The reading level for this article is All Levels
Blogging, despite its naysayers, has proved its many capabilities. The vast majority of people use blogs these days, whether for personal things or to advance a business. People became more aware through blogs, and businesses grew as people voted with their dollars.
Blogs also let you organize and save information. Many blog sites give you the option of keeping your writings private, allowing you to use a blog as you would a paper day planner. Or, you can use your blog to store things like recipes, while sharing them with others by simply leaving your writings public.
If you do want to attract others to your blog, then having your own blog is a bit like choosing a new car. You must choose the make, color, and features that will best suit your needs. You also must think of beautiful internal details that are visibly attractive to others. Blog as though you are your primary audience, but keep in mind that it will be viewed by many, like a car owned by one person but intended to carry many passengers. Your blog gives the viewer some insight in to who you are, just like cars can help determine the personality of the driver.
To continue with the car analogy, there are some things you should watch out for when blogging, much like making sure your car is in the correct gear for the terrain. For those of you who blog on personal topics here are some do nots…
The very first thing that comes to mind when acquiring a blog is that your blog will most likely be open for public viewing. Because of that, you must take layout and appearance into account. You must also think about your audience. What type of person do you envision reading and being interested in your blog? You can then do some tailoring towards that audience, thereby holding their attention even more firmly.
To those who are planning to use blog in business, take the following as pointers…
Remember that the customer is your priority. Write to your audience, and make sure your articles are easy to understand.
Don’t assume that your customer knows anything about your business. On the Internet, people frequently stumble onto sites they didn’t originally intend to view. If someone comes to your site that didn’t intend to, make sure you grab his or her attention first and foremost. Then use that attention to explain your products and services.
In general…
Do not over design your blogs. Simple is good! Make sure the colors you choose for your text and for your background do not interfere with reading your articles. For example, lemon yellow text is almost universally difficult to see. This goes for fonts too; don’t choose anything too ornate. Remember, you don’t want anything to interfere with the readability of your blog.
Keep current! After a couple of times of checking into your blog only to find no new content, those customers and/or readers you worked so hard to attract will stop coming back. You can also change the appearance of your blog occasionally, in order to shake up the reader’s expectations. Remember that this can be a double-edged blade, however; plenty of readers resist changes in appearance and are slow to warm up to something new.
A way to know whether your changes are effective is to make sure your blog is equipped with a way for visitors to leave feedback. This will help you make effective changes to your blog.
All these things should be considered when blogging. There aren’t any other things to remember when just starting to blog since all instructions are given during the set up process. Blogging is not difficult to do. Blogging is even easier than HTML!
Planning, however, is important. Think about what you want to say and what you want your blog to look like before you begin.
