10 Things That Make A Great Blog

Recently we took a look at 5 reasons blogs fail so now, instead of looking at the down side of blogging, it’s time to look at the positives and look at the things that make a great blog.

The first step is to visit your favorite blogs and ask yourself a simple question. Why do I visit this blog? - The first reason you will probably come up with is that you enjoy the content, maybe it’s informative, it could be fun it could just be genuinely interesting. So, what else?

Well perhaps there is a blog you visit simply because you like the idea behind the blog, it could be approaching the blog world with whole new outlook, something new and innovating, something thats never been done before. I’m sure you all will have at least one blog you visit simply because you ‘know’, or ‘know of’, that person be it through a forum, their reputation or you may just feel a need to visit their blog simply because you know their name (it happens). Is there a blog you visit because it keeps well updated? does it always have the latest most up to date news first? Maybe you visit a blog simply because you just like it’s design.

There are many reasons people visit blogs, if you ask yourself why you visit your favorite blogs you’ll soon see what makes those blogs great and you’ll come to realize, it’s actually not that hard to achieve and in fact it all boils down to the rather obvious!

So anyway, lets not stand on ceremony. Here’s a list of 10 things that make a blog great:

1. Quality Content - Nothing better than a blog that provides helpful, fun or just plain interesting articles. We all know the phrase, content is king!
2. Keeping Updated - Keep your blog updated, post as frequently as needed don’t go over the top but at the same time don’t leave huge gaps between posts. If your posting about something new get it posted as quickly as you can, be the first to produce the goods!
3. Be Unique - It’s easier said than done but being different really can help. If you have a great idea that you don’t think has been done before don’t be afraid to try it!
4. Get Known - This isn’t hard to do but a lot of bloggers still don’t seem to bother. Find forums or other blogs that are in the same niche as your blog and post/comment on them, get your name “out there!
5. Readership Interaction - Get your readers involved, readers love being able to have their say and they love being acknowledge by a blogger so let them know they are appreciated!
6. A Good Design - A good first impression is a lasting impression, when someone visits your blog for the first time you want them to be impressed. Make sure your blog looks good.
7. Speedlinking/Shout outs - Provide your readers with links to articles, sites, resources and other things they find interesting. Your readers will appreciate it and so will the places you link to, it’s just another little handy service you can provide your readers.
8. Variation - Blogs can get stale, it’s natural. Add some variation for your readers, a guest blogger is a great way to this or maybe introduce a new feature, talk about a new topic, do something new every once in a while.
9. Share Real Life Experiances - If you have a real life experience thats relevant to your blog post it! People love hearing about real world situations as they can often relate and it also shows a more personal side which leads right on to point 10
10. Be Personal, Be Friendly - Keep your blog as personal as it needs to be. People like to know your name, they want to feel as though they know you. Be polite and friendly too, answer e-mails and comments when you can and try to be nice you’ll be surprised how well it works!

Well thats it for now, take not of these 10 points and you’ll be well on to your way to creating a great blog! If you have any other thoughts on what makes a great blog I’m interested in hearing them so feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me!

Why Do Blogs Fail?

With so many blogs on the internet it now seems that with each new blog created another 3 die, I think the reason being is because a lot of people immediately assume that as soon as a blog is created it will be a success which unfortunately isn’t always true. Lets take a look at the reasons why so many blogs fail, this is by no means a definitive list but each of these points really need to be taken into account by all bloggers.

1. Low Quality Writing

Fair enough, nobody is perfect and we all make the odd spelling and grammar mistakes (I do it all the time) but it’s a fact, if your writing style is poor it will put people off. If your posts are hard to follow, hard to read or every other word is spelled wrong then people simply wont read it. WordPress has a spell checker, FireFox has a spell checker if you have to you can even write out your posts in MS Word - if you know your posts are hard to read do something about it!

2. Posts/Topics Are Boring

Ok so different people find different subjects interesting, you may find quantum physics really interesting while I may find it incredibly boring thats fine, thats not what this about - as long as you target the right audience you can blog about anything. The point I’m trying to make here is that you have to make your posts intriguing.

If you have read my other articles you will know I’ve said this time and time again and I will continue to keep saying it, if someone is reading your blog it’s because they are interested in hearing your opinion so give them it! Don’t be afraid to say what you think, let them know what you think and give them a reason as to why you think it, then try to invoke them, ask them what they think, keep your readers interested.

3. Poor Blog Design/Layout

This is an important aspect of a blog, not so much in terms of your blog needing to look absolutely amazing but the fact that your blog needs to be readable, it needs to be easy on the eye, it needs to attract the reader in. You want your visitors to spend a lot of time on your blog reading what you have written, for them to be able to do this your blog design needs to take that into account. Don’t use dark text on dark backgrounds or light text on light backgrounds, don’t use really tiny text or really huge text, don’t have everything crammed together really messily.

Not everyone is a web designer, again thats fair enough but with thousands of free themes, and even some top quality premium themes, about there is no reason to have a poorly designed blog.

4. Poor Planning

It may seem tedious, it may even seem pointless but a lot of blogs do fail due to poor planning. You don’t need to plan things out to the last detail but you should at least set some goals, set some objectives, know what you want to achieve from your blog even if it’s just something basic like getting 50 readers a day - If you don’t have any goals and don’t set objectives how are you going to know if your blog is a failure or a success? Even if you don’t care you should still have goals, you don’t want to spend hours writing good quality posts if no one is reading them.

There are other things you need to plan as well such as how you are going to market your blog as well as how your going run it. Once your blog is up and running it doesn’t end there, continue to set objectives that will help you to reach your long term goals. Not every blogger needs to have goals and objectives but depending on the type of person you are you may find it helpful especially if you need something to motivate you and keep you going.

