 Image credit: Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels The start of a new year can signal a time for big changes in your life. If you own a blog, it's a good time to begin thinking about ways you can improve it. One idea that springs to mind is the concept of broadening your content.
What does this mean? In essence, you seek ways of offering your readers more content in different ways. Instead of posting similar blogs every week, perhaps you look for ways to branch out and offer other forms of content. Here are a few ideas to whet your appetite: Video content Start adding videos to your blog as a way of giving people fresh content. Human beings respond well to videos, and it's a great way of reeling in a new audience. People may start visiting your blog that never would've gone on there before. It also opens a new revenue stream as you can upload the videos to a YouTube channel and potentially earn ad revenue. You still talk about similar things, but the video format lets you try new ideas. You can have other people in the videos, serving as a great way of interviewing others. It can be a podcast format, or you may want to make 'how-to' videos that are easier to follow than a blog. Or, you could even repurpose old content in the video format, getting more out of it! Ebooks For the most part, blog posts are short-form content. Even a 2,000-word blog post is relatively short-form, particularly when compared to things like ebooks. An ebook gives you a chance to cover topics in more detail and really dive deep into things. So, perhaps you should start publishing some? If you have topics that demand a lot of work and attention, an ebook can be a fantastic way of covering them. Plus, it serves as a marketing tactic to drive people to your blog and get them on a mailing list. You can work with a CGI company to draw up a product 'photo' of your ebook, then use it in adverts. Basically, people will see the book, and be inclined to click it. From here, you promise them a free download of the book if they just provide an email address. Instantly, you will gain lots of emails, which helps you market your blog and grow your audience. Alternatively, you could sell the ebooks for a small price, as a way of making more money. It depends on how much work went into the book and if you think it's worth selling it for money. Either way, ebooks are another way of broadening your content. Guest posts Last but not least, you can diversify your content through guest posts. Invite other bloggers to post on your site, offering your readers fresh insights and ideas. While they're still reading blog articles, the content itself can be very different from yours. The topics may be similar, but the style and angle of the writing give them something new to enjoy. Broadening your content is a smart way of keeping your audience engaged and entertained. It stops them from getting bored with the same old stuff, while also helping you draw new readers to your blog!
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 Image credit: Pixabay on Pexels Whether you’re publishing a blog as a commercial endeavour or as a hobby, you’ll want to do everything you can to optimise your content and increase your readership. However, it isn’t always easy to know what changes to make or how to implement them. To make things easier, take a look at these simple ways to better your blog in 2021: Increase Page Loading Speeds Before you begin thinking about content for your website, you’ll want to ensure your blog is operating optimally. Page loading speeds have a considerable impact on your search engine rankings, so it’s important to make sure you’re not losing readers because your blog loads too slowly. By optimising your site structure or switching to a different hosting provider, you can increase page loading speeds and potentially boost your rankings. Create a Content Calendar If you create content when you have a great idea for a post or you publish new content based on breaking news, you run the risk of issuing repetitive content or only posting sporadically. Publishing new posts regularly gives users a reason to return to your blog frequently, so having a reliable posting schedule is beneficial. However, regular posting should never compromise the quality of your content. By creating a content calendar, you can ensure that you cover a range of topics, rather than inadvertently posting similar content on a frequent basis. Similarly, you can brainstorm ideas for original content in advance and ensure you’ve always got something fresh and new to write about. Incorporate Social Media Social media is an excellent tool for bloggers, so be sure to make the most of it. When you share the link to your posts on social media, you can increase brand awareness, generate more website traffic and build your audience. Additionally, social media allows you to communicate with other users about topics that are relevant to the theme of your blog. Of course, you aren’t the only person who can share links to your posts via social media. Adding social media buttons to every post allows readers to share your content quickly and easily, which helps you to reach a wider audience. Develop an SEO strategy If you want to attract new readers, you need to have an effective SEO strategy in place. With effective search engine optimisation, you can ensure that your blog posts appear at the top of search engine ranking pages (SERPs) when users search for relevant keywords and terms. Search engine optimisation can be labour intensive, so don’t panic if you don’t have the time or resources to plan and execute a strategy yourself. Professional SEO services are an easy and cost-effective way to access the expertise you need. With assistance from experienced SEO experts, you can ensure your blog becomes a go-to resource for users within your target audience.  Image credit: Picography on Pexels Use Different Content Formats
