solid points. Writing an engaging blog is the top on my list but only that does not make a great blog.
HP van Duuren February 26, 2011 - 3:10 pm
'I do think that for building a Great Blog it can help when you enjoy Writing....,' On my - Home Business Lifestyle - Blog you will discover that I also have - amung other things - a link to a special - Writing Lifestyle - Blog. It's my aim to constantly look for way's to create value for my readers. To make it User Friendly I made a special - Easy One Click - Bookmarking for you that when you click on the yello 'post-it' memo at the left side of the Blog it automatically Bookmarks so that you can easily find it back later. To make my posts as attractive as possible you usually will find what I call - continuing posts - making the posts, more like an 'ongoing dialogue' while using the readers feedback. Learning to get to know my visitors a little better that way, and making constant little improvements to the blog(s), - with Easy to Read Sub-headings - making you curious about...., 'What Comes Next...???' That is why now you also can find a special 'Recent Comments'-widget on my Blog(s) where you can see your own name 'Pop up' at the left side of the Blog when you place - YOUR - Comments. So Who is Next....??? You...? 'That would be Great, because you can help to make it Great...!!!' All the Best, To your Happy - Web Marketing - Inspiration, HP
semmy @ Make Money Online February 26, 2011 - 8:11 pm
Hi Barbara this is really nice tips!! Yes I agree with you, the thesis theme one of the highly optimize wp theme for search engine and easy to used also thanks for share!
Thewebcitizen.com February 26, 2011 - 9:04 pm
Hi Barbara, Interesting list of tips you put out there, i still believe that the single most crucial factor to a good blog is its content. As long as you educate your readers and they learn something new they will always be coming back. Elias
Gyanguru February 27, 2011 - 8:53 am
all of us should work on our blogs based on these tips
nigerian newspapers February 27, 2011 - 10:47 pm
End your blogs in a semi conclusive manner i.e like a question, suggestion, opinion poll. This will make your blog active and generate comments.
Maria Pavel February 27, 2011 - 11:37 pm
The design part comes easy, you can just buy it by hiring a good web designer. The hard part comes when you need to be original and active. It's very difficult to create fresh content that's also interesting. This is what discourages me, i can't imagine having the time to do research, refine the article, then promoting it, reading comments, answering, etc., i get a headache just by thinking of it.
aieee 2011 February 28, 2011 - 4:14 am
after the recent changes to google search algorithms, having original content on your website has become a must...
Priya @ Goa Carnival February 28, 2011 - 5:07 am
I very much agreed with your mentioned point but I think is for sure that it's always very difficult to write something unique all the time, my advice is that you get some inspiration from somewhere and then you need to do some extra research to make your post perfect and of course unique.
Alex February 28, 2011 - 7:37 am
I think that the thing that makes a blog great is the dedication of the blogger itself, if he is committed to help it's readers to deliver to them the most useful content he can write and research then people will believe that the blog is great. Also, there is an other factor, that depends of marketing. No matter how good you are if you don't market your blog in such a way that it will stand out then you wont have a great blog. Lets take singers for example, there are a lot of bands and solo artists out there that have incredible voices but not all of they reach fame, because they don't have the same marketing as the big names. So, I think the ultimate thing that can help your blog is a strong marketing plan!
An February 28, 2011 - 2:44 pm
A great blog is a blog that can make a lot of money for sure!
Ryan March 1, 2011 - 7:53 am
For me a great blog is something that directly creates value in whatever field it's in by providing useful information or solving some sort of problem. I think a lot of blogs really miss the mark by adding a bit too much "fluff" rather than tackling "how to" and pillar type content that people are actually searching for online. Just a personal opinion though. And as Aimee mentioned, creating useful, unique content is what really matters now more than ever.
Tommy March 1, 2011 - 9:45 am
Very useful for us.. I wanna share my experience, i think technology is one of the most popular for bloging.. choosing the type of article i think the most important for bulid the good traffic..
Jasmine March 2, 2011 - 2:15 am
Hmm.... nice read. What do you think, do you think my blog is a great blog? :)
Fabrizio Van Marciano March 2, 2011 - 9:05 am
Great tips, unique content and unique design certainly stands out to be the most important aspect personally, I come across so many blogs that have the same design as everyone elses, thanks for your tips.
Felicia @ No Deposit Poker March 3, 2011 - 12:08 am
Hi Barbara, This post of yours will surely be helpful pointers especially for the newbie bloggers. I agree that making sure the blog has unique content which is engaging to readers. Thanks for sharing!
Christopher March 3, 2011 - 10:41 am
Nice checklist for bloggers with good ideas and thoughts!
Pacquiao vs Mosley March 8, 2011 - 6:04 pm
For me what makes a great blog if you provide or share good information to others that will help them a lot.
andrew April 13, 2011 - 11:10 pm
Interesting post and equally interesting comments. I love blogging and writing for my readership. My one post and one video blog is called what makes a good blog great? I know you will find it totally different in content. http://www.what-makes-a-good-blog-great.blogspot.com.
hcg diet drops October 1, 2011 - 10:38 am
This is a great blog post which I read with much interest, so thank you. I’m fairly new to blogging, and just tend to say what’s on my mind at the time. Sometimes this is to do with the business of writing, or just about life in general. I love the idea of telling stories.
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