Some profound advice on increasing your effectiveness as a blogger - don't be afraid to share your opinon, engage with your visitors, be unique... Worth a read.

Why Your Blog is Rubbish

Aren't blogs great? Your opportunity to inject a little
personality, a little zest, zing and zap to your website.
That's not to say that your site in itself isn't engaging
and informative, worth a visit in its own right, but blogs
just add that splash of colour, a loose collar, a 'hey have
you heard'? - intimacy that people enjoy.

Keeping visitors regularly updated with considered input and
info won't do your SEO any harm either. The search engines
like nothing more than an active site with plenty of juicy
interesting content. There are the link building
opportunities too. Your blog as a fresh source of content
makes a great destination. Blogs - the interesting, human
face of your organisation.

Well, then how come so many blogs are duller than ditch
water? Maybe you're a mega corporation then you may to an
extent have your hands tied. It goes with the territory that
size means systems and guidelines which can often shut down
the sort of expression and personality needed for an
interesting blog presence. You'll need to work within a
corporate framework.

But what about other organisations?

SMEs and smaller businesses don't have the excuse of being
constrained by red tape or excessive rules of engagement.
How come so many blogs fail to deliver? How come so many of
them are rubbish?

Here's how to make people stop and take notice of your blog.

Sit on the fence - Don't. Your opinions define you. Express
them. Take sides, draw lines in the sand and be prepared to
fight your corner.

Don't try too hard - Needy is the biggest turn off there is.
Sure you may be desperate to please. But the minute you let
it show there will be rush for the door.

Be interested in your readers - No, that doesn't mean
pretend to be interested in your readers. It means if you
can't find it within yourself to actually care how your
reader engages with your blog, if you can't find a way of
delivering something of use, of interest for them, then
don't bother. Indifference is futile. You'll be wasting
everyone's time.

Be prepared to be disliked or to make enemies - For example
I am rapidly developing a severe aversion to so called SEO
gurus who seem to think that polluting the internet with
spun, machine generated copy created only for machines is
clever. I have no problem expressing my dislike of them. If
they want to call me out, then that's fine by me.

Be yourself - We're all different. The more you reveal your
individuality the more important your blog will become.

Get to it.

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Bigstar Content is an award-winning UK web content company
that works with several leading UK search agencies, SMEs and
large businesses across a range of sectors. Our services
include web copywriting, articles, blogs, press releases and
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Visit http://www.bigstarcontent.co.uk now and find out how
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