With so many creative, artistic and heritage blogs already out there, how do you make yours stand out? How do you keep people coming back for more and how do you increase visitor numbers and build a loyal following?
There are plenty of tips and tricks to getting your own creative blog up and running and thereby raising your profile and help you to win more business. These are my top 20 tips for a successful creative blog, but if you can think of any more, please comment below and help me make this the best list on the web.
Getting Started
Choosing a blogging platform is your first challenge. There are many free options, such as WordPress, Tumblr, TypePad, and Blogger. They all offer free design themes so you can customize your own blog, so it’s very easy to get started. And if you’re not sure how to use them? There are many online video tutorials that can be found on the web; for example, WordPress has its own list of lessons to help you get started.
Consider Integration
From an SEO standpoint, it pays to integrate your blog with your site existing website to create content and make search engines love it even more. After all, SEO (search engine optimization) is all about content. But if you can’t do this or can’t afford to hire a web developer to sort it out, start a free blog and be sure to include links to your main website or other links, for example your artistic portfolio.
Find a niche
When choosing a creative blog topic, try to find a niche. Make your blog about something very specific and you will please both the search engines and your readers. Try not to be too general and really focus on one specialized topic and stick with it. Find your own niche and go for it, just remember to stay on topic.
Write about what you love
Write about something you love, otherwise you won’t show passion in your writing . And if there’s no passion, your content will suffer, so find a topic you’re comfortable with and just write about it. For example, if you’re a museum curator, talk about the industry, emerging trends, and other museums or exhibits you love. And if you’re a theater director, you could write about people in the industry you admire or share your workday with your followers.
Offer value
It goes without saying, but if you don’t If you don’t provide something the public wants, your creative blog will never be a success. Give people what they’re looking for and offer real value to their web browsing experience. What I mean by this? Well, the value is demonstrated in the content you post. If your content isn’t valuable, people won’t read it or come back to read it again. Really think about what you’re posting and give people what they want.
Focus on marketing
You won’t get anywhere if you just launch a blog and hope people will come without any marketing effort. You have to actively market your blog and you can do it through a variety of ways. You can start chatting with other bloggers by leaving valuable comments on other people’s blog posts; this will help attract people to your own site. Or you can make use of search engines and write about topics that are popular in searches, like this very feature. Or you could even offer to contribute to influential ezines or blogs to help raise your profile. Regardless of what you choose to do, just go out there and promote yourself like crazy. There really is no excuse not to.
Encourage interaction
Get people talking on your blog. Ask them to add their comments on various articles, as I have done with this post. Encourage interaction whenever possible. Ask for feedback, respond to people’s contributions, build a community, and be kind. People love to interact, so be sure to be friendly and welcoming.
Make Commenting Easy
Just keep in mind that there are many reasons why people may not comment on your blog posts. It can be anything from not providing easy access to post a comment to writing about negative things that people don’t want to be a part of. Bottom line? Make comments easily accessible and write about things that get people talking positively. If people can interact on your blog, they’ll keep coming back for more.
Don’t Worry About Negativity
Occasionally you may get negative comments on your blog. Don’t let this discourage or scare you into giving up blogging. Any comments that you are not satisfied with may be removed or responded to positively. Despite what people say, you rarely face negativity, so don’t worry too much.
Don’t have stage fright and believe in yourself
A Once your blog starts getting more than 1,000 visitors per month, it’s natural to lose confidence in yourself and your writing. Don’t be stage fright and keep it up! There is a reason why you have so many visitors, so believe in yourself and keep writing great content.
Images, images and more images
People love images. Some of the world’s most popular artistic and creative blogs are image-heavy. This is partly because people love to quickly scan web pages and enjoy looking at photos and images that help break up text and add visual interest. When writing a creative blog, images are essential, so provide as many as possible and give your audience plenty to enjoy.
Provide Easy Reading
Research suggests that people view and scan web pages instead of reading every last bit of copy. So try to keep your articles easy and quick reads. Provide lists whenever possible and break up the text. From an SEO standpoint, you want to provide at least 250 words of copy. But it’s also good to stick to this number for your readers, unless of course you’re writing an article like this, in which case, add bullet points or lists because it’ll get people’s attention more.
Assign Stunning Titles to Your Posts
When thinking of things to blog about, write articles that have Stunning Titles: the ones people search for through search engines and titles that are catchy and catchy. . You want to draw people in and inspire their curiosity.
Keep it Regular
A blog is almost like an online journal and suggests a “regular” approach. Try to keep your blog updated with at least two articles a week. Ideally, you should be blogging every day, especially if SEO is one of your key priorities. Otherwise, just try to keep things going. And if you’re going on vacation, take full advantage of your blog’s scheduling tools so you can automatically post articles while you’re away from your desk.
Avoid clutter
When designing your blog, whether creating one from scratch or using any of the free online blogging platforms, try to keep the design clean, fresh, and uncluttered. Avoid adding a lot of unnecessary features. Keep it easy on the eye and you’ll please your blog visitors and keep them coming back for more.
Be Social
Don’t neglect social media in other places like Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to connect them to your blog’s RSS feed and update your followers and fans with your latest post. Twitterfeed is a great tool that automatically publishes your posts to your Twitter and Facebook accounts; great for Twitter, but currently looks a bit spammy for Facebook. Test everything first and make sure you’re happy with the automatic updates and tweets you post.
Keep an eye on analytics
Track how people are coming to your blog and how are they finding you You can then tailor your blog posts to the needs of your readers, as well as make better use of those external sources that really engage people. If you invest in online advertising, your analytics will also help determine your ROI (return on investment) and whether or not it works. Keep an eye on your web analytics and make sure your blog is performing as well as it should.
Enable easy tracking
Place “follow” badges on your blog whenever possible. For example, in Blogger you can add a free widget that encourages people to “follow your blog” in their own Google readers. Tumblr has something similar but this is already integrated. Be sure to provide an easy follow option on your own blog, even if it’s clear links to your RSS feed.
Personalize
Reveal more about who you are in your posts and your audience will love you for it. People want to follow people, not brands. Include an “about” section if possible and a photograph of yourself. By offering a personal point of view, you’ll encourage people to like you, and by tapping into their emotions, you’ll build loyalty and therefore happy, repeat visitors.
A great example is Ana Kinsella, a fashion blogger from Ireland. Her Ripped Knees blog is mixed with a lot of fashion news, but her personal point of view is when she posts pictures of her own outfits. Stylebubble is very similar and very popular. Add a personal touch to your own blog.
Spell Check and Proofreading
Finally, before you hit the “publish” button, it’s critical that you spell check and proofread your article. and again. Bad spelling will not only ruin your credibility, but it will also hurt your SEO, as search engines won’t appreciate poor copy. Be sure to double check everything before posting.
This content was originally posted by Creative Boom
Katy Cowan runs the Creative Boom website on a voluntary basis – she is a journalist, writer and PR trained . professional. Follow her and Creative Boom on Twitter @Creative_Boom
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