How to Blog the Right Way
Neil Patel’s Guide to Successful Blogging
When you ask people nowadays what social networking is, they would immediately point out creating status updates, likes and comments in Facebook, as well as 140 characters in Twitter. Every minute, users send over 100,000 tweets and share 684,478 pieces of Facebook content. Tumblr is also going strong with its 27,778 blog posts for each minute of every day. That statistic may be really small, compared to the previous numbers from Twitter and Facebook, but Tumblr is a strong entity in itself. It generates more than 400 million page views per day and 355 million unique visitors per month.
What makes Tumblr prevail against the continued success of Facebook, Twitter and other micro-blogging sites? Tumblr persists because there’s an integration of both traditional and modern blogging features. You can publish text posts, images, video and audio links…
…which other users can either like, reblog or reply to:
The ‘reblog’ button acts like the ‘retweet’ function in Twitter, which makes it easier for users to spread the posts they like. Followers will see your reblogged posts in their own dashboards and with one click, it’s shared! This partly explains how some posts become viral and turn into trends in both social media sites.
So, how do you use Tumblr to create text blog posts that your customers will enjoy and share to their own followers?
Blogs are the foundation blocks of social media campaigns. Micro-blogging sites serve to capture attention, while blogs maintain interest with their content. Short status updates and 140-character shout-outs also cannot adequately explain and clarify topics. Blogs do that with 300-word articles that make readers fully understand the message you’ve put in Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. With blogs, customers gain an intimate relationship with online businesses. Conversational content can make readers feel as if the blogger is talking right in front of them.
This makes it important for bloggers to find their own writing voice. Should the blog be authoritative or advisory in nature? Friendly or aloof? Inconsistency with the voice may confuse the readers. and make them unreceptive to what you’re trying to convey. You should also ensure the authenticity of the facts you share to make your articles truthful and credible. Make yourself an expert about your chosen topics. You must be able to keep up with the latest developments in your industry to provide your readers with creative content they can share with their own followers.
Being creative means contributing something unique to your community of readers and followers. Voicing out your own thoughts about specific subjects helps you churn out original ideas that create a buzz in your community. Interested readers and fellow experts will be sure to ask you to explain in further detail or seek your opinion on related matters. It will also lead you to form your own insights. Sharing your ideas will spur discussion and promote more development of other people’s ideas.
Quality articles cannot stand alone. They need to be packaged in such a way that would influence the readers to trust the content. Here are some basic elements that readers unconsciously look for in a blog:
- Clean and beautiful design – The content should follow a layout that would properly organize the content in a readable manner. Continuous flow of content can also be disorienting so there should be adequate white space in the web page.
- Correct spelling and grammar – Wrong spelling and grammar usage stand out in an otherwise well-written article. Ensure your article is free from such errors to maintain credibility.
- High-quality photos – Grainy pictures and logos affect a reader’s perception of your article. Before you publish your content, make sure the images are in the right size and format to prevent the pixels from showing.
- Solid content updated frequently – Not updating regularly can cause your blog traffic to weaken and disappear altogether. Maintain readers with customary blog updates to make them come back.
- Presence of community and conversation through comments – Persuade readers to post their thoughts in the comment section. If they’re not forthcoming, ask friends to post their questions. This will help encourage other readers to post their questions and reactions about the subject of the article.
- Short, easy-to-read domain name – A long domain name is difficult to memorize. Make it easier for readers to remember your blog with a short and catchy domain name. This would promote instant recall and further improve your brand exposure campaigns.
You’ve made creative and catchy content. Problem is, your blog is not generating that much traffic in spite of your aggressive marketing efforts. Be more patient and consistently write high-quality articles to maintain the interest of your readers. Once other readers discover the gold mine of ideas in your blog, they’ll be more attracted to come back and talk about your content. So when your analytics show low readership, carry on writing. Sooner or later, they’ll come and read your articles.
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