5 ways to building a better blog
Although the blogosphere is a new space on the web, it is starting to become a crowded. Millions of bloggers are writing on a daily basis and many of them are writing on similar topics. Because of the sheer number of blogs fighting for the same eyeballs, it is becoming harder to become popular, so the question is how do you make your blog stand out from the rest?
Content
Most blogs have 1 major thing in common, they are content centric. Content is going to get new visitors to your blog and keep your old readers reading. Here are some things to keep in mind when writing blog posts.
- Write quality content that readers can benefit from. If people cannot get something out of your content, what's the point of them reading your blog?
- Write on a consistent basis. There is nothing wrong with blogging on a daily, weekly or even on a monthly basis, but whatever your blogging schedule is, try to keep it consistent.
- Participate in conversations, it allows you to give your input on the latest happenings. This is also a great way to gain readers from other blogs.
- Keep your content short and to the point. Om Malik once said that it is better to write something in 500 words than 1000 words. Readers are also less likely to read a 1000 word post compared to a 500 word post.
Usability
Steve Krug wrote a book called Don't Make Me Think and that's exactly what you should be aiming for when visitors comes to your blog. If they are looking to read your content they should be able to find it and read it with ease. If they want to subscribe to your blog, they should be able to find your RSS feed with ease. Whatever it might be, you want to make it as easy for your readers as possible.
Here are a couple things to keep in mind.
- Your website's content should be easy to read as well as easy to navigate.
- Make it easy for people to find your content by using categories and by having a search feature on your blog.
- Make your RSS subscription button easy to access for anyone looking to read your content from a RSS reader.
- Limit the options and features on your blog. Why have tons of features when 90 percent of your visitors only use a handful of them.
- Try to avoid technical jargon when possible and when you cannot try to explain the jargon in as few words as possible.
Visibility
You can have the best blog in the world, but it does not matter if people cannot find it. Use search engines, blog search engines and the social mediums to bring visitors into your blog.
Search engines - Make sure your blog is optimized for search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN...), that way you have a good chance of getting traffic from them. There are many online documents that give step by step instructions on how you can optimize your blog.
Blog search engines - ping the blog search engines through services like Ping-o-matic and Pingoat. That way when you post a new entry people can find it through blog search engines such as Technorati and IceRocket.
Social mediums - Get your content out on sites like digg or del.icio.us. If can manage to get on the digg homepage or on del.icio.us popular you will get thousands of new visitors coming to your website within minutes.
Uniqueness
Try to differentiate yourself from your competition. Standing out is not always a bad thing, if your blog stands out from the crowd it will draw more attention and potentially make it more popular. You might be able to do this through tools, videos or even through your content; whatever it may be just try to stand out from everyone else in a good and unique way.
Readers
The most important thing that a blogger can do is listen to his/her readers. It is not all about you, it is all about the reader. You can have a great blog, but if you ignore your readers sooner or later they will ignore you and even stop reading your blog. So don't leave your readers stranded, make sure you listen and respond to them. You don't always have to do what they want, but you have to listen.
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Trackbacks (5)
- www.techtagg.com - See Tech Taggers view on this story!, September 15, 2006
“5 tips for a better blog” — the title says it all: 5 tips for improving your blog
- meneame.net, September 15, 2006
“Cinco modos de mejorar tu blog” — De forma muy simplificada y did?ɬ°ctica se cuenta los 5 aspectos esenciales para dar calidad a un blog: CONTENIDO (definido, consistente, participando en los comentarios y breve), USABILIDAD (legible, navegable, localizable, con rss y sin jerga), VISIBI...
- Enthousiasmeren, September 16, 2006
“5 mogelijkheden om je blog te verbeteren” — Via verschillende posts in mijn RSS reader kwam ik een site tegen die ik nog niet kende maar wel direct een bijzondere indruk op mij maakte. Zo schreef ProBlogger en kwam ik Neil Patel van Pronet Advertising tegen via MyBlogLog en 9Rules. Neil ...
- SigT, September 16, 2006
“5 maneras de construir un mejor blog” — Acabo de leer 5 ways to building a better blog a tr?ɬ°ves de Problogger ?ɬ©ste ?ɬ?ltimo haciendo un resumen de lo dicho por el primero, las cinca principales ?ɬ°reas que hay que cuidar: Contenido. Accesibilidad. Visibilidad. ?É?°nico (contenido original). ...
