Just like designing a logo, brochures, and websites, designing a blog requires one to look at several factors regarding design elements. Before you even start building your blog look at the following factors and make some choices so that you will know what you’re looking for. Over all, your blog should match your website and in fact, your blog should be on your website. Additionally, if you already have marketing collateral make sure that your blog matches what you already have. It is important to carry your brand through to all your marketing channels.

Color

The color of your blog matters tremendously. Color conveys emotions and an over all feeling when someone looks at your blog. If the colors do not match, or worse, burn the retinas — when a visitor looks at your blog, they will not stick around even if you manage to attract them. Choose your colors wisely. Take a look at a color chart of some kind to give you ideas of what goes together. Consider making sure it matches with your existing logo.

Fonts

On the web fonts look differently. People typically read websites and blogs on a browser and now more than ever on a mobile device. Make sure your fonts work on the web. Good fonts for web viewing are: Verdana, Helvetica, Georgia and the often used Times New Roman.  Make sure that you can comfortably read your font colors combined with your chosen background. People will leave quickly if your blog is not easily readable. Check out this funny website. (Put on your sunglasses)

Content

Your content is the most important aspect of your blog. Even if you fail on some of the other aspects, if your blog has information that people want and need they might throw on their sunglasses and read it anyway. So make sure that your content (your copy and your words) is targeted toward your ideal client or ideal visitor. Make sure that you are offering useful information that people really want to read.

Layout

The ideal layout changes from year to year so make sure that your layout is an updated, contemporary layout. For the most part the old fashioned “static” looking website is out of date and looks that way too. Take a look around at all the different types of layouts that are popular today and try to pick something that is easy to navigate and use as well as visually pleasing. Chose from some contemporary WordPress templates and you’ll be fine on this point.

If you are going to have a blog that gets and keeps readers then you have to update it regularly. In addition to updating it regularly the content must be what your target market wants to read. If your target market wants to read about widgets but you write about winks you’ll lose your market. So to keep readers engaged:

• Keep posts targeted
• Post regularly

These two actions alone will make all the difference in your readership. It also helps if you are consistent on the days in which you post new material, or install a plugin that automates the process of informing readers of new content. But, if readers like what you are talking about, and then know what day you will post material they will come to your blog at those times, much like people read the Sunday paper. They come to count on it for the information they need. People like consistency.

Another reason regularly updated content is important is because search engines will index you more often if you keep the content updated with new unique content for the search engines to discover.  Use content that has “keywords” which are words that users and potential readers will look for on Google Search. Don’t try to be clever with the terms, instead use common terms that would be used to find your content in your titles, and within the content.

You can use Google’s free Webmaster Tools to help you with finding appropriate keywords for your target market. You can also experiment with just writing material you believe your target market would like to read. You want your posts to be as natural as possible without forcing the issues of keywords but using keywords that people are looking for will increase your readership exponentially as will updating your content on a regular basis.

photo credit: mrdarkroom

Many people who start a blog for their business, or a personal blog to share their opinions of life and world events, freeze once the creative process of designing the blog is over.  Reality sets in and they are faced with filling the empty spots with content.

Here are five tips to coming up with blog post ideas for any niche:

1.       Write how you talk – Don’t try to be someone else, or sound like someone else. On a blog, you can be yourself, and write in your own voice, how you do normally, as if you’re writing to a friend. It’s not the same as writing for a magazine, or worse, writing for school.  That does not mean you can plagiarize! And yes, it needs to be understandable and readable. But don’t use words that you don’t understand, terms you’ve never used before, or become an entirely new person to have a successful blog.

2.      Answer questions — You can start adding blog posts and content to your blog by simply answering questions that people have asked in the past about your business or life. You can use other channels to get the questions too, ask friends and family to submit questions via Facebook or Twitter.

3.      Describe products — A great way to get going is to start with one product or service and describe each one in detail per blog post. If you are not selling a service, but rather have a personal blog, you can describe products and services that you use. Hey, you might even make some affiliate income in the process.

