Like you, I read a number of different blogs daily. There are certain things that I believe all blogs should have to keep readers engaged. I highly recommend you read this post and see if your blog has these five things.
Social Media Sharing Features- Every blog can benefit from extra visitors. Adding social sharing buttons on your blog, allows for readers to easily share your content on social networking sites.
An About Page -You would be surprised how many people don’t have an about page on their blog. Every blog should have an about page. It is an essential tool, as it help readers understand what your blog is about and informs them of you who are.
Contact Form- I have visited many blogs where there was no way to contact the author of the blog. You blog needs at least a contact page for people to reach you.
Comments turned on- Having commented turned on invites readers to interact with you and share their thoughts, thus creating a community around your blog.
Quality content- You’d think this would be obvious, but a number of bloggers blog just for the sake of blogging. Great content get attention. It isn’t always easy to write a post that gets shared. Instead of worrying about posting every day consecrate on creating content that will get read and shared.
I’m sure I could list more things I think a blog should have, but I’d rather turn the floor over to you. Add your suggestions in the comment section.
I think I’ll add one more thing: ‘Askismet’- is a must-have for anyone blogging on WordPress.
Related Post:
- – Should Links from Your Blog Open in a New Window
– Conflict resolution in blogging
– Do You Need Blog Topics?
– 8 Blogging Tips to Grip Your Readers
– Blogging Tips by Cheryl Pickett
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September 12th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
Nice list, Rose, and some solid advice for must-haves on any blog.
A couple I would add.
1. An easy subscription method. I know you mention social sharing, but having the option to subscribe to your blog is key. And offer both RSS and email options.
2. Mobile compatibility. Social web browsing is finding an increasingly bigger audience in the mobile phone sector, so you need to make sure yours looks good on a handset. I use Wapple on mine, but there are a ton of really good options out there.
Cheers again,
Danny.
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:46 am
Good points Danny.
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September 12th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Askismet? Not sure what that is. I don’t link my blog to FB because it’s my private space–away from most of my family members and former students who are on FB. If I want to rant about my SIL, I don’t want her reading!!
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:33 am
Askismet is a plugin which identifies and blocks comment and trackback spam.
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September 13th, 2010 at 12:32 am
That is an excellent list. You hit the high points. Contact information really is important and so many people miss that.
I’d add that I am not a fan of commenting systems that require people to jump through hoops. Unless you are really popular it has a very bad influence upon them.
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:28 am
They sure do Jack.
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September 13th, 2010 at 3:42 am
I think it’s wise to have a comments policy too.
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:27 am
Good point Gordie. Nice to see you too.
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September 13th, 2010 at 6:49 am
That is some good common sense advice Rose.
Every tip you offer here will help a blogger to increase the value of her/his own blog. Some of those things make a huge difference.
One example: I came across a blog one time that was in a really specific and rare niche. I wanted to contact this blogger to find out if I could purchase advertising on the blog. No contact information was available and comments were turned off. Nobody responded to the contact information published by Whois.
This person might have been happy to have this advertising, but we will never know.
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:27 am
That is the thing. Without a contact form you’re missing out on a possible connection.
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September 13th, 2010 at 10:11 am
well, I have 2, 3 and 4, at least.
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:19 am
And 5.
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September 13th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Hi Rose,
Thanks for reminding me to put back some Social Media Sharing Features to my blog.
I’ve removed the one I had because pingdom tool revealed the Social Grid plugin was inefficient – or badly written – and slowed my website.
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:16 am
You are welcome Ben.
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September 13th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Great I now have all 5 although I only just got the contact page done for me by a helpful blogger who noted that was missing from my site.
Having a comments section is a must as that is how I am interacting with my visitors to my site and getting to know other bloggers.
Patricia Perth Australia
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Rose DesRochers Reply:
September 13th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
That is great and who is this helpful blogger?
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September 15th, 2010 at 8:59 am
I’m presently testing out facebook’s social plugin to see if I can garner fans for my facebook page. Hopefully this will later increase my traffic from facebook in the future
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September 16th, 2010 at 12:15 am
Thanks for the tips. I’d like to think I live up to all these criteria! I guess time will tell…….
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