Before you choose a blog template, consider form and function. Keep in mind that the Web is evolving all the time and we are always experimenting with new ways to display our content. And remember that content is king. The blog design is there to enhance your content, to provide a good experience to your readers and to convey what your brand/blog stands for.

Based on my experience and what I see in the blogosphere as of autumn 2009, I feel that:

1. Pictures sell. The trend is to go with bigger images. Aim for 500 pixels in width.
2. The the blog is becoming the hub of your social media activities. The blog layout is morphing and designers are experimenting with different options. There are no clear winner at this point. The multimedia blog template is an option. But clearly, we look for what will replace the magazine layout and the classic blog layout for your home page.
3. Make sure to display where to find you on other social media sites. Put a link to your Flickr and You tube account, a Follow me on Twitter link or a Twitter widget. The Fan box from Facebook works well to grow your fan base. You must leverage your participation in social networking sites.
4. Make sure your posts display well in Facebook when people add the link to their profile. You want to show the title, show the contextual picture and display the first sentences of your post. Click here for explanations. Any blogger should leverage the power of popular social networking sites to grow their traffic.
5. Assume that your readers use a screen resolution of at least 1024×768. On at my At Home blog, I get less than 2% of my readers with a 800×600 screen resolution or lower.
6. If you still prefer the classic blog layout (no harm in that), opt for a 2-column design since it allows your content to breathe. Allow a content column of 500 pixels or more to publish big pictures and properly embed You Tube videos. To give you an idea, the white section of my blog measures 1002 pixels in width.
7. If you publish many posts per week, display blog excerpts on your home page. This way, if a reader is not interested by the first post, you may grab his or her attention with the second or third post.

Make your Image Google-friendly

Do not forget to fill a short description of what the picture represents, think of describing the scene on the ALT attribute of the image. I am telling you, it makes a huge difference. As a bonus, putting ALT attribute helps on accessibility.

+ photo: Aperture multimedia blog template from WooThemes

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I am always amazed to see how many brands and organizations have not adapted to the new reality of Web communication. Brands and organizations spent a lot of money on marketing and advertising. Yet they fail at the cheapest and probably the most efficient promotion tool: the words of their fans.

If a blogger decided, on their own initiative, to write about one of your products or your event, chances are that they give you free publicity that their readers will trust because it is their honest opinion. People prefer to write about what they like than what they do not like. So why are you making it difficult for bloggers to write about your stuff?

I go through my checklist before writing a story. The first thing on that list is the availability of great pictures. If they are none, I moved to the next story. This is because pictures sell a story.

Asking people to fill a form and wait for your staff to send me a password to access your media kit is so passé. Blogging is about what is hot today. What is hot today is what caught my attention at that instant. If I cannot find the material right away to write my story, I will pass to the next story. They are no shortage of good topics when you know how to research and have imagination.

As a blogger, I want direct access to promotional pictures that are at least 500 pixels in width (80% jpg or png-24). Simply protect your content under a non-commercial Creative Commons license and request that bloggers clearly give you credit and put a link to you (the source). If more people knows about what you are doing, you will be more successful. At the end, we all win.

By the way, the free Trend Briefings produced by Trendwatching.com is a must read. I am one of their 160,000+ business professionals in more than 180 countries who is looking for it every month.

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It is the time of the year where I re-evaluate what I am doing on my At Home with Kim Vallee blog. Remember that I told you that you should review what you are doing 3 to 4 times a year. I am thinking about what I will do next to improve the content. Like I said at PodCamp 2009, having a great looking blog is important but what will really insure that readers will come back is superior content that served the needs of your readers.

I go back to the basics and review everything with the current state of the blogosphere. I look at:

• How I can stand out from the crowd in my niche?
• What the competition is doing?
• What is missing in my niche, what angle is not covered by others?
• How I can make my content better and more useful for my readers?
• What else can I do to grow my traffic?

Books as a Souvenir

This morning, Mitch Joel tweeted about a talk that Seth Godin gave last year about how he used New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create 10 Bestselling Books. Seth Godin is in the idea business, not the book business. Seth gave away partial content before he published his books. He made the point that his books are, for many readers, a souvenir of their experience surrounding the book. It is more powerful to spread ideas first and encourage people to talk about them. Then, the books become a by-product that fans want to own.

Watching this Seth Godin’s presentation triggered new ways I could do things to further develop my brand. I invite you to watch him since you could probably transpose many concepts into your own industry.

MORE:
+ Seth Godin
+ Seth Godin’s presentation
+ via Mitch Joel on Twitter

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One thing that is difficult for many bloggers is to define their niche. As the competition on the blogosphere becomes fiercer, you need to position your blog in order to stand out. People needs to quick get what your blog is about and how it is different from the pack.

Whether you talk about one topic or many topics in your blog, you need to find one direction that summarizes what your blog is about.

Give Room to Your Niche to Evolve

If you are starting out, think about how to categorize your blogs in directories. Take my At Home blog. It is a design blog for women well positioned as a stylish living blog. It started in 2007 as a blog about entertaining at home with style. In time, I found out that it is the stylish living aspect that my readers are attached to.

