How To Drive More Traffic To Your Blog
It would appear that so many people have a blog these days. However, what is the difference between a Perez Hilton and, say, any one of several thousands of blogs which fall into insignificance each and every day? The answer of course is getting more traffic to your blog and here are a few easy ways to make this happen.
To begin with it is essential that your blog is full of meaning and not simply someplace to store a stack of rewritten articles. If the amount of activity already taking place on your blog is heavy, this in turn, draws more visitors and has many positive benefits. Each time a comment is posted on your blog it is updated and the search engines tend to favor sites with new and regularly restructured information. This will also persuade others to join in and once they have, they are likely to return more often to check out what sort of reaction has been received to what they had to say.
Another good idea to get the interest in your blog to grow is to post on more popular blogs than yours which are similar in content, but don’t forget the link to your blog, naturally! If you do not find yourself thinking along the same lines as the blog’s editor, do not be hesitate to say so – you never know, you may start something which will entice the editor to respond and those visiting are likely to take a look at your blog to see what you have to say too. On the other hand if you agree completely with the blog’s editor and have noticed that the blog has occasional guest posters, why not contact the blogmaster to see if it is possible for you to write a guest post for them?
Digg is one of several social networking sites which are a super way to attract traffic to your blog. Digg works by allowing users to give a thumbs up or down to whatever they have read on line as well as on the Digg site itself. It is, in effect, a way to rate pages on the Internet to make sure the best ones get the most attention. Should you wish your site to rate as high as possible on Digg, here are a few tips to help you on your way.
Firstly, you need to write catchy headlines as this is the first thing to take hold of the visitor’s attention prior to actually reading a post. Then when you put forward your post to Digg, ensure that the description says what the post is about so as not to incur any shocks which may lead readers to give you a thumbs down because the description is only vaguely connected to the content. Don’t irritate your readers by starting off well but failing to follow through with quality reading. This will only get you bad reviews and could lead to you being banned from social bookmarking sites altogether.
Although the above methods will help you to draw more traffic to your blog, you should bear in mind that even the most efficiently promoted blog will not be successful if the content is not both meaningful and interesting to the reader.
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How to Determine the Length of Your Blog Posts
Bloggers seem to wrestle with the issue of how often they should be posting. I do not think this is overly important though as for me, quality is always more important that quantity. I think a bigger issue is determining how long a blog post should be.
When I started blogging, I would publish a new post every single day. Before long, this became too much and I began to cut down by posting two or three times per week. Since making this change, there is no doubt that the quality of my posts has improved. Perhaps as a natural consequence, I have found that the length of my posts has also increased.
It goes without saying that longer blog posts mean more content. Search engines love content, so it goes without saying that the more you write, the more they will love you. Having said this though, you must never lose sight of the fact that your primary objective is to satisfy your human readers, not the search engines.
By forcing yourself to write shorter blog posts, you should find that your posts become far more concise and succinct. It is worth remembering that most blog readers simply scan the text of your posts to pick out the content that is relevant to them. Shorter posts cut to the chase and avoid filler and fluff. Consequently you may find that forcing yourself to keep within a certain word limit advantageous.
On the flip side, you may alienate readers that are looking for thorough and deep analysis. This should not be too much of an issue if your blog posts are free to read, however you need to bear in mind that if you are charging people to access your content, readers will expect far more depth, exploration and analysis.
When deciding on how long your blog posts should be, you should consider exactly what it is you have to say. Of course, if you have a lot to talk about on a certain subject, your post may well be longer than usual. If you only have a few basic points you want to cover, then cover them without filler and padding. As long as you have covered what you want to say, the length of the posts is right.
Similarly, if what you are covering is rather complicated, your posts will probably be longer as a result. Just because you have an average post length, you should not restrict yourself to this limit if you are blogging about something that is rather complicated. Readers will expect some posts to be longer than others, depending on the subject matter of your post.
Something else to consider when deciding how long your blog posts should be is the frequency of your posting. I feel that the more often you post, they shorter they can be. You may actually end up overwhelming your readers if you are posting articles of over 500 words in length every single day!
There is no such thing as the perfect length of a blog post. You should simply write until you have covered all the points you wanted to say. Once you have written the post, go back through it and ensure you have not inadvertently padded it out with filler and irrelevant statements. If you are ever in doubt, it is always worth asking your readers what they think. I see bloggers asking many people for advice. Very often though, they fail to ask the very people they are trying to satisfy … their own readers!
Martin Reed is the developer and owner of a popular UK chat and community website. He also blogs about how to develop successful online communities.
The Different Types of Blogs
Blogs are sources that provide information and news, regarding different topics. The term ‘blog’ is a more casual and popular term for ‘Web log’. There are various types of web logs, depending on the kind of information, they provide.
Blog writing or blogging initially began in the form of diaries. These blog types provided personal information as in an autobiography of a person. This requires conscious writing and highlighted important aspects of a person’s life, which most people would be keen in reading. This trend highly popularized the practice of blogging.
Blog Post Types:
1. Interviews: Writers often use interviews to learn more about a particular topic, they are working on. Thus, it may not include relevant information, but a general opinion of the public regarding a specific topic. Mostly, one or two questions are asked to get an overview of different responses.
2. Case Studies: It is one of the most popular types of blogs. Web sites include case studies, usually as review posts, where they add certain content information regarding their sites. Many web sites use case studies as a medium to generate income.
3. News Media: These are blogs which display illegal, incorrect, or inaccurate information. Sometimes, they take the content from a media source and make unintentional modifications and omissions.
4. Reviews: Usually, every online product or service has reviews along with it. They contain personal opinions or experiences regarding a particular product. This helps the readers to make a fair choice.
5. Corporate: Business entrepreneurs use corporate blogs to advertise their products and business processes. They update readers regarding recent projects, or services or any other modifications in business.
6. Rants: These are likely to trigger serious discussions and debates. Topics can range from political to ethical values and there are immense differences in opinions. Hence, they sometimes cause controversies, but are highly informative.
7. Spam or Splogs: Their basic purpose is to advertise commercial companies. They contain large number of links to enhance search engine results. Hence, they make use of repetitive text and keywords.
8. Critique Posts: Often mistaken as ‘Attack Posts’, they are aimed to criticize a particular aspect of a topic the site is advertising. However, critique blogs are mostly a result of criticism.
9. Personal: Teenagers usually, make use of personal web logs to post their anger or share some of their crucial moments and problems with distanced friends. Visitors have an access to such content and can post their opinions or suggestions on the tagboard.
10. Culture Blogs: A social organization designates bloggers to display content regarding the social aspects of a culture or cultural ethics. Here, the content is highly informal and a visitor can post an opinion, without offending any religion or culture.
Business organizations use branding, sales, relationship, collaboration and knowledge blogs, for different commercial reasons.
Inspirational, humorous, cultures, collation and problem posts are not so common types of web logs, but can bring a desirable change in thinking patterns, if used effectively.
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