Apr
21
When I first started writing this article, it started off as ways to improve your site’s success. Then when I was witting the conclusion of the article, I noticed that it was more about controlling the image of your site. Here are seven tips which can control the way your blog’s image is protruded to it’s visitors.
1. Design
I don’t know how many times this has been said, but design really plays an important part in a lot of things, not only websites.  Apple is considered the “hip and cool” computer to use, this is in part because of their advertising, and also because of their design.  When you ask any person if they like the design of any Windows based computer compared to an Apple made computer, you are more likely to have the person tell you that they like the Apple design.  Recently Tropicana redesigned their packaging. The result was a 20% drop in sales. This shows how much of an impact design has on people.
2. Knowing Your Audience.
Knowing who your audience is, is one of the fundamentals in writing. You have to know where to meet your audience.  If your site is called Simple Photoshop Tutorials, you don’t want to skip steps in your tutorials which a more advanced user may understand. W3shools.com is a great example of a site which knows their audience. They will give a step by step description as to what elements and attributes do. On the other hand, PHP.net assumes that you know a lot about the language. The examples that they give will leave out important aspects which the writers assume you already know and understand.  Understanding who your audience is will make for sure you are connecting with your audience.
3. Be Consistent
Consistency allows your users to connect with the site.  They know what to expect when they visit your site.  If you visit the site for Wired magazine, you are expecting something either related to the magazine’s latest edition or something along the same subject. If you are blogging about current events, don’t start talking about your favorite comic. The user won’t know what to expect next from your blog and may be turned away.
4. Add Your Personality
Don’t be afraid to put your own options in your blog. After all a blog is similar to your personal journal or diary that you are letting the whole world read. Going back to the news example, if you are a blogging about current events explain how you feel about the events.  If you don’t like a certain subject, voice your ideas and why you don’t like that subject.  Your visitors will appreciate your views, and be willing to share their own also.
5. Interact With Your Visitors
Most popular blogging and content management software, like Wordpress or Drupal, allows you to enable comments for visitors to give you feedback.  Replying to these comments, especially if you think it’s a great comment, will make a connection between you and your site’s visitors.  Even updating your blog entry to include additional information given by visitors is a way to interact with them. Just remember to give credit to the visitor.
6. Write About Something You Enjoy
Blogging can get very stale and old really quick. To keep this from happening, write about something you enjoy doing.  If you enjoy building model cars and think that you can offer tips that will help other people who enjoy the same hobby blog about it.  Not only will you find it more fruitful and enjoyable, but you can interact with the your visitors a lot easier.
7. Be Knowledgeable On Your Subject.
Blogging is more than just typing an article.  Knowing the subject will help you out along the way. When blogging about electronics, it will be easier for you to connect with your audience if you know the difference between Ohms and Voltage. If a visitor thinks you are rambling on about something that you don’t understand it will show. It will also effect the image of your blog over time. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole basket.  If one user thinks you don’t know what you are writing about, then that user starts spreading word that you don’t know what you are talking about, it can hurt your blog a lot.  At the same time if you choose to interact with your visitors, being able to respond to complex questions will earn you additional respect.
The seven tips above won’t give you over night success, but it does allow you to control your site’s image.  Controlling your image means everything in the business world. By making your site look well it builds a reputation, and with that reputation you are building a user base.  That user base will continue to grow if you can control the way your blogs image looks to the world.  Sites like Digg, Facebook, MySpace, and others didn’t become a “superstar” site over night.  They were able to make themselves look really good, and built a user base on this.  If we compare MySpace and Facebook, we can see that these two sites, although very similar, have completely different images.  Based on those images, determines what type of user’s they draw to the site. Just remember, your blog’s image means everything.
Popularity: 25% [?]
Food for thought!
Let me try all the tips out.
Those are all some great tips for sure Nicole! Were you successful when you tried them out?
Till then,
Jean
It is best if you enjoy writing about something.
You seem to have hit all the major points here! Definitely a timely reminder to keep pushing further with my blog.
I really find this article helpful and interesting especially on the part wherein you stated about:
Write About Something You Enjoy
“Blogging can get very stale and old really quick. To keep this from happening, write about something you enjoy doing. If you enjoy building model cars and think that you can offer tips that will help other people who enjoy the same hobby blog about it. Not only will you find it more fruitful and enjoyable, but you can interact with the your visitors a lot easier.”
