BloggersWalk

It is widely known that when you meet someone, their first impressions are what lasts the longest. This seems to be true with blogging too. In a few seconds you are either going to make that visitor a constant follower of your blog or just another person surfing by. Here are a few things that I have been trying out to start getting some regular visitors.

Anything BUT! Default
The default theme is doable regardless of the script you are using. However, the blog is like the makeup that you have on and the clothes that you are wearing. Certainly a normal person will look once again at a Vogue model than an ordinary person, at least in terms of looks. With blogs, it is similar. Any free, premium, or custom theme will be at least some sort of an improvement from the default. I personally believe that this is one of the biggest factors to consider when working on your blog’s first impression.

The Content
A log should have some sort of content. At first, all blogs lack quality content. However, with constant and regular posting, this can be overcome. In my opinion, this is the hardest part when working on your blog’s first impression. Nonetheless, it is one of the more important factors as quality articles among the junk seems to always receive recognition.

Minimizing the Advertisements
There are clearly two types of people when it comes to blogging: those that blog without making money and those that do make money. Making money is fun, exciting, and certainly an attractive aspect of blogging. However, a blog full of advertisements is unaesthetic. Flash banners screaming “You’re the 1,000,000,000th visitor! Claim your prize!” and “iPod at only $10 USD!” certainly degrades your blog’s level. Anyone who cares about their blog should avoid this. While a small degree of advertisements are okay, an excessive amount that would surely distract the user from the content of the blog should definitely be avoided.

Visibility of the Most Recent Post
I can’t stress how important this is. I am an avid blog-surfer, and read many random and sometimes even totally off-topic blogs. However, from time to time, I hit a blog and I just am overwhelmed by everything around it that I really don’t know, can’t find, or just can’t focus on the most recent post! If you want your bloggers to read your blog posts, make sure that it is there, available, and easily accessible.

Visibility of the RSS Feed Icon
This isn’t too big of an issue lately with the themes rolling out. Still, it is important to note the positioning of your RSS feed icon. It is your opportunity to make a random reader into a subscriber. Feed subscribers will probably come back sometime. A random surfer probably won’t.

These are just a few things that I’ve been focusing on lately and I have to admit, the traffic is certainly increasing. Sure, I don’t have much content yet nor is this some unique blog, as yes, it is yet another blog about blogging. Nonetheless, these little techniques seem to be clicking correctly for me at least.