Blogs and Blog Topics

Bloggers often wonder what topics they should or should not include in their blog. Many bloggers have interests and views they would like to discuss on their blogs but are not sure how it will affect their search engine ranking and readership. The fact is that a large amount of unique content will attract a higher ranking. The variety of topics covered will strengthen the domain making it easier to rank well for new keywords. However, this move may cost the blogger his/her readers.

What makes a great blog?

Five qualities make for a great blog and content counts as the first three. Content, content, content, interactivity and syndication will ensure successful blogging. Readers will visit your blog, return to it, reference you and subscribe to your feeds as long as you provide content which is interesting, informative and relevant. Having established that, it stands to reason that bloggers trepidation with regards to the selection and presentation of blog topics is completely justified.

Topic selection

Topic selection and the leeway you allow yourself with regards to relevance will depend on the blogs purpose. These days, blogs are commonly found on commercial and corporate websites in-which the author discusses topics related to their products, services, industry and organisation.

In this case delving into related topics is interesting and adds spice to the content however straying too far from the main topic will cause readers to lose interest. Chances are you will probably attract a great deal of irrelevant traffic thus skewing your analytics and conversion ratio. The point is that content should always be written with the target audience in mind.

In the case of personal or social blogs, the author is often looking to attract the interest of a wide circle of like-minded individuals. Although this model allows more room to express views on a wider variety of topics, it is important to keep the discussion general and not get too specific. This type of blog will benefit from the diverse cross section of incoming links driving their search engine ranking upwards whilst at the same time keeping readers enthralled by the shifting content.

The niche blog on the other hand focuses on a very specific topic and usually contains a number of advertisements. Straying from the main topic of a niche blog would be counterproductive however I have come across a number of content portals containing several niche blogs in one website. These sites obviously require a great deal of resources to maintain and may be better served by having several blogs with a unique topic.

In answer to the question, is one blog with many topics better than many blogs with a single topic each, I would like to reiterate that the number of topics a blog includes should depend on the nature of the blog and its purpose.

Also, including more topics in a blatant effort to improve search engine optimisation may be transparent to regular readers. It is a good idea to consider topic selection carefully and test the waters by gauging reader’s reactions to changes in the topic.

How to set up a blog in 5 easy steps

Step One: Select a blog service

Some of the most popular blog services available include Blogger, WordPress and Movable Type. Each of these reliable and useful blog services vary in terms of features and cost. Whilst Blogger and WordPress are free Movable Type is a paid service. Some of the advantages of using Blogger include free hosting and easily incorporated Adsense services. Although WordPress and MovableType require that your blog be hosted on your own server they also offer better statistics and more customisation. All three are great blog service options, your decision with regards to which service to use will ultimately depend on your budget, customisation and hosting requirements.

Step Two: Create a blog address

Your blog will need to be named. You should select a domain name or URL which will be memorable and which will appeal to your target audience. Some general advice about domain names:

• the domain name should be kept short but at the same time it should be descriptive enough to inform readers what the blog is about,
• they should preferably not include any words or names with complicated spellings,
• numerals should also be avoided.

Step Three: Choose a Template

Most blog services offer a variety of templates. The template includes look and feel elements such as design, colour, and font of your website. Templates can often be changed if you are not satisfied with you initial selection.

Step Four: Include appropriate features

Features, such as those mentioned above, affect how the reader interacts with your blog. They have the ability to ensure that a user has a pleasant and memorable experience.

Step Five: Create great content

You now have a catchy domain name, you have selected a suitable blog service, are satisfied with the look and layout of you blog and feel that your blog features will appeal to your target audience. The stage has been set and the final performance is up to you.

The number one attraction of any blog is content and it is the quality of your content which will determine your blogs impact. Remember to pay attention to two things, purpose and frequency. When creating content for your blog you must remain true to your purpose in establishing the blog. Be it to educate, inform, interact, entertain, or all of the above purposeful writing ensures that you make good choices with regards to topics, tone and frequency of posting.

Blogs and Blogging Simplified

Blog is the short term for weblog. Weblogs originated in the late 1990’s and were used as a log or list of links to web pages the author visited and considered to be interesting or relevant. Each link included the author’s comments and thoughts on the linked articles. The trend soon caught on, as website administrators realised that this could be a quick and painless way of regularly updating their websites with information.

It was not long before software to support effortless weblog posting was developed. In so doing, today’s commonly used blog application was born. These day’s blogs are used in all sectors from corporations, to academia, and even in online social settings. Blogs have become more verbose and although they often contain links to other web pages, they are no longer merely a list of links. They are more like online journals, presented in reverse chronological order with the latest posting appearing first. There are no restrictions on what the author writes and he needs never be edited.
A good blog includes

Every good blog includes a few features: archives, syndication, blog-rolls, comments, pingbacks and trackbacks are probably the most important.

Archives are often found on the front page of a blog and are a collection of older posts. What’s cool about archives is that they allow the blog author to keep older posts on the website and to arrange them in an accessible manner. Articles in an archive can be arranged according to period of publication, (for example day, month or year), topic, author (in the case of many authors) or any other classification deemed relevant by the administrator.

The syndication process, allows readers of your blog to subscribe through RSS or similar technology, to automatically and regularly receive notification of any updates made to your weblog. They contain “feedreaders” which are designed to look for new information on specified pages and inform the user of the change in content that a particular webpage has undergone.

Blogrolls have replaced the initial intended function of weblogs. A blogroll consists of a list of links to other websites, blogs and news sites that are relevant to the subject of a particular blog. It also uses aggregation technology (like feedreaders) to “roll” the list of sites for new content.

Comments make weblogs really interesting. They allow readers to provide their various points of view, agree or disagree with the author and generally participate in the conversation. They are a great way of attaining feedback from stakeholders and many corporate bloggers use it as a sounding board for their thoughts and new ideas.

Trackbacks and pingbacks are quite similar to one another although they use completely different technology. Trackbacks were used first and allow users to reference another blog post, comment on it and inform the referenced blog that they have been tracked. Pingbacks allow for automatic reciprocal referencing but do not include comments. Both trackbacks and pingbacks are a bloggers way of referencing another blogger online. Online interlinking facilitated by trackbacks and pingbacks increases a websites search engine visibility.