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A really fun and exciting way to kick off a new blog is by hosting a giveaway.  This can be as simple as asking people to comment on a specific post and then picking randomly from those chosen, or as complex as creating a skill-based contest that requires entrants to complete a task of some sort where you choose a winner based on your judgment. 

The process of creating a giveaway can be a little bit time consuming, but may be very well worth it if your goal is pulling new visitors to your blog.  Here are the steps you may want to follow to create a blog giveaway…

Decide on a prize 

if your blog has a specific theme, it is always nice to choose a prize that is related to that theme.  For instance, if your blog is dedicated to reviewing local theater then tickets to an upcoming production would be the perfect giveaway.  If you don’t have the advantage of a clear theme – - maybe you simply write a mom blog – - then you might want to give away something parenting related, or even settle on a prize that anyone can be happy with such as an Amazon gift card or Restaurant.com certificate.   The most important thing is to make sure that you have your prize IN HAND before beginning your giveaway…there is nothing worse than administering a giveaway and realizing the prize you counted on giving is backordered and you won’t be able to send it to the winner for another month.

Pin down your giveaway details 

Take a tour around the blogosphere before you begin your own giveaway and check out other bloggers’ approaches to the process.  How do they word their rules?  What kind of time limits do they use?  How do they get other people to share the news of their giveaway?  This type of info will be invaluable to you as you formulate a plan for your own.  Once you have decided what the goal of your giveaway is (do you want to create just traffic, or are you hoping people will comment more?  do you want people to add you to their blogrolls?) then you can decide on what the requirements to enter your giveaway will be.  And keep in mind that the more you ask people to do, the better the prize needs to be!  No one is going to take the time to mention your blog on their social networks for the chance to win a free coffee at Starbucks. 

Create your giveaway copy and graphics 

Now that you know how you want your giveaway to go, it’s time to set it up!  Graphics will be an important part of your giveaway post, because nice pictures of prizes are a huge factor in whether visitors will give your post a long enough look to find out what your blog is really about.  And speaking of which, make sure to include some teasers about your blog, or links to a previous post in your giveaway.  It’s important that your visitors do more than just enter your giveaway…give them a reason to stick around and check things out!!

Promote!! 

Finally, once your giveaway is live, it’s time to figure out how to let people know about it.  Posting about it on your social networks is a no-brainer, but you also want to let the blogosphere know as well.  You will want to submit your giveaway to online contest directories such as Online-Contest.com, make sure the word “giveaway” is in the title of your post (to make it easy for searchers), and promote it in any forums or email loops you belong to.  Then, as another more in-depth promotional tool, you can even use a simple picture creation software to draw up a simple badge that advertises your giveaway and offer an additional entry to anyone who is willing to post the badge on their website and link it back to your giveaway!  That’s the power of networking!!

Giveaways certainly aren’t the most effective way for building an audience for your blog (good writing and strong content are!), but they will definitely help build a short-term buzz around it, and may even bring you a long-term fan or two!!  For more ideas on building blog traffic and drawing new readers to your posts, sign up for our full Blogging 101 course.

One of the most crucial – - and perhaps most fun – - parts of setting up a new blog is the choosing of the theme or template.  Whether you use WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, or one of the thousands of smaller blog hosting services, you will ultimately have to choose the background that will define your blog’s design.

Many people think that when they are choosing a theme for their blog, they are simply choosing the “look” it will have.  But if you have a hosted blog, the truth is that the theme you choose also affects even the FUNCTIONALITY of your blog. 

I got a question this week from a blogger who was wondering how to add a navigational menu across the top of her blog page.   Had she had a self-hosted blog that she had downloaded, this might have been a matter of adding some basic code that would help her link to the main sections of her content.  But since she had a blog that was hosted at Blogspot, that meant her only real choice for including tabs at the top of her blog was choosing a theme that had that feature built into it.

When you are browsing the themes and templates from your blog hosting service, make sure to examine all aspects of each one during the preview.  You will want to look for things such as:

• number of columns
• whether it uses a right or left sidebar
• whether it includes a navigational menu (and what that menu connects to)
• whether the colors are customizable
• customization of header
• how photos appear on posts and sidebar
• built in widgets, such as RSS, calendars, and stats

Making note of these small details can go a long way toward ensuring that you are as happy USING a particular theme or template as you were picking it out.  And remember the other wonderful thing about blogging….changing your mind is your daily prerogative!  If you don’t like a template, don’t hesitate to change it!  Your readers adjust to change quickly, and if you aren’t happy with it, you won’t utilize it. 

