5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
May
11
Written by:
2009/05/11 09:58 AM
Everyone wants to improve their website or blog. They want more traffic, more readers, more subscribers. We want our websites to rank well, for that we need inbound links. How do you then achieve all this? Well, read on, I will give you five tips that can improve your website and blog.
1. Web design tip: Don’t design your website only appeal to you.
Don’t design your website to what only you like. Design your website to what appeals to your clients and customers. Many times I come across people who believe they have a fantastic website, but in reality, it is horrid. Obviously that would be my opinion. But in the customers eyes, his opinion matters.
You cannot always please everyone, but you must be able to please and attract the majority. Who cares if you like your site to be shocking pink and luminous green? If your clients and potential customers don’t like that, they will not come back, they will not invite their friends. Your site will die.
What is the purpose of your site? To appeal to you and your family, or to attract visitors? If it is to attract visitors, then design your site for them and not for you.
2. Web traffic tip: Give away free content.
Copyright is so rife on the internet now days. Everyone is trying to protect their content or intellectual property. This is not a bad thing, but it can be overdone. So many websites and bloggers have strict copyright attached to their content. You cannot use it or redistribute it.
We are not talking about trying to defraud someone, but we are talking about the ability to get your work out on the web by as many ways as you can. Allowing others to republish your content, with back links of course, is an excellent way to get the word out.
The point is, be prepared to give away free content. In fact be prepared to give away anything free. People like free stuff. They get the feeling that this blog or web site is all about them, and that you’re not just trying to sell them something.
Even though sales might be your primary motive, a freebie, will ultimately increase sales. Strange as it might sound, it works.
3. Blog Tip: Be aware you're traffic comes form different sources.
Traffic, traffic, traffic. Our websites and blogs thrive on traffic. There are so many tips on how to get traffic to your blog. But the problem is that many people tend to focus on trying to get that massive influx of traffic. They are looking for the goldmine.
But natural traffic comes slowly over time, and it comes from many different sources. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, as the saying goes. A little traffic from here, and a little traffic from there all adds up to lots of traffic in the end.
Don’t be discouraged if you get 20 visits from one source and 18 visits from another, and 10 from yet another. If you have 100 different smaller traffic sources, all of a sudden you're looking at the region of 1000 visits.
It’s a lot easier to get 10 or 20 visits from smaller traffic sources than it is to get 1000 visits from a single big source. Once the traffic has been built up, the bigger sources will follow.
4. Blogging tip: Always be ultra friendly to other bloggers.
We can spend so much time on our own blogs and websites that we fail to see any one else's. Being friendly towards other bloggers is such an important tip, that I cannot express it any harder.
If you want comments and traffic on your site, then you’d better be prepared to give rather than receive.
Find few blogs and websites in your niche, read their posts and then start commenting on the blogs and posts. But don’t spam. In other words, don’t comment just to create back links or invite traffic. Make the comment useful and to the topic of the post. You wouldn't want people to spam your comments, so don’t spam theirs.
You can leave a link to your site or blog post if the comment warrants it. By commenting on other posts and encouraging other bloggers, not only will they start to read your blog, but their readers will start as well.
Try it, you will be surprised.
5. IT Tip: Equip yourself with different skills.
So many people are really good at one thing. So much so, that they cannot do anything else. Then again, there are those who are so biased towards a particular skill set or product that to their own detriment they fail to see the importance of other products or skills.
Many PHP/MySQL developers hate Microsoft or anything to do with Microsoft. Then you find that the C# guys will not entertain PHP, even if it kills them.
Drupal guys will not touch Joomla. Wordpress is the king. Dotnetnuke is the only possible CMS to use. Programmers never touch hardware, and hardware guys can not program.
Now I am not saying that you should not major in any particular skill or product, Choose something that you’re good at and stick to that. But keep you options open. Use the right product for the right purpose.
