Blogging is the new countrywide interest--not only for America, but for Web-connected people all around the globe. It is something that spans all age groups and jobs. There are personal blogs, social blogs, and corporate blogs. Regardless of the subject, someone has possibly blogged it. Some of us get paid to blog and others pay for the privilege of blogging (on a unique website or with unique programs).
The Net provided the opportunity for anybody to make public content to a worldwide audience. The Web log, or blog format, has made it easier and simpler. However all blogs are not made equal. Some promote an ardent following and others waste in darkness. Without reference to your reason for blogging, you can make your blog better, more understandable and more popular.
#1: Define your intentions
The first step in creating a better blog is to ask why you are blogging. What is the purpose of your blog? Is it to be a Web variation of the personal diary, telling your experiences, thoughts, and emotions? Is it more of a book, where you conserve ideas and outline projects? Is it a social site, for interacting with chums, sharing links, getting familiar with persons? Is it an editorial page, for comments on the government, social tendencies, and ongoing events? Is it a pro or hobbyist site, for sharing ideological and tutorial info about some field of study or work ( e.g, aviation, PC software development, or photography)?
Sure, you may have only a blog that mixes elements of all of these, but you may find that readers like you to narrow it. If you want to pen about your area of expertise infrequently and your favorite political party at other times, it could be advantageous to keep 2 separate blogs to obviate alienating or uninteresting your readers 1/2 the time.
Regarding readers, a crucial part in outlining your purpose is to grasp your audience. Which will help you identify the voice and writing manner that's appropriate for those you are speaking to. You probably wouldn't use an indentical style when writing to stock car race fans that you would utilize if your audience were made basically of stock exchange brokers.
In saving with your blog's purpose, you need to have a defined theme. As an example, if the point of your blog is to state political views, the theme could be to plug a low-tax, nonintrusive government.
#2: Have an attractive visual
Content isn't the single thing that matters. Your blog website should also be visually attention-getting, or to the lowest degree visually stable. You do not need to scare away possible readers or have them leave in disappointment as the site is disordering or unreadable.
The optimal visual design for the website is based in part on your readers and theme. You may use coloring, font styles, and graphics to establish the scene and look and feel--just make sure the look and feel meets the content. Whatever your theme, it's best to avoid dark font on a dark background, little or very fantasy typefaces, and other elements that make your blog hard to look at.
If your blog is hosted on a public blog site, you could be limited in how much you can change the design, despite that there will typically be some preconfigured visual themes you can choose from. Maintain readers appeal and legibility in mind when choosing one.
#3: Use the right tools
You may make a blog using any WYSIWYG HTML editor, such as FrontPage ( shortly to be replaced by Microsoft Expression Web Designer ), Macromedia Dreamweaver, or the Amaya open even employ a text editor validated by W3C. You can also employ a text processor like Notepad to compose the HTML code.
Nevertheless, blogging is made far cleaner, quicker, and more convenient if you employ a dedicated blogging software or the characteristics of a blogging Web site that lets you compose posts in the browser or through blog is hosted on a free public blog site, for example Blogger or Windows Live Spaces, you can pen your posts in your email client and send them to a specific web address you are given when you create your account. For many, this is the easiest way to publish, even though it doesn't display you the formatting.
Some other alternative is to employ a blog software like WordPress, Cartable Type, Post2Blog, or Windows Live Writer, which put up numerous helpful features. As an example, Windows Live Writer (free download at http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/ ) allows you put a button on the toolbar in Internet Explorer so that if you would like your blog to address an internet site you are seeing, you can highlight the text you wish to quote and click "Blog It". This opens Live Writer and adds the link and the cited text in your blog. You can publish to your blog on Live Spaces or other well-liked blogs with a single click.
#4: Make it painless to navigate
If you're designing your blog website from scratch, it is significant to make it easy for readers to find a way around and do what they want to do. For example, if you are using comments and "Really Simple Sindication" feeds, guarantee it's clear to readers the way to post a comment or subscribe to the feed.
You should also prepare it simple for readers to check past posts. Confirm archives are organized logically--not only in sequential order but in classes to make it better to check particular posts.
If your blog is hosted on a public blog site, you can mostly change the arrangement of page components, add or remove components ( regularly named modules ), and otherwise shape the navigability of the page. Maintain clutter as small as possible but be sure to include the components that readers require.
Make your site searchable, if manageable, so readers are able to find posts using keywords. You can place a free Google search box on your site ( for more information, see http://www.google.com/searchcode.html#both).
#5: Find your spot and stay there
Several bloggers try out various blog hosting platforms and/or with hosting their personal websites, especially on the early stages of their blogging experience. It might take you awhile to discover the optimal setup, but try to do so as fast as possible and then stay in one place so your audience can find you. Moving around to different URLs too often is bound to drop off you a portion of your audience.
