When you see this title, you may want to ask: Why do we want to blog for a global audience? The reason is simple. As we step into the 21st century, the world is getting more connected to each other, with more and more people having internet access and are communicating with each other online. It is expected that such trend will continue to increase and internet communication is of crucial importance in social life, in business, and almost in anything.
Dylan Hunt once said: 'Every man is the hero of his own story'. So how do we be a great hero of our own story? Afterall, writing a blog may not be as easy as one thinks. How many of us bloggers are really successful in blogging? Not many I assume. Many people often suffer from poor blog readers or visiters. To most of the bloggers, attracting visiters are not as easy as abc. Why? The simplest reason is that, most people read a blog out of curiousity or to seek for knowledge, however to really follow a blog is a different story. People often link to people they read, or read people they know. From there, bloggers slowly establish reputation in the world of blogging. So how do we increase out blogger base and increase our audience number? There are several ideas that can be considered:
1. Plan
Seriously, I mean, how can we write a good blog if we do not plan? If we fail to plan, we are planning to fail. It is impossible to lauch a successful blog if we do not have a plan in mind. Tell yourself, why do you want to write a blog? Only when you know WHY you want to blog, you will know WHAT you want to blog. Of course, while planning, make sure what you are writing is down to earth and is of originality. DO NOT ever attempt to be pretentious. Write what you know and know what you write. After all, only when you are being yourself that you can unleash the creative brain juice of yours.
2. Design
People often choose not to read what they can't read, or what they find difficult to read. Hence, design plays an important role in writing a blog. A good design can increase the readership by making the blog more accessible and user-friendly. A good blog design usually consists of two main criteria: (1) easy to read - Big and clear fonts allow readers to enjoy reading without straining their eyes; (2) fast loading speed - Slow loading speed page means death of blog. Readers are often lack of patience. More than one or two seconds of time delay would mean you may lost half of your readership.
3. Market
Even when you have written a beautifully planned blog with wonderful designs, it will be off no use if no one knows of your existence. Remember, your blog is your identity, create a unique identity of yours by creating a URL address which in some way expresses your name or who you are. Next, in every place you would put your name, do put your blog address. It can be on your name card, after writing emails, or even when publishing an article. One important thing to remember is that, do put your name in your blog, or else no one will know that this is the right blog of yours.
4. Revise
Once you have blogged for a period of time and followed the above advice, most likely you will start seeing your number of readers increasing. Nevertheless, this is not enough if you do not keep revising your blog. How can you do so? You can do so by listening to our readers. If they send an email to you, reply them promptly, best within two days. If they leave a comment, read it and reply them appropriately. Always remember to thank them for giving feedback. After all, they are providing your blog with something. Accept constructive suggestions. When a substantial amount of readers said that the background design is too colourful, change it to a simpler design; if the font size is small, change them to a larger font size. Always remember, your readers are your audience, they are the one who increase your popularity.
By following the four golden rules: Plan, Design, Market, Revise (PDMR), I guarantee you will eventually succeed in gaining popularity in blogging sphere. Happy blogging! =)
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