More and more people prefer reading blogs to websites. Since blogs are simpler and easier to do, focus on skills that propel you to blogging success. And anyway, blogs are what make websites dynamic online and score high in search engines. So, it’s vital to know what skills are needed to make blogs a daily hit.
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Design Skills
Designing skills can do a lot to pin visitors’ interest on a site. The skill should include the ability to blend balance and contrast, simplicity and sophistication. These are important things needed for your blog. Remember that what really attracts visitors to your site is the design layout more than the articles. Articles get attention only after the site design has been appraised positively. With bland designs, articles often never get a chance to be noticed, no matter how well written or how high it ranked in the search engines.
Image from Behance: Soma-2012
Three things are important where design layout is concerned: the header and logo, the sidebar, and the body.
The header and logo is often what visitors first see. It contains the title of the blog, the subtitle, and the logo or avatar that represents the blog. Often, visitors judge the whole blog—including all the articles—basing on how the header and logo appeal to them. Thus, layout design skills that propel you to blogging success are needed especially where first impression is concerned.
Next are the widgets and apps and other graphics on the sidebar. Be sure to have just the important things needed for your blog to stand out from the rest and keep your visitors glued to it. Do not over decorate your sidebar. Or else it would look like a sidebar with a blog rather than a blog with a sidebar. It will be a shame if visitors just tinker with stuff on the sidebar and ignore the wonderfully written articles on the main body.
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Next is the main body where the articles are presented. Here is what the blog is all about, the main reason why it is online. Having passed the taste and preferences of the visitor with the header and sidebar now is the time to present the whole case. And make it brief and direct. About 300- or 400-word articles usually do the trick with an image for each article either on the top right or left.
Notice that for the header, sidebar, and body to blend well into an agreeable whole, balance and contrast are needed, as well as simplicity and sophistication.
Writing Skills
After the layout has been designed well, the next important thing is unique and informative articles. Don’t disappoint visitors by luring them with impressive site design, and then only to bore them later with poorly written or useless content. Practice writing often to develop skills that propel you to blogging success. That’s the only way to achieve success here.
Image from Behance: Swallow Cafe
Three things should occupy each content: relevance, information, and challenge to action. And the action should always be about readers commenting on the article. Various and numerous comments are important things needed for your blog to score high in search engines and attract more traffic.
Promotional Skills
Don’t just rely on search engines. Promote the blog and each article on social networking sites. This requires skills in making friends, projecting an image online, and creating pages to further promote the blog and enlist others to the cause. Some blogging experts say it’s really the promotional skills that propel you to blogging success more than SEO.
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