What Is Your Blog About? What Kind of Blogger are you?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
When starting a blog for the first time you will want to do a bit of research to make sure to avoid some common mistakes - mistakes I made when I was new that I cannot correct now. I came up with a basic beginner's blogger setup guide which includes what I you need to do to setup a blog the right way. Visit the Index to find out what this step is all about and what will come next.
Getting Started as a Blogger
You could just go to Blogger or WordPress and within 5 minutes have a basic blog in place but preparing just a bit by using these steps will help you avoid mistakes in the future. Some mistakes like picking your topic, blog title or blog URL aren't that easy to fix later and could cause you blog to get lost in Cyberspace, never to be heard from again.
If you are just setting up a blog for fun then just go ahead and throw it up because it doesn't matter. You are doing it for fun and for yourself or maybe your family. But if you want to start a blog to make money, build a readership, brand yourself, or maybe create a name for yourself online then you will want to plan your blog carefully.
What Kind of Blogger are you?
Multiple Topic Blogger
If you are starting a blog for fun then your blog could be about a variety of topics. You may attract readers for various reasons because you will be writing about various topics. In time, however, you may upset some readers each time you change a topic. They found your blog because of a specific thing you were writing about and then you changed and went in a totally different direction. Other readers may not mind.
Single Topic Blogger
If you are setting up a blog to make money, be seen as an expert for a certain topic, niche or in a certain field you should have one overall theme or topic. This way you can optimize the posts and keywords you want to rank for on the SERPs (search engine results pages). Your readers will be much happier because you won't be all over the place. They come to your blog for a specific reason - because you are an expert, or are at least knowledgeable, about certain things. They search for a topic, they find you, you give them answers on that topic, you make money and everyone is happy!
Think of your Blog like a Book
Setting up a blog with one general topic doesn't mean that you have to write about one thing every time you write a blog post. It means that the topics all fit within a common niche. Think of your blog like a book. The book is about one specific theme or topic but each chapter in that book is about slightly different topics that all fit together nicely within the book's theme. Of course, we hope your book will be about one subject and not a novel (personal blog).
What kind of blog will you run? Social? Search Engine?
There are really 2 very distinct types of blogs - social blogs and search engine blogs. However, that doesn't mean that a blog can't be both or somewhere in the middle.
Are you a Social Blogger?
A social blog is a blog that attracts readers who make comments and stick around to see what you will say next. You are writing content that solves a problem for your reader, makes them laugh, encourages them to be social or maybe creates a sense of community. You will spend a lot of time writing to make your readers happy, using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter to get more people to read your blog, commenting on other blogs to leave a trail for people to follow back to your blog, and generally interacting with your readers. You are the expert and your readers are coming to you because they see you as an expert on a specific topic, whether you believe it or not. Answer a question or solve a problem someone has and you will attract many readers.
Are you a Search Engine Blogger?
A search engine blog is a blog that is written to attract search engine visitors and not loyal readers. People who use search engines are looking to solve a problem or answer a question too. They ask the search engine a question and it comes back with results. Your blog might just be one that comes up on the first page with the answer they need. When they visit your blog they are hoping to solve their problem by reading the information that is found on your blog. The best thing you can do is to NOT solve their problem with your blog. You should give them good information but let the ads you place on your site solve the problem. They will click the ads and are on their merry way, leaving you with a nice fat paycheck at the end of the month.
Are you somewhere in the middle?
You attract readers who like what you say and stick around to read more. They come all of the time and hang on your every word (one can only hope can't they?). Every once and awhile they click on an ad that is relevant to them.
You also attract people who have no use for what you write about, don't like your blog design, or maybe you don't solve their problem, maybe are offended by what you say and leave by clicking on your ads, thus helping you to earn some money.
These two paragraphs sum up how a social blog can also be a search engine blog. It attracts search engine visitors because you are ranking for specific keywords, those visitors don't find the answer they need and they move on to the next site, hopefully through your ads. Others do find what they are looking for and stick around. I really believe that most blogs fall into this category.
Creating and maintaining a blog that is successful requires some thought and picking out what your blog is about is crucial to your success as a blogger. A little planning in the beginning when you are starting a blog will help you become successful much faster.
Next up? Examples of blog topics
Getting Started as a Blogger
You could just go to Blogger or WordPress and within 5 minutes have a basic blog in place but preparing just a bit by using these steps will help you avoid mistakes in the future. Some mistakes like picking your topic, blog title or blog URL aren't that easy to fix later and could cause you blog to get lost in Cyberspace, never to be heard from again.
If you are just setting up a blog for fun then just go ahead and throw it up because it doesn't matter. You are doing it for fun and for yourself or maybe your family. But if you want to start a blog to make money, build a readership, brand yourself, or maybe create a name for yourself online then you will want to plan your blog carefully.
What Kind of Blogger are you?
Multiple Topic Blogger
If you are starting a blog for fun then your blog could be about a variety of topics. You may attract readers for various reasons because you will be writing about various topics. In time, however, you may upset some readers each time you change a topic. They found your blog because of a specific thing you were writing about and then you changed and went in a totally different direction. Other readers may not mind.
Single Topic Blogger
If you are setting up a blog to make money, be seen as an expert for a certain topic, niche or in a certain field you should have one overall theme or topic. This way you can optimize the posts and keywords you want to rank for on the SERPs (search engine results pages). Your readers will be much happier because you won't be all over the place. They come to your blog for a specific reason - because you are an expert, or are at least knowledgeable, about certain things. They search for a topic, they find you, you give them answers on that topic, you make money and everyone is happy!
Think of your Blog like a BookSetting up a blog with one general topic doesn't mean that you have to write about one thing every time you write a blog post. It means that the topics all fit within a common niche. Think of your blog like a book. The book is about one specific theme or topic but each chapter in that book is about slightly different topics that all fit together nicely within the book's theme. Of course, we hope your book will be about one subject and not a novel (personal blog).
What kind of blog will you run? Social? Search Engine?
There are really 2 very distinct types of blogs - social blogs and search engine blogs. However, that doesn't mean that a blog can't be both or somewhere in the middle.
Are you a Social Blogger?
A social blog is a blog that attracts readers who make comments and stick around to see what you will say next. You are writing content that solves a problem for your reader, makes them laugh, encourages them to be social or maybe creates a sense of community. You will spend a lot of time writing to make your readers happy, using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter to get more people to read your blog, commenting on other blogs to leave a trail for people to follow back to your blog, and generally interacting with your readers. You are the expert and your readers are coming to you because they see you as an expert on a specific topic, whether you believe it or not. Answer a question or solve a problem someone has and you will attract many readers.
Are you a Search Engine Blogger?
A search engine blog is a blog that is written to attract search engine visitors and not loyal readers. People who use search engines are looking to solve a problem or answer a question too. They ask the search engine a question and it comes back with results. Your blog might just be one that comes up on the first page with the answer they need. When they visit your blog they are hoping to solve their problem by reading the information that is found on your blog. The best thing you can do is to NOT solve their problem with your blog. You should give them good information but let the ads you place on your site solve the problem. They will click the ads and are on their merry way, leaving you with a nice fat paycheck at the end of the month.
Are you somewhere in the middle?
You attract readers who like what you say and stick around to read more. They come all of the time and hang on your every word (one can only hope can't they?). Every once and awhile they click on an ad that is relevant to them.
You also attract people who have no use for what you write about, don't like your blog design, or maybe you don't solve their problem, maybe are offended by what you say and leave by clicking on your ads, thus helping you to earn some money.
These two paragraphs sum up how a social blog can also be a search engine blog. It attracts search engine visitors because you are ranking for specific keywords, those visitors don't find the answer they need and they move on to the next site, hopefully through your ads. Others do find what they are looking for and stick around. I really believe that most blogs fall into this category.
Creating and maintaining a blog that is successful requires some thought and picking out what your blog is about is crucial to your success as a blogger. A little planning in the beginning when you are starting a blog will help you become successful much faster.
Next up? Examples of blog topics
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October 28, 2009 at 3:38 AM
For myslelf I must say that I'm not a blogger and I'm not a mommy, but I think that blogging was at the beginning something that was a way of expressing thoughts and become a kind of a diary accessible for anyone interested. Now many blogs are just to make money - and there is nothing wrong with that, but still I find there something missing.
October 28, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Seth - you are absolutely right. Blogging started just the way you say. My site is about teaching moms how they can use blogging to make some extra income and stay home with their kids. I am glad blogging has evolved into something like this. When my kids were young I had no way of making money, mainly because I didn't want to go out of the house to get a job.