“How to make a Good and Professional Blog” - This is a very common question asked by many bloggers. Every blogger wants to be the owner of a good blog but they ignore some simple things which are very important for a blog .
We all know, content is the soul of any good blog and many of us write quality content but still they do not succeed because they ignore some simple but important factors of a blog; content isn’t everything.
Here I am providing some factors which affect the quality of your blog.
Theme of your blog
Looks are very important for any blog. I see, many bloggers choose a common theme because it is freely available. If you want to make your blog good, then choose a unique theme like Thesis and which should be SEO supportive.
Color of your theme should be good, attractive and reader friendly. Most bloggers ignore the importance of the colors in their blog. Hexcolor will help you to choose best color for your blog.
Navigation
Navigation is the second factor which also comes under themes but it is very important factor because with help of easy navigation structure, you can reduce your blog’s bounce rate. Always try to make your blog easy to navigate.
Put yourselves in the shoes of a new reader who lands on your blog. Check if he/she will be able to stay a while on your blog and easily navigate to other important pages.
For this you can use a good category navigation bar or a navigation bar with links to important pages, a recent/popular post widget, manual tabs (links) and jQuery level menus.
Loading time
Sometimes, to make a good theme for your blog and to make it feature rich, you may choose a rich coded template. This is a wrong notion and it will increase the loading time of your blog’s pages.
This will surely annoy your visitors. Using too many plugins is also bad for your site’s speed.
Keep fewer scripts in your code. Remove unnecessary codes from your templetes. It will reduce your blog’s loading time. Again, a premium, clean coded SEO theme like Thesis will do the job.
Write for people, not search engines
Yes, you read that right. To be a good blogger, you must write with your readers in mind, not Google (or any other search engine for that matter).
Don’t be obsessed about SEO. If your article helps reader then Google will you to get more visitors for your blog. You should write in such a way that readers will not get confused. Make your post easy to skim.
Images and videos are nice ways to express your messages, so try to use images and/or videos in your blog post to make it even more interesting.
Here’s a post where Jane explains how to take care of SEO and still write for people:
SEO: Optimizing blog posts for people
Better use of social media
There is no point in you having a great blog and nobody knowing about it. If your blog looks great and if it has useful content, it is equally important that it is known to as many people possible.
This becomes easy if you are active on social media platforms. But note that “active” doesn’t mean “addicted”. If you spend quality time on social media and provide value, you can easily build a professional platform for your blog.
Guest blogging - don’t ignore this
Guest blogging has rich benefits when it comes to projecting your blog to the outside world. If you provide quality on other great blogs, you can easily get the attention of masses (and from the audience of your competitors).
If you are not doing guest blogging, you are missing out on quality link building, getting attention, traffic, credibility and building authority in your niche.
If you’re still hesitating to guest blog, check out Jane’s guest blogging guide “Guest Blogging Champion“.
At last I want to say only one thing, always write to see as you are helping a person and think that your blog will really helps other people; if you’re already doing so, believe me, you are really a owner of a good and professional blog .
I hope this article will helps you a lot. If I missed anything please share with us.
PushkerYadav is an Web Developer, Geek and of-course a blogger. He do blogging at UsefulTricks and HexColor . He has also won various blogging competitons. You can check his blog to know more about him.
Lisa says
great post, I have had a great deal of success in improving my Alexa score through guest blogging. I am going to check out your color and theme tips now. Thanks for great content.
Pushker says
Thanks a lots Lisa. Yes, Guest blogging really helps and Hexcolor will helps you to choose best color for your website. Try it
Abhi says
Hey Pushkar,
Very well written. It looks like half of my article. See the most commented article on ProBloggingSuccess.
HollyJahangiri says
Oh, not quite HALF, Abhi!
Good post, Pushker - I wasn’t familiar with hexcolor, but used to use some similar online resources when designing websites. I was just telling Abhi about a couple of my favorites: http://www.probloggingsuccess.com/good-blogger-good-blog-signs/#comment-16452
Amit Shaw says
Nice Tips PushkerYadav Thanks a lot for sharing this. I think Navigation and Page Loading speed matters most.
Pushker says
Thanks for your comment Amit. Yes, you are right Navigation and loading are very imp. factors then others.
Ramashanker says
Very Good Post Pushker! Navigation and Theme of my website is not good. Now, I will follow your steps. Thanks for sharing good information.
Pushker says
Thanks! Ramashanker, Its a very happy moment, you follows my steps for your website.
Hi there,
Great tips! You’ve obviously been using your own tips cos your blog is really good. I love the layout too, great colours. I agree with your point about guest bloggers. I always like reading guest post on blogs I already follow!
Pushker says
Thanks for comment. Yes, These all are my own tips but all are good and really helps you to develop a good and professional blog. I really appreciate, you checked Useultricks and you like it. Guest Blogging is really helpful for both guest author as well as blog owner.
Ayodeji says
I always do guest blogging to promote my site, but not I’ve seen more ways to develop my blog as a professional one just by reading this article. Thanks.
Pushker says
Guest blogging is a one to promote your site but you must follows another tips which i have mentioned. Loading and Navigation are another factors which you should follow. Hope it will help you. Thanks for your Good Comment.
This post has great points, PushkerYadav. Many of bloggers wanted to build a good and pro blog. But not all, however, know how to do it. So, I think through your post, the number of blogger who want to be a good blogger will be increased. Thanks.
Pushker says
Yes! I also feel, many bloggers are searching daily for how to make a good blog, but they can`t find the good answer. That`s why I wrote this article and hope this helps many blogger for developing a good and professional blog. Thanks a lot for your comment.
