5 simple tips for people blogging to insure that the their readers return. The world of blogging is a simple one to get in to, but it can be alot harder to be successful with it. Hopefully my tips will help you keep those readers you've managed to find already
First things first, post often !
One thing that is important when you have a blog is that you have dynamic content (content that changes over time). This will encourage people to check back to your site regularly. Updating your blog once a month, really isn’t going to encourage people to check back every day. Depending on what you like to blog about (your life, sports, news, etc) , try to be at least regular in the amount of postings you have. My recommendation is to aim for at least one good post a week.
What to write ?
People always say to me, sure I would love to blog, but I don’t know what to write. It’s simple as, write what you feel passionate about, write about what you find interesting or quirky in the world today, write about interesting websites you come across. But one key point is to make sure you stick to your niche, don’t start changing the direction of your blog drastically overnight. It is important that someone who reads your postings has an idea of what to expect when they come across a new post. Sure you can evolve over time and add more sections to your blog. But I would advise that for the start you stick to a few key categories.
How to write an Interesting Post
The key here is to understand who will be reading your posts, who are you aiming to reach in your blog. Also keep in mind the subject matter, some subjects lead themselves better to being written in slang, others need to be written in cleaner English. Either way there should be a flow to your blog, and it should be consistent.
Include Links to your Sources
When you write a post, it is important to reference your ideas and inspiration. Your posting should be transparent, and allow the reader to check your sources if they so wish. Adding this type of creditability will lead the reader to trusting you more. There is a fine line in referencing too many or too little web pages. I would aim to keep it below 2 per paragraph on average. Spreading the "Link Love" will also encourage your readers to link to you.
Add some Color with a Picture
It is advisable to add a picture or two to your postings. With the addition of a small image, which can be wrapped around with text on the left or right hand side, this will lead to your blog post to be easier on the readers eyes. Find some copyright and royalty free images to add to your posts. And it will add some flare and a touch of class to your blog. Remember there aren't many news papers out there who just publish in plain text. And a (good) picture says a thousand words, so use it to up your word count.
