The Blog By Design

Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings.  Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews. Because of their popularity, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media.  Marketing is achieved by placing advertising banners and product links on popular websites, such as Social Media sites and relevant information sites.  Links can also be included in newsletters and marketing emails sent to all  members of their mailing lists.

Many people spend their time reading blogs. People read their friend’s blogs, their favourite celebrities blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and on product reviews. While getting news reports from blogs isn’t that reliable, some people look to social media sites to keep up to date with their family and friends.  In some cases, this is more dependable than by letter or intrusive mobile phones.  While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, mainly blog writers write about their actual interests and experiences on products and services from a company.

Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, itsa good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic it means increased  product sales. Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name.  You can also have your blog advertised on popular websites or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging.

A blogger who has just launched  their blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site.  Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues. This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design.  You may develop your blog’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog’s layout and design also plays a big role.  While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

1. Customize the banner. The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner.  You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog. If you don’t want to create your own graphic you can purchase  a professional looking graphics online for less than £10.
2. Personalizing photos Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own.  However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page. It can also add to the design of your blog.  You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog’s templates. Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from site. There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins.  You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.
3. Include RSS feed. This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines.  Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.
4. Audio and video clips makes your blog more personal Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back.  You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.
5. Advertisement. If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers’ ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.

Tags:craft your blogs,express yourself,how to blog