Happy theme picking, everyone!!

For more information on choosing themes, and other aspects of beginning blog design, sign up today for our eight-week online Blogging 101 course!

EVERYONE has something to say….. That’s why a subscription to our Blogging 101 course makes the PERFECT gift idea for almost anyone on your list!! Think of all the people in your life who seem to always have something to say:

• parents
• spouses
• co-workers
• teens
• neighbors
• in-laws
• friends

They have all bent your ear plenty of times, right? Well, why not give them a new outlet for all their chatter?? They may not need a new tie, or another set of dishtowels, but your friends and family can all benefit from a new skill. Anyone can become a blogger – - no matter their age, background, or education. Blogging 101 is the perfect introduction to blogging, and is a gift that will keep on giving throughout 2011 and beyond!

If you would like to send someone on your list the "gift of blog", just head over to our Gift Page, and register your gift subscription.  We will send your recipient a personalized certificate via email with instructions on how to get started.  You don’t even have to fight the crowds at the mall!!! What other incentive could you possibly need???

So you are starting a new blog, and you want to have more than Aunt Erma and Cousin Grover reading it.  So you begin to explore all the different ways of increasing blog traffic (including taking our terrific Blog Writing Course!!) and yet you still feel like there is something else you could do to get the word out about your site.

And there is!!  It is called Twitter, and unless you have lived in a cave for the past five years you have probably heard of it.  You might have even looked into it, but weren’t sure how it could really benefit you.  Well, if you are a blogger, Twitter might have several benefits for you…

• Twitter can introduce your blog to a whole different set of readers.  Those who follow Twitter aren’t always the same ones who follow blogs, so if you create a Twitter account that is focused on the same subject as your blog, you might garner a whole new audience!
• You can have your new posts automatically post to Twitter!  That’s right…using a service such as Twitterfeed, you can link up your blog to Twitter and let TF do all the work!  Then, your Twitter followers will be immediately notified anytime you add a new post.
• You can get more mileage out of your blog.  Blog posts are very different from Tweets…they are longer, more indepth, and usually have more substance than the average Tweet.  But that doesn’t mean that you stop having things to say about your blog subject after you have posted.  If you want to add to the conversation, post additional remarks, or ask for opinions about what you have posted, Twitter is the perfect outlet!
• You can supplement your blog.  By posting additional information, links, and resources that have to do with your blog theme, you can use your Twitter account to be an all-in-one reference source for your particular subject.  This helps potential readers understand that you are serious about making your blog the Go-To place for info.

To utilize these strategies, you will also want to be sure to include a scrolling feed of your Tweets on your blog sidebar as well.  That way, your blog visitors can quickly view your between-posts information!

So you have been thinking about starting a blog.  Everyone is doing it, right? So why shouldn’t you??

Well, maybe you should, and maybe you shouldn’t.  Here are some questions to ask yourself if you have been considering joining the blogosphere lately…

1. Do you enjoy writing?  If the first answer that comes to mind is…”I’d rather have bamboo shoots stuck under my fingernails!!”, then possibly blogging is not for you.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.  Maybe you don’t enjoy writing because you haven’t found something you enjoy writing about yet. If that is the case, see the next question…
2. Do you have something you are passionate about?  If there is a subject, concept, idea, or hobby that you just can’t get enough of, then you just might be the next big blogger.  That’s because having a deep interest in a particular subject is one of the key ingredients of being able to write a blog that others will enjoy reading.  People can “catch” passion.  Even if you aren’t the best writer in the world, but you are passionate about what you are writing about, you can often create a successful blog.
3. Are you willing to take risks?  Are you willing to try new things?  Experiment?  Learn?  Even more importantly…are you willing to fail?  If the answer to these things is a resounding “yes”, then you might be ready to jump headlong into the exciting and uncertain world of blogging!
4. Do you enjoy networking?  One important thing to remember about a blog is that it is NOT a diary.  A blog is meant for viewing and interacting with.  That means that in order to build a readership for your blog, you have to do more than just write it and hope people will come.  You have to network with other bloggers and online personalities in the field you are blogging about.  If you like to keep pretty much to yourself on the world wide web, then blogging may not be for you, but if you are a natural chatter, commenter, and messager, then you already are halfway there to creating a community around your blog!

