By Michele Scism
The Results Lady
Creating a blog is relatively simple. However, maintaining a successful blog is a far more difficult process.
This is because there are so many different factors which can contribute to the success of a blog. Some of these factors include the subject of the blog, the popularity of the blog and even the aesthetic layout of the blog. Additionally, the ability to properly promote the blog and reach a large audience of interested Internet users will also have a profound impact on the success of a blog.
Although there is no one simple formula for creating and maintaining a successful blog, there are some basic tips which can help to ensure a blogger will enjoy success with his blog.
This article will outline some of these basic tips including posting new entries regularly, writing for a specific audience and properly evaluating changes made to the blog.
Posting New Blog Entries Regularly
The importance of posting new blog entries on a regular basis cannot be underestimated. This is so important because regular postings offer dedicated blog visitors an incentive to keep returning to the blog. Readers may visit a blog originally by chance but become committed to returning to the blog regularly based on the content which is provided on a regular basis.
If the blogger allows the blog to become stagnant, the readers do not have motivation to keep coming back to the blog. However, if there are new posts on a regular basis, visitors are likely to return to the blog often in anticipation of new postings.
The length as well as the depth of a blog post can vary considerably based on the subject of the blog and the expectations of the target audience. However, in many cases even a relatively short blog entry offering only a small amount of information may be enough to keep readers interested.
Another benefit of regular posting is an increase in search engine (SEO) rankings. Although the methods used by search engines, such as Google, Yahoo etc., to rank sites is a pretty good secret it is widely believed that a site with regularly updated materials is given higher rankings.
Understanding the Blog Audience
Successful bloggers should also be adept at understanding their blog audience. Most successful blogs focus on a rather exclusive niche which draws a unique set of visitors. By keeping the information posted in the blog related to this niche, the blogger helps to ensure the audience will remain interested in the blog. However, the subject matter is not the only important aspect related to understanding the target audience.
Bloggers should also be well aware of the type of information the blog readers are seeking and the way in which they prefer to have the information provided. This is important because some blog readers may enjoy lengthy pieces while others may prefer posts which are brief and to the point.
Still other blog visitors may prefer to have posts provided as bulleted points in an easy to read manner. Providing the information in a way in which the visitors can process the information easily is as important as providing quality information.
Evaluating Changes to the Blog
Finally, all successful bloggers know how to make changes to the blog carefully and evaluate the effects these changes have on blog traffic. This is critical because a blog which is already successful can be doomed to failure if the blogger makes a change which is not appreciated by the dedicated visitors and does not address the concerns of the readers.
To avoid this potential problem bloggers should be careful to only make one change at a time and to allow ample time to evaluate the effect the change has on website traffic as well as the comments from readers before deciding whether to reverse the change or make additional changes.
Similarly a blog which is looking to increase website traffic can run into problems if they make too many changes and do not evaluate how these changes are affecting the blog’s traffic. A better strategy would be to make small changes one at a time and evaluate the effect of the change carefully before making more changes. This will help guide the blogger to produce a successful blog.
What tips would you add?
Love the layout of this blog post and you have givem good clear advice to would be successful bloggers
Thanks Suzie, I really appreciate that! Michele
Rock solid blog maintenance pointers, Michele!
The only thing I might add is to do some “off page” SEO — some behind the scenes work by including a good “description” for each of your pages/posts as well as appropriate “meta tags”. If you are using a blogsite (combo web site and blog) this is fairly simple to do. Otherwise, give this task over to your webmaster.
Great post (as always!)
Melanie
Thanks Melanie – That is very important! If you are blogging using WordPress they make is super simple by offering a plugin called All in One SEO Pack which is really easy to use. Thanks, Michele
Great tips Michele. I would add another tip pointing out exactly what you’ve done – use Sub Headings throughout your blog post. This allows your reader to jump in and scan the sub topics. If in a hurry they can still check out one or two of the sub topics and know to come back later. I love that you do this in your blogs.
Thanks Debbie – you are so right! Sub headings are extremely important! Thanks, Michele
Hey Carolynn, Thanks for the additional idea. Attention grabbing headlines are extremely important. You are right about that subhead as well. I will fix that. Thanks, Michele
Michele,
In your video you mentioned a site to look at to see what others in your industry and starting conversations about as a way to spark ideas for our own blogs. I couldn’t hear what you said exactly.
I skimmed through the written blog and didn’t see that info.
It is very appreciated by me when a website or link mentioned in a video log is mentioned in an easy to find way in the written part of the blog.
This is new to me, so it’s possible that the video lives on the side and is not related to the written blog on the left. Pardon my newbie-ness if that is the case.
Santa Barbara Jeweler
http://www.callagoldjewelry.com
Hi Calla, Thanks so much for leaving your comment. You are right that the video is a stand alone video and doesn’t have anything directly to do with the blog post beside it. I don’t think I mentioned any specific sites to visit because every industry would be different. For example, I see that you are in the jewelry business so I just searched Google for “jewelry forum” and a lot of sites popped up. For example, the first two on the list are banglesandbrides.com and artjewelrymag.com. Both of those have forum or discussion boards where you can see what others are talking about and/or answer other peoples questions. Let me know if that helps. Thanks, Michele