Monday, August 5, 2013

Features of Good Blogs and My Blogging Strategies

Today I will talk about the features that a good blog should have; and then introduce some great strategies I will be using to succeed in blogging.

First let’s start with a bit of blogging concepts and explain what exactly blogs are.

In general, a blog can be any types of websites you want it to be; and there are no strict rules. More specifically, a blog is a collaborative space where you can write about things on regular basis. It allows visitors to read posts and interact with bloggers by commenting and sharing information.


So What Should A Blogger Do To Make A Good Blog?

By following 3 simple basic steps; including research appropriately, write professionally and create connection widely; everyone would be able to create a good blog. 


It is all about learning how to blog successfully!


But of course there are always more tricks when unpacking the blogging techniques.  

After reading a fantastic book named "Creative Blogging: Your First Steps to a Successful Blog", I have included 9 features that I believe good blogs should have and my personal strategies to blog successfully.





# 1      A Good Blog Should First Start With A Good Name

First off, a blogger should come up with an attractive and meaningful name for the blog.  

A name of a good blog should be related to its purposes; which might involves your name, your businesses or what you love to share about or even a combination of all.

# 2      A Good Blog Should Have Appropriate Interface Design

Ensure to use appropriate colour, font, layout and organisation for the blog and its posts. 

Use colours and themes that is suitable for your personality if you want to express and emphasis your personal interests. Because most blogs are consists of heavily text-based contents; be sure to select appropriate design that is easy on the eyes.

# 3      A Good Blog Is All About Useful And Interesting Contents

Make sure to provide information that both interests yourself and the user. 

Express professional information in an interesting way can help readers to better understand the content; add some relevant images or/and video clips would be a great idea to start with. Despite the purposes you are blogging for; you want to keep readers coming back!  So remember to post often to keep people coming back to your blog; blog more than twice a week if possible.

# 4      A Good blog should be professional when it comes to knowledge sharing


One of the driving force for people to blog and view blogs is life-long learning.

As a blogger trying to share knowledge and express valuable views; always remember to write professionally after performing appropriate researches to support your point of views.

# 5      A Good Blog Should Follow Appropriate English Writing Rules

A good blog not only needs to have exciting and well-written content; its posts should also be written utilising appropriate English technique and free of grammatical/spelling errors.

It is definitely a good idea to write up posts using Microsoft Word while performing grammar and spelling check, then copy and paste the information into the blog post editor.  Ensure to perform proofreading in addition of using spelling and grammar checker.

# 6      A Good Blog Should Have User-Friendly Writing Style

Try to write to your reader as to a friend.

Rules that apply to blogging are less strict than writing academic or formal papers.  In general, online users prefer to read posts with informal, relaxed and conversational tone.
Don’t worry too much about structuring the sentence perfectly, instead keep the sentence short and easy to understand.Construct a good structure of text will also help people to read content easily. It is a great idea to use title and subtitles in the post; not only to organise content nicely; but also ensure readers to find and to read the part they are interested at.Finally, it is crucial to make sure each post only focused on one particular topic, nothing is worse than a long-winded post going on and on about all kind of topics.


(Click here for a cute little website showing the difference between writing user-friendly web content and non-friendly one)


# 7      A Good Blog should has Advertisements On Other Social Networking Platforms

It doesn’t matter how interesting and compelling the post gets in a blog; it will be pretty disappointed if no one knows about your new blog/post!

We can utilise the power of other social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook to easily reach out for new potential followers and to tell users on these platforms about your blog.  So create a Twitter and Facebook accounts today if you haven’t got them yet!Why not try to invite people online from Facebook by posting in Facebook groups and provide the link to your blog.  Write an interesting message on your Facebook wall about your post as an attractive advertisement for the blog.

# 8      A Good Blog Should Encourage And Support Online Collaborations

Every blogger needs to communicate with their readers online.Never forget to encourage your readers to comment on the blog content. 

Ask them for their opinion and views about the post is a great place to start.If none of your readers like to interact and you are feeling really strong about your opinion, maybe try to start a polite “argument” as an ice-breaker if you have to.

# 9      Last But Not Least, A Good Blog Should Appear Higher In Search Engine Results

Blogs are like all other websites, are generally found by users searching for keywords using a search engine such as Google. 

Utilising search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques can help to make your blog more popular and ensure it can be easily found in a Google search. 
Click here for another post I have written discussing some really useful skills for SEO.


I have also included this amazing video clip "Blogging Tips From an Expert Blogger" which also covered many points I have talked about above within the post.  I definitely agree with what the guest speaker in the video said: "People come use internet to do two things; one is to solve their problem, another is to have fun!" So if we can provide any of the two objectives; we will be able to attract readers to our blogs! :D 




Alright, finally you have come a long way to the end! I am very impressed!


So what do you think about the post today?
Do you agree with the features that I have listed for good blogs?
Or maybe you have some better strategies to create a good blog!

Please leave a comment since I really would like to hear from you :)

Finally, I hope today’s blog post has helped you in enhancing your blogging experience and reaching your blogging goals.



2 comments:

  1. Great post. Nice layout and easy to read. The bold headings make it easy to summarise. Good practice in incorporating your own tips into your post.

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    1. Thank you, I am really glad that you have enjoyed my post :)

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