Do your blog posts stink? - Part 1

There are plenty of places to look on the Web to find amazing resources on how to write amazing posts to draw people to your blog and keep them coming back. However, here are some tips and some observations about why your blog posts might stink. This the first post in this series.

Balance

Balance: It's hard, but do it.

I spend a lot of time on the web, so I come across a ton of different websites of differing content quality and a wide swath of design standards. A lot of people don’t have a balance. There are a lot of pretty sites that have useless or no content. On the flip side of that coin, some sites have terrific content but the site does not have an organized navigation system. You can’t find what you need if the menus stink.

So you only have a set amount of time to work on your blogging? Make sure you spend some time in all the different areas it takes to run a successful blog. Make sure you have a good looking design and appropriate for your topic, but don’t try and push the envelope in the graphics design department if you are running a blog about sewing. If you are a graphic designer, however, people want to see really well done design. In that situation, don’t be afraid to take some chances.

Don’t rush thru writing your posts, but don’t let them sit around too long either. Sometime there is stuff that is extremely timely……those are the posts you should just get it up there. There are also times when you really need to sit down and really think about where a post is going. It really depends on the subject.

Lists Lists Lists!

Let’s face it, people love lists. I would presume the reason that this is so popular is that the brain gravitates to them as important, being that they really are bullets points. If you do a quick zip around on Twitter or a blog search, every single day you will see a ton of blogs with top “insert random number here” lists. Some sites almost singlehandedly rely on this technique. I myself don’t really use them as I have a hard time distilling a point down to that level.

Get Ticked

One of the best ways to get noticed is to tick people off. The average person has no problem pointing out the pitfalls of you being you, so you might as well keep them engaged in your writing. If you are an opinionated person, let it show!

Watch the advertising

If you have a boring, badly written blog, don’t use Adsense or any advertising for that matter. It makes your ugly site even uglier. I mean it.

Actually want to do it

Blogging is one of those things that will show how much you care for the subject you are writing about. Don’t blog because everyone else is, because you think you can make money from it; blog because you can make a fantastic blog better than everyone else. If you don’t have the guts to do it, don’t bother.

Hopefully you found some value in my post, discuss in the comments all the ways that help you write a good post.

Thomas Edison the blogger?

Problogger has a fantastic article today about how you can apply some of Thomas Edison’s ideas to blogging. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

Going for your reader’s jugular: how to get more readers for you blog

I know this sounds like weird as this blog is still in its infancy, but I’ve written enough on the Web to know how to score yourself some readers. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and see how your blog is progressing and do more to encourage its growth. Feel free to comment on other ideas.

• Controversy: One instant way to stir up new readers is to create controversy. Find a hot-button issue that you are well-versed in and blog about what you think about it. Encourage your readers to comment on it. Readers will always want to call it how they see it. Even if you have a very small niche you cover on your blog, chances are that your readers are still very different from each other with different beliefs and vastly different ideas of how things should work.
• Carve Your Own Niche: You may think that getting into a small niche isn’t the best way to gain new readers. What if you have a blog about calculating the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? Make it the resource for doing that. Make it so that your blog instantly comes to mind when people need that information.
• Don’t Be A Hermit: Comment on other blogs. Make sure you have a link to your blog in your email and forum signatures. Just be careful not to be a complete tool about it, some forums have rules about what can be put in your signature and you don’t want to email your boss and have a link to your Star Wars porn collection.
• Make It Easy For Readers: With the advent of Akismet and the like, you don’t have to worry as much about spam. Don’t require your readers to register just to comment. Who wants to register when you will forget your awesome point about who shot first? (Han shot first, by the way).
• Content Is King, But Ugly Blogs Suck: This is pretty self explanatory. I know we aren’t all graphic designers, and at least for WordPress there are plenty of great free themes out there, but come on. There are so many ugly blogs out there! Seriously, how lazy are you to keep the damn default WordPress Kubrick theme? Have someone design you one (Shameless plug: I can design one for you). Hell, this blog at the time this post is being written has a theme I didn’t even create, I just really liked it’s style. Constantly keep refining who things look. Reorganize when you find something more conducive for your readers.
• Give Away Some Value: Write an e-book about your subject. Give it away for free. Publicize it everywhere. Create patterns or brushes for Photoshop. Write tutorials. Use your imagination.
• Exploit Social Networks: I am almost ashamed to say I have a Myspace account, but lets face it., you need them. As stated before, make it easy. Encourage your readers to spread info about your site. Let them know who to do it if they don’t know. Social networks are extremely adept at blasting quick messages to let people know what you are up to.
• Push Your RSS Feed: Show your readers how an RSS feed can help them fit more info into their workflow. RSS really is a fantastic technology but is only really used by us geeks. I keep trying to get my mother to get a Netvibes start page, and I think I may have finally convinced her that it is much faster to skim over feeds to see if there is something that gets you interested than going to every page you normally read.

Hopefully I have given you some ideas to get more readers to your blog. Make sure to subscribe to my RSS feed to get more updates about getting more readers for your blog. Please share your comments as well.