Keep it Short and Sweet

Recently, I was researching information for another site. Like most internet users, I was in a hurry and looking for something specific. Eight out the ten sites that I visited had me searching for the information that they had promised in there search engine results. In four of those I just gave up.

Sites that make it hard to find information sometimes do this to plug their advertisements or make money by some other means. What really happens is that the visitor loses patience and feels ripped off. The result is low credibility for the site and lack of return visits.

Here is how to get to the point and avoid losing your visitors in a maze.

• Keep your posts short and sweet. Have an introductory paragraph, a conclusion paragraph, and several explanation paragraphs in between. Anything more may seem like you have more than one topic and you need to break it up into more posts.
  
  
• Do not make your visitor have to "click here" more than once. Twice is the maximum to ever have to "click here".
  
  
• Edit out all of those filler words. Nobody wants to read Blah, Blah, Blah and Blah.
  
  
• Bold, Bullet and Number to break up monotony and get ideas across.
  
  
• Be descriptive enough to get the facts out. Your goal is to not make anyone have to read your mind. Start with the major points and explain them.
  
  
• Don't make people have to sit through a Flash or other intro to get to where they are going. Six seconds can feel like an eternity when you are searching for information.
  
  
• Keep your advertisements in their own territory. Don't make people have to scroll or deal with something popping out at them when they are in the middle of reading an article.
  
  
• Make your links make sense. That is, if you use link a word to something, that something should be a further explanation of that word. A definition or research site works well.
  
  
• Test those links. Readers don't want to land on a 404 page.
  
  

The idea that I am conveying to you is to get to the point, keep it short and sweet. Credibility and a good reputation are things that take time and hard work. The results pay off with many new and returning visitors.

My Best Ideas

When you write every day, and usually more than once a day, sometimes you can struggle for new ideas. Every writer hits the 'brick wall' at some time. Some hit it quite often. This is why you need to have some kind of strategy in place to deal with this when it happens.

Here are some ideas that help me deal with the writers block.

• Reading comments. Sometimes it's the commentators that can give you the best ideas. If anything, the posts with the most comments will tell you which post topics are the most popular and generate the most interest.
  
  
• Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. The best subscriptions are those that are e-mailed to you. The next best are the ones that you can quickly add to your homepage such as with Google or Yahoo. These ideas are all easy to scan and can give you great ideas.
  
  
• Check out the online news. Sometimes news can lead you to worthwhile topics.
  
  
• Lastly, go over some of your old posts. You can add to them, update them or just re-post them

20 Great Blogging Tips

You can attract people to hit on your site but, what will make them return?
90% of their return has to do with the content that you are providing. If your content is presented well and what the reader is looking for, they will most likely return and evern, bookmark or subscribe to it.

Here are some ideas on providing content worth returning for.

• Stick to the theme for your site. It you run a cooking site few of your readers will want to read about your puppy.

• Organize the overall look of your site. That is, maintain your white space and make the over-all look and feel inviting.

• Use a variety of approaches to achieve your theme goal. That is, present your information in a variety of ways.

• Write an eye catching yet informative headline to draw the reader in.

• Make the post easy to scan. You can do this with lists, bolding, and breaking up long sentences.

• Spread your knowledge by writing a "Tutorial" or "How to list."

• Prove your credibility. Use links and credits.

• I know it's been said but, be personable. That is, write like you are talking to an old friend.

• Guest blogging is like sharing the wealth. By the way, if you are interested in a reciprocal, please e-mail me.

• Keep it simple. That is, know when and where to edit your posts.

• Consider breaking up your long posts into a series of posts. You can do the all at once and set the post date to stagger them

• Images and diagrams can break up the word-monotony.

• Bullets and numbered lists can help break up the word monotony.

• Don't be so focused on earning ad revenue. Especially since the trend now is towards cost per action rather that cost per click. Most likely, you won't be earning a lot of money and if you do, if won't be until you are established as a better than good blogger.

• Make it easy to comment. You can always go in and remove them.

• Keep working at your craft. Spend some time each day researching your topic and how to become a better writer or blogger.

• Don't steal. Seriously. Readers know when they have seen the same information, worded the same over and over. When they see it happening in the same location it's super-obvious and the result is a loss of credibility. Plus, you wouldn't want it happening to you.

• Quote. If you like the information, quote and link to the author/source. It's professional to also alert the author in some way. Consider using the "link to" option.

• Check your sources. If someone says someone said then go to the someone who said and get the information directly and correctly.

• See what the others are doing and make friends while you're there. Check out the presentation, ideas, use of colors and be sure to leave a nice comment.

Get their interest!

Consider it a success that you have gotten someone to land on your page or site. Whether it was organic through a search engine or just by chance, they landed there. Now you have to keep their interest. The internet is a breeding ground for short attention spans.

It is of the utmost importance that you have a major and several minor eye catchers on your landing page. This means a really nice focal point to catch attention and several eye catchers to spark an interest.

Here is how to do this.

• The focal point.

Many bloggers will swear by the header visual . For most bloggers, this is a good idea. The visual should be no larger than a quarter of the screen size. This means that when the page loads the header image should not take over the majority of the page. Why? Because usually these images were posted by someone who has not optimized the image to take the file size down. The result? A very slow loading page. A very slow loading page leads to reader impatience and they move on.
Your header image should be an eye appealing visual, usually but, not always, including an image. When not to use an image? When the blog is centered around something very serious or upsetting.
Should words be added to your header?
By all means. The words should specifically state the title or the address of your blog. Think of it as the address sign on the front of your house. If you do not have one nobody will know where they are.

• Several Eye Catchers

Eye catchers are what reassure the visitor that yes, they do want to stay there and see what else there is. The first eye catcher tells them "wait a minute, this may be an interesting place to visit. Let's see what else there is". The two other eye catchers tell the visitor " yes, this is interesting, let's stick around."

What can the eye catchers be?

• Visuals
• Headlines
• Gadgets

The rule is to use a mixture but not too many. So, by limiting your eye catchers to three total and by using two different kinds to make it three, you are sparking interest without overwhelming.