Written by a Contributor
Blogging has never been so popular. As a blogger, you can share your tips and thoughts with an audience – which is satisfying for anybody who enjoys writing and helping others. More importantly, you don’t need to keep your blogging activity as a hobby, you can make it a professional career if you find ways to monetize your blog.
However, making money out of your blogging passion requires some preliminary preparation. In other words, you can’t benefit financially from your blog if it doesn’t attract enough readers. And the thing about attracting readers is that it doesn’t happen overnight, and it indeed doesn’t happen only with quality content – because, let’s be honest, many bloggers are regularly publishing quality content, so it’s a tough and competitive world.
To drive more traffic to your blog, you need to get it noticed. You need to design your blogging fame, with emphasis on the word DESIGN. What is design so important in the blogging universe? Because, design is all about looks, appearances, and visual impressions. Design is about building a tangible presence that goes beyond the words. Design is about showing your readers the person who’s behind their favorite blog. Design is about giving your HTML content a 3D presence!
So, you thought it was just about keywords?
If you’ve been looking for advice on how to improve your blog’s ranking position, you’ve probably come across the importance of keywords in Search Engine Optimization – SEO. Your keywords need to reflect the search terms of your audience group.
For instance, if you’re writing about a vehicle and your typical reader is a mommy, you probably want to choose keywords such as ‘family car’, ‘best car for young children’, or even ‘popular cars with a baby’ as these would be the typical topics that would interest your audience. Google will then crawl through the available online results and rank the most relevant pages by analyzing the keyword density of each piece of content.
However, the digital world is a constantly growing universe, so it’s fair to say that search engines cannot only take keywords into account. They also use other factors such as the popularity of the webpage. Google measures the popularity of a page by tracking how many other websites link to and cite your content. But links only are not enough. The way users interact with your page is also an integral factor of the algorithm.
For instance, if a visitor is hooked by your site and sees several pages, it’s a sign of popularity. And what’s the best way to get visitors engaging with your website? Make sure it looks good – aside from producing informative content. So, to summarize, how you look counts as much as what you say.
Make your blog good-looking
Step One of your blogging fame strategy is to create an attractive blog. If you’ve opted for a DIY blog, you’ve probably decided to use a WordPress theme as it’s one of the favorite platforms for bloggers. Thankfully WordPress provide a demo site for each template so that you can experiment and see for yourself whether the theme would suit your requirements. Most themes can be customized and tailored to your needs, so you don’t need to worry if it’s not a 100% fit yet.
However, you should try to pick a theme that already comes with key digital features such as responsive design – a design that adapts to the size of the screen for each reader – security updates – which you can follow by checking the date of the latest update and the description of the properties – and the available support options. Additionally, as a blogger who creates her own material, you’ll need to make sure you follow all the recommendations to produce beautiful photos for your social media presence and your blog. You need a piece of white foam to create a homogenous white background to your pictures, for instance.
Do you actually have a gift for followers?
Sure, bloggers exist online primarily, but it doesn’t mean that your career should only consist of online interactions. Successful bloggers make sure to support their brand through free gifts to their followers, sponsors, and clients. Your giveaway item doesn’t have to break the bank! Lanyard USA, for example, has a great selection of customizable stationery, mugs, and bags — you can visit them here to find out more. Cute notepads and mugs are a thoughtful gift for your contacts and a great way to maximize your brand visibility.
Add a personal and aesthetically designed touch
As you begin to gather a fanbase, you might be asked to present a reward at a local event or maybe help to boost a charity reputation. Most bloggers can tell you that their first gig was free, but it serves as a platform to meet new clients and grow their network. So, don’t reject these first offers. In fact, me grateful to them by ensuring that you send your contact a personal thank you note. This can position yourself as a professional blogger, even for an unpaid gig. Besides, you might receive some social media attention once your client shares your friendly note online!
Aesthetics matters even more for vlogs… but it pays off
A blogger who has a video channel can multiply the follower base. If you’re new to vlogging, though, the first thing you need to do is to pick a quality camera to film your vlogs. This is a serious investment, as a good camera can cost anything from $650 to over $3,000, and it’s without adding the rest of your vlogging kit – background panel, light effects, software tools for editing purposes, etc. However, it’s a worthy investment if you want to grow your audience group.
Going places? Share some blogging love
Let’s be honest; if you happen to be on the road or meeting potential clients, you need to always have a pack of business cards with you. Even at the age of digital, business cards, and especially uniquely designed ones such as these – continue to attract all the attention. So if you want to be remembered, become unforgettable!
Successful bloggers don’t only create exciting content. They also build memorable visuals on their blogs, through their gifts, and via their materials. Blogging fame is all about how you look.
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