The 5 Essential Factors of an Influential Blog
What makes a blog influential? It is often attributed to your traffic and readership levels. But actually, those are just the benefits that are indication of something that precedes them.
How do we get people to pay notice to what we say in the first place?
Eventually, a blog catches on just like any other idea spreads—it must somehow speak to readers in a way that they want to hear. Your posts must fill a human need, and that will most often be at an emotional level, no matter how practical we think our subject matter is.
The following are five components that I think are essential for a blog to gain attraction and influence with its intended audience.
1. Simple
According to me, the idea behind your blog must be easy for your target audience to immediately understand. Your blog readers must be able to quickly communicate what you and your blog is all about in order for your ideas to spread in your readers mind and on the web.
2. Unpredictable
Something about what you have to offer must be out of the common. Providing valuable information that seems to be against your own self-interest may provide that spark that gets people talking (or linking). Or maybe it’s just a completely new perspective on a topic, or a combination of two seemingly unrelated concepts into something fresh.
3. Sensible
The information that an influential blog provides must be specifically useful to your target audience. There’s a reason that “how to” posts are so popular, even as we outsource more and more to others rather than performing tasks outside of our own expertise.
4. Credible
Credibility is very important to any successful blog, and it’s easier to lose it than to earn it. People must not only feel that you know what you’re talking about; but also want to know that they can trust you. That means you need to get the trust of your readers in whatever you are talking about.
5. Story
Here’s how all of the above is communicated and the emotional factor that connects with the reader gets added to the mix. The story of your blog must be simple, have an unpredictable hook, reflect sensible benefits and inherently state the credibility of the blog owner, all while triggering an emotional response.
“How you say, it is important.But what you say is critical.”
If your blog is not performing at those level you desire, or even if you’re simply trying to maintain the success you have and perhaps take it to the next level; always keep these five factors in mind.
The story of any successful blog is told one post at a time, and you can start tweaking your story today.
Article written by Typhoon
Yo! I am Typhoon a.k.a Sushant, a 16 yrs. old blogger from India and the owner of SmartBloggerz. Here I try to share useful Blogging related articles which would help a blogger to succeed. You can connect to me on Twitter.
Typhoon has written 317 superb article(s) on this blog
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24 Comments Add yours
June 14, 2009
7:37 pm
Simple and informative guidelines.
Charmaine´s last blog ..CME UF50 MIDI Keyboard
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 14, 2009
7:51 pm
Wow so quick. Just made this article a min back. Thanks Charmaine
Twitter: @crunchyup
June 14, 2009
7:44 pm
Unpredictable and Simple are the most important these days. Just have a look around and you will notice that the simple a blog is in term of design and widgets the more popular and active it is
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 15, 2009
7:31 pm
Thanks Taylor for taking out time and commenting on this article.
Twitter: @Ande12
June 15, 2009
12:28 am
This as usaul is good information. Will have to try to follow all those ideas. Thanks for such good stuff.
Margaret Elmendorf´s last blog ..A rescued pet comes up with a miracle
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 15, 2009
7:33 pm
Thanks Margaret for taking out time and commenting on this article. I hope following those ideas will help you in making your blog influential.
Twitter: @pinoymakemoney
June 15, 2009
7:36 am
Thanks for the tips… I like your blog that’s I subscribe this blog. I hope we can be friends. If you don’t mine, please visit my blog also…
Thank you and good luck to all your blogging efforts…
Sincerely,
Felix Albutra from SighNetDollars
Felix Albutra – SighNetDollars´s last blog ..Wow! My Blog Ranked Number 1 in Google Search Engine!
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 15, 2009
7:35 pm
Hey Felix..Thanks for subscribing. Yes we can be friends, there is no doubt in it.
With this I also want to notify you that your submitted guest post on this blog couldn’t be accepted because it was already posted on your blog. Please only submit Unique Articles.
June 15, 2009
9:05 am
My biggest turnoffs with blogs: (1) too many articles about “Twitter”, (2) articles about prize giveaways, and (3) guest posts that have nothing to do with the blogger’s main topic(s).
This blog does everything the article says, I’m not sure about the “unpredictable” part but its been fun reading!
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 15, 2009
7:41 pm
Thanks Matt for telling your turnoffs with blogs.
I am working on the “Unpredictable” thing. I am thinking of starting a forum and a monthly comment competition. But the sad thing is that I am waiting for the UBT 3.0(My Theme) and Wordpress 2.8.1(a more stable kind of version) launch to make it successful. Also I am searching for free time from my busy school schedule.
June 15, 2009
9:52 am
Thanks for the 5 factors i will try it
Wisata SEO Sadau´s last blog ..RUSLI ZAINAL SANG VISIONER
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 15, 2009
7:41 pm
Yes, try it for sure and you might see your blog more influential than earlier.
Twitter: @gfserradinho
June 15, 2009
11:13 am
I some what agree with Taylor, some simple sites are getting loads of traffic and comments. I guess it has to do with not being distracted by other objects in the sidebar and all. You want your users to read your content.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..Serradinho Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-14
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 15, 2009
7:42 pm
Nice to see that my blog readers thinking’s match each others
Twitter: @curiouslp
June 16, 2009
12:24 am
excellent points! but i guess one important factor is that a blog build up with time!
Many bloggers tend to miss this part and give up too soon!
Cheers
Sandeep
Curious Little Person´s last blog ..Has your Blog Lost it? Or Is It Just You!
Twitter: @sbunting108
June 16, 2009
11:30 pm
I like your idea of a monthy comment competition it sounds great!
sbunting108´s last blog ..Llandudno
Twitter: @AlexFraiser
June 17, 2009
1:45 am
I personally think that being unpredictable is one of the most important things you have mentioned in your post. I think every blogger should keep a theme going at their blog, but should also diversify posts as well.
Alex | Blogussion.com´s last blog ..When Blog Expansions Backfire: The Risks to Know
Twitter: @tycoonblogger
June 17, 2009
5:45 am
I think credibility is key. You can not be influential if you do not know what you are talking about. Sorry Matt, I have been writing about Twitter a lot lately. Until I find a better way to drive traffic to my blog I will keep on pumping up Twitter..
Tycoon Blogger´s last blog ..Do you want 25,000 Twitter followers in one second?
Twitter: @DavidAirey
July 8, 2009
4:13 pm
Good to see you mention the importance of a story. There’s a definite knack needed for making ideas stick — something I need to learn.
David Airey´s last blog ..Woolmark logo
July 19, 2009
7:41 am
Very useful information. It is easy to blog but getting the visitors attention is not that easy. Hard work is a must.
Twitter: @akira07
July 31, 2009
11:15 pm
Agree with all point. But i have a question about credible. To make people trust us of anything we’re write, i think we need to do what is written on the article first especially if the article is MMO technique.
I mean, for example if you wanna talk about adsense, i think you should become adsense player first. What do you think?
About “simple”, is also important. I love some blog because their can write hard topic with a simple word so the reader can understand.
akira07´s last blog ..July Contest Participation
Twitter: @deepikasuren
December 13, 2009
8:31 pm
yeah its very important. In all cases we cant try this option. But we can say the usablity to others after trying. This will be helpful for the readers who have trust on the blog.
Deepika´s last blog ..My Favourtie Posts@Which I Have Read
Twitter: @deepikasuren
December 12, 2009
1:10 pm
credibility is more important. If we post about some article we should know completely about it. for example if we post article regarding plugin, we should try those in our blog we should mention its merits and demerits to the readers.
Deepika´s last blog ..I Drive You To The Next Generation: Regards, XML
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
June 22, 2009
2:21 pm
Thanks for linkback tycoon