HOW/WHY/WHEN/WHO
What is it:
A blog (web log) is simply an online diary or journal located on a website. Generally, you are writing about yourself so make it real, make it interesting, make it count!
What’s in it?
Anything! Your thoughts, opinions, advice, your current projects! Photos, animated GIFs, videos. Even scans from old physical offline diaries or journals and other hard copy documents.
Who might read it?
If you just want to blog for yourself and close friends, you can set your blog for private access but if you actively want to engage with your readers and general public, you can set the blog for public access
Should I have a blog on my website?
YES. Blogging plays a crucial part in reaching your audience. When a blog is made publicly accessible, anyone can find the blog through links available on your website, their social media profiles, emails and e-newsletters and online keyword search engines
Will a blog help me get more readers?
YES. A blog creates and strengthens the bond between you and your readers. They learn about you.
A blog increases website traffic and your SEO (search engine optimisation)
You can set up a blog on a dedicated website devoted to the creation, storage and sharing of blogs, such as Blogger, LiveJournal, Tumblr and WordPress
How long should it be?
* If you want more comments, then write a short almost discussion-based post.
Approx. 275 words
* If you want more shares on social media, then consider what you are writing about, the quality of your writing and the size of your readership base
Approx. 600-1250 words
* If you want a big bump in search traffic, then write a long authoritative post. You probably wont get many comments but search engines love these. Just make sure you are writing about something that people really want to read about!
Approx. 1000-1500 words
How often should I blog?
Depends!
Frequent posting is a good idea if you have a loyal and engaged audience who visits your site regularly. Having fresh new content on a daily basis will encourage them to visit your site as part of their daily routine BUT it would be too hard to sustain a daily blogging schedule, You run the risk of dreading it instead of loving it and you may lose quality of content.
Recently, bloggers have moved away from daily frequent blogs to posting once or twice a week, even once a month. Its just too much for people to read.
As long as you say something useful and valuable, your readers will appreciate your blogging schedule, no matter what it is.
10 things you didn’t know about blogging!
1) There are more female bloggers than male bloggers
2) 53.3% of the total blogging population are aged 21-35 while only 7.1% are over 50
3) The USA has 4 times as many bloggers (29.2%) than the UK ( 6.75%)
4) 71% of WordPress sites are written in English.
5) Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trustworthy source for gathering online information
6) The average blog post takes 3.5 hours to write
7) 77% of internet users read blogs
9) 77 million new blog comments are generated by readers each month
10) Titles with 6-13 words attract the highest and most consistent amount of traffic.
