Over the years, blogging has transitioned from basement-corner pastime, to oft-used job description, to the now viral form of real-time journalism that it is today. Blogging is an entrepreneurial goldmine for those who are looking to reach an audience. The problem, as it turns out, is that accomplishing such a feat isn’t quite as easy as assembling a few paragraphs and clicking “submit.”
The blogosphere is an incredibly large place, and it’s not difficult for your blog to get lost in the shuffle. Persevering in the blog world requires a certain level of confidence and gauge of motivation. But with the right tools and the right attitude, your blog could be the next “big thing” on the Web.
- Create your blog as a cohesive product.
Blogging is as much about branding as it is about quality content. Having a consistent message with your blog is crucial to keeping the readers that visit your blog. Naturally, if you have a blog about cats, and you decide to do a post on dogs, you’re going to have readers on the other end of their computers raising eyebrows and quickly moving on to the next best cat blog they can find.
- Find a niche.
Your blog posts need to have a characteristic to them that makes them distinguished from any other blog on the Internet. In the same way that broadcast and print media is now fragmented, this is also true of Web content. This means your posts need to be detailed and specific in the topics that they cover, but this does not mean that your posts need to be long-winded rants. Posts should be engaging and consist of a word count that a reader can realistically be expected to read; even the most drawn-in, invested of niche groups do not want to read essay-length posts.
- Interact with your audience.
This includes both the people who comment on your posts, as well as the people who comment on posts submitted through other blogs. Starting a dialogue with those who are likely to be interested in your blog is a vital first step to creating a strong reader base. Be aware, however, that you should never specifically tell people to read your blog. Simply attaching a link to your comment is one thing, but shameless self-promotion is another. Additionally, be alert to who is commenting on your own blog posts, and do not leave a comment hanging in the air. It is extremely infrequent for users to comment on blog entries, which means you need to be feeding them with interactivity and an added reason to revisit the blog.
- Kill ‘em with catchiness.
Post titles are as essential to pulling in readers for a blog as an eye-catching headline is to grabbing readers’ attention in a newspaper. Avoid using generic titles that have probably been used by other blogs in the past, and never be afraid to think outside of the box. The more creative the headline, the more intrigued the reader will be.
- Have patience.
Blogs take time to catch on; understand that only receiving a few hundred or even a few dozen page views in a few weeks’ time is not the end of your blog. Building a relationship with readers takes time and effort. You may end up spending months taking advantage of social networks and other blogs before you finally start seeing the results you were hoping for. Some adages really are true; patience is a virtue.
This post was provided by the marketing team at Vendio. Vendio offers a complete ecommerce solution, and helpful insights to help sellers reach their goals. Recent posts include information on finding wholesale products and selling products through Facebook – read more at vendio.com.