How do I make My blog better and more appealing?

How to make my blog interesting?

• QUESTION: I started my blog, not to make it interesting and readable, but to record my life activities. I targeted only my family members who might be interested to read. Gradually, I understood the importance of blogging. Below is the link of my blog. Have a look at it and let me know how I can improve it. How to make it interesting, what to write and what not to write? http://kharerohit.blogspot.com ANSWER: Hello Rohit Giving advice on a personal blog is a bit difficult, as it reflects who you are. On a technical level, I could make these suggestions: 1. Try to structure your blog posts in a "triangle" format, meaning the most important info is first, supported by details in the body and summarized at the end with a short conclusion. 2. To create interest, try using the Spice, Sugar, Vitamin method. In short, you want to give your audience Spice-Controversy, or difference of opinions, Sugar-sweet benefits, aka new info. free downloads for example, and Vitamin-which is the information people want to know. 3. In my own site www.keywordrichwebcontent.com/wordpress, you can see an example of how to use good navigation. Above each post, you want to give the title of the next post, to entice people to browse your blog for other posts of interest. Two great sources of information that I highly recommend, are reading the posts of Darren Rowes, he also runs one of many blog directories www.b5media.com To learn about writing for the net: how to catch attention of people and search engines, the technical parts of good web writing ect. try signing up for an account at www.suite101.com. Take the time to read through the editors guidelines. It is one of the best, and easiest to understand guidelines I have found up-to date. Above all, write about what you are passionate about! Good Luck. ---------- FOLLOW-UP ---------- QUESTION: Edina, Thanks for the suggestion. Further, I have two queries: (1) What are the cons of my existing blog? (2) Shall I start a new blog that is not personal but only about my passion? ANSWER: The cons in my opinion are the lack of focus around a specific topic, and lack of structure (organization) of your posts. This can be easily remedied by using bolded headlines, and adding categories and tags to each post. I don't recall if you had an archive, but if you don't its a good idea to add it as well. Regarding your second question, your passion IS a personal topic. I suppose you could write in the third person to make it less personal, but in the end your decision should be based on one question. What do you hope to achive with your blog ? If your plans are to monitize it (ex: your featured book item) than I would suggest focusing on the reader's interests. The idea behind generating traffic for your site is, appeal to as many people as you can. For example, if you write about the recent real estate crisis, add how it affects the person reading your story. It seems obvious to do this, yet its often overlooked. On the other hand, if you are blogging for the purposes of expressing yourself, than picking a very niche topic to write about is just fine. Thanks for rating my response, I hope this gives you a good start. ---------- FOLLOW-UP ---------- QUESTION: Can you please elaborate the cons that you mentioned of my blog? That way I can certainly work to improve upon. I am not expert in any field. Still, I want to start a blog that is interesting. I just can't figure out the theme.

• Answer:

  Structure and Appearance: Using your post of June 5th,as an example. 1. Add a title- If I do not know what the post is about, chances are I will not take time to read 3 paragraphs, just because you are you. Try this, "Top 10 Bankrupt Companies in the USA. How does it affect You?" 2. Use subheadings: A break that introduces a secondary idea. "President Obama wants to do XYZ about the recession" 3. Add relevant images when ever possible. A title with a picture should tell the reader what they will read about in the post. Eyetracking studies done by Google suggests, that people's eyes are drawn to images first. If your post does not entice within the first 7 seconds, you lost your reader. 4. The first step in blogging is to build an audience! I would take out the google ads from the top fold of your page. It leads readers away from your site. From the 10 visitors you had, even if all clicked through, you would still be making only $1 at best. The first fold (or screen without scrolling) is THE MOST valuable space you have. More specifically the UPPER RIGHT corner. 5. Move your About Me widget to the top of your page. It should be the first thing people see when they land on your page. Trust me when I say, most people do not scroll past the first page. Grab their attention ! Unless you are getting commission from your company for advertising their URL, I would make their info secondary. Like the name suggests its ABOUT YOU! I realize that due to cultural differences, you use your entire name. But you have to ask yourself, do you want your name remembered? Try using descriptive, short words. Rohit Jablapur, India IT consultant, passionate blogger, (once you figure out what you want to write about, include that), writer of political commentary. Your aim is to tell readers 3-4 things about you in max 25 characters. 6. When using Article references and hot links, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use the actual title of the article that the person will be lead to. Instead of just Article 1, use "Some companies like Wal-Mart thrive despite the recession". Now the reader knows what they will get if they click on the link, and can make a decision wether they want to read it or not. In your post you start talking about bankrupt companies, than go on to your parents and your pet dog. Do you see anything wrong with that? When you have an idea for a post, work out a flow chart of what you want to talk about, and build the body of the post around that outline. This helps to keep you focused, instead of wondering all over the place. Beyond this advice, I am not able to help any further. To brush up on your writing skills, make a mental note of how articles are structured as you read online. Practice is the only thing that will improve your writing skills. Good Luck!