Article in Content Creation

Blogs can be on anything, from what your local celebrities are doing, to what kind of paper is recommended to use in the bottom of birdcages.

However, like any site, you need the following three things:

1. Reason to visit

Why is the potential reader going to want to visit your site in the first place?

2. Staying on the site

What is going to keep them on the site?

3. Telling others

Word of mouth is awesome and reaches people you’ll never be able to reach on your own. So what is going to make them tell all their friends to visit your site? Willingly? Without threatening to use a baseball bat and violent methods?

The answer should all be the same. Your subject. Your subject should be something that other people are interested or curious about. Your articles should fulfill these desires and also be interesting enough that they read the whole thing through and perhaps even go to the next. If they are interesting, thought provoking, or humorous enough (better yet all 3!) then they are bound to send the URLs to their friends and tell them to check it out!

Check out your subject, once you’ve thought of one, and see how other people are doing it. Remember, there are no unique ideas. There are only those that do something about them, and those that do not.

Now that you know how your competition does it, decide how you’re going to do it and in what way it will set you apart from your competition. Never do it the same way as they do, because you’ll look like just another ‘clone’ and you won’t be noticed as something new and unique.

Finally you have to set up your blog site. Decide whether you want to host your blog on a blog hosting service, or host it yourself. If you’re serious enough in your blog’s success you’ll buy a domain name that fits both yourself but most importantly your blog’s subject. Even if you host the site with a blog hosting service like WordPress, you can have a domain name of your own that points to it, so that it looks like it is a site all on its own. Certainly worth the $5-$7 .com domains go for now days.

Lastly, choose your look. The theme of your blog will tell the first time reader of your blog more about what your blog is about, than the blog title. If your blog subject is on politics, consider adding a few political icons. Stars and stripes anyone? It’s a good thing! Or what about a blog on dog care? Put up a photo of a puppy at the top. You get the idea. By finding a good look for your blog you’re keeping your reader there a bit longer, and they focus on the subject of your blog so much better than just seeing a standard plain layout with nothing but black and white text.

Grabbing the reader’s attention really is the first step in creating a successful blog.

by Katharina Katt