Blogging is getting more popular everyday. Bloggers have things to say and pictures to show. Most bloggers want comments, dialogue, recognition. Will visitors come back? It depends on how your site feels. The feel of the blog is based on how it looks, what it says, and the way you say it. Visitors make the decison to return, bookmarking your blog, for these reasons.

People first visit your blog because they know you, or they know the subject of your blog, hopefully from the title. If you use obscure wording for your title then your blog is never seen by the reader who searches for the subject of your blog. Of course if you are the blogger who just wants to cathart or ramble on about whatever strikes you when you’re on the net, then blog your way to obscurity. I’ve read some of these blogs and so have you, e.g. “Ho-hum - well,well, my, oh my. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed. What’s it all about?” Gimme a rest!!! Mold is more interesting. Who would ever return to hear this gas.

Or maybe your blog is a rant - a self indulgent, self righteous rant. Maybe your pissed, yearning to convey the hard injustice of the true cynic - - proven with curse words and verbal abuse of those not so near or dear. “Lame mother - - s, I will never party with those scumbags again. Like I need that kind of sh- - to jack me up.”

Or maybe you are the demented soul who believes people want to know that you don’t actually have a subject, e.g. “Seems the same, nothing like now, nothing like before (here a hint, there a hint, everywhere a hint, hint).” Finally, you intuit that the real title of this blog should be “Kill me, please.” Enough humor.

If you have a subject, please stick to it, that way we get to read your subject matter. If you wander off into the bush of your sultry life of non-subject-related experience, we will abandon you. Promise.

If you have subject matter and you present it simply without digression then you are ready for the next step. That step is, ‘Say it the way you mean it’. Say it with feeling, clearly, with conviction. Because the way you say it is important. Would you read a gardening blog that sounded like this: “I put in a few plants last week. I guess they are doing okay. Hope it rains this week.” I don’t think so. Let me hear it this way: “On Monday I planted 12 euonymous coloratae in the partly shaded area along a wire fence that I’m going to hide. I’ll have to water them twice a week until they are established.” Some gardeners might actually relate to this.

Try to update daily, because even if you have traffic, it will dwindle without some regularity. It’s better to have a daily concise entry than to have a once a week long runon.

When it comes to looks, you will need a webpage design that feels comfortable. This isn’t about internet marketing strategy so much as that the viewer has to feel good while they spend time looking at your blog. You can use a flash template, but this isn’t necessary. A wordpress theme with logo design is adequate. The webpage design you use to create your blog should have a good color combination and graphics that invite us to come back.

Carrying the Torch,

Arthur Browning