Did you know that there are estimated to be at least 31 million bloggers in the U.S. alone? If you’re trying to draw in visitors to your blog, you’ve probably realized by now that there is quite a bit of competition. Not everyone wants to make millions of dollars with their writing, or have thousands of people read what they post, but it can be nice to have at least a steady audience, feedback, and a little pocket money. If this sounds good to you, then read these three tips for taking your blog from a barely passing C to a high quality A.
1. Proper Formatting
With the advent of blog platforms like Tumblr, many users seem to be catching on to the appeal of standard formatting. However, bad form is pretty persistent and still pops up everywhere you look. Eliminate huge paragraphs from your blogs, and try to concentrate each post into 300 to 400 words. If you find yourself with too much to say, break it up into multiple posts so that you don’t lose readers to length. Use a single, professional typeset and employ bolding and italics, rather than color, to draw eyes to certain words. Observe common rules regarding spacing, commas, and capitalization.
2. Find Royalty Free Images for Blogs
It might surprise you to learn that copy and pasting images from Google is often illegal, whether or not you note the source. Will you get thrown in jail? No. However, your site could be fined or taken down immediately. Popular Tumblr blogger Bohemea, although she made no money from her site, was shut down after four instances of copyright violation. She lost five years of work and all 150,000 followers. Where can you get free blog images? Look for images covered by a Creative Commons license, which usually allows you to use free images for blogs so long as you cite their source. Many photos on Flickr, for example, are covered by the CC license.
3. Making a Little Money from Your Blog
Why should you always use images in your blog? Images keep people interested and on your page. The more people that stay, the more potential money you can make. Most small time bloggers earn money through programs like Google Adsense or Amazon Affiliates. Ads pay you per click, while affiliate programs pay you when someone clicks a link you post, and purchases something. Use several ads and links on your blog, but be careful not to overwhelm your readers. If your post is all ads, they’ll click away and look for a website that seems more legitimate.
Have tips about formatting, free images for blogs, or making money?