The Ever-Twisting Evolution of a Blog
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 06:57PM This article is for those of you who are starting a blog, and are wondering how to do it, what to make it about and how to become successful at it. Its been a while now since I launched my blog, Urban Life. Four months to be exact. The central idea was to do a website loosely formed around all things "City". So, in that vein, I put in 4 sections, Urban Music, Urban Art, Urban Food and Urban Thought. This seemed a doable and unique idea, easy to accomplish, and allowed me plenty of room for full expression of ideas. I already had the music. The art was focusing on photographs I take with my iphone. 'Food' would include recipes and restaurant reviews. And Urban Thought, was the catch-all-anything-goes clearing house where I would talk about any subject and also feature guest bloggers. "City" soon evolved into thoughts on anything from politics, world events and technology.
As for the basic underpinnings, there are many platforms you can choose from. Whereas before you had to know 'code', now its a very simple process of simply adding modules, chosing widgets and clicking and dragging. I chose Squarespace for that very reason, its utter simplicity. I will not go into here how that is done, ie, templates, layout, form etc, only to say that remember, when people go to your site, they want to see something unique. Maybe beautiful and at the very most interesting. So try to make your template pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate. That's the easy and fun part. The real work comes with CONTENT.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I have 4 sections to my blog. And I have tried to provide content in all areas on a regular basis to keep people coming back and to keep them all fresh. Most hosting sites have a section where you can track what is the most popular area of content in your site. In my blog I originally had hoped it would serve as a platform for people to hear my music and BUY it. I hadn't planed for it to be a food blog. Specifically. However, as time moved on, I have found that my recipe/cooking section has become very popular. In my case people like to see what I can cook. And how I do it. In your case, it probably will be something different. The point is, biting off more than you can chew is very easy when one starts a blog. And going all over the place is easy too. BE FOCUSED. Focusing your blog on your strengths is not only going to help you by making your job a bit easier, its going to let people know that you're committed and you have something to say. Its YOUR BRAND. And people will come to trust a reliable, committed brand.
Remember this, its very simple, yet somehow slips the mind. Especially in novice bloggers. You must write content all the time. In the beginning, pretty much every day. And its WORK. You MUST post regularly. Why is that? Because if people want to go to a museum, they can go downtown. People want to see new things, living things, things that are going to teach them something. Entertain them. But there are ways to 'cheat the system' and make your job a bit easier. One way is to post video. I do it all the time. People love to see videos. And pictures. Even if its your personal blog about how you live your day, people will want to see it and hear it as well as reading about it. And with today's technology in smart phones, its very easy to shoot a short, post it on You Tube, and then post it on your blog.
There are so many steps to consider and execute on the way to a successful blog. Is mine successful? Well, one would have to define 'sucess'. Each month have doubled my readership. And I have reached certain goals, however, it is an evolving process. I have learned a new craft, a new modality in the creative process. To me, that is a success. Traffic, like money, is a symbol of success. Here are some ways you can increase traffic. As I've already mentioned, focus on your strengths. Your brand. Make YOU an expert on YOU. Whatever that may be.
Use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc to launch your blog. I am a member of long standing in a Harley message board and so of course I have posted many blog entries there, although Harley riders might not be so interested in learning about the virtues of a Cotes de Nuits. These are my friends, but never the less, know your target market. Facebook serves 2 purposes. First it lets all your friends know that you have a site and you should be putting the 'like' button on your posts so THEIR friends know they 'LIKE" YOU. Second, posting directly on the internet, attracts web bots. Robots. These are the automated web crawlers used by search engines to index content. A lot of postings by you and the corresponding activity, eventually, by the attraction of these bots visiting your site, gets you ranked higher. It lets the search engines know there's a new dog in town. Now, if I meet someone and I say I have a blog, I don't have to give them the URL. I can simply say, "Google John Rivera Urban Life dude" and a lot of my posts and articles will come up. Pretty cool huh! That is due to the actions of robots. A word about Facebook. Its not enough. Unless you are content with a few friends and family visiting your site, you must find other ways to drive traffic to you.
Submit articles to article hubs like ArticleBase. What these places are, are sites where you submit your content and if it passes their editorial standards, you are published. And your article is sent out and made available to sources ALL OVER THE WORLD. Not bad eh? I have seen my traffic DOUBLE because of these sites and you do not have to relay on your friends and your mom for readership. However, you must remember that posting on an article site will not attract bots and crawlers which give you ranking. However it will bring viewers. I want both, so I do whatever it takes to accomplish that. There are many other ways, posting on other quality blogs and inserting your site name, telling people you meet, even making out cards with your logo and site name-ANYTHING to get your name and brand out there.
I hope I've given you, the reader, some idea of the ins and outs of the world of blogging. As I've said, I, like you, am new to this. However, I am doing my homework, its not work when its passion, and I'm willing to pass my observations onto you from that unique perspective, not totally brand-new, and not old and jaded. Just fresh! BTW, here's a practical example: If you like this article, hit the 'like' button at the top! Good luck and good blogging!
Reader Comments (1)
Like you, I'm new to blogging. However I have personal friends who are into marketing, so basically I'm trying out an experiment. I have chose the hiphop route, at the moment we keep up to date with the urban community. In the future I'm not sure what it will turn into.
The point I'm trying to make is, you keep on pushing. Especially if you're passionate about your topic, if you build it they will come. www.hiphopsavvy.com