How to make a super successful blog - part 1

This is going to be a long article and it will come in 2 parts, but I hope this won’t be a boring read. If you don’t feel like going into great details, perhaps just reading the highlighted lines in bold will help you already.

So, first let’s see, what makes a blog to be a success? 1. High PageRank (nor necessarily, but good to have). 2. Tons of readers (either RSS subscribers or “just” returning visitors. 3. Genuine backlinks (which means people link to you themselves, because you provide a useful content).

Now let’s see, what from the mentioned above points is in your control? I am sure you would agree that while you can only hope for a good PR and readers / traffic, content is something that is fully in your hands. So…

Rule nr. 1: Don’t promote an empty site. Never start the advertising campaign before you know for sure your website gives readers a good reason to come back. Start promoting only when you can sincerely give this question a YES! Answer. It could be graphical or written content, but as long as you do offer more than a visitor can possibly digest in one visit – it’s good. Therefore, when you know for sure that anyone who stumbles across your site would want to come back later at least so that he can keep browsing around – you can start gathering back links and spam around.

Promoting before time has a big negative effect, because all those who get to see your link (even in links exchange request in the forum), will look at an empty, dead site and will never come back, never recommend this site to a friend and rest assured – will never link to it from their own will.

Rule nr. 2 Provide the highest quality you can. You can’t always beat competitors with a lower price, you can’t always be more creative then the rest of the brainy geeks on the net and sure thing you can’t blog about something everyday that no one else does. Well, you can, but how big will your reading crowd be? All you can do is, do the same as everybody else, but just do it better. This sound pretty general, so let me give you a few examples. If you concentrate of writing, write what you are passionate about and make sure you are familiar with the topic good enough, so you won’t mislead the readers with any inaccurate, wrong or irrelevant info.

Write an article and leave it on your hard drive for a day or two, then come back to it with a fresh mind and ask yourself, is this a good writing? Is it rich in words, descriptive, informative and interesting? How slim is the chance that you may lose your reader somewhere in the middle? Be honest with yourself, if it was not your article, would you read it through? Don’t cheat with an answer, because eventually you will only kid yourself and end up disappointed and frustrated, why no one reads nor leaves feedback. Believe me, if it’s good, eventually you will get to rest of your lavres. If you offer graphics, are they unique or can an average surfer grab them (or maybe even better material), practically on any other site? If you offer tools, are they unique, or is it yet another PR checker, with which you will never beat the competition anyway. If you display wallpapers, are these yet again shots of Jessica Simpson’s bust, or are these truly sensational photos that no one had seen before?

Rule nr 3. Ask yourself, who will read your blog? It’s essential however, this might not be a very easy question to answer. Can you tell what sort of audience will be interested in your blog the most? Men, or women? Teens and kids, or older generation? Local people or worldwide? Webmasters, housekeepers, businessmen, students, geeks, losers, or is it going to be a totally general website that will cover all audiences? I believe if you blog about cleaning viruses or provide some PC-related help you can end up gathering all of the above people’s categories in your website (except maybe geeks who will be offended by a mere thought of you, simple mortal, trying to give them an advice.) When you will have a rough idea about who are going to be your main visitors, you can slightly adjust and improve. For instance, desserts blog will most likely be visited by 27+ women, so knowing you are dealing mainly with the weak sex, gives you the opportunity to expand the horizons of your blog and keep your traffic entertained, instead of losing visitors due to irrelevant content.

Let’s say toptut.com is targeted to designers, Photoshopers and webmasters who want to make money online (but I’d go as far as to assume that they do not know HOW, as they follow articles that help them to reach their goal). Bearing this assumption in mind allows me to add some additional reviews on miscellaneous affiliate programs (personal experience is the best review) as well as PSD / photo downloads (any photoshoper will gladly grab them). So I stray from my main topic – tutorials, but keep the visitors happy. At least I hope I do. Do I? This also helps when it comes to affiliate sales - it’s far easier to target to audience when you know what they are interested in, instead of jut offering everything and hoping they are going to like it.

These are the 3 rules for now, I am going to write part 2 in a week or two from now so stay tuned for more…