Choosing a Niche for Your Blog

Posted on January 19, 2016January 23, 2016 by sitemanager

Thinking about starting a new blog? Well, one of your first priorities should be choosing a niche. Many newcomers make the mistake of creating general blogs without a central theme or topic. Unless you have an established brand, however, this simply isn't going to work due to the excessive competition. So, how do you choose a niche for your blog? Passion/Interest Rather than choosing a blog subject based on its profitability, it's recommended that you choose a subject that actually interests you. You'll find it's easier to come up with topic ideas and write new posts if it involves somethin...

The 7 Unwritten Rules of Blogging

Posted on December 18, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

Thinking of starting your own blog? If so, you'll want to follow these seven unwritten rules. While there's no universal standard for maintaining a blog, these rules will boost your credibility while attracting new visitors in the process. Blogging Rules: Cite Sources There's nothing wrong with including excerpts or quotes from other websites and sources on your blog. However, you should always link back to the original source. This is done as a courtesy of saying "thanks," but it also shows search engines that your blog isn't a one-way street. Use a Custom Design The great thing about bl...

5 Things No One Tells You About Blogging

Posted on December 17, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

You'll Get Spam Comments... Lots of Them Allowing visitors to submit comments on posts and articles is a great way to boost engagement while creating fresh new content in the process. If you've been blogging for any significant length of time, however, you'll notice many of these comments are nothing more than spam. Such comments may consist of "Wonderful blog! I'll be sure to grab your RSS," or similar generic messages. This doesn't mean that you should disable your blog's commenting feature, but rather use an anti-spam plugin like Akismet to filter them. Competition Is Stiff There are lit...

Reasons to Include Images in Your Blog Posts

Posted on December 12, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

close-up-of-photogratpher, using images in blog

If you look at some of the web's most popular blogs, you'll notice they all have one thing in common: they feature images in addition to text. While text is the backbone of most pieces of engaging content, images can enhance the experience the end user. To learn more about the benefits of using images in blog posts, keep reading. Images Break Up Text Have you ever encountered a webpage consisting of nothing more than a large wall of text? If you have, chances are you didn't read it, because pure-text articles such as this are difficult to read. Studies have shown that visitors are more li...

How to Make Your Blog Posts Easier to Read

Posted on December 8, 2015December 15, 2015 by sitemanager

idea light bulb, how to make your blog posts more readable

Can't seem to generate a strong following with your blog no matter how many posts you make? You can spend countless hours researching and writing new content, but it's not going to yield any real benefits unless visitors actually read it. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common problem experienced by many newcomers to the blogging scene. The good news is that you can make your blog posts more attractive and easier to read by following some simple steps. Dark Font, Light Background A good rule of thumb when formatting your blog posts is to use a dark color for the font and a light color for...

6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Blog

Posted on December 2, 2015December 15, 2015 by sitemanager

Blog Competition is Stiff To say there's a lot of competition in the blogging stratosphere would be an understatement. While there's no way to tell exactly how many blogs are currently on the Internet, some sources estimate the number to be around 152 million. If you plan on getting noticed, you'll need to focus your blog around a high-traffic, low-competition niche; otherwise, you simply won't achieve any serious degree of success. You'll Need to Moderate Visitor Comments Assuming you allow visitors to submit comments (and you should!), you'll have to invest the necessary time and energy i...

Blogs vs Standard Website: What’s the Difference?

Posted on November 4, 2015November 8, 2015 by sitemanager

We all know the importance of having a blog: it instills greater trust in your audience while allowing for a deeper, more personal connection. But what is the difference between a blog and standard website? They are both essentially "websites" with their own domain name, so what distinguishes one from the other? Navigation Structure While there are always exceptions to this rule, most blogs are designed with a special navigation structure consisting of categories, tags and/or archives. When a user first lands on the blog's homepage, he or she can choose a category in which posts, pages, or b...

How Many Pages Should My Blog Have?

Posted on October 24, 2015November 1, 2015 by sitemanager

Frequently Asked Questions, number of blog pages

This is a question that many first-time bloggers ask. Conventional wisdom should lead you to believe that bigger blogs are better than smaller ones. However, you must also consider the work and time requirements that go into creating a blog. So, how many pages should your blog have? Let me first start off by saying that there's no easy answer to this question. Because every blog is unique, lengths are going to vary depending on a number of different factors. If your blog is new, for instance, it may only have a half a dozen pages, which is perfectly fine as long as you continue to build n...

Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Blog

Posted on October 23, 2015October 25, 2015 by sitemanager

You Can Schedule Posts for Future Publishing We all know the importance of publishing new blog posts on a regular basis -- well, most people know this, at least. But what if you are unable to log into your blog to create a new post every couple of days? Thankfully, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and other popular blogging platforms have a post scheduling feature. Using this feature, you can schedule your posts to be published at a later date, eliminating the need to manually log into your blog to publish them. Visitor Comments Matter Blogs are unique in the sense that they place an emphasis on...

5 Blogging Tips I Wish I Knew as a Beginner

Posted on July 28, 2015July 31, 2015 by sitemanager

Photo of a t-shirt that reads "I'm blogging this. Are you?"

#1) Choose Your Domain Name Wisely Many beginners rush through the process of registering a domain name simply because they want to get started NOW. But the domain name is the heart and soul of your blog, which is why it's important to choose a meaningful and appropriate name. Think about what you hope to accomplish with your blog, the niche, and your target audience. Choose a domain name that's relevant to all of these elements. Ideally, it should be a brandable dot com name with no hyphens or numbers. #2) Your Content Management System Matters Yes, you can technically build a blog using N...

blogging for beginners