Blogging is a great tool to increase your network, advertise your expertise or reach out to other online surfers who may need advice or tips on certain matters. You can use it as a business avenue or as your personal online journal.
If you want to increase traffic to your blog, there are some key factors that you need to consider. How to build a blog that readers will keep coming back to takes a bit of effort in the beginning but once you’ve gotten it off the ground, it can pretty much soar all on its own.
How to Build a Blog
1. Create a theme. When you’re starting a blog, you first have to think of the main reason why you want to do so. Do you want to advertise your business or provide a venue for readers to have a place where they can seek and give advice on certain things?
Do you simply want it to be your rant and rave site? Having one specific subject to write about, i.e. parenting tips, carpentry advises, etc.; will allow your readers to remember to look for you again when they need to know more about specific topics.
2. Create a powerful title for your blog. Your blog name or title should be able to immediately convey to your readers what you’re discussing in your blog. This will tell them on the outset if your blog is of interest to them or not.
3. Write coherent and cohesive articles. Your subject may be interesting but if you fail to articulate what you want to say, your readers might get all the more confused which in turn could result in them not going back to your blog.
4. Add photos. It will help if your articles have accompanying photographs to make the more appealing to your readers. As much as possible, use your own photos or include proper attributions when using other people’s photos or images.
5. Lay-out. The look of your blog should be easy on the eyes. It should also be easily navigated so your readers can readily transition from one page to the next without trouble.
6. Check your blog stats. Free blogging templates and hosting are available online. Usually, blog providers have their own program where members can check the stats of their site.
The stats will tell you how many readers you’ve had per day, how many returning visitors you have, peak hours that your blog is being read and the location of your readers.
There are also free stat counters that are available on the internet and these are very easy to install in your blog site. Simply copy the code on your widget box and you’re good to go.