Think about directories

In a real conversation, people would easily describe the scope of At Home. But I have a hard time selecting a category for it in Web directories. Lifestyle blogs are not exactly what I am since I do not cover cultural events or musics. I am not only about food or home decor. I also touch family life without being about kids and parenting. Women magazines are rarely there and when they are, it is often filled by feminist blogs or women issues blogs.

There is also another impact. I consider myself a design blog. But when they are blog awards on specific topics (interior design, food, etc), I realized that people would not instinctively think about my blog. I am not complaining. I am happy with my positioning. I just point it out so you could fully grasp the extent of your decision.

Examine Your Content

Ask yourself that question: Are you mainly

• a creator of new content – ex: a crafter,
• a collector  – blog is about what you like,
• a curator  – like I am
• a news publisher – being the source of all the news about a specific topic
• a problem solver
• one that inspires people to act or create
• a commentator, someone who shares his/her perspectives on issues and ideas, etc…

The content you produce may also influence how you define your niche. Lastly, you need to consider your competition since you need to differentiate yourself.

Remember that helps growth and maintain a readership:

1. Regularly write posts with original content
2. Concentrate on being useful for your readers
3. Be active in the social media community, not just in the blogosphere

For the last point, I refer you to an excellent post about how to get noticed by the right people written by my friend Lara McCulloch of Ready 2 Spark.

+ photo that I took when I went to the after-party of the Social Gaming Summit 2009 in San Francisco

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I put that story on hold after the long weekend. Plus, the summer vacations are at our door. I am writing this now because it is always after a vacation or a break that it is the hardest to get back to our blogging schedule.

People often ask me if I get the writer’s block. I don’t! I always have more stories than time on my hands. Many elements contribute to that fact. Let’s explore the ones that could be useful to you.

Frequency

The main reason in my mind is the fact that I write every day. The more you write, the easier it gets but most importantly, the more ideas pop up. But that does not mean that you have no chance to succeed if you do not write every day. There are other ways to achieve frequency.

You can write a few tweets about your topic every day, have a conversation with peers, post a few comments on related blogs. The idea is to concentrate on your blog topic for at least 15 to 20 minutes every day.

Do not waste any ideas

Develop a fast system to track potential story lines. I use the notes on my iPhone to do that. Audio notes will work too. Before my iPhone, I used the old fashioned way where I scribbled my thoughts on a pocket notebook that I carried around everywhere.

When you are hooked to your computer, create a draft post on Wordpress or Blogger for each future topic.  They will be there whenever you need it.

If you do that daily, it is enough to keep the creative flow active.

RSS Feeds

When I started blogging four years ago, I used to read my RSS feeds every morning before writing my first post. I bookmarked my favorite posts. Sometimes, I would write a post about the best of what you read that day. Most of the times, simply reading your RSS feeds puts your brain in the right set of mind and a story will emerge from nowhere.

Be sure to select a wide enough niche

The key to my inspiration is not only that I write about what I am passionate about. The fact that my topics (home design, entertaining and social media) are very dynamic universes helps a lot. There are always new ideas, new products, practical tips or solutions, sharing experiences to talk about.

If you have problems finding good stories all year long, ask yourself if the angle of your blog confines you. Analyze if it would be appropriate to add a new dimension to your talk.

With everyone having a busy life, people are also looking for curators. Examine how and if you can write useful short posts (75 words or less) a few times a week. Ask yourself what will be useful to your readers may be the only question you should answer to release the creative juice.

For a boost of creativity, watch the handmade video portraits of an inspiring etsy seller, birdhouseaccents.

PHOTO CREDITS:
+ Birdhouses created by Fred and Lynn of Birdhouseaccents on etsy

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I always say to new bloggers that they must try to take their own pictures. Nothing beats original content. Time constraints, money, logistics and talent do not always make it possible.

Most successful food bloggers excel at photography; it is part of their personal brand. Take for example La Tartine Gourmande. We are craving to have a look at her fabulous photos. Bea creates dreamy moments that inspire us and bring happiness to our day. Her writing complements the scenery depicted by her pictures. The whole makes it an awesome experience that encourages us to go back to her blog.

Lifestyle Pictures from Brands

Great pictures also contribute to the success of retailers and distributors. Many brands are known for their superb pictures. Making available inspiring shots also influences the amount of coverage a brand/retailer may get on the blogosphere.

I start any post for At Home with Kim Vallee by creating my photo collage. The photos provided to me or that I am able to find on the Web site of the retailers and the producers influence which products or storyline I will feature. In fact, many of my posts started by a fabulous picture that I spot on a brand Web site. It goes deeper that that since I moved to another story or put it on hold whenever I was unable to get good pictures for a subject.

As more and more brands pitched bloggers for product reviews, I suggest that brands make sure to have a wide selection of creatively styled pictures available. It is in the advantage for both sides that various pictures are shown; it avoids fatigue. As a reader, if I see the same picture over and over, I am less inclined to read the post because it seems like dejà vu.

Product close-up pictures are needed to understand what the product is all about. Make sure to display them on an inviting background. I believe that without including lifestyle pictures on their press package, brands are missing opportunities. If you wish bloggers to talk about your products, make it easy for them. We are busy people.

