Keystrokes By Kimberly
Welcome to one of the Blogathon Challenges for June 2013. For more information on the Blogathon visit http://www.BiannualBlogathonBash.com.
Is your blog performing the way you desire? Visually appealing and well-polished blogs get more traffic. Blogs which engage the readers once they arrive get more interaction. Let’s see if you have these 13 things.
1. ARCHIVES ~ You need to have a method for people to easily search for past post.
2. BRAND ~ You are your brand & your brand is you. Brand your site & make sure it presents a dynamic inviting image.
3. BUTTONS ~ You need a customize button for you site. Give yourself & your blog a promotion.
4. CATEGORIES ~ You need categories to make you site more user friendly during searches.
5. COLOR SCHEME ~ Color scheme is important. So important. Make sure yours is warm & inviting. FYI ~ Yellow is the most memorable color & all colors have meaning. What are your blog colors saying?
6. CONSISTENCY ~ Are you getting an A+ in consistency? Does your blog flow extremely well? Are all links working?
7. CONTACT US ~ Please tell me people how to contact you whether it be a contact form or direct email.
8. SOCIAL MEDIA ~ Get social with everyone and invite everyone to get social with you.
9. HEADER ~ Look at it as the foyer to your blog home. Make it dynamic when you invite guest in.
10. PERSONALITY ~ Give your blog your personality. It is easier than you think. If you need help feel free to email me. [email protected]
11. PROFILE/ABOUT US ~ This is the WHO of who you are. Tell your story & help readers get to know you & your blog.
12. REASON ~ Give the people a reason to come back weekly or even daily. Engage them every time!
13. WELL WRITTEN MATERIAL ~ Please make sure you have well written material. You do not have to be a professional writer or even a writer however proof read & proof read again & then have someone else to proof read. As bloggers we often get caught up in quantity and quick turnaround versus quality and purpose. Ex: 1. One blogger wrote about a someone being a cooker when actually the reference should have been cook or chef. 2. A blogger leaves out a key word in their title. All these errors were caused by the blogger’s internal competition to post rather than purpose for posting. 😉
Mini Challenge
How many of the 13 do you have in place? Complete at least 2 more this weekend and share what they are below.
I made a header and about me page this weekend – finally!
Great! Please share your About Me page link.
Thanks!
One of the things you don’t have on your list which I think is important is a way to search the site. I’ve been to a number of sites lately that didn’t have this function which was really frustrating as I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Then I noticed I didn’t have it on my site either! I’ve now added that and and about page at http://gillianpearce.com/about/
Hi Gillian ~ That is #1 Archives
Being a relatively new blogger ( 14months) I love tips like those you have provided. I know my site needs to be “cleaned up of clutter” but as yet still learning how. I am blogging for the enjoyment of it, but still want it to be as professional looking as any other…. no, make that as good or better than any other!!Have just redone my “about” section of my blog… also seen on G+.. and that is a big step for this w/e. Any constructive criticism welcomed.
Thanks, Pat
Can you explain personality a bit more?
Have you ever read an article and felt as though you and the person were actually talking? Or read an article and felt you were really getting to know the person? This is what I mean about personality. Make your blog speak to people as you would versus an impersonal post.
The two things I did this weekend was – About page updated and a blog button.
Consistency, Personality and Reason are difficult to measure because you are more subjective than objective. What do you think?
http://rethagronewald.com
Mmmmm…I do not think so because there are several methods for measuring this. Consistency is with the posting. Do you post a certain about of days a week? Personality is making your post speak to people as you would versus an impersonal post. Reason is giving them a reason to visit your blog again through content, giveaways etc… Does this help?
I tweaked my colors and worked on my about page this weekend
😉
I have all 13 but I might try and make a different more specialized header. we will see. I did make a Faccebook Cover so I could try to make something to match that.
1. Archives. Check.
2. Brand. I have a tagline. Does that count as a brand? No picture.
3. Buttons. Check.
4. Categories. Check.
5. Color Scheme. Check. And it’s yellow lol.
6. Consistency. Working on more consistent blogging as far as adding content often, I think the blog itself is consistent.
7. Contact us. Just updated my contact form/page.
8. Social Media. I have that covered pretty well. I think.
9. Header. Hope it’s dynamic. I do change it every so often.
10. Personality. I think it has it.
11. Profile/About us. Just updated today. Hoping it works.
12.Reason. Still learning, but trying to engage more.
13. Well written material. Hope so!!
Thanks for this checklist. I did a couple this weekend. 🙂
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! FYI ~ Brand is the consistant image you are presenting. You have that my dear. 🙂
As far as posting I will LOVE to see you prepared about a dozen post and keep them in reserve for when you are unable to write. You want to post at least 2-3 per week for this NOT to be consider a hobby.
I made a new header this weekend and updated the Bio section. I am planning on making a button this evening as well. I would say I have 11 of the 13. Thanks!
Yay you!