5. Giving Up

This point follows on from point 4, people often tend to just give up. A lot of the time it’s probably because they didn’t know what they wanted to achieve in the first place. Sometimes people see that their blog isn’t taking off as quickly as they thought and when a new blogger realizes that building a good readership can take a lot of time they can be really discouraged. There isn’t really any advice I can give on this point other than don’t give in too easily, keep at it! It can take a long time to for your blog to become really popular so don’t worry about - give it a chance before moving on to something new

Thats it for now, if you disagree with any of the points or want to add in your own point then leave a comment to let me know!

Can Gamers Teach Bloggers A Lesson?

There are so many places bloggers can learn lessons from, can anything really be learned from gamers? I believe so.

Now, I’m no avid gamer I’ll admit. I used to spend a fair amount of time in my younger years playing games online - most notably on Unreal Tournament but not much has changed with online gaming since then so lets take a look at what methods and rules we can apply from gaming to blogging.

1. The More You Play, The Better You Get

There is no denying it, practice makes perfect. Sure when gaming there was always that one guy who spent 40 hours a week playing and still came last every game but thats because he was playing but not learning.

So how does this fit in with blogging? I’d like to first point out that I’m not saying the more your post the better your posts will be - that’s nonsense but when you begin blogging your posts may be poorly laid out and un-interesting after time you will develop new techniques and posting styles that will help your posts become really inspirational.

Time spent blogging shouldn’t just be time spent posting, it should be time spent reading other blogs, taking in advice, researching and experimenting. If you think of it is a game, first you learn to fire (make a post) but there is a lot more too it than that and a lot of it will only come with time and dedication.

2. Join A Clan

A clan is a group of players that join up to form a team. If you have played games online you will have no doubt been part of, or come across, a clan. Joining a clan gets you to meet new people, play new people and can increase your reputation - can you see where this going? Thats right networking!

Networking your blog is a very important aspect of running a successful blog. There is little benefit in spending your time making good quality posts if nobody is going to see them. Network with other bloggers that are in your niche by exchanging links or maybe with by guest blogging which is becoming increasingly popular.

3. Make Friends

Gaming is always better when you know the people your are gaming with, if you’ve joined a clan the chances are you will spend a decent amount of time talking to these people and getting to know them. Do the same with your blog!

Be friendly, make friends by commenting on other blogs in your niche if you can befriend other bloggers it’ll help you massively in the long run. It’s always nice to be known, it’s nice to be liked and it’s also nice to be helpful. Other bloggers are just like you, they want the same things you want and you’ll often find you have more in common than you might think. Make friends and be friends, help them and they’ll help you. It’s as simple as that.

4. Don’t Spam!

Everyone hates spammers, in online gaming a spammer is someone who maybe will just run around a level pressing the fire key - just “spamming”.

If your a spammer people will find it hard to like/respect you. If they can’t do that you can’t do any of the other points mentioned in this article. Spamming your blog around by posting random links all over (usually in farcical comments) is an easy mistake to be made by new bloggers, you may see the short time benefits and think it’s worthwhile - it’s not, don’t do it!

5. Have Fun And Enjoy It

When you start taking a game too seriously you tend to have less fun playing the game, and ultimately end up doing worse or getting frustrated and giving up. The same can happen with blogging.

If your not having fun blogging, getting no enjoyment out of it, your posts will reflect that. You’ll lose all your enthusiasm, your readers will lose interest and in the end you’ll get frustrated, bored and just quit. Have fun blogging! - Take the good with bad and make sure your enjoying what your doing, if you don’t enjoy it there’s no point in doing it.

We have all heard the phrase sex sells, it’s true too. If I posted a picture of a certain nature which linked to another page there is no doubting 75% of people would click the link, probably without even realizing that the link will only take you to a past blog post. What would the point be in that though? Sure the click rate would be great but you’d be unhappy and uninterested with page that’s appeared before you.

So while sex sells it may not always be very effective, there is another method though that can be almost as compelling but with twice the effectiveness - controversy.

If you read my article on how to attract new readers to your blog you will remember I briefly touched on the subject of saying what you really think, of not being afraid to put your point across. Some of you may have wondered why I mentioned it but the reason why this can be so important is because people love to debate/argue/share points of view. It’s one of the reasons why forums work so well and have so much activity, if someone says something that other people don’t agree with they feel as though they HAVE to let them know about it, they HAVE to have their say and they HAVE to try and convince the original poster why they are right and he/she is wrong.

That’s all fine and well for forums but how can this help you with your blog? Well that depends how good you are at expressing an opinion. If you can be opinionated when making a post but do it an open manor so people feel as though they are welcome to share their view, then that is exactly what they will do - share their view.

It can be difficult to pull off but if you can talk about something that you know people wont agree with (but some people will) and if you can keep an open mind and encourage people to come forward with their views it can work great. People will post comments on what they think, sometimes huge discussions can occur on your blog which will just intrigue even more people. Readers may even blog about your post themselves saying how much they agree/disagree, they may even post it on other forums and websites to ask what people think - great publicity!

So whats the big picture and why the reference to sex sells at the beginning of this post? Well let me explain it for those of you that haven’t quite understood what I’m saying. To be a good blogger you don’t need lots of flashy niceties and cheap gimmicks, sure the short term benefits will be there with a few extra clicks to your site but if you want to run a successful blog it’s what YOU post that matters and if people are visiting your blog it’s because they want to hear what YOU have to say, even if they won’t fully agree with it.