Millions of entrepreneurs have blogs today. It is a great way for businesses to stay on the radar screen of potential customers and to feed traffic to their website. Problem is, well, there are a lot of really bad and stale blogs out there. But don’t worry—there is hope.
Whether your blog is just down right boring, drab or let’s face it, kind of useless, you can whip it into shape and make it work for you. Trust me, you really can. Here are six ways that you can immediately improve your blog:
1. Get your community involved
There are several ways you can get your readers involved. Guest posts are always good, but collaborative posts are even better. Pick a relevant topic and get your readers to share their advice about it. Not only do you get great content, you get support in promoting the post.
2. Be opinionated
People often think that being opinionated is a negative concept, but keep in mind that many people read your blog because you echo their opinion. So speak it strongly and don’t worry about people who disagree with you. There will always be some who disagree, but those people are a PR blessing because they will be vocal about your blog (probably even more so than those who agree with it). Remember, polarizing is good.
3. Post regularly
Ever notice how many times you land on a blog and it hasn’t been updated since a couple of months after it was first created— three years ago? Avoid this and regularly add posts. Doing so will help with your search engine optimization (SEO) big time, but it will also give people something to look for, and hopefully, something to look forward to.
4. Incorporate video
Millions of people watch videos online every day. They can’t get enough of them, so add your own. Simply create 2-3 minute video posts that you can incorporate into your blog to boost search engine visibility and user engagement. Focus on one topic per video and upload them to YouTube. Be sure to optimize them with tags and keywords that are related to your blog. You can then embed the YouTube video right in your blog posts.
5. Use great pictures
Visitors, yourself included most likely, have a tendency to skim the page looking for articles or something that interests them. They are not going to read an entire article to determine if they want to read it, obviously. Instead, they will skim through to see what gets their attention. Nothing does a better job then a picture, and that speaks a 1,000 words.
6. Use attention-getting titles
Make titles that quickly explain what they are about to read and will be compelling to the right reader. “6 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Blog” is far better than something like “Blogging Techniques.” After all, it got you to read this.
When you take these steps to improve your blog, you will see the results. The blog will start working for you to keep you on the radar screen, bring in new business, and help establish you as an expert. Businesses can benefit from blogs, as you have probably read before, but that is only true if the blog is interesting and engaging to those that land on it. And getting them to land on it is easier than you may think, once you follow these tips above to improve it.