photo credit: Scott Beale via photopin cc
OK. We need to have a serious sit down discussion about your blog. (NOTE: If you have a wonderful, perfect blog with thousands of regular readers, then this post is not for you.)
Your blog can use some improvement.
Sorry to say it, but it can.
I’m here to tell you why.
Disclaimer! I am certainly not the be all, end all master blogger who knows everything.
I don’t do everything right. I don’t have all the answers.
I don’t have millions of readers, and I don’t have the best blog layout known to mankind.
But I do have some helpful advice, based on blog best practices and industry research, which clearly demonstrates why you need to improve your blog strategy, starting today.
Ready to get started?
Here are 5 ways you can improve your blog right now:
1) Add photos. If your blog only has text (and big, unbroken blocks of text at that), it makes it that much harder to share, to pin and to post. Images are key. It’s a visual world, so get with it!
2) Add categories. How am I supposed to find anything? John Haydon wrote a great post about categories and tags (yes, I know that I need some help in this particular area), so read it and clean up your act.
3) Add share buttons. When I come across a blog post that I really enjoy, but there are no social share buttons anywhere to be found, I get frustrated.
See, I want to share your wisdom with my friends, either via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and I want it to be as easy as possible.
Your reader (i.e. me) is lazy. We do not want to have to cut and paste links and search around to find the Tweet button.
Put the social share buttons prominently next to EACH blog post to make it easy to spread your good word.
4) Enable comments. Why have a blog if the comments feature is disabled? What is the point? I’m not sure, but I see this all the time.
You want people to interact with your blog and to add their thoughts and opinions. This creates community, and loyal readership.
Another pet peeve are comment sections that are filled with spam. Get Akismet or another spam-preventing plug in and stop that mess already.
5) Write more blog posts. I get it – you’re busy. You are running a business, raising a family, saving the world. You don’t have time to blog regularly.
However, without regular content, you won’t build your readership. Google won’t find you and index you.
You will get frustrated with your lack of progress, and blog less – it’s a bad cycle.
In conclusion, I hope you don’t think I’m being harsh, or that I am the pot calling the kettle black.
My only intention is to help you make your blog all that it can be and all that you want it to be – one small step at a time.
What do you think about this post? Agree or disagree? Thoughts to add? Please leave them in the Comments section. Thanks for reading!
The post 5 Ways You Can Expand Your Blog’s Reach Starting Today appeared first on JCSM.
