Is your Blog Focused For Success?

by Randolf Smith

There's many ways to promote and monetize your blog if you are focused on success. If you are suffering from information overload, like most excited newcomers to blogging, your head might be spinning as you wonder where to start. Here's five suggestions to get you started in the right direction.

#1...First you have to answer these questions. What do you want to talk about on your blog? What are you interested in? Take the time and make a list of all the things you are interested in enough to talk and write about on your blog. Sort that list by preference or favorite topic until your top three interests are at the top. Select one for your first blog. Put the list away in a safe place so you can find it when you want to start another blog.

#2...Updating your blog daily, or at least every few days or once a week at a minimum, is a requirement and not a suggestion. Fresh content attracts search engines and keeps your subscribers coming back. Adding valuable free downloads for your subscribers and visitors will keep them visiting your site. Free is too powerful a draw to ignore.

#3...Building traffic is necessary for any blog and will consume a major part of your daily activities if you want to keep your blog alive. You can use viral marketing, search engine marketing, both paid and free advertising or RSS/XML feeds to get the word out. Put your blog URL in your signature for every email and forum post. Tell everyone you know about your blog and invite them to visit to see what you are doing. Send the word out to every blog directory you can find and submit your blog URL to search engines. Spend part of every day advertising your presence on the Web. If you don't, no one else will.

#4...Watch your visitors to find out how they got to your blog. Knowing how your visitors found you is not difficult if you use a comprehensive page counter. You should be able to see if they are arriving through search engines and which keywords they used. That information will laser focus your entry titles and content to that targeted audience.

#5...Your visitors want to know YOU and to feel like they are part of YOUR loosely built community. If you can create this atmosphere you will build loyalty and credibility with your subscribers. Make your entries sound and feel like you are sharing information or the discovery of new products with them. Sales letters will turn them off. Write in a friendly, personal tone.
Using those five techniques should help you design a blog that suits your interests and keeps your subscribers happy.

About the Author
Randolf Smith is a Blogger, Copywriter and Experienced Internet Marketer who specializes in helping others learn from his own 8 years of online adventures. His blog site at www.randolfsmith.com could provide you with the extra help you'd value today. Pick up his daily freebie while you're there.