Hope everyone had a great weekend! I sure did. Lots of fun stuff (movies, shopping, cleaning, organizing; wait, are those last two really fun?) and I am beginning Monday feeling ready for the upcoming week.
I also finished a week-long stint writing on a book project in my free hours and got 28 pages written. I’m quite pleased with myself as my goal was 25 pages. Next month, I’ll be making sure that increases, hopefully doubling!
I want to touch on a few blog items today. Many folks click to this blog to read about Moonlighting Entrepreneur, Twitter Tuesday, and now I’ve seen an uptick in BlogSuccess readers, so just a theme that I’ve been really thinking about for today: How to make your blog really good?
1. Find a gap and fill it. If you don’t see someone covering your niche (it could be a travel bookstore, a card-making business, even cheap travel deals to Mongolia), by all means, get in there. But make sure you really feel compelled to fill that void. I’ve got a friend who offered me a blog gig if I took complete ownership (bought the domain, ran it on my server, everything), but I didn’t feel interested enough in the subject matter. I think most people think that if they throw up some content, that’s it. Far from it.
2. Stay consistent. I’m an change-it-up person, so don’t follow my example, but I’ve noticed that blogs that steadily stop and start, stop and start, are not the ones that keep the traffic. Even if you aren’t sure why you are blogging, but you know your blog can do great things (help folks cope with clutter, the latest research in vaccinations, best deals in Atlanta), keep getting that great content on board. Make a cheat sheet of everything you could possibly ever write for your blog and then just start going down the list. Think of it as a great opportunity to find out what you’re made of. Not a writer? You could soon be one if you make a commitment to writing every single day.
3. Show it off. Don’t hide your best stuff (some folks worry it will get ripped off; others worry people will laugh at them for their opinions) and just know that every forward motion of your vision or goals is taking a risk. But the risks are small; trust me. Put your best posts right up front so people can see. Don’t be shy. Let it shine!
4. Gather your community. I’ve gathered a community of social media folks from around the world who retweet my blog posts, comment when they can, and keep an ongoing conversation with me on my Twitter feed (I’m integrating my blog and Twitter as much as I can) and now my blog. It’s fun, I am just as addicted to social media as my readers, and voila! That’s how a community works.
5. Test and research. Today marks a turning point. I am actually hiring a blog designer to help me make my blog better. I can do most of this myself, but time is precious around this office, so I need help. I think it will go well. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to the conversation to find out more. I intend to test with paid ads and banner ads on this blog, as well as better design and usage principles. It’s fun.
Now get back to your blogging and have a great week! Thanks for stopping by. If you have any particular questions about blogging, how it can help your business, and what the heck is Twitter, just leave a comment.
