subject: How To Make Sure Your Blog Is Successful [print this page] Setting up your own blog can be useful as another feature of your existing website, or it can become the basis for a completely new website on its own. One of the key advantages of a blog is that it can be seen as a "human face" for your online business in that it allows interaction from readers, who also feel safer in the knowledge that there is a real living person behind it. If you want to guarantee your new blog is a success then there are a number of simple guidelines you can follow.
1. Have An Attractive Design: One of the advantages to a blog is they are easy to set up, and you can customize the appearance by choosing from thousands of free or premium WordPress themes. Use your own judgement to find what works for you and the niche you're in, but remember a more minimalistic design will allow more focus on your content and not slow your page down to an agonizing speed.
2. Write In A Voice That Suits Your Audience: This may develop over time, but you should definitely think about the sort of language to use when talking to your audience. Are they kids? Then don't use too many big words they wouldn't understand. Are you writing for serious investors or businessmen? Then don't joke too much because they might not share your sense of humour.
3. Connect With Readers: It's great that blogs allow interactivity, and this shouldn't be a one-way conversation. Obviously you don't have to reply to everyone who makes a comment, but it's nice for people when they occasionally see you write back so they are reminded that you do in fact exist.
4. Make It Short And Sweet: No one wants to spend an hour of their day reading a single blog post, so don't put your readers through that. If you have a large amount to say on a particular topic then you can think about breaking it up into a series of posts spread across a week or so.
5. Keep It Regular: Once you've established some reader interest then keep it going by posting on a regular basis. This doesn't have to be every day, but often enough so that people remain interested in what you have to say.
6. Don't Clutter With Ads: Sure, you've seen that most successful blogs offer advertising slots all over the shop, but this isn't something you want to do with your brand new blog. For a start, there won't be enough advertisers interested in sponsoring you yet, but more importantly it can be a big turn-off for new visitors if that's the first thing they see.
