As I have said before, my technical skills are not the greatest. I have no idea how to design a blog, let alone deal with complexities such as coding. When it comes down to it, I am a writer and that is pretty much what I do. For everything technical, I have to farm out the work to one of my contractors; which is not a huge deal, I suppose. But with that being said, it does cost money, and waiting for them to do the work is not always the easiest thing to do.
Leo over at the Idiot Affiliate recently gave me a plug entitled, “Learn Freelance Writing and Blogging with Chris Blogging.†I was quite happy to see this as I am always interested in spreading my knowledge, and of course, learning from others in the process. But in the last paragraph of his post, I read something that really caught my eye.
“On a side note, I encourage Chris to pick up that technical torch and run with it for awhile. It isn’t as hard as you think it is!â€
This got me thinking; maybe he is right? All this time I have been concentrating on writing, but never taking the time to learn the technical side of blogging.
So my question is, how can I learn about design, coding, and all that other good stuff? Again, since I have no idea what this is all about, I really don’t know where to start.
Any suggestions would be great. After all, if I am going to continue to grow this blog, doing some design work and adding new features is a must.
Let me know how you developed your technical skills. Hopefully this is something that I can work on in the near future!
Since starting this blog, I have made one post per day, everyday. While this may not sound like a lot, it is a goal that I take very seriously. I strive to make sure that readers have something new to think about everyday of the week; even Saturday and Sunday. After about 60 days of doing this, I think that I am finally ready to step up to two posts per day. There are several reasons that I am considering this.
First off, I have received a lot of positive response from readers, and many of them are asking for more posts. Since I like to keep everybody happy, I would love to increase my daily output. I feel that I have the time to do this, and even if something came up, I could always take a step back to one post per day while getting back on track.
Additionally, I have a backlog of topics that I really want to write about. Writing is what I do, and having so many great topics staring me in the face makes me anxious. To me, coming up with new topics has never been a problem, and it seems that I add a few new ones to my list everyday. If I am ever going to get through them all, increasing my output is essential.
Finally, I am hoping that adding more content will help with traffic; both from returning visitors and search engines. If this happens, I can then move forward with some of the other goals that I have for this blog.
I am not totally sure if I am going to make the move to two posts per day, but it is on my mind. By later this week I will definitely have a decision!
The biggest complaint that new blog owners have is that they cannot attract an audience. In other words, they feel as if they are writing, but nobody is reading. While this can be a difficult problem to overcome, it is one that every blogger has to deal with early on. Your goal should be to increase your readership day in and day out. Even if you only make small strides, this is better than standing still. Small successes will lead to bigger ones in the long run!
But remember, you are never going to increase your audience if you do not give people a reason to read your blog. Readers need to have a reason to visit your blog. If you give them one, it is safe to say that they will come back time and time again. If not, you are going to struggle to reach even the smallest of goals.
So why should people read your blog? If you cannot answer this question, nobody else is going to be able to either. For me, the answer to this question is short and sweet: readers should visit Chrisblogging if they want to learn about or make money with freelance writing and/or blogging. With each post that I write, my goal is to stay within this “reason for reading.â€
Any reason to read your blog is a great one. Some blogs get tons of traffic because they are controversial, and others attract readers because they have pictures of scantily clad celebrities.
No matter what, you need to have a hook that will draw people in. This way, as word spreads about your blog, traffic will continue to increase.
