From hundreds of new blogs that are launched every day, only a few are actively updated a few months later and much less become really successful in future. This article aims to explore how to make your blog successful by providing 5 tried-and-true recommendations.
Many people wrongly consider that the most difficult part of becoming a blogger is getting started, but in fact that part is quite easy. The hard part is setting up a blog in such a way that you can keep it updated regularly. There is no magic formula or magic tricks that can get you thousands of visits without effort and hard work. But, following the recommendations presented below you will definitely take your blog a step forward towards success. So, let’s get started.
Find Your Niche
If you’re writing your blog posts about something that you are not passionate about – you will definitely lose interest very soon and stop updating it. The more general your blog topic is, the harder time you are going to have attracting large audience. Instead, focus your blog on a unique topic and make sure it is something you love and are able to write a gazillion of posts about. To be knowledgeable about what you are writing, you should actively:
- Read books about your topic.
- Subscribe to good blogs in your niche.
- Stay up to date with the latest news in your niche.
Headlines Matter Most
Not for nothing a headline is often treated as one of the major drivers of a post’s popularity. It can make or break your post. If you want to make people click on your content – a catchy and head-turning headline is a must. It has to be laconic, attention-grabbing and hopefully provocative. According to the American Writers & Artists association headlines should:
- Be USEFUL to the reader.
- Provide him with a sense of URGENCY.
- Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE.
- Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way.
Write Great Content
As long as you write interesting and engaging content, you will have your readers coming back. To be specific, great posts should answer a question, solve a problem, make readers laugh or make them cry (in a good sense). Furthermore, no matter how long or short a blog post is, format it so that readers can quickly scan the content:
- break up posts into many paragraphs,
- use subheads in longer posts and bullets for lists,
- use images to recapture the readers’ attention,
- italicize or bold keywords so people can find necessary information.
If you want to make your blog run successfully, you will need to publish great and high quality content on a regular basis. Therefore it is in your interest to:
- proofread your articles to make sure there are no errors or mistakes,
- be honest in your writing and give your own opinion on issues discussed,
- follow other bloggers and look at what they do well and try to adapt it into your own writing style.
Market Your Blog
Nothing is more discouraging than writing high quality content regularly and not seeing the readership grow. So, be ready to market your blog in order to gain more visitors. There is a bunch of ways to do this:
- Network with other bloggers.
- Guest blogging on blogs within your niche.
- Leave comments and trackbacks on fellow blogs.
- Be active on social media.
Following these practices you can increase the chance that your blog readership will grow.
Measure Success
No matter what the topic or goal of your blog is or how often you publish posts – you need to know whether your blog is being read and all your efforts are paying off. Thus, you can install Google Analytics or any other analytics program to see which blog posts your audience gravitates towards, where your readers are coming from, and much more. Once you have all this information, you can create more content to attract similar people and also keep your audience coming back.
There’s much more to learn about making your blog more successful, but hopefully the basics mentioned above will get you started. What is your number one tip for developing a successful blog? Please share your tips and insights in the comment area below.
P.S. Left with a strong desire to start blogging? WordPress might be high on your consideration list.