Having said that, I encourage bloggers to create their own styled pictures if they have the product on hand or if they are at an exhibit. Then, you can use the brand pictures, if needed, to extend your coverage.

+ La Tartine Gourmande
+ Hawaiian Dream Vacation Sweepstakes by Pottery Barn

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I prefer reading blogs through Google Reader. Still, they are people who prefer getting my posts through an email subscription. This is why I provide the option. With Google Feedburner is so simple to do and once you set up the service, it runs by itself.

Use it to Build Loyalty

The popularity of email subscriptions varies per blog. Between 15% to 25% of my subscribed readers (email + RSS feed) opt for the email subscription. Readers can opt to receive an email for every day where you published something.

Since it only takes a few minutes to set up the service on Feedburner and add the proper link to your blog, I advice all bloggers to add this feature. Instead of a link, you could add an email subcription form directly on your blog. The instructions are on Feedburner.

Immediate Access to a Backup

To make sure the system always works fine, I subscribed to my feed by email. This afternoon, I found an unanticipated advantage for me as a blogger. I wanted to delete a draft post. By mistake, I delete a published post. I was desperate since I have no clues about which post I deleted by error. I could have recovered the post via our backup but I was looking for a faster solution.  Simply opening on my inbox gave me all the information to reconstitute the post.

I verify that the post kept the previous URL. It is important to keep any links and trackbacks that refer to your original post (the deleted one). And to fully correct my mistake, I edited the publish date of the post to the original date and time. The information was on the email sent by Feedburner.

Because of my email subscription, my blog is back to  what it was before I made the wrong deletion. I made the corrections in less time that it took me to write this post.

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Every publication has a defined scope that they covered. It is important to define the boundaries of what you cover and what you do not cover. To complicate matters, bloggers are more and more solicited by a number of people to write about their story. The first thing I do after I like an idea is to test it against my blog bible. If it passed the test, then I can think about how I could talk about the story or the product. I also evaluate when and if it would fit within my editorial schedule.

Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers

Copyblogger gave that advice today. I told you that before: always keep in mind your readers. Your blog should provide a consistent whole experience if you want your readers to come back. Maintaining the content quality is crucial. You should aim for the best all the time. In a design blog, you also need consistency in the style you showcase.

Take my At Home with Kim Vallee’s property. It is about my design style and the way I like to entertain. My readers have certain expectations when it comes to the content and what products or design they will see. I make sure that my stories fit both agenda.

Be Consistent even if you get it for free

A few weeks ago a retailer wanted to host a giveaway for my AHWKV’s readers. The prices were valuable but their products were something that I would never put on my table. My readers would have spotted that right away. Although a giveaway costs me nothing and can attract new readers to my site, I said no because the pictures of the prizes will clash with my style. This would have impaired the whole experience and hurt my brand.

You invest a lot of time in writing your blog. Today’s lesson was to grow your audience and stay at the top of your game, you need to provide a consistent experience.  Having a blog bible helps you maintain the cap.

+ Zen and the Art of remarkable blogging on Copyblogger

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Any blogger should reflect on the matter. Your answer does not simply depend about how you feel comfortable about exposing details from your private life. You must take into account the people who share your life because their life will also be affected.

Except for my husband, I do not mention my friends or family members. And the rare times I did, I referred vaguely to them. I share activities we do but I do not too talk about any emotional stuff. Furthermore, it will not fit into the scope of my blogs.

To see how other women deal with the question, examine three popular mom bloggers talked about this hot topic on Momversation. Let’s hear how Heather Armstrong of Dooce, Dana Loesch of Mamalogues and Rebecca Woolf of Girl’s Gone Child censor their mom blogs?

Facebook and Twitter

The question goes further that your blog. As we participate in social networks like Facebook and Twitter, we discuss and share information with our friends in real-life and with our virtual friends. At least with Facebook, we can create friend lists with different rights and privileges to help us manage who can access what.

How do you deal with the question of private vs public life?

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1. Be Concise

I strongly believe that posts of 750 to 1500 words are too long. People are busy. Their RSS feed list is getting longer. You have more chances to be read if your posts are clear and precise.

Go the the point and leave out the unnecessary details. Like they say in interior design, edit! I aim for 350 words. It is longer than that; I split the topic in two posts. As a bonus, two posts generate more visits than a single one.

2. What is in it for your readers?

Look at it from the viewpoint of your readers. Write your ideas in a way that is useful to them. Think about inspiring, educating or sharing finds.

There is another huge advantage: Google swell the popularity of posts that solve a problem, give top tips and how-to guides.

3. Be a Time Saver

It goes further than a brief post. Save them time by providing the specific page links instead of the homepage.

Think about what information your readers would need. I publish the price of the products I introduced on At Home with Kim Vallee. I try to find an online retailer that delivers in Canada and the United Stated. Publishing this information reduces the number of readers’ emails I get.

I also use the Praized application to publish the phone number, address and a link to the directions of local merchants and restaurants

4. Be a Curator

Bloggers are often perceived as an expert in their domain (i.e. topic covered by your blog). As such, your readers