Blogging Tips
How to Generate a Unique Blog
Original Image by : Torley
I’ve been wondering what do I need to create a unique blog. We can start by defining the meaning of “unique”.
Unique (p): (followed by `to’) applying exclusively to a given category or condition or locality; “a species unique to Australia”
Singular: the single one of its kinds; “a singular example”; “the unique existing example of Donne’s handwriting”; “a unique copy of an ancient manuscript”; “certain types of problems have unique solutions”
highly unusual or rare but not the single instance; “spoke with a unique accent”; “had unique ability in raising funds”; “a frankness unique in literature”; “a unique dining experience”
What is a unique blog to me?
A unique blog is a blog where it is different in their own ways, very unusual and we can’t find it on every blog. It can be unique in the design, writing style, marketing style, etc.
As you can see, if we want to create a unique blog, we must be different. Not only in blog design, but also in writing style and the ways we present something. We can have the same content, but we can be different by using a different approach.
How to make a unique blog?
Until we start to do the thing we like, we will never bring out our personality into our blog. We won’t be able to create something unique if we are imitating. If we want to be unique, we must learn how to express our feeling. I won’t be able to guide you when it comes to generate a unique blog, but I can share with you some of the tips that can get you started.
Be Personal
Getting personal doesn’t mean you blog all your personal life. But we bring our personal style and like into the blog. Try to start from your blog design, use the color you love and the layout you prefer. Don’t worry if anyone can read your writing or not, but do something you like first. And you can correct it later, because blogs are like people. They grow and become more mature along the author.
Researching
Even though we need to become selfish when trying to create a unique blog, the selfishness can be balanced by adding researching into our process. Because the readers that will judge if your blog is unique and bring out your personality or not. Whatever the change you make, a further researching can make your blog get a better score in that area.
Try Something You’ve Never Tried
We’re growing very fast when we were baby. The reasons why a baby can learn how to walk and communicate so fast just because they don’t stop learning and try something new. When they know walking is difficult, they’ll try to grab something nearby them to help them learning faster.
How about you? Do you want to stop trying something that you’ve never tried? Something which might be able to make your blog unique?
Continue When You Feel Good with it
Every human have an ability to judge if something is worth to continue or not. When you feel good to implement these new things, the further steps is to continue doing it.
Will you stop doing the things you like at first? Yes, and your judgement will make you stop doing it when the time comes.
How to Gather Blog Contents When You’re Out of Idea
Originial Image by: Grafik Mekanik
What’ll you do if you don’t have enough content for your blog post? This is a common question newbie bloggers will ask, but luckily God bestows us with a brain that can produce countless ideas for us to write.
Finding blog contents or gathering blog contents is an important skill for bloggers. Not everyone can create 100% original content without being influenced by external sources. New content is made up from many sources you have interacted with. That’s why you can find some similarity between your post and another blogger’s post.
How to gather content efficiently?
1. Google Search Engine
You may use Google Search Engine every day, but do you know the syntax? The uses of syntax appears when you use “Advanced Search”. Here are some common uses of syntax in Google Search
+ (query): the keyword will definitely appear on the search result page. It can be used when you want some keyword to appear on result page.
E.g. Make Money +Blogging will have blogging in your result but “make” “money” can vary.
- (query): contrary of + (query), your result page will not show the keyword with – typed.
E.g. Make Money –Blogging. The result will not show any blogging keyword in there.
Exact result: Use quotation mark for exact phrase
E.g. “Make Money Blogging” will return you a result with the word in that order, or called exact result.
For more explanation to use search engine, you can view this video to become a wise searcher.
2. Stumble Upon
StumbleUpon is a Web 2.0 service where you can stumble the website category you prefer. How does it help you to gather blog content? I will stumble for a while to see if there are any interesting articles or websites for me to write. So when I find one, I’ll note down and continue to expand that idea later.
Why StumbleUpon?
I choose StumbleUpon because the stumbled website consists real good content. If we want to create great contents, we need to be influenced by great contents too. You should check this post if you’re using StumbleUpon.
3. Forum Discussion
Forum is a good place for gathering idea; we can see what people need and what they think. You don’t need to join the discussion but it will bring a greater impact if you can ask some feedback or live up the discussion.
4. Friends
I believe friends play an important role in blogging, sometimes you don’t realize that you have used too much time in blogging. Stop blogging for a while and go out with your friends. Ask them if they have visited your blog and ask their opinion. Whether the feedback is good or bad, you should give your thanks because they have used their time to visit your blog.
I often ask my friends if anything can be added in my blog in order to assist other people. Because some of them know nothing about blogging, I’ll ask them to read and see if they understand what I want to deliver to the readers.
5. Blog or Blogger?
When you’re a blogger, you need to interact with other blogger. The reason we should interact with them is to find out how they are doing with their blog. You can ask them how they market their blog, what is their next plan. And see if you can work together to achieve the target.
Subscribing to the blog you like can inspire you to write more influence content. I am often inspired by some blogs with relevant contents, so why not subscribe?
I have started my college and I won’t have too much time to blog, I have set a target to get 50 subscribers by the end of the month. Please help me to achieve this target by subscribing to it, that’s why we need to know how to set a reasonable target.
How to Use Google Analytic to Gain Subscribers (Part 2)
Make money online niche is just another lying competition. Well, do you understand what I mean? I only want to scream out loud on these words. But it carries some meaning too. This is the second part of gaining subscribers through Google Analytic.
On my first post, I’ve talked about what Google Analytic is and I’ve prepared some data to show how it works. Let’s do it step by step.
1. Choosing Keyword
From the list of your keyword, choose the most relevant keywords to your site. I usually choose the keywords I want to focus on or I choose the keywords that bring the most traffic to my website. However, you need to consider the relevancy between the keywords and your contents. The more relevant it is the higher chance you can turn the visitors into subscribers.
2. Tweaking Your Post
If you figure out which post your keywords are pointing. You can immediately begin tweaking your post. I can find out easily just by looking these keywords since I only write one post on acne problem and blogger template. Here is the list of tweaking tips.
- Ask for subscribing at the end of the post.
- Tell the readers why they must subscribe, make it related to your post.
- Read from the reader view, if you can answer why they type these keywords, all you need is to give them more option in exchange for subscription. Usually most of the visitor will be gladly to subscribe if they find your post solve their problem.
- Add more value to the post by research more on these keywords.
3. Evaluating
This is a common sense, but not all blogger realize and do it. You need to evaluate the post you have tweaked.
- Does your post become better after tweaking?
- Is the reading flow goes well with the content?
- Does your keyword still targeted or saturated by your added contents?
- If you’re the reader, will you subscribe?
I think with these simple steps above you can increase your subscriber significantly. I don’t recommend you to do this all the time, but make sure your new content still up to date and while you have some spare time. Take a look at these graphics and do some tweaking on your post.
Gaining subscribers is not that difficult at all, you only need to spend your little time in forum to exchange RSS subscription. But the most difficult part is to turn your subscriber into loyal readers. Do you think you have the ability to turn these subscribers into reader?