The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers Post by Annabel Candy Do you want to be a successful blogger? I do. I might be getting a bit obsessed with it, actually. Post ideas pop into my head unexpectedly. I also study how the most successful bloggers got where they are, and I pore over every word that they write. If you want to be a great blogger, you should, too. A lot of the top bloggers like Brian Clark, Darren Rowse, and Leo Babauta have shared hundreds of tips about how they made their blogs so successful. There’s too much advice to follow. Finally I realized I needed to stop focusing on little things like what plug-ins to use, how to write my About Page, or where to position my ads. I needed to focus on a bigger picture. I spent a lot of time observing, which led to this list of the eight success traits shared by all top bloggers I’ve found. The good news is that even if you don’t have all these personality traits already, most of them can be developed over time. 1. The first key to being a successful blogger is to write. 2.
Writing Effective, Attention-Getting Headlines and Titles on Your Blog If it bleeds, it leads. Punchy. Catchy. Writing a title for your articles or posts is part of the marketing campaign of your blog. A blog uses titles in many different ways, from within the web page design and browser, to how titles are used on search engines and link lists. In this two part series on headlines and titles, a kind of “more than you could ever want to know about creating and writing titles and headlines”, I’m going to offer tips, information, and resources to help you learn more about how to write effective, attention-getting headlines and titles on your blog, and then introduce you to how blogs use titles and headlines in a blog’s structure and presentation. In this first part, we’ll examine how to write an effective, attention-getting headline or title for your blog. Writing Effective Titles and Headlines Writing a blog post or article can be hard work. There are two goals to writing an effective title. It’s that simple, and that difficult. The Art of Writing Titles 1.
A Simple Blogging Formula In all my years of blogging, I’ve put together what serves as a very simple formula for what I think about when I sit down to the keyboard to type. This might not serve everyone, but it might be a great start for you to consider when thinking about blogging. Also, let me know how close this relates to your own blogging methods. A Simple Blogging Formula I try to blog almost every day. Let’s go through the formula: Step 1: Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You I write posts for several purposes: To get a call to action. But I don’t do all of those things in every post. Step 2: How Can I Be Helpful? Every post that gets real traction on my blog comes from the mindset of being helpful to others. So, I write every post to answer how I can be helpful. Step 3: The Actual Writing I start with a headline. I then find a picture on Flickr under their Creative Commons area, so that I can use it with the post (unless I have one of my own to use). Review My Last Few Weeks’ Posts Repeat Almost Forgot SEO
Tips for Designing Unique and Attractive Blog Posts Designers have began to inject increasing levels of creativity into their blog posts and articles, throwing out the traditional and generic style of blog posts in favour of a much more attractive layout that’s themed specifically to the content. Let’s take a look at some of the best examples, and see what makes them work so well. In his fantastic article ‘The Death of the Boring Blog Post‘, Paddy Donnelly sums up this method of fusing together a blog post with the style and design of a traditional magazine article and coins the name, ‘Blogazine’. Be sure to check it out for a great introduction, and to hear from some of the pioneers of this style of blogging. Examples of the best Scrap the traditional website layout We’re all used to blog themes with the traditional two-column content and sidebar layout. Take inspiration from print design For decades, designers working in print have used the core design principles to create balanced layouts in magazines and posters. A grid is your friend
Best Blog Layout Tips & Design {5 blog tips Good blog layout and design is very important. It's easier than you think to have a beautiful blog with a great blog layout. So here are 5 blog tips so you can have the best blog layout in the blogosphere! It should be unique and give people an idea of what your blog is about. The "rules" say that a header should be no more than 250 pixels tall, but you do have wiggle room on that. 3. 4. 5. Great blog design isn't rocket science-- you know what you love to see in a blog, just give people that on yours!