Lesson 5: Content Is King!
If you write great content, the traffic just comes! People will regularly visit your website looking for more great posts and other bigger sites, with even more traffic will link to you. One mistake that many seem to make is that they focus on the quantity of posts rather than the quality of those posts. I have found that a quality unique post about something people are interested in, will bring in more traffic than many not so good posts. In fact, I have many posts that I have done that have continued to bring in steady traffic even a year later.
Today the internet is full of blogs reposting a lot of the same, or even copied content. Take the time to focus on quality unique information and the rewards are great. The big thing is just keep offering more value, time after time.
Before we start creating posts, there are a few Pages that you really need to have on your blog. Here is a summary of each, then I will show you how to create these pages in the video:
About page
This is where you can tell your story. It is up to you how much of your story you tell, but keep in mind what your visitors would want to know about you that relates to the topic of your blog. If your blog is about dog training, you need to go into your background as a dog trainer or what makes you qualified to speak about that topic. Don’t be afraid to get a little personal as it relates to your blog’s topic. You want your readers to get to know you and be inspired by your story.
Contact page
This could be as simple as your email address and phone number, or you can provide a contact form using your favorite WordPress form plugin.
Privacy Policy page
This is a page that should be on every blog or website. It is where you tell visitors what you do with their personal information, how it is collected and how you don’t share it with anyone else. There is a very easy way to create this page with just a couple of mouse clicks that I will cover in the video below.
You can create other pages as you feel necessary for your blog. Here is a really short video showing you how to create pages and link them to your blog’s navigation menu…
Here is a short video that shows how to create posts on your new blog and format them to look great…
The prospect of writing your first blog post might be intimidating to some, but you must have something to talk about or you would not be interested in creating a blog in the first place, right?
So, now it’s time for you to get down to it and start adding some valuable content to your blog.
Finishing Touches
In the lesson 2 I spoke about blog themes, It is so important for your brand that you have a good theme. So often I see great content on poorly designed websites, what’s worse is they aren’t prepared to invest $80 in themselves. If you haven’t already got Thesis (Recommended), or a good WooTheme, order it now!
I spoke about how important my mailing list and RSS feed are to me in lesson 4. So many people will come to your website and never come back because they don’t have anyone to remind them. Make sure you get everyone on your list and prompt them often to come back. They won’t mind as long as you provide them with value! I actually get people emailing me saying “Jon, when is your next post?” – crazy but it’s true, people actually look forward to your emails.
In the next lesson I will show you some incredibly easy ways to make money with your blog if you don’t have your own product or service. You won’t want to miss it!
To your blogging success,
Find this via a link from a friend, or Twitter? This lesson is part of a 7-part free blogging course. I take you step by step from Zero to a complete professional WordPress blog, without any hype or lame sales pitches.
