The emergence of blogs, which dates back to the late 1990s, has changed the face of information dissemination on the Internet. In this piece, Temitayo Famutimi writes on tips you need to know about blogging
Do you have a novel idea to communicate to a large audience, a particular way of life to reflect on or a business you wish to grow? Are you having financial limitations in launching a website? Then a blog should come in handy.
A blog is the shortened form of Web-blog which simply looks like a website except that entries/ posts are displayed in chronological order. Blogs are interactive as they allow visitors to leave comments. They are also usually easier and cheaper to setup than websites. In fact, blogging is either free or inexpensive. It comes free when you set out to use platforms such as WordPress and Blogger, which come with no fee. You, however,part with some money when you choose a self-hosted blog where you own your own domain name.
Blogs could be for both personal and corporate uses. Personal blogs could be used for running commentaries and opinions and telling one’s live stories. In this regard a blog is used for self-branding and sets you apart from others in whatever field you find yourself.
Corporate blogging could be used as a public relations tool for clubs, societies, organisations and business concerns and serve as a rallying point for members of the group as well as the general public. An entrepreneur or a firm that uses platforms such as blogs is seen by the prospective business associates and customers as being smart and well focused.
Some key points are listed below:
Have a target audience
After successfully creating a blog, analysts are of the opinion that one of the key steps to successful blogging is to have one broad objective that the blog will be all about. Such objective will go a long way in also determining the target audience. The broad objective might be to post entries with a view to communicating to customers of a business or on broad issues relating to fashion, politics, movies, health and so on. Having a specific target audience in mind will help you in writing to communicate easily to the right readers of your blog.
Write in simple sentences
Always write in simple, concise and understandable sentences. Blogs that contain complex grammatical expressions are more likely to attract low reader traffic. Also, posts must not be badly written as it will put off readers from your blog. In this vein, you must ensure that you spell-check your write-ups before posting them on your blog. Also ensure that readers are availed of the opportunity of seeing videos and or pictures of the concept you are writing about. It will go a long way in sustaining the interest of readers as well as providing them with varieties.
Update it regularly
The most important part of the blog is the content of the blog. If a newspaper house publishes the same set of news stories and opinions everyday one needs no soothsayer to explain that the newspaper will experience a fall in readership. Thus it is also important that you update your blog regularly with articles of interest targeted at your audience, especially when your blog is at the infancy stage. If your blog is not frequently updated and seems dormant, your visitors will go elsewhere. A good way of drawing traffic to your blog is to publish a link to your newest blog post on social networking sites like facebook and Twitter.
Feature guest writers
Getting a new content daily is not an easy task, you need to do lots of homework and research work. Experts say for maximum growth of a new blog, it is advised that the blogger posts multiple times daily – at a minimum of three times a day. To bridge the gap of content at a period when your blog is at the infancy stage, you can feature guest writers whose ideas are similar to yours. This will in no small measure offer a variety to the tone of your blog.
Make it interactive
Always encourage your readers to interact and post comments on your blog by making sure that you leave questions in your posts. When you ask such questions readers largely tend to share their lines of thought about the issue on ground. Meanwhile, having posts with a lot of comments gives your blog a positive image that you have a fair share of loyal audience in the eye of those visiting it for the first time.
culled from Wikipedia
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