Friday, June 19, 2009

Blogging Tips

Today I will have 2 posts, but I wanted this one to be a departure from the normal with some tips for other bloggers out there.

1- Join the Networks.
From the Warp and BoLS alliance can, and will, bring alot of traffic into your site. In 20 days, I have had half of my traffic come from those two parent sites. Though I think FTW is a richer and more group based community, BoLS is more visited (no offence Ron) so I highly recommend joining both.

2- Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a great way to monitor your site. You can see your daily traffic and see which days people visit more, or what posts people check the most. You can see how they visit your site, how long they spend there, even what country they are from and the language they read it in. I highly recommend adding it, as it can help you decide which content people like most and attract the most attention. Don't worry about Bounce Rate too much. Since it is a blog, people show up to read just the front page and don't really need to explore if they are a returning reader. Worry more about viewer loyalty. Plus it is cool to know that you have 1 reader from the Isle of Man (or whatever little random country).

3- Pictures
I noticed that just adding a picture to a post increases the number of visits I have. I believe this is because of the synopsis of a post that appears on blogrolled sites. When you have a cool thumbnail picture appear on another site, people click it. As well, once on your site, they are more likely to read a post with some pictures than just text.

4- Blogrolls
Early on I emailed many fellow bloggers and was added to their blogroll. In return I added them. This is beneficial to you and the community. This is what makes the networks strong and definately helps traffic. This ties in with the pictures.

5- Descriptive posts
People do random google searches for things like "Salamanders Space Marines". If you mention that several times in a post about them, then you will have higher search engine traffic. If you say it once, then it lowers your chances. And as Ron suggested in the comments, make the title of the post descriptive as well. Be specific on what it is about.

6- Unique content
Try to write about stuff that hasn't been done (or overdone) and write about what you like to write about and what you are good at writing. Or a gimic like Kantor Base and his Friday pictures. And Stay on topic don't stray too far from what the core is (in this case Warhammer)

7- Layout
Make it easy to follow and show everything avaliable. Descriptive tags also help.

8- Links
Link to anything you refer to. Don't send people searching for that post you made 2 weeks ago or that article hidden on the GW site. This also goes for refrencing. If you aren't going to describe that rule then tell people the page in the rule book it is on.

Well, there are my blogging tips. Hope they help.