4 ways to give your blog a makeover

Although there are millions of ways to promote and tweak your blog in technical ways to ensure higher search ratings and better conversion rates, sometimes it helps to step back a bit and think of more general things you can do to give your blog a makeover.

If you’ve had a blog for awhile and feel as though you need to spice it up, here are some suggestions:

1. Give it a brand new look by refiguring the design and layout.

The easiest way to change something is to change an aspect of your appearance. Ever went to the salon to get a radically new haircut? Remember how great it felt those first few months when you almost actually felt like a different person? It works the same way with rearranging the furniture. And blogs are no different. If you feel as though your blog needs that new “something” consider radically redoing its look. If your current blog is littered with lots of “stuff”, try going the minimalist route. Work with the color scheme to make it easier on the eyes and more stylish. Change the font to something more fun or more readable.

2. Accept and actively recruit guest posters if you haven’t yet done so.

In my experience blogging, taking on guest post writers was one of the best decisions I ever made. While we’d like to think that we can come up with fresh new material on a regular basis, the truth is that you’ll eventually find yourself in a creative rut. And sometimes the only way to get out of it is to get a little help from your friends out in the blogosphere. Who knows? Maybe you’ll publish a few guest posts that will inspire to come up with something equally new and fresh.

3. Write blog posts that are specifically suited to having a discussion among your readers.

One big reason that I fell into a rut with my blog was that I was getting bored by the lack of discussion among my readers. Even though my blog got quite a few hits, the comments sections were mostly empty. One day I realized that this was all my fault. In order to get reader feedback, it is absolutely essential that you write conversational pieces that ask lots of questions and frame something current or controversial. You’d be surprised by what a difference doing this makes.

4. Ask your biggest fans what they would like to see next.

The people that you, as a blogger, should be most grateful to are your regular readers–the readers who check your blog every day as they go about their business, or the ones who always leave a comment no matter what. Your “biggest fans” also happen to be a great resource for honest feedback. If you know the email addresses of people who post regularly on your blog, send them a very personal email in which you ask them what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. Ask them for an honest assessment of where your blog should go next.

These are just a few general considerations if you feel as though your blog needs to be “flipped.”  It’s always good to be open to new things, and, especially on the Internet—a climate in which rapid change is the only way to keep up and stay popular—if you don’t sniff out the “next thing” on a regular basis, you’ll surely be left behind.


/Net Profits Today/