I do have a custom button but have my VA working on the design this week as it matches my old design. I also changed the theme and things. I think I like the old design better but will wait and see. I also updated some of the buttons on the site. I am cleaning up the categories this week and setting up pages as well.
Hi Glenda ~ How are your changes coming?
I went through and made sure my theme is consistent across my site and social media. I also added a tabbed widget to allow readers to access popular, recent, & archived content. I have a tag cloud but not sure if I want to keep that. I have a categories drop down but considering just listing them – there are so many though, it will get rather long. Moving along!
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I actually think I have them all – but I need to work further on the About Me and Reason – I need to engage more with my readers. Loved the list, made me feel good 🙂
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I added the archives button back…against my will! LOL I made it a drop down windo since it was going to just take up way too much space. Going to try and find another code to make the background a bit lighter too. I’m obsessed with the color min at the moment so def staying with that color theme!
Lol… Too funny! You will THANK me later. 😉
I updated my about me page and created a media kit page with my contact information besides that I think I have the rest covered!
about: http://iammegandsocanyou.blogspot.com/p/about.html
media kit: http://iammegandsocanyou.blogspot.com/p/media-kit.html
I have all 13, need to be better about consistency with what stores I do matchups with though and engaging people to come back to the blog through twitter/pinterest/facebook.
Great! Love your action…
I guess the only one I’m working on (’cause I believe the rest are on my site now) is #12 – I’m always working on ways to get people to come back… whether I’m succeeding or not, I guess time will tell. 😉
What have you tried? How have you measured success?
I have worked on these for the past year! Though I can always improve, I think I am okay on these 13 for now. Thanks!
😉
This weekend I created a blog button and revamped my About Me section. 🙂
I seem to have all 13 but I am constantly working on well written material. As a coupon/deal blogger some deals get posted by hundreds or even thousands of blogs so unless it’s really time sensitive I really try to take my time on the post and make it my own so it’s not a total duplicate. I think good bloggers overall work to better this everyday because nobody is perfect right?
Yes ma’am! Put quality over speed and quanity any day. Try to get it up within 24 hours or less for your niche AND make share you have a well put together post with a twist.
I updated my about me page and I also made a blog grab button. I am so excited to see my blog slowly come together better. This weekend has been such a great help. Thanks again.
😉
I finally created an ‘about me’ page. I’ve had the page, it’s just been blank (big bad no-no, right?) and I’ve ensured Contact Me is big and bold in there and added capitals to the brief profile in my sidebar for contact me, as well as I’ve had people comment on a post saying they couldn’t figure out how to contact me. Hopefully this will work. 🙂 I like to think there’s some personality in there since I pretend I’m talking to someone when I write.
😉
I’m happy to say that I think my blog has all 13!
Yay you!
I think I have all of these….
Archives – yep, you can search by topic or by date
Brand – people know me by my pic in the sidebar about section, the logo, and the pics in the header. But – I need to change the header to include my tagline – that would help a lot to reinforce my “smart solutions for busy moms” message.
Buttons – got it 🙂
Categories – have ’em!
Color scheme – have it!
Consistency – I hope so, lol 🙂 But I do post almost daily, and I think everything works as it should?
Contact – I don’t use a form, but I have my contact info easy to find 🙂
Social Media – have ’em
Header – got it! And mostly love it, <3
Personality – I know I have this, because my mom reads my blog sometimes and says – What does Lol mean? Why do you ALWAYS say, "I know, right"? Lol.
Profile – Got one!
Reason -I do this by always ending a post with a question or call to action
Well written – Well, I'm not perfect, and I do need to proof read more. But I like to think I do ok 🙂
Yes ma’am…YOU have it all! Lol
I think I have most of these in place but I did update my About page this weekend and added a blog button
Dynamic!
I tackled 8 – Social Media (converted my Feedburner RSS and email to Feedblitz) and 10 – Personality (check out my Parallax View book review)!
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/06/parallax-view-by-allan-leverone.html
Love it! Full of personality and love your header. 🙂
[…] Completed Mini Challenge 15 – 13 Things Your Blog Should Have. […]
I think I’m doing pretty well. I need to work on the header for my main blog – but overall I believe I’ve got at least 10 out of the 13.
Great! Now let’s get the remaining three. 🙂
1. ARCHIVES ~ Check
2. BRAND ~ Check
3. BUTTONS ~ Check
4. CATEGORIES ~ Check
5. COLOR SCHEME ~ Check
6. CONSISTENCY ~ Will double check
7. CONTACT US ~ Check
8. SOCIAL MEDIA ~ Check
9. HEADER ~ Check
10. PERSONALITY ~ Check
11. PROFILE/ABOUT US ~ Working on this one this weekend!
12. REASON ~ Will be working harder on this one!
13. WELL WRITTEN MATERIAL ~ Just went through and found some spelling errors. *sigh* I try to proof but apparently I miss some still.
It’s okay. We all have blog challenges. Just do what you can. I type my post in Word. Spell check them. Then reread them a day or two later to be sure they flow correctly and have no errors. 🙂