How to Avoid Having the Worst Blog in the World


There are a lot of blogs out there. Some of them are very popular, and their readers keep coming back, while others are ignored and read even more rarely than they are updated. There are a few things that the really bad blogs have in common and which you would be wise to avoid if you want to attract readers to your blog.

Many blogs provide poor quality content. Their authors post vague information or cover such a broad range of topics that they never get a returning reader. They offer nothing original; simply repeating what can already be found elsewhere or posting a list of links to better websites and more interesting blogs. If you want to get people to read your blog, and to want to come back again and see what else you’ve got to say, then you need to give them what they want. Producing good content takes some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run.

If your blog is linked to a business, or you are trying to make some money through it, then you will need to make sure your content is related to the products on offer, but is not just one long, blatant ad. Give people something interesting, a review of the product, or an article about a related subject, and they will be more likely to stick around long enough to earn you some money.

Blogs that are never updated are always going to be unpopular. If the most recent post is already old when a new reader discovers it they will be unwilling to read it or look at the rest of the blog, while even the most loyal reader is going to give up on you and stop coming back if you stop posting new material.

Some of the worst blogs put potential readers off before they even try to read the content. Blogs that are poorly designed, with difficult to read fonts, too many distracting ads and icons, or simply a difficult to navigate layout are unlikely to convince anyone to make enough of an effort to find out what they’ve got to say.

You may have the best blog in the world in terms of content and the amount of effort you have put into it, but it could still be the world’s least read blog unless you are willing to put in an equal amount of effort into marketing it. There are plenty of ways in which you can bring readers to your blog and make them stick around.

Social networking sites are a great way of bringing readers to your blog. You can let people know when you add a new post, and you can contact people who have already shown an interest in similar subjects, for example by listing it in their profile, talking about it in chats or joining fan groups. It’s important not to be too brazen about this. You want to make people interested in what you’ve got to say so that they would like to hear more, and provide a convenient link to a place where they can do so- your blog. What the worst blogs do is to use these sites to send hundreds, even thousands of spam messages to people who are clearly not interested in the subject of the blog, and to try and sell their blog without offering anything of interest to lure people in. You should consider time spent on the social networking sites as part of the work of promoting your blog, and something which deserves having some effort spent upon it.

You can also bring people to your blog by interacting with other bloggers. Begin by finding similar blogs (preferably not direct competitors!) and commenting on their posts. A bad blogger will just post a link to their own blog on somebody else’s comments list. It is much better to offer an opinion or ask a question. Engage with the readers and with other bloggers, try and start a conversation, and encourage them only indirectly to visit your own blog.

The worst blog in the world is a messy, rarely updated list of posts that are both dull and uninformative. The blogger, if they try and market it at all, only does so by bothering people with spam and trying to poach the readers of other blogs. They are rarely successful, but you can learn how to make your blog better by avoiding their mistakes.

Filed Under: Computers & Technology

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About the Author: Justin Belden is a freelance web & graphic designer with over 15 years' experience. He is also an Avid member of the Design/Development community and a Serial Blogger who loves to help people by sharing interesting and informative tips and trick related to computer and technology.

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