If you've got an accomplished blog and it's important to change it to a different address, try to make public a last post on the former blog that points readers to the new blog and leave it up as long as possible.
#6: Engage your readers
Possibly the most vital factor in attracting and maintaining readers is establishing a relationship with them. Even fascinating content is yielded less interesting if we don't know who's chatting ( writing ) to us. Tell your audience who you are and something about yourself.
You need not go into a lot of personal details if your blog is political or pro, and in a number of cases you may not even need to reveal your actual name ( particularly, as an example, if you are posting insulting info about your employer or the law chief in your little city ). But don't just continue unnamed ; give readers a pen name by which to identify you and tell them general aspects about yourself that will give you believability without blowing your cover. For example, you may say that you are a middle-age male who is living in California and has worked in the telecomms industry.
If you don't have an incentive to keep your identitysecret, you will be able to benefit ( attract the eye of headhunters in your area, become recognized as knowledgeable in a particular area, for example. ) by trying your actual name and giving contact info.
Disregarding of whether you show your proper identity, you can engage readers by interacting with them thru the comments feature or by providing an e-mail address and responding to their feedback. You can, of course, use a free Webmail address or other solution to your primary address if you need to guard your identity and/or elude spam.
Engaging readers requires gaining their confidence and thinking about the reader first. If you make statements, back them up with quotes and links. If possible, don't link to sites that want a subscription or even free enrollment (or if you must, advise your readers).
#7: Establish a blogging agenda
Blog readers are a fickle crowd. Once you've gathered an audience, they predict to find new posts when they visit your blog. That doesn't suggest you have to post each and every day, but you need to establish a minimum blogging schedule and stick to it. Allow readers to know, ideally in a non-chaning text box at the head of your blog page, that you're going to update the blog daily, weekly, on Tuesdays and Fridays, or whatever. Then do it--even if some of your posts aren't exactly profound or long. Readers will desert your blog if they believe you have deserted them.
If you need to wander from your schedule ( for example, you are going on holiday for a couple of weeks or you will be in the surgery or you've a family or job emergency), let readers know that you will not be posting at the regular time and give them an idea of when you will return.
#8: Keep it brief
Regarding posts that are not especially profound or long, don't think you've got to wait till you have something excellent to claim before you write or put off posting because you don't have time to write "Les Miserables" today. Truthfully , most readers possess brief attention spans and/or packed schedules themselves and would like to read a short, crips post rather than a long, complicated one.
If you do publish lengthy articles, divide them up into short paragraphs to make them more legible. There's nothing more daunting to a reader than a big mass of unbroken text, regardless of how nice your turn of phrase.
You'll also invite more readers with common words than with complex ones, so unless you are writing for an especially educated audience, follow the old KISS advice: keep it simple, sweetheart.
#9: Proofread before publishing
Even if you are a British professor, it is easy to end up with typographical blunders, misspellings, and grammatical issues in your posts if you don't proofread in front of hitting the Publish button. Particularly if you are writing in the wake of enthusiasm or inspiration, your typing fingers can get ahead of your thoughts and make words to be overlooked or transposed, commas to come out in the wrong spots, or sentences to become garbled.
Maybe you pride yourself on not adhering exactly to the rules, but presumably, you still desire your audience to appreciate what you are pronouncing. That complicated sentence that seemed so fascinating in writing may read a little awkwardly after you see it on the screen.
It's difficult to grab errors in your own texts, because you fill in what you thought you typed, instead of seeing what's really there. This is especially true right away after writing. If possible, have somebody else proofread your post before you publish it. If not, let it "cool off" for a day so you can attack it with a more neutral proofreader's eye.
And even though it's best to catch mistakes before they are revealed, one huge advantage of Web content is that, unlike print copy, it's easy to change if you find an issue after publication.
#10: Syndicate yourself
You do not need to wait for readers to come to your blog each day or each week. Rather, you can take your blog to them. Use RSS to feed your new blog articles to readers who sign up. This makes it easier for your audience, who do not have to don't forget to visit your blog site to visit your blog site to test for new posts--and whatever makes it easier for readers is good for writers. You can syndicate just your post titles, short summaries, or complete posts.
Most public blog hosting platforms give you the choice to syndicate your blog, and it's sometimes as simple as clicking a button or 2 in the configuration interface. If you want to syndicate your self-hosted site, see http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-rss.html for more information.
Other sites worth checking:
Email Blast Software, Newsletter Best Practices
Email Blast Software, Newsletter Do's and Don'ts.
Some of the advantages of Windows XP Registry Cleaners .
Email Blast Software, Newsletter rules.
This guide to become a blogger is also available on live video by clicking this link.
Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_978879_13.html
About the Author: Ishmael Bakir is an author, software developer, renowned speaker, personal coach, business consultant, and most of all an intensive marketer.
You got this article from: Random Simplicity
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