This is one factor that you should indeed consider. I mean, why would you write about Business when you find the Arts more interesting? It is like trying to swallow a book of numbers and stuff into your mouth when in fat your stomach is asking for food!
True enough, writing about something you like or enjoy increases your creative potential. It also makes you more connected with your readers because the thoughts are coming from the mind or heart not from a forced will.
Nice post!
True! True!
These are indeed great tips for improving your blog’s image.
Very reasonable tips, you’ve enumerated all the essentials
By far the most important factor is number 6. If you don’t enjoy what you are blogging about your blog will quickly wither and die
Great tips in improving blog images…these all good points to keep in mind.. its a good idea that you post this tips to help other blogger to make thing right in making blogs look good and interesting..
It very informative..keep it up..
Great tips, i think all of them is must for any blogger because one thing blogger must need is it’s good image.
These are essential tips for retaining and improving a blog’s reputation.
The w3c and php.net example is a perfect example of knowing your readers. I have seen many bloggers writing in a style that sounds like the whole post is written ‘for me’, very impressive. I visit 3-4 new blogs everyday from recommendations I get on twitter or from blog comments. But only once in a week I find a blog good enough to start subscribing in my feed reader. And surely writing style and design are some of the biggest factors affecting my decision.
I think an online presence is also good for improving your blog’s image. Make yourself known on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace so that your readers can connect with you on other levels.
You should also add building credibility, whether it be badges from the BBB or local Chamber of Commerce, professional groups or whatnot or client testimonials and stat counters like rss subscribers and Twitter followers.
There is strength in numbers.
Great ideas, thanks.
You should also include building credibility, whether it be from badges from the BBB, your local Chamber of Commerce, your Feedburner stats or your Twitter Followers. You can also use testimonials and comments from some of your posts.
Is it okay using an anchor text?
Well, Add Your Personality; Interact With Your Visitors; Once more, Friendly!
the last one is the one many don’t stick to. i mean, how can you have a make money online blog for example if you dont even make money? hehe, oh well, i guess that’s the power of the internet.
-Bill
Great article, good points!
These tips will surely improve the image of a blog if all points mentioned are followed. Blogging is a fun thing to do, but it also requires a lot of work to make it successful. Tips like these makes it easier to maintain a blog.
Number one tip is always the site site layout. It plays a major role in bounce rate aswell and as general reader satisfaction and loyalty
Very good tips! I’ll have to talk to my design about some of these!
Thank You
Interesting tips , knowing you audience and providing the content they want is really an important tip
I really like this, very good and very useful information:) Thanks for sharing!
One tip I would add is to include images when possible. Especially images you created specifically for your post. Even if it’s just a photo with a clever caption written on it, it will still help you stick out.
A good thought I can ponder on. Thanks!
whew!
didn’t even miss a single tip. I applied it to my blog.
Thanks. great post.
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Sure wanna try all these tips for my seatsandchairs.wordpress.com blog, recently started so i need as much as tips to improve my blog, looking forward for more useful stuff.
interesting tips dude
thanks for sharing
i agree with ‘interact with audience’, it’s about loyalty
Another important aspect is the ‘freshness’ of the content. Most bloggers tend to created ‘inspired’ content from what they see on bigger blogs. Those who dig out innovative topics and present them to their readres will go places…
All good tips. But I think the underlying theme is quality and investing time in your blog will show.
You blow me away with your post, most especially it’s very simple and straightforward message. Please just keep using “Tips” on your title.Just love it..Keep up the good work.
Whew! That was very interesting. Better try your tips.
Nice Post. Keep it Up.
My screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 and it looked great on my screen, but when I look at school, which I assume is 1024 x 768, it’s cut off at the edges of the screen. Is there a way I could either have a universal size or make it resize itself?
nice post, i like it, thx for the posting.
6. Write About Something You Enjoy
i love it, deal with you.. this can make blogging so fun.
Very good links, thank you.
Very interesting info.
Great fundamental tips
Do you ever feel like “knowing your audience” might conflict with GROWING that audience? Sometimes I feel like the whole “knowing” is restrictive and might keep me from getting new visitors.