If you answered each of the above questions with a resounding, “YES”, then you could be a strong candidate for starting your very own blog.  I would suggest that you take our free pre-course, “Intro to Blogging” to help you get your feet wet and help you make the final decision about whether blogging is for you.

One of the great ways to build traffic for your fledgling blog is by both BECOMING a guest blogger and HOSTING a guest blogger.  If you have already made connections with bloggers in your genre, or have been reading a blog with a theme similar to yours for some time now, this may not be too difficult to set up. 

The first thing would be to send an inquiry to someone you would like to have as a guest writer.  You could have them write just one post, a whole week, or a series of posts.  The person should be someone whose blog has a decently strong following, because your hope is that that person’s readers will follow them over to YOUR blog, and be introduced to you in turn.  When you contact the author, you might want to explain to them why you think they would make a good guest poster for your blog (a little flattery never hurts!).  You also will want to ask them to announce their guest post status on their own blog, so you will get a direct link to your blog.

This technique for traffic building will probably have at least a modest effect on your blog.  But an even BIGGER traffic-building strategy is for you to guest post on someone ELSE’S blog.  So how in the world do you go about that?

Well, it requires some tact and some good writing, for sure!  Before offering your guest blogging services to anyone, you need to make sure that your blog is in tip-top shape.  Has your writing been stellar lately?  Is your design up-to-date and eye-catching?  These are the things another blogger will be looking for as they make the decision whether you are guest blogger material!  So before you make even the first inquiry about becoming a guest blogger, do an objective analysis of your recent content to see if it is up to guest blogger standards.

Then, when you feel confident that you have produced some pretty awesome content, go ahead and send your blog link and a request to five of your favorite blogs in your genre, asking them to take a look at your blog and consider you as a fill-in for the next time they are out of town or have hit writer’s block.  Hopefully, if they like what they see, they will keep your info on file, and will contact you with your first ever guest blogger opportunity! 

Then, when you take them up on their offer, be sure to link back to your blog somewhere in your post, so that when (not if) their readers enjoy your writing, they will be able to easily make their way over to your blog and become your next biggest fans!!

Chances are, you are already benefiting from feeds – - those wonderful time saving devices that go out and get the information YOU want, and bring it right to your doorstep. I have feeds for my favorite blogs, my local newspaper, and updates to my frequented websites. I don’t have to go out to all those different sites to get updated information – - instead, it comes to me.

You might not, however, have been on the actual "feeding" side of a feed until now. But when your blog starts to grow its readership, your followers will want the same convenience you do in having your blog updates sent directly to them. So, you will need to register with a feed service, to make sure this is accomplished easily. Another advantage of having a feed service, is that it tracks your feed subscribers. So you will know exactly how many people are accessing your feeds on a regular basis.

Sometimes, setting up an RSS feed for your blog is as easy as going into your dashboard or layout and tweaking a few settings.  In Blogger, for instance, you go into your “Settings” menu and look for “Site Feed”.  From there, you can choose how much of your site to syndicate.  Once you have enabled these settings, your site feed will automatically be generated.  Some Blogger templates will immediately begin showing a subscription option to your readers.  Others may require you to install a separate gadget for this purpose.

In WordPress, feed subscriptions are enabled with a widget called the “blog subscription widget.”  Your blog stats page will then show you how many people are subscribed to your blog. 

If you prefer more detailed or in-depth information about your feeds and subscribers, you might consider signing up for a separate RSS feed via an external feed site such as Feedburner or Bloglines.

You can write the most exciting, engaging, and even mind-blowing blog in the world, but unless people can subscribe to your content, they will never know when you have something new to say.  So make creating a feed for your blog a priority!!

Yes.  Yes, in fact I did say a FREE blogging course.  BlogWritingCourse.com is proud to offer new or potential bloggers a free introductory course into the world of blogging.  That means that if you have been entertaining the idea of starting a blog, but felt that you really didn’t know where to begin, then we have a course for you!!