Equip yourself with different skills. Learn about networks and how they work and are set up. Understand how to lay cables. Become familiar with the major programming languages, even if it is an alternative, or in competition to the one that you use. Don’t be shy to look at other CMS packages or blogging tools.
Why do I say this? Well, simply, because times change. What is popular today might not be popular or available tomorrow. You do not want to be caught unawares. The other reason is that you can reach a bigger and better audience.
If you cannot achieve what you want for your blog on Wordpress, don’t be scared to try something else. If PHP is not working for you, try another language. The point is be skilled at many things and be flexible.
What other tips might you have? Share them with us by leaving a comment. I am sure we will all benefit from it.
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13 comment(s) so far...
Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
USeful post - thanks for that! I couldn't help but notice the copywrite signature at the end of it though ;-)
By Galen on
2009/05/11 01:17 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Great tips thank you very much ,I'm new to blogging I found these tips helpful and insightful
By Laura Worley on
2009/05/11 03:43 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Galen,
Thanks for the comment.
The copyright is a default of the blogging platform that I am using. Having issues with it. Sometimes is on, sometimes its not.
But copyright, does not mean that the post cannot be re-used. It just ensures that the right author should be credited.
As I said, I do not condone copying someone elses post and making that yours. But I do advocate others being able to use your content on their site, with the correct credits of course.
These two are different.
By Robert Bravery on
2009/05/11 06:53 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Laura,
Thanks for the comment. I am glad you got something out of it. I hope these tips will be an asset to your blogging,
By Robert Bravery on
2009/05/11 06:54 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Good stuff! I especially agree with the need for diversity (and Wordpress is King!) and giving out content. Not only does the distro of free content provide traffic but (assuming its good content - ha!) it builds your credibility.
Thanks for the tips!
Kita
By Lakita on
2009/05/11 07:34 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Lakita,
Thanks for the comment. Good Points, especially the one about good content. IF the content aint good, the traffic won't be either
By Robert Bravery on
2009/05/11 08:06 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Hi
great tip,thanks for this ,keep on that spirit because the more you help others what to do the more you capture their attention. Addition to what you have provided us,i would love you to learn how to attract prospects to you. http://johnnyjoy.marketingmerge.com
By katongole on
2009/05/11 08:49 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Hi
great article ,thanks for this ,keep on that good spirit because the more you help others what to do the more you capture their attention. Addition to what you have provided us,i would love you to learn how to attract prospects to you. http://johnnyjoy.marketingmerge.com
By katongole on
2009/05/11 08:51 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Nice post, found it on Amatumo, I literally just posted on how I once got to 20 on Amatumo, with short a sweet posts, although it was also that Google just seamed to give that fine day..
Sort post can be found on my home page..
http://themeltinpot.wordpress.com/
By Melting Pot on
2009/05/11 10:48 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
@Melting Pot,
Thanks for the comment. It was difficult for me to find your first name, so my apologies.
I believe that many focus too much on SEO for search engines, that the forget the basics, writing for humans, what people want to hear. Altho I am a big fan of SEO, writing for you audience is always better and will always bring more results than targeting Search Engines.
Once you write for the human factor, SEO can be used to tweek the post.
SEO, altho important, should never be first option. It's like the cart before the horse.
By Robert Bravery on
2009/05/12 08:29 AM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
katongole,
Thanks for the comment and encouragement. It was difficult for me to find your first name, so my apologies.
I am learning everyday as to what people want, and how I can help them. You're right, the more I post stuff that people find helpful, the more my traffic increases.
By Robert Bravery on
2009/05/12 08:34 AM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
Hi Robert
You visited my website and left a comment and I followed you here. I love your blog and all the cool tips. I will be visiting it a lot in times to come! I think this should be proof that what you said is true!
By Pieter van Wyk on
2009/05/13 09:08 PM
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Re: 5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
I Pieter,
Thanks for the comment. Yes you're proof that commenting on other blogs, being friendly and offering advice does wonders for your own blog.
Thanks
By Robert Bravery on
2009/05/13 09:37 PM
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