Most bloggers rely on the written word to share information, put forth their opinions and engage with readers. However, this shouldn’t prevent you from using other forms of media on your blog. After all, a wall of text isn’t very enticing for users. By using images or infographics to break up your text and add visual content, you can make each post more appealing. Similarly, incorporating video content into your blog could be an effective way of appealing to a different demographic. How To, Step-by-Step and Q&A posts work well in video format and could give you an edge over other bloggers. Secure Backlinks Backlinks are a form of off-site SEO, so check that they’re included if you plan to outsource your search engine optimisation to a third-party specialist. Securing backlinks from websites with high domain authorities can increase your own rankings and lead to a subsequent increase in traffic. Additionally, backlinks help to direct readers straight to your blog, as well as increasing the authority and trustworthiness of your content. When your links are featured on reputable and popular sites, for example, your brand is elevated in the minds of both search engines and users. Take Your Blog to the Next Level When you’re creating, managing or maintaining a blog, it’s useful to have an overall strategy in mind. Whether you’re planning to monetise your posts, creating content for a company website or see blogging is a fun hobby, setting yourself a goal will help you to stay motivated. With the right planning and preparation, you can hone your content, increase your core readership and take your blog to the next level.  Image credit: Burst on Pexels Your blog is a place where people come to read interesting content and regardless of genre, a lot of blog sites can end up turning into full-time businesses. It’s important to think about the ways that you can improve your blogging, whether you’re still in the early days of your blog or if you’ve managed to finally go full-time with your blog. Here are four ways to improve your blogging business.
Define Your Audience When you’re blogging as a hobby, paying attention to your audience’s demographic might not necessarily be on your radar. Perhaps you’ve been writing for a while and write for the enjoyment of the topics you cover. It might be that you write for a specific industry, and you know somewhat about what your audience likes and doesn’t like. When you’re blogging professionally, it’s important to define your audience because the more content you create that your audience likes, the more views it’s going to get. When you look at your analytics, it’s worth implementing Google Analytics if you haven’t already implemented it on your site. Whatever host platform you use, it’s likely to give you at least some degree of knowledge on who your audience is and what they like and don’t like. Look specifically at things like bounce rates, which tell you how long they stay engaged on your website and specific pages. Get Promoting Every Aspect Of Your Business When you’re a business, you need to be promoting yourself from every angle. Whether it’s promoting the content via your personal social media pages or through paid advertisements on other high-ranking websites. Try to promote in every way you can, even during those occasions where you might be invited to conferences or events. These custom printed banners can be a great way to showcase your work and who you are as a business and individual. Never be ashamed or afraid of promoting yourself! Network With Other Bloggers Networking with other bloggers is important because there’s a lot that you can learn from other people within the industry. For example, if you’re just starting off in the industry, then you may find that networking with bloggers who have been established for a while, have plenty of advice to give you. You also never know who might be able to help you on your way up the career ladder of blogging. Always be grateful and appreciative of others you meet and collaborate with. You don’t know someone until you meet them properly. Focus On Quality Not Quantity Quality is a lot more important than quantity when it comes to blogging. Your audience wants to read high-quality content and not something that’s been thrown together without much thought. If you do that, then you’re likely to lose your following and your loyal followers are the ones that are the most important. Improving your blogging business is important and so it’s good to use these tips to help get the most out of it where it’s possible. |
Author - Chris
Author, Editor, Creator of Learn Develop Live Archives
January 2021
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