Intro to Blogging is a fun and interactive automated course to help you get your feet wet in the blogosphere.  There are a series of videos, short readings, and interactive exercises which you can take over a week or so, taking perhaps a total of two hours.  During this time, you’ll discover:

- how easy it is to blog

- what the basic lingo (vocabulary) is

- some basics about online safety

- whether blogging is something for you or not

Don’t let a lack of knowledge intimidate you from starting a blog or even taking a blog writing course.  By signing up for and taking our free pre-course you know what it’s all about. You’ll understand the lingo. You’ll know how to stay safe online and you’ll know how to create and promote your own blog.

Join the growing number of bonified bloggers who have gotten their start in blogging right here – - at BlogWritingCourse.com! 

This week, I only blogged twice on my personal blog, but I happened to notice that traffic – - especially new visitor traffic was way up.  I looked at my statistics a little more closely to see what might have created the boost, and couldn’t find any huge surge in backlinks or referrals.  There was no big Google search trend for anything I had posted about.  The only thing different that I could see was that I had used a couple particularly clever titles for my posts this week.

This got me intrigued, so I pulled up some older statistics and compared it to other weeks where my titles had been particularly interesting, and sure enough, there was a spike definite traffic/title correlation going on.

I guess this shouldn’t have been a real revelation, but of all the things about my blog, my titles are usually only given an afterthought.  Usually they just make me laugh, so I’ve always been good with that.

But now, I’m considering putting a little more thought into my blog post titles. Based on my short investigation, this is what I have come to conclude are the best choices for blog titles:

• Titillating words or phrases – - throw in a “Viagra” anywhere within a title, and you are bound to get a few extra clicks that week
• Things that make you go awwww – - some of my most traffic-inducing titles sound like they came from the inside of a Hallmark card.  Obviously we’re suckers for sap.
• Rhyming Words – - I’ll admit I’m still stumped by this one, but for some reason people simply can’t resist a good “Junk in the Trunk” story.  Must go back to all those “Hop on Pop” moments we shared with our mothers as toddlers.
• All Caps – - I beg you to use this one WITH CAUTION, but if you are desperate for a little bloggy action on a particular day, go ahead and give us the cyber shout.  We’re gluttons for punishment, it would seem.

Those are my simple, yet weirdly profound conclusions as far as titles go.  Granted, I didn’t give you the skinny on keywords, SEO, and other stuff that professional bloggers would wax eloquently about, but if you want real (albeit, temporary) results, then I’m telling you…add in your favorite E.D. drug of choice in your next post title and watch those stats surge! 

Until next time,

Image by melop via Flickr

I consider myself a relatively non-judgmental person.  I try to look at issues from both sides.  I try to evaluate a person’s motives, as well as their actions.  I understand that people have good days and bad days.

But when it comes to blogs, I’m a complete snob.  As are most people.

We give a blog about 15 seconds – - TOPS! – - to impress us, and then we move on.  Why?  Because there are several million other blogs to choose from.  So what does that tell us?  That first impressions matter – - A LOT.

For that reason, it is of the highest importance when creating a blog to focus on the overall visual imprint your blog is going to have on a visitor.

• Are the color schemes inviting?
• Is the template you are using unique?
• Does the header clearly express what the blog is about?
• Is the title catchy and interesting?
• Have you made the blog easy to navigate and find the most important information?
• Are your sidebars easy on the eye, or cluttered with excess?
• Are there enough graphics to keep visual people engaged?

These are all terrific questions to ask yourself when you are in the process of building a new blog.  If the answer to even ONE of these questions is negative, you may have just lost a potential reader.

It would be ideal if everyone in the blogosphere was willing to look past the “externals” of your blog in order to see the truth of what you have to say, but we’re usually far too fickle and too pressed for time to be that understanding.  So, give some serious thought to what your readers’ first impressions of your blog should be, and take the time and effort to make sure they stick around long enough to find out just what it is you have to say.

If you’d like to find out more about blog design, and how to create the right “look” for your new blog, consider signing up for our next session of Blogging 101 – - a comprehensive eight week, instructor-led course for new bloggers!

Until next time,