Hey Pushker,
Great tips here! I’m focusing more on blogging this year so your tips are definitely helpful. Indeed, the blog speed, navigation and the general design are aspects that can attract or turn people off. I would add search box besides the 2 widgets to make really it easy for the visitor.
If one gives his best in a blog post without a doubt he will earn more than a backlink and some traffic
Thanks for sharing buddy! Wish you success with the contest
Best,
Radu
Pushker says
search box play a big role in navigation and a good blog must have a search box.
Thanks for comment and wish. If God helps me, I must win this. Thanks again for your good comment
thanks pushker . navigation is realy a vry important part of a gud blog. your information is very helpful to me…and i m sure for others also.
Pushker says
Thanks for your good comment. I am happy that my information is helping you to develop a good and professional blog.
This is a fantastic point. To the point and spot on. I especially like that we should write for our audience and not search engines. I was able to see immediate improvement in the traffic of one of my blogs when I did this.
Pushker says
Thanks Kimberly! Yes, We should always write to think about readers not for google. I also got more visitors when i did this. Thanks again for your good comment.
Rick Castro says
Very nice post! This just helps a lot especially to new blogger like me! Thanks.
Pushker says
Thanks! I am really happy that my thought helps you.
If you want any other help in blogging you can ask? I am happy to help you.
Amanda says
It’s a pity that today more and more people write only for search engines. I think that this is a bad tendency. We shouldn’t forget
Pushker says
Amanda, Yes your are right. Today many people only write for search engines. This is only short term success. for taking long term we should forget it. thanks for sharing your view.
Hello Pushker,
Great post! Log time and design also plays a crucial role in blogging. This is the reason why you should lessen the media files on your site for faster loading. Writing for you readers is also a good point. I think it was first introduced by John Chow in his ebook.
Thanks for the share.
Pushker says
Thanks Noah! Yes for saving the load time i use less media and this a good sign of a blog and we should write for readers because reader will read our articles, not search engine.
Yes, i also checked your blog, really it very cool, your theme, color good combination. Looks like a good and professional blog.
Sorry but i don`t know more about John Chow. May be he wrote.
Thanks for your good comment.
Hey Pusker,
Thank you for visiting my blog and for your wonderful comments. Regarding John, he is one of the most authoritative bloggers of this generation. You can download his ebook for free here -> http://www.johnchow.com. You will learn a lot from him.
Regards,
Noah
Pushker says
Thanks for telling me about John, I read some pages of this ebook, this really helpful. I am very happy to get this book. Thanks for your Help. Can you share you other experiences in blogging.
Hey Pushker,
What aspect of blogging do you want me to share with you? You might be even more experienced than I am. hehehe….
I always focus on my blog design, load time that’s why I choose thesis framework. But I never focus on guest blogging. After reading this post planing to write guest posts on others blogs..
Pushker says
Ya, I know your blog very well. You are really doing a good job. Nice blog theme as well design.
and yes, guest blogging really helps you to get traffic for your blog. Hope you will try. Thanks a lot for your good comment here.
ramashanker says
your some content page is very helpful for new computer user,i hope you will win this prize also.thanks for help me
Pushker says
Thanks Rama! Many new computer users don`t know about many facts, so i tried to mention here these points, hope it will help you and all other new blogger.
Sustines says
Push,
I am guilty of having a bad navigation in my blog. I am still trying to device a navigation system that will help visitors find easily the articles that might interest them.
Another problem that I have in my blog is its loading time. According Google Speed tool, my blog is slower compared to 99 percent of websites in the internet. I have the hard time speeding it up so that it will become slower compared to 50 percent other websites.
Pushker says
Don`t feel guilty. I saw your blog and find you are missing in navigation bar, try some jquery menus , use footer, footer really helps you. and for loading time, use less scripts in your theme, try to use google for any scripts which having a good loading time then see again you must get some improvement in your blog
Sustines says
thank you so much for your advice. I will follow what you told me. But first I need to find better theme that suits my preferences.
Pushker says
Yaa! Its very important to get a very useful theme for your blog. This is the first step to develop a good blog. You can prefer Thesis theme for it.
TechTushar says
I always do guest blogging to promote my site. I also used a better plugin which load in quick time . I want to ask you that which web hosting you will suggest to me for best performance?
Pushker says
Thanks Tushar! Actually there are many web host which are some goods and bad experiences. but hostgator and bigrock gives best output anyother. so try to use Hostgator for best web hosting experience!
Can you tell me what is the average traffic on your site??
TechTushar says
Actually I have website which have almost 800-900 uniqe visitors and 2000+ page loads daily.
And thank you for reply.
Pushker says
Its really a huge traffic for your blog. Great work.
Can you share your experience to get this traffic for your blog. It will be very helpful for other blogger as well for me.
Thanks for highlighting the various aspects of the professional blogging Pushkar and I personally think SEO optimization must be there so that the blog ranks well in search engines.
Pushker says
Thanks Lalit! I agree with you but SEO is nothing but its a general structure how to write a post and i think if any post is helpful for readers then sure its also for Google. What do you think?
Pushker says
Hey, you can go to http://en.gravatar.com/ and register there for your nice Avatar.
nice explanation mate
first of all i think theme is very impotent then others .. we need to spend lot of $$ for professional themes .. i’m sure that we are unable to run a professional blog with low budget 
Pushker says
Thanks for comment! There are some professional themes available free of cost. you can use it and give a professional shape.
I have had a great deal of success in improving my Alexa score through guest blogging. I am going to check out your color and theme tips now. Thanks for great content.
Rajesh says
Thanks for sharing this valuable and wonderful post with us. Your tips will help people make better blog. I hope you can post more wonderful post here.