The site and headlines, read all about it! Blogger Friday on Born to Shine

Site to be seen! Headlines, read all about it!

When you decide on what you want to do, talk about or teach with your blog, how do you pick a site name? This is an important step to work on because if the name does not reflect what you are doing people may not understand your product or service is.

Ask yourself:

1. Put a turn on your thinking. Be the customer looking for you.

2. Who would be searching for you online? Is it a product, service, art, story or poem?

3. What would they type in the search bar to find you?

4. Where does one search to get the most useful sites?

What do you see? Even within other art

5. Why do I want to find you?

Remember, in many cases, nobody knows you exist.

Once you come up with answers to those questions then try it out. See what sites come up.

Get creative!

Money, Money, Money

We all love to get stuff for free but with a blog that can really hurt you in more ways than one.

Even though you are saving money, you really need to use money to make money. When you use some company’s base like that of Google Blogger, they own your content. This is good to know, even for me, because I had no idea. Since they do own mine their tag is at the end of my own creations. If you try to make money from your site, even though they say you have a choice, you may not. They can advertise anything they want because it is theirs.

Customization can be very limited. There are all these boxes and squares but where will they end up? When you take your blog and post it into other places you never know what picture will show up when. So not having control really can take the creativity out of your blog. If it is not as easy to do on your own how long will it take for you to fix it?

Domains: Make it easy!

• What will it take for someone to remember you? Come up with something that others will remember you for. There are many different ideas you can try to develop your domain name:
  • Thesaurus has many words that mean the same thing gets unique. Try something that can still tell people what you are about yet different enough that the concept of YOU shines through.
  • Check out places on the web like Nameboy, Dotomator or Bustaname. There can be different words and ideas generated to help you develop a name.

Here we go, write into the H E A D L I N E S!

Use different fonts so you can draw the readers attention to what you want them to see

Go online and check out what type of headlines that interest you. If you put in a word to describe what you are doing with your blog what comes up. Trial and error is a way to look for what is out there in the world.

• Come up with Keywords that showcase what your story or art is about.
• Find different imagery to see what can go with your words. Remember a picture can say 1,000 words. In some cases words just look long and people can lose interest quickly.
• Start with a working title, which can work with a rough draft of your concept you want to incorporate. These are general title that can say a lot with little effort. Then think about what does your audience want to know?
  • Is your audience geared toward kids - use what will draw them in? The new video games or movie characters that are in the NOW.
  • Is your audience looking for food? Have a great picture with whatever food you are talking about. Then make sure it contains a juicy adjective.

Keep accurate because if you mislead your audience they may get frustrated with your content as well. Give the readers exactly what they expect. Always respect your reader’s intelligence and do not give them the feeling that you are dumbing down anything.

Have fun with it so use strong phrases that are bold, glowing, brilliant, and positive. The issues that sometimes can happen is that it needs to be keep short, sweet and to the point.

Brainstorm those ideas with other. Ask anyone about what would interest them or what kind of words make others turn their heads. Then use those keys words and check the thesaurus or dictionary for other ways of talking about what turns those heads.

Thanks all! Enjoy!

Sources:
A Practical Guide to Plan your blog Jo & Dale Reardon
How to Start A Profitable Blog in Under One Hour - Passive Marketing
How to Start a Successful Blog in one Hour - Steve Scott
How to Write Great Blog Posts that Engage Readers - Steve Scott
The Art of Freelance Blogging - Kevin Muldoon

Next week - Plugins, are you, plugged in!