- AcikBilgi.com, September 19, 2006
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Reader Comments (29)
- Matt, September 15, 2006
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This was very useful. As I have just recently started my own blog, I want to make sure I am providing valuable content to my readers. Thanks for the tips.
- Jakob Montrasio-Fan, September 15, 2006
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Thank you for the useful tips! I absolutely agree with you about writing on a consistent basis.
- Dave, September 15, 2006
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Agreed. But I think the key is making your blog a service so that people really gain from visiting it. Then they'll come back and recommend it to others.
- Zerp, September 15, 2006
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Great info and advice. The advice about keeping the words down to 500 or less is priceless and accurate.
- Improve Your Mind, September 15, 2006
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Good advices. Just my observation - if some blog is really good, writing on a consistent basis is not necessary. In my RSS reader, I also have some blogs which just post "now and then", and I still keep an eye on them.
- polyGone, September 15, 2006
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If you post to digg, be prepared to buy more bandwidth.
- jim collins, September 15, 2006
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Thanks for these great tips. I'll try them on my adwords blog, nichewords
- D. Campbell, September 15, 2006
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Excellent article! CONTENT & UNIQUENESS are probably the two 'key' characters of a great blog.
- Faizal, September 15, 2006
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I think and easy to read and etertaining blog will keep the people reading even if it contain 10,000 word. The point is if people are intrested, the longer the better.
- M, September 15, 2006
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Interesante. Muy recomendable.
- Addies, September 15, 2006
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A Nice Guide, You always inspired me to do things the better way and I have also started sharing the ways of making money onlin, internet marketing, SEO, Adsense, Page Rank, Taffic and more. I have started a daily updated blog.
Check it out http://www.workers-place.blogspot.com
- musing, September 15, 2006
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Great info! I'm a published writer so feel comfortable writing content and also hope I’ve come up with a unique idea, but I have little experience making a site visible. This gives me some good ideas. Thanks!
- Neil Patel, September 15, 2006
- Innovation Zen, September 15, 2006
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Good article. I think the most important point is "write something useful". If a writer knows how to put himself into the reader position then half of his obstacles are gone.
- Shivaranjan, September 15, 2006
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Neil I agree with all your points. I found your first point very useful. :-)
- Bronko, September 15, 2006
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You just made me think.. :((
- Neil Patel, September 15, 2006
- Mike Gillis, September 15, 2006
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Great article, very helpful tips, I have added a link to my blog as I know it will be as rewarding for my readers. No Cost Internet Marketing
- depi, September 16, 2006
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Thanks for those tips. I will refer to this article in our IT podcast :)
- Mark, September 16, 2006
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Thanks Neil:
I have referred to your article in a short blog entry about the improvement of my travel blogging at my site ItinerantWitness.com.
Mark
- Tony, September 16, 2006
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Hey there Neil -- great article.
Darren Prowse over at Problogger.net asked "are there any more tips to add?"
I'd say yes! Check it out: 5 MORE ways to build a better blog
- Pete, September 17, 2006
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I been online for about 8yrs. Although I am new to blogging, I new how to run a site and the things I learned earlier helped me a lot. Anyways dude you have good as hell tips. I mean I read your blog once in a while but whenever I have the time to read your blog its like WOW. You always have something new and interesting to say.
- Neil Patel, September 17, 2006
- Sheelagh, September 18, 2006
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A good read. We seem to forget about relevance and quality.
- Jesper R?ɬ?nn-Jensen (justaddwater.dk), September 20, 2006
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Nice article, and a brilliant title, by the way.
We have a series of "blog usability" tips at Justaddwater.dk and I think they are of great interest to your readers. Most of it available in the category blogging
- Partha, September 20, 2006
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I've an observation or 2 about optimizing blog. I feel when you're optimizing a post for a KW, you're compromising with spontaneity. There're some things in life which are enjoyed in their pristine, not with motivated polishing. Any thought?
- Neil Patel, September 20, 2006
- kereal, September 24, 2006
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great~
- TJP, November 14, 2006
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Great tip on usability. In my next blog design, I'll try to limit all the gadgets and gismos.
