BLOGGING: LEVEL TWO

"ONCE YOU GET STARTED, YOU HAVE TO DISTINGUISH YOURSELF. KEEP THE TRAFFIC FLOWING TO KEEP THE ADVERTISING CASH COMING IN."

What many prolific bloggers might agree with is that consistent and incremental traffic largely determines the success of a blog. Also, making a blog interesting is one thing, but always keeping it that way is what’s most important. Now the inflow of traffic and the growth of a blog are directly proportionate in ways more than one. This is where taking your blog to the next level comes in. If you’ve followed one or more successful blogs, you’ll notice a pattern. Gradually but continually, bloggers add value to their writings. Since content is more important, it’s good to pay attention to it and innovation in design can wait until your blog has good amount of traffic. If you don’t offer new and interesting content regularly, chances are that readers will re visit a few times, but on realizing the lack of consistency, they’ll drift away. Also, even if the content is top notch but no one knows about it, you won’t have any readers in the first place. 

                                   There’s very little value—if any—in blogs that merely offer links to other websites and file-download servers. When there’s original content, it gets indexed and is valued by search engines. Whether a reader is interested will depend a lot on how the article is written. For blogs featuring fiction stories, even a sad but well-written tale can be a hit. But if you try to put across a lengthy and technical piece packed with jargon into a single post, you might loose the reader midway. In such cases, break it up into chapters, such as ‘Managing terabytes of data in 10 days’. Then each post could be about different types of data. Ranting on a subject that you’re well-versed with can be used to your advantage. Once you've built up a collection of posts, you can offer a free ebook when a user signs up. Also, whenever you want to detail your readers about something, send them an ebook, there’s added value and they can read it at their own leisure. Send weekly or fortnightly newsletters to subscribers. Speaking of which, there should be simple-to-use email subscription and RSS feeds on your blog so that subscribers can stay updated in the way they choose to be. The idea is to ensure that existing readers come back. Now, it’s time to attract more visitors.

                             

                                 Although word-of-mouth and emails to friends and family are effective, social

networking can prove to be much more powerful. Join a couple of sites and tell your friends and their friends about the blog. Also, when meeting people, it’s good to be ready with a 30-second description. Not everyone has a very good attention-span, so being able to concisely explain what your blog is about is a great idea. Try not to overdo the promotion, too much of it can backfire.

                                

                                 Here’s a fun way to keep your blog lively. Actively participate on other blogs which involve people who share similar interests. This way you get updates ahd also exchange traffic, which means newer visitors. You can even have your own forums, which will mean continuous interaction amongst readers. The more value you add to your blog, the higher expectations are set, and the more your blog has to consistently be enjoyable.

"ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE ON BLOGS WHICH INVOLVE PEOPLE WHO SHARE SIMILAR INTERESTS."