This article is written by Jennifer Gretson.
There are a million examples of blogs that have blown up with popularity, become media empires, or simply are a starting point for job opportunities and partnerships or collaborations.
If you’re looking at starting a blog, or just sprucing up the one you have now, here are some tips that will help you draw attention to your site and hopefully lead you to bigger and better things.
How to Turn Your Blog Into a Professional Site
1. Make your site your own: Having a unique blog all starts with the look and the layout. You want your site to be professional looking, organized, and easy to navigate, but you also want to add your own personal touch to set it apart from the rest. Commit to a color scheme that make text easy to read and use images sparingly (less is more!).
2. Find your niche: Write what you know and chose a topic for your blog that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. It’s easy to get tired of a blog, so you want to have a niche that you’re actually interested in. Having a niche blog with specific content and a unique voice will bring in interested and devoted readers who are excited about your website and who want to engage with your content.
3. Encourage people to comment and share: Make all of the content on your blog easy to share by adding simple sharing options and by encouraging your readers to respond. By creating a conversation either in the comment section or on social media sites, you and your readers are going to draw the attention of new readers and expand your audience. However, if you’re asking your readers to share and respond, you need to be replying to their comments and posts and keeping the dialogue going.
4. Produce original content: If readers are going to share your content, you need to be producing posts that are actually worth sharing in the first place. There is no limit to the mediums you can use, whether it’s all text posts or you want to include other media like weekly videos, a podcast, images, or digital art (among many other things). Posting original content about current events is a great way to draw people’s attention, but there is also value in sharing other people’s work that you are inspired by. By promoting other people you can bring in their fans and build relationships with other artists and writers who are more likely to promote your website in return.
5. Expand your audience: Promoting your website can take some work, but it will be well worth it. Being active on social media sites and working to improve your website’s SEO so that it is one of the top results in search engines are the go-to ways to help people find your blog.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
About the Author: Jennifer Gretson is a hard-working mother of two, who absolutely loves to write. An aspiring professional journalist, lover of water sports, dogs and of course my kids.
