Creative blogging can help improve blog traffic.
Are you a new blogger wondering what makes blogs interesting for people to read? Are you a veteran blogger looking to drive more traffic to your website?
People prefer blogs that are entertaining and informative to blogs that are just informative. If you can’t be Lucille Ball or Jerry Seinfeld (do my younger readers know who they are?), and you fall short in the “entertaining” department, at least try to be creative to engage your readers. This post will give you ideas to enhance your blog’s creativity.
After you’ve taken these tips, check your “time on site” statistics. I predict your readers will spend more time at your site because they will be more engaged. The time readers spent at my site improved after I made these simple changes.
- Revamp your “About” page.
When I started blogging, my stats showed that my “About” page got more views than anything else I’d written. It was “traffic” heaven. However, people didn’t stick around. Their time spent at my site proved to be short. While I was flattered people were checking me out, I couldn’t understand why they spent so little time at Reflections and never returned to me.
I started reading how to improve my About Me page. It said I needed a photo of myself. (I actually hadn’t thought of that!). I read that I needed my name. (I hadn’t thought of that either!) Over time, my “About” page has evolved, and continues to evolve. Since its development, my stats have improved.
- Tweak your headlines
You need to be creative as you try to reword your headlines. Make them about the reader, not about you. I am a credentialed English teacher. When I teach writing, I explain how to avoid writing in second person. In other words, I teach my students not to use the pronoun “you”. However, if you want to engage your readers, you should use “you” in your headline. Make the post about them. Then, they will care, and your traffic will improve. For example, do not write, “How I Came Up with New Blog Post Ideas.” You should write instead, “How You Can Come Up with New Blog Post Ideas.” See? A simple tweak. A little creativity goes a long way. Research shows that headlines with the word “you” in them get increased blog traffic.
- Tweak your blog post format
Readers don’t want to read a lot of words. Break it up for them. Have bullet points (now you’re on to me; this post uses bullet points). Have numbered lists. It’s easier for you since you won’t have to worry about transitioning between points, and research shows that your traffic will improve. You could interview someone and present their information in a question answer format instead of a lot of paragraphs. You could also present your information in infographics. In my study, The 15 Secrets to Marital Longevity, I used two infographics.
- Place interesting pictures into your blog posts
Thanks to graphics sites like Canva, Pixabay, Morgue Files, Flickr, and Google Free Royalty Images, it’s easier than ever to follow this tip. Pinterest is being used more and more to advertise blog posts. Two of the most successful bloggers I know have over a million followers on Pinterest, and they routinely get 1,000 page views a day! One of them advised me to make sure my pictures are vertical. Apparently, this social media site prefers pictures that way.
Vertical pictures work best on Pinterest.
To enhance your creativity, you can combine your photography with what these photo sites offer. For example, I upload my photo into Canva, and then I write over it to make it my own. Look at the photo on the right. I took a photo of my own front door, and then combined it with the Twitter bird and the font I found at Canva.com. I released the post two days ago, I put this picture on Pinterest, and it has already been repinned by many people. My successful Pinterest-using friends both assure me that half of the people who repin your blog photo will click the link it came from and give you traffic. Since I started taking their advice, my Pinterest traffic has dramatically improved, and I don’t have that many followers yet.
Sharing is caring. If you feel bloggers can benefit from these tips, please share.
Readers, what creative tweak has improved your blog traffic the most? I look forward to your views.