-SkinID
I wonder if I pick some free articles from a site like articlecity and put them in my blog, will my blog page rank be punished? If yes, what is the more effective way to do with the free articles?
Great tips. thanks
I think have a Good Page Rank effect a lot on the user thinking about Image of a blog. Normally people ignore the blog which looks not so good and don’t have any Page Rank.
that looks very easy.. i should try these simple things for my blogs..
thX
Very informative. Gave me a little more understanding. Your post is sharp right to the point. good luck to you.
We have used this method on our site
http://www.skinfragrance.com
Consistency is one of the hardest things for new bloggers to do which is why the professional bloggers get so much traffic.
Like in most cases the first impression must be the best impression, so the users will be attracted to the design but it should be easy to navigate. I think not having too many ads tide in can also increase the reputation of the blog.
Know your target demographic. That’s all because this contains everything: design targeted at your readers, content targeted at them etc. If you miss your target audience you will never be succesful.
With these tips, you explained picture about how to improve my blog. I think that the content is of crucial importance to increase visits to my blog.
For all 7 points you have written down, I like point number 6 the most. I am not saying the rest aren’t important, in fact they are equally important. But if you wanted to be success on whatever you do , point 6 is the key factor to achieve it.
Thanx for ur post its very useful
All the points you have highlighted in the post are truly for improving one’s blog image.Having attractive design related to blog theme,exact idea of what your reader like to read,telling a little about yourself to inspire your readers and firm grip on the topic your writing are definitely the ways to improve your blogs reputation and popularity. Great post Man!
Regards,
Mark LopeZ
I agree with all your points, and especially design. Design is like the cover of a book, if it looks bad no one will want to open it. Same thing goes for your blog, and your brand. Thanks for the article.
Know your audience is like an ultimate advice for everyone creating anything. Especialy with a website, where there’s so much competition you should have a content perfectly suited for your readers. Otherwise they’ll walk.
[...] Tips for Improving Your Blog’s Image [...]
Not sure if you noticed, but you have funny looking characters throughout your post. They are appearing as the capital “A” with a line over them. Just thought I’d help out.
these are some great tips to increase your blog’s image and popularity of the blog.Thanks for this great tips
Great article and I agree with you that we should start with the basic first. Building a business always start with the fundamentals before it can grow big.
Thanks for the tips!
There are always so many tips given about this subject. Paying attention to the 7 tips you provide is great advice.
These are great tips for increasing traffic and improving a blog. The most advantageous thing a Blog master can do is to keep the context and conversation respectful. Once someone, anyone feels they have gotten a rude or raw deal, it is unlikely they will revisit a blog for any reason.
I agree with you, especially point #2, #4, #5, #6 and #7. Be ourself in our blog and communicate with readers is a must in order to build a community in your blog. Socialization is what we should do to expand our blog circle and knows more friend, friends could bring us to success.
-Davis-
Grandes puntas, pienso a todos ellos es debe para cualquier blogger porque una cosa blogger debe necesitar es es la imagen buena.
Dave- Often, the design of a blog dictates the personality as well as the demographics of the blog itself. Finding the right web lay-out will, in large part, determine the audience that is drawn to it.
Getting the design “just” right is important and many times, it will be the determining attribute as to the audience it draws. In many instances, people are drawn to a higher level of input as they notice the more constructive comments posted by others.
The personality of any site is governed by the looks of the site. It is as much an art as it is a task to get it right. It’s right when the right comments are posted in keeping with the theme of the Blog– Good Job!
thank you for useful guide…… amazing image tips for increase performance web
That’s good explanation and brainstroming. Thanks
David
Hi Chad,
I also believe that interaction is the best practice to improve a blog’s image.
As it makes the readers realize that they are being listened to. This further generates the interest of the readers to your blogs and forms a bond, which is a surviving factor for a blog.
these tips might be very helpful to a person who is new to the sphere of blogging. and one more important tip is to blog in your own style in order to make people interested in you own opinion on various matters.
–Be Knowledgeable On Your Subject.-
yes it is compulsory for a blogger to have a strong grip on the subject he is blogging, otherwise it is not good for blogger reputation if a commentator ask him some question and he did’nt know correctly about that thing.