When asked about โwhoโs a good blogger?โ honestly I canโt answer. Coz to me every blogger blogs for her own reason. Some bloggers are really hungry for traffic, especially whom blogs for MONEY and some others just blog for fun or for themselves and they donโt care about their blogs traffic.
If Iโm asked to make a blog review, other than asked by the owner (some friends asked me to give a look at their blogs for the purpose of placing ads, etc.) I give up my white flag. I enjoy reading othersโ blog and I donโt have so called โblog yang tak disukaiโ nor โblog yang menyampahโ, etc. Blogging is free (except whoโs paying for their own domain & hosting, like me!) and I donโt bother to โhateโ or โdislikeโ them. Kalau tak suka jangan baca.
But nowadays I donโt have plenteous time to spent reading blogs on my PC, only using my N95, and it doesnโt encourage me to leave comment (itulah kenapa saya tidak berkomentar lagi). You know, N95 has no QWERTY keyboard, sakit jari I!
But among the blogs I love to spend time on, (other than Mukhtar Suhailiโs that I mentioned in the interview with Supermummy)
I admire the concept in this blog, which is very simple and neat. White foreground with minimal graphic is so attractive for my eyes. (Is that why I choose white as my background?)
When I read for serious topic, e.g. parenting, I need a โmy-eyes-friendlyโ blogs, white background with black colored text. Unless just-for-fun and when bloghopping I donโt mind how the blog looks like.
This blog has very wide topics, all related to parenting. Even if it does not receive lots of comments (I even never leave comment there) but I think it has a lot of readers from its Alexa ranking of 941,343 (as of today). Not so popular but at least she has readers.
But unfortunately I donโt know the blog author. Even if she (I guess) writes about โher familyโ but I donโt know her. She doesnโt even mention her name and protects the blogโs properties, but as long as she has good contents, I really donโt mind. And she even get the first ranking in Google when you search โparenting blogโ. Not bad, huh.
In a nutshell, a very good blog, talking about personal experience in a very intelligent way.
How to have a blog that attracts more and more readers? I went to several friendsโ (theyโre really my friends, not merely blogger friends) blogs and read how they want more readers to come to their blogs. Sorry I have to say this, but this is one of โsyok sendiriโ symptom. It is OK if you write whatever you like and donโt anticipate for traffic to come, but if you do, donโt just scream in your blog calling โPlease read my blog!โ, unless youโre a celebrity blogger like RedMummy or Sultan Muzafar.
What you have to do is:
- Be unique. Read other top bloggersโ blogs and see what is their uniqueness. You can indicate a top blogger by the Alexa ranking, how many comments, followers, and so on.
- Read otherโs blogs and leave comments with your blog URL. People wonโt come to you blog if they donโt know how to find you.
- Donโt tiru-tiru otherโs style of writing. Be yourself and youโll be surprise how good the feeling is.
- Donโt copy from other sources. Write you own opinion, unless what you copy is according to your niche. Example, youโre writing about recipe and you copy all cooks and chefsโ articles from all over the worldwideweb. This is good coz your blog acts as one-stop-for-all.
- Credit your sources, if you do. The source will be feel so appreciated. And maybe be one of your regular readers.
- Have passion on what you write about. When you enjoy writing, readers enjoy reading.
- Treat comments from others with respect, and if possible try to respond to every comment you get (sometimes I fail to do this cos I blog from WLW and it is scheduled, Iโm so sorry..)
- If you regularly make posting, it will encourage reader to return.
- When you blog, it means that you are exposing yourself for critism. So, before posting anything, ensure the fact, if it is a heavy topic.
- Consider blogging in a niche. This will help to retain โregular reader’s.
- Donโt shout about it again. It makes you look desperate.
- People read blog in their leisure time and to find information. Give what your readers โwantsโ. This is reflects point no. 1.
You can consider my points if you donโt want to be a โsyok sendiriโ blogger. Hehe. Itโs OK if you donโt mind if nobody reads your blog. But if you do, especially if youโre new to blogging world, you have to make some efforts to sell yourself rather than waiting for the reader to come.
To me, being a good blogger is subjective to the blog owner. As long as it meets the bloggerโs objective, it must be good.
*This entry is specially written for Yoyooh second week challenge
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