We all put considerable effort into getting a blog off the ground, but once the website is live, there’s usually no plan beyond that. Giving some thought to the kind of results that you’re looking for over the months and years to come is important because, out of the people who start, most give up around the six-month mark.
Here are some suggestions for better blog development once the site is up and running.
Find Local Writers
Finding good content writers to produce the type of writing that you’re looking for is a job in itself. When you need local expertise, it’s useful to consider All Florida Craigslist or Craig’s List for other locations across the country, to get content that has a more local feel. For national stories and content that will appeal to a wider audience, then local writers aren’t required so much.
Develop a Regular Publishing Schedule
With a blog, publishing on a regular basis is a much better idea than publishing three pieces of content in one week and nothing for a month after that. Blogs mostly rely on building up a loyal fan base of avid readers who return to enjoy new articles as soon as they’re published and who often subscribe to either an RSS feed or an email newsletter to do so.
Publishing using a regular schedule is even more important than publishing more frequently in many cases. Ensuring that content matches the purpose of the site and doesn’t mix in personal and business information avoids confusing the reader about what to expect too.
Source Royalty-free, Licensed Images
Selecting good quality images for a blog post is important to avoid publishing a wall of words. When care is taken to select appropriate images for a blog post, readers notice. Publishing obviously posed stock images looks tacky in most cases.
Obtain excellent royalty-free images from stock photo sites that offer commercially-licensed photos with or without an attribution required. Unsplash is a high-quality photographic site and Librestock provides the option to look for images across many sites with a single search.
Make Sure Your Security is Top Notch
When running a website, there are always a few bad apples wanting to upset the apple cart. This is especially true when running a site using WordPress (WP), which hackers love to hack to place their own content and nefarious links! When using WP, it’s a good idea to install the Wordfence plugin to protect the site. It makes several changes to WP to improve its security and provides weekly reports on intrusion attempts too. The company behind Wordfence also offers a free regular newsletter with the latest security news to be aware of. The plugin is free to use in its basic setup and there are premium advanced plans for webmasters who require more features.
Running a blog is a journey that really only begins once the site is launched, but then continues on from there. For successful blogs, the journey lasts years, not months. Site owners should be prepared for what that’ll entail as blog traffic takes considerable time to grow into something substantial and valuable.