What your blog is missing to go from good to great
Before you all harp on me, this is not a post because I think I’m writing a great blog and I have nowhere to improve.
(Heck, did you visit during July and August? It was a hot mess.)
I’m writing this post because I see way too many blogs out there that are missing just a few little things that would make life so much easier for us readers.
HAVE CONSISTENT BLOG BRANDING
I am was guilty of this. I’m “saverspender” but also blogging at Save. Spend. Splurge., which has a sister page called The Budgeting Tool where I sell my budgeting and expense tracking sheet.
Is it no wonder no one knows I even have a blog!?
My new change has been to rebrand from saverspender to saverspender.
All of you old-timers can continue to call me saverspender if you want, but this makes it so much easier for me to have a consistent name throughout.
My point is this: Pick one name, pick a an avatar that you use throughout, and consistently use that information to present who you are.
HAVE AN ACTUAL LOOK FOR YOUR BLOG
Ways to inject personality are to not take your default WordPress theme and leave it.
Here are some easy ways to do this:
- Put in a custom header so that your page is distinctive.
- Pick a set of colours as your theme.
- Choose an avatar to represent “you” (apparently faces do better even fake ones, and I am not one to talk on this matter because I’m a pair of red heels.)
DON’T CLUTTER UP YOUR BLOG PAGE
Believe it or not, I try my best to keep my blog pages as neat and as clean as possible.
I don’t like too many ads all over the place (I especially hate ads in the middle of when I am reading an article), and  I try my best to keep it as discreet and not-as-annoying as possible.
It’s nice to try and give a lot of information to people who are reading your blog, but too much information without an editing eye can be overwhelming for many folks.
HAVE AN ABOUT AND CONTACT PAGE
If I can’t get in touch with you or learn more about you, I lose interest because I am fickle like that.
Enough said.
HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
The holy trinity consists of the following:
- Create / “Burn” an RSS Feed for your blog posts (My Feed of Save. Spend. Splurge.)
- Twitter — (My Twitter Handle: @saverspender)
- Facebook — (My Facebook Page)
..and if you have no clue what an RSS Feed, now is the time to learn.
HAVE A ROUGH IDEA OF YOUR BLOG DIRECTION
Again, not really one to speak, because I don’t have a specific theme that is very clear, other than the generic title of “life and money”.
I know that’s not a “theme” like: finances for the modern woman!, but I have no idea what to call my hodge-podge ramblings other than “how not to do the same stupid things the way I do them and learn from my mistakes“, with a huge dose of spending thrown in.
That said, I do have a clear idea of what my blog is about — educating everyone (not just women) on how to take control of their finances, but I also add other things like my personal life in there, talking about minimalism, shopping and so on.
Essentially, I am writing for myself, and thinking: If I were a reader, would I want to read this post?
12 Comments
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Tania
This is a great post and I definitely don’t think anyone who offers tips thinks they’re perfect. Part of writing is sharing reminders to ourselves too! I do agree that a consistent name and branding is important. In fact, when a new social media app/site pops up that could be appropriate to my brand, I usually grab my handle before someone else does. Even if I end up not gravitating to that platform, at least no one is using my handle. If a blog is related to travel, food, art (including photography), home or style, I would also recommend Pinterest and Instagram. For Pinterest, one should read all the blog posts out there about the concerns of the terms and also read the terms of use to ensure they know how to properly use Pinterest without violating any copyright rules. I prefer to keep m website clean too. I used to clutter it up with all types of plugins to share certain feeds, etc. I also used to put a number of badges up in my sidebar. At a certain point I decided if I didn’t have ads, I should just enjoy the beautiful white space and removed all of it instead of trying to fill it up. Plugin feeds from IG, FB or twitter are fun but they can slow down the site too.
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save. spend. splurge.
You know I am trying to cut down on plugins but it is difficult seeing as some are SO helpful. I am thinking of trying to de-clutter the page more, as well.
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Clare
Your blog has been one of my favorites for years now. I’m particularly jealous of how many future posts you have scheduled. I struggle with topics since I’m not anonymous and coworkers know where to find mine.
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Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle
The writing is so much easier than the techie stuff. Not that my writing is good but it is easier to hammer out a bunch of words than it is to try and make the blog look good.
Another blogger suggests that each post should be a minimum of 1,000 words and I tried that for a while but things were just becoming wordy and the content wasn’t improved.
I have no idea what RSS is.
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save. spend. splurge.
1000 words is too long for some posts, depends on how ranty you get. My posts are pretty long because I’m brain dumping..
Former Google Reader = RSS Feed reader
You already have an RSS Feed set up in your website, whoever set it up for you, had one created.
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Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle
@save. spend. splurge.:
I guess you really do learn something new every day.
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eemusings
I’ve still to change my social handles from @eemusings. Can’t quite let that go yet.
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save. spend. splurge.
I actually know you as Eemusings.. so it would be hard for me to mentally switch. I haven’t been as “saverspender” for a long time 🙂
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Lisa E. @ Lisa Vs. The Loans
I’m okay with advertisements on the side or in between posts. It’s the ads that interrupt a post or pop up out of nowhere that irritate me.
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save. spend. splurge.
Yeah that’s what I don’t like. An ad right in the middle of an article. To the side it’s okay.
It’s why my ads are either at the very end or the very top of the page.
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