There are hundreds of factors which shape the success or downfall of every blog that is presently featured on the internet. The obviously known fact that the amount of blogs on the internet are increasing day by day is a factor which itself would affect the success of a blog. As this could determine whether there is space left for another blog in a specific market or is that market already over run with competition.
I often deliberate whether or not timing is as important a factor as I used to consider or whether it is more about the angle of which the writer creates their articles from. Whether it’s the frequency of which these articles are written and uploaded, whether they entertain or educate their readers. Overall I concluded that timing is a blatant advantage which can be used to one’s advantage extremely however without the writing skills, unique ideas and creative mind it can easily be discarded. This is why I have decided to write this article to make clear that it is not only the timing of when you enter a certain market but it is also the skills that you possess.
Unique content
The first factor you have to consider when journeying to make your blog a success is whether or not your content is unique. Now I have expressed the importance of unique content in a previous article found here (Unique content is key) and although I advise you to read that article I shall write a small summary of why unique content is important.
The content of your blog is exactly why visitors visit; it is the key and essence of a blog. There are thousands upon thousands of articles relevant to the same subject that you can find on the internet so why rewrite what someone else has already written. You won’t be praised for this in the search engines and the majority of visitors won’t either. Make sure your content is personal to you, entertaining and informative.
Blogging Frequency
I have touched upon this subject a number of times before however I have never fully explained its importance. What I mean by blogging frequency is the period of time between each article which is submitted to a blog. The frequency which I try to aim for is one article uploaded daily, something which I can’t always succeed in doing.
The frequency of blogging helps to establish a large readership, people who like your content are much more likely to subscribe to your RSS subscription if they realise that you upload a new article each day, this is to ensure that they don’t miss an article.
Another important benefit of establishing a consistent routine to upload articles to a blog is improved performance in the search engines. It is a well known tactic that frequently updated websites are much preferred by search engines and they allow search engines to crawl websites regularly.
Having a certain amount of time before adding another article to a blog can also help you to create a schedule which you can adapt to. This ensures priorities are kept in order and jobs are done on time.
The market
A major factor which will affect your blogs success before you even start the blog is the overall market you wish to enter. By conducting some market research before you create your blog you will be able to predict whether or not your blog will be able to succeed in the market, through the present competition and overall target market.
By producing some research you can forecast whether the market is big enough for another blog. Although the market maybe crammed full of other blogs if you can angle your blog differently from others you may still be able to succeed in the market, it is all about being unique.
Have a marketing plan
Before you even start a blog you should already have an established level of knowledge on how you can market a blog, from this a marketing plan can be produced. A big mistake that I did when I first started this blog was entering the market without knowing exactly how I was going to market and promote my blog. By doing this I wasn’t able to fetch the amount of traffic that I should have been able to, within the first couple of months of the blog being live. In turn I had to learn and customise the website as I progressed.
Ask yourself these questions before you start
What type of traffic do you want? Targeted or untargeted.
Where can you market your site for targeted traffic?
Where can you market your site for untargeted traffic?
Once these have been answered create your marketing plan this could do with having a daily marketing schedule and a weekly marketing schedule as well as each marketing strategy written out and perhaps categorised by whether or not the strategy will bring targeted or untargeted traffic.
Interact with your readers
Ensure that you are able to interact with your readers whether you add a contact page for readers to contact you by or allow comments to be posted after each article. By ensuring readers can interact with you and vice versa it enables you to help readers.
Your goal should be to create a community feel among your website this is best done by allowing comments after articles. Ensure that you answer reader’s questions and input effectively on their conversations.
A great way of sparking a conversation is to ask readers their opinions at the end of an article or write a controversial/one sided article where readers feel obligated to respond.
Blog design
Another major factor in the success of a blog is the overall design and aesthetical finish of a blog. Whether you decide to design your own blog theme or use one of the millions now available on the internet you need to ensure the theme relates to the market. Don’t go using a horse theme if you have a blog on cars.
Not only do you need to ensure the relevancy has been met between the themes aesthetics and the market. You also need to ensure that the theme has all the requirements you need, if you need a 3 column theme to include space for categories and articles then stick to a 3 columned theme. If you have the money it may be more beneficial to hire an experienced designer and programmer to produce the theme for you, this way you will be receiving exactly what you want unique to your website only. If you have the required skills you could also code the design yourself, saving you money and ensuring you succeed in reaching the exact requirements that you want.
The theme and overall aesthetics of a blog are one of the first factors which visitors will judge the blog on.
Define your goals
The final factor determining a blogs success is the goals that you define. Firstly you need to ensure before you even create your blog that you create some goals, I have explained why goals are such an important part of developing a website here (Set yourself aims to achieve your goals).
Goals will help to ensure that your blog stays on the right tracks, that you can use your time effectively and plan how to make your blog a success.
I hope that these factors benefit your blog in some way, these are just a handful of factors which determine whether your blog will be successful or not.