4.      Tell your story — It is essential to connect with your readers and one way to do that is to share your story with them. If you are writing on a business blog keep your story focused on your business story and less on your personal story. That is not to say you can’t share some personal information but save the personal story for your personal blog.

5.      Stay in your niche — It’s important not to venture out past your particular niche. Don’t talk about politics on your “Cloth Diaper” blog unless those politics have to do directly with cloth diapering.

If you keep these tips in mind when you start writing your blog posts, you’ll be able to stay focused enough to write something almost every day for at least a year before you have to dig deeper for more creativity.

photo credit: wickenden

I often get asked this question… but Stephanie, Where do I get blog content? Well, of course, you can write it. You are the expert in your niche, after all…. but I know, you’re busy. I have that issue too. I am always so busy creating content for my clients that oftentimes my content does not get updated, then they wonder, why don’t you keep your content updated when you tell me that I should????

You’re right of course, but like many service providers it’s kind of like the mechanic whose car won’t start, on the computer technician who keeps having computer crashes, I’m just so focused on your site, and your content that time gets away from me. That’s okay because my feeling is that if I have so much business I can barely keep up, I’m doing something right!

But to answer the question, Where do I get blog content? There are several:

1. Write it yourself — set aside 10 to 15 minutes a day and write one simple post about one minute area of your niche.

2. Hire someone like me — there are many people who will write custom content for you at reasonable prices, if you’re not going to be good at writing every day, hire someone. The content writer is essentially a ghost writer, you put your name, and sometimes your own personal touches on the original content to make it work even better for you.

3. Buy PLR — this is a great way to get content for your niche blog or website. PLR is private label rights articles that are very inexpensive because identical copies are sold to several (sometimes many) people. You alter it a bit to make it your own, then use it as if it is yours.

The important thing to remember is to put some sort of regular and relevant content on your site and to remember you don’t have to do everything. In fact, you should stick to the “thing” that is earning you the money. If you’re a doctor, or a lawyer, or a chef, do those tasks and let the content writer, the web designer, and the marketer do their job because ultimately it’s all about efficiencies. The more someone does something the better they become at it.

There is an art when it comes to writing blog posts. While it’s true that anyone can write a blog post about a subject that interests them, there is a bit more involved in being a successful blogger.

One of the most crucial aspects of a good blog post is a call to action. You don’t want your readers to simply read an article and then go back to whatever they were doing before. You want to inspire them to do something. This may mean signing up for a mailing list, visiting other sections of your site, or buying a product. In the case of a bricks and mortar business, you want your blog posts to inspire your readers to get in their car and drive to your store!

If you have a blog that is selling something, you want your readers to buy it. This means your article should be structured in a way that compels readers to make the purchase. You can’t be too obvious about it because savvy readers can detect a sales pitch from a mile away. Instead, you want to gently urge them to make a move by sharing with them the benefits of your product or service.

Your blog posts should inspire action because people have very short memories. There is a good chance that if they don’t do what you want them to do as soon as they’re finished reading your post, they never will. You have about three seconds to attract them to read your post, then you have the few minutes the reader spends reading the post to inspire them to act.

That means you have to get creative and find a way to call them to immediate action. If your goal is to get your readers to interact with you on the blog, asking the reader questions can get them in an actionable mode. Being  direct and to the point usually works if it is ever going to work. As most sales people know, you have to actually ask the customer to buy to close the sale. Even if you do not want to think of yourself as being a sales person, you are.

Make the call to action something fairly easy to carry out or your readers won’t want to follow through. If you want them to purchase off your site, make the buttons easy to find and make sure your shopping cart is user friendly. If you want your reader to come to your store, give them directions, make sure the know the hours, and the phone number.

Sometimes you can entice them to act by offering a bonus or promotion associated with the action. If you’ve written previous blog posts that do not have calls to action, guess what, you can always edit them. It’s always okay to edit, even years later!

If you don’t want to do this yourself there are always people you can outsource to, like us, for instance. But you can also do it yourself if you have the time and can commit to regular posts and regular interaction with your readers.

photo credit: TheTruthAbout…