A powerful way to draw readers into your material is via the sidebar, i.e; the skinny column(s) beside the main post field (review Anatomy of a Blog, if need be). Elements that give context, build community, provide revenue and highlight original content include:
- About – as noted earlier, readers respond more strongly to bloggers with authority or character. Give your audience a chance to connect with you ... or, in some cases, with your nom de plume's persona. Either way, traction = good.
- Ads – we'll delve into this week nine.
- Archive – give readers a portal to your past material.
- Blogroll – reach out to similar writers ... and help your readers connect with them too. Such "link love" can have a powerful cumulative effect, boosting SEO and Google PageRank. But more on this week six...
- Greatest hits – a list of your favorite or most popular entries provides another "point of entry" for readers into your sea of original content. Insert your posts' permalinks into a blogroll-style gadget.
- Subscription box – more on this week six.
- Syndicated content via RSS feeds (headlines, tweets, and so on) – ditto on the week six thang.
- Widgets, aka "gadgets" (embedded programlets, often interactive, like clocks, calendars, Flickr slideshows, etc.) – read on...
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment