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Monday, November 8, 2010

10 Ways to Make a Good First Impression with Your Blog by Tanya Peterson

This post is a stop along Tanya Peterson’s Blog Tour 2010. Tanya is the blogger behind Blogelina, where she writes about blogging your way to success. Be sure to check out all the other stops along the tour and enter to win $100 to use in improving your own blog!

10 Ways to Make a Good First Impression with Your Blog

What is your blog saying to the people stopping by? Is it welcoming them? Encouraging them to stick around for a bit? Here are a few tips to help your blog make the first impression you want it to:

Appearance matters. Don’t overwhelm your reader with a lot of ads, buttons, colors, fonts, etc.. Make sure your blog is pleasing to look at. Use images appropriately to add interest but not to overwhelm.

Demonstrate that your readers are getting the attention, not you. Blogs are about building community and relationships. Make sure that you’re putting your readers first. Do this by highlighting their input and letting them know every chance you get that you appreciate them! When people feel appreciated, they tend to stick around longer.

Don’t use pop ups! I don’t know about you but one of the fastest ways for me to get turned off from a site is to have an annoying pop-up block my view of the content. This is especially true of slow-loading sites – because the pop-ups take that much longer to fully display so I can close them!

Make sure your site loads fast. Don’t make readers wait for any longer than… well, a second… to see your site. There are few things less annoying than waiting for a site to slowly load all its information. If it takes a long time for the initial page to load, chances are that your readers won’t be sticking around to see how long your other pages take to display.

Check for errors – Part of presenting an attractive image to your visitors is to make sure you’ve taken the time to be correct. Always check your spelling and grammar when writing headlines and posts. Also, be sure to double check all your links to make sure they are working correctly.

Consider using landing pages for your blog – If you know that you’ll be receiving traffic from a certain source, why not create a specific landing page to welcome the readers from that source? Tailor your landing page to feature information and make the impression that you know would go over well with those visitors.

Put your best foot forward - Make your most popular and best posts easy to locate. You can do this in your about page, in your sidebars, in your footer – use your imagination!

Make sure your headlines are engaging - Write post and page titles that your readers will have to click on.

Your About Page – This is a great place to let your particular voice be heard. If readers like what they see when they arrive at your blog, they’re probably going to want to know more about you. Introduce yourself and your blog – clearly outline what your blog is doing and how it can be helpful.

Your elevator pitch or logo – Sum up your purpose and intent in blogging in a few words. Create a catchy phrase that embodies what your blog is all about and make it sound like fun!

Do you have something to add to the list above? What are some things that make an impression on you when you visit new blogs? Leave a comment below to let us know!

7 comments:

Betty Manousos said...

Great and useful tips!!
Thanks so much for sharing.

Wishing you a great week ahead!
Betty

Anonymous said...

Thanks for following www.SheltonMade.blogspot.com!

I'm returning the favor!

Great blog =)

-Kimberly

Carrie with Children said...

Great advice! It drives me nuts when you go to a site and they have music automatically playing.

Belly Charms said...

Great info. I am a new follower. Thanks for stopping by Belly Charms today.

Danielle said...

These truly are some great tips. I must say I don't like going to sites that have music that comes on automatically either. I normally surf with my mute button on so I don't have to be bothered.

Trac~ said...

Love these tips and can't wait to check out the rest of your blog and other tips! Thanks for the follow and I am following you back from the Tuesday blog hop! Have a great day! :)

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