How do you know when your blog hits that established status?  Is it when you get a million hits a month?  Perhaps it’s when you get interviewed or featured by the press?

I don’t think there’s one criterion that you can pin it down to for when your blog makes it big.  But in your own mind, you do get a sense or feeling that the work you’re doing is worth the time.  You may not need to reach a million hits a month to feel satisfied with your effort.  I certainly don’t.  Realistically, you’re unlikely to reach those kinds of figures straight away.

TechCast Reviews started as a blog and was called the TechCast Network before I decided to launch this site.  Today, it would probably be still defined as a blog but with slightly higher production values compared to the first version of the site.

Every now and again, I get asked what the best way to get in to blogging is.  After all, there are now millions of them, so how do you get people to read your content?   These tips can apply if you’re just about to start blogging or if you’ve been doing it for years.

Tip 1 – Focus your content

I’ve seen so many sites out there, which seem to have a random tangent of topics ranging from gardening one day to talking about web development the very next day.  It’s a strange mix and one that I don’t think really works unless you’ve got a cult following.  And chances are if you do, then your visitors are coming for something else rather than the content…perhaps they’re a fan of your writing style.

Make your content about one topic and one topic only.  If it’s about gadgets, then make it about gadgets and not about upcoming rumours about the latest iPod.  Your readers are coming to your site because they know you’re a good source for gadget content.  Keep your format consistent will result in your readers staying happy.

Tip 2 – Keep it regular and keep it fresh

You should try to stick to a fairly consistent schedule when it comes to blogging.  This gives your readers a good indication of when and how often you post, so they can check back at the appropriate time.  There’s nothing more frustrating than refreshing the page every day to find that there’s nothing new on the site.  Your readers will only come back several days in a row before giving up.  Leave it even longer and they may never return.  If you start by posting once a week, then try to keep to that.  If you start skipping, then the consistency is lost with your audience and they never know when content may or may not be published.  So try to keep them informed if necessary.

Content management systems like WordPress allow you to post content based on the time and date, so you can have your entry pre-prepared and then made live at a time and date of your choosing.

When I first started TechCast Network, it was difficult for me to keep posting content on a regular basis since it relied on whether I had any products to write about.  That soon changed and I’m now in a fairly comfortable place where I have more products than time to write about them.  However, I still schedule my content for when it’s due to go live by mapping it out on my calendar.  This gives me a good overview of what content I will have for this and next month’s features.

Tip 4 – Choose the right soapbox

There are so many services out there, which are freely available for you to start blogging straight away.  However, it would be ideal if you spent time researching which platform works best for you.  There are hosted options and self-hosting solutions.  There are free and paid-for options too.  What works best for your content?

When I started blogging, I decided to go for WordPress, and even today TechCast News and Reviews is hosted using the WordPress content management system.  At the time, it was in its infancy compared to how mature the platform has become.  WordPress now offers free hosted solutions as well as the code for deploying on your own web server, the choice is yours.  Hosting on your own server does give you more flexibility though.

Themes can be applied to your WordPress installation, or if you’re web savvy enough, you can create your own designs.  There’s also a whole community of developers that are continuously striving to push the limitations of WordPress through plug-ins and themes.  Anything from blogs to magazine-styled designs can be found and there are even a few developers out there that are making some money from designing themes.

Key point is to consider your content.  What do you want to be able to do and will the platform allow you to do it?  Choosing blogger over WordPress gives you fewer options in terms of customisation, however there are many successful blogs out there which are hosted on the blogger network.  Would TechCast Reviews work on blogger?  Given the type of content, my answer would be no.

Tip 5 – Make yourself heard

Don’t expect a mad rush of traffic to your blog on day one of posting.  Unless you’ve got an exclusive on a hot topic, then it’s unlikely people will know that you’re writing.  However, there are a few things you can do to give your site a boost in the initial outset.

I don’t have to remind you that for a new blog, the content has to be in tiptop shape, but more on that later.

As for getting people to your site, the first thing you can do is to submit your site to the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask, etc).  Search for site submission on the respective search engine and you’ll find the relevant links.  There are sites that offer to do this for you and will submit your site to a bunch of sites at once, however you often have to sacrifice your e-mail and space in your Junk mail folder in order to take advantage of these services.  If you haven’t got the stomach for Viagra ads or home loans, then try to avoid this route.

The next thing you can do is track down the blog search engines.  Sites like Technorati are search-engines dedicated to sites such as blogs, so invest some time in getting your site submitted.

The third and final suggestion would be to get link exchanges with other sites.  Sites that have a similar focus on content or complimentary content may be interested in your site.  So drop them an e-mail to see if they would be interested in posting a summary link to one of your posts and offer to do the same for them.

Tip 6 – Engage with your readers

I don’t think there are any blogs out there that don’t have some kind of comments section for each of the posts or on the site.  TechCast Network had comments locked off due to spamming problems.  You may get a similar problem if you opt for a self-hosted solution.  However, if you use the free spam-filtering service from Akismet, your blog should be able to capture 99.9% of all spam comments that are made to your site.  Try to keep your comment posts open to readers so that they don’t have to register if they just want to leave a quick message.  With Akismet, I haven’t had any spam comments get through the filter in the last six months I’ve been using it and the number of comments that are being left on the site has increased dramatically.

Talking to your readers adds a level of interactivity and personality to the site.  If they leave a comment with a compliment about a post you made or your site, then have the courtesy to say thanks!  If they’ve got a question about your topic or disagreement, then try to respectfully engage in a discussion with that individual.  If they point out a mistake in your post, hold your hands up to the mistake and make the relevant correction as an update to the post rather than overwriting the error.  Honesty can be key to obtaining and keeping your readers.

You’re not expected to reply to every message that gets sent, especially if you’re getting hundreds, so select a few where you think a reply is justified.

Tip 7 – Quality

I’m sure you’ve come across it before.  The biggest turn-off for for your visitors, especially new ones, is content that hasn’t been checked or edited before going live.  I used to be guilty of it myself sometimes, but now, I nearly always double check what I’ve written actually makes sense and have sometimes even gone to the trouble of fixing ancient content.  If your readers are spending time looking at your content, the least you can do is give them something of quality to read.

Make sure links work too!  Double check the links that you’re using are correct and working properly.  Whilst you can’t be expected to keep every single link you ever post on your blog to work forever, content that has just been posted with broken links is a big no-no.  So it’s worth just checking back after a week or two of posting just to make sure things are still working.

If you’re using photography or imagery in your posts, ensure that they are crisp and clear.  It’s a balancing act really, because you also want to make sure that the images are kept to an appropriate file size.  If each of your posts contains a 1MB+ image, you’re automatically turning away a small percentage of your readers who can’t be bothered to wait for the page to load.  If you want to include high-resolution images, attach a link to the thumbnail/preview image you’re displaying.  Your readers will appreciate it!

Tip 8 – Ads

Advertising and monetisation have been a bone of contention for me.  TechCast Network launched with a zero ad policy.  The products themselves were ads and the fact that I got to play with the products was satisfactory ‘payment’.  Today, TechCast Network employs the use of Google Ads in a discrete manner.  A simple graphic banner at the bottom of each page can now be found.  If it’s of worth to the reader, then they’re free to click it.  However, I’m not shoving it in their faces by throwing ads all over the page.

Opinions and techniques tend to differ from site to site.  My ad strategy has perhaps been my weakest point in the whole TechCast Network empire, so perhaps the penalty for refusing to have to my site taken over my advertisements is a lower income.  This is a choice you have to make.  Personally, I absolutely hate sites that have a higher percentage of space being occupied by ads than content itself.  Sites that really wind me up are those that have pop-out ads.  Long gone are pop-up ads, now blocked by most popular browsers, these flash ads pop-out when you hit the site or when your mouse cursor goes over and the majority of the time, the close buttons are difficult to find.

Be considerate to your audience.  Don’t drive them away by overloading your site with ads.  It’s both ugly and unsavoury and a horrible side-effect to the whole concept of monetising your site.  There are many bloggers out there who have given in to the temptation of ads and their downfall has been that their users simply won’t put up with it and instead just don’t visit.  It’s very easy to annoy your readers and most of the time, they won’t tell you.  They just won’t go to your site anymore.  Get enough of those and you soon start losing your readers and your ad-revenue.  It’s a vicious cycle so you should be careful and balanced when choosing your site design.  The first step to doing that is to identify what annoys you when you visit a site to avoid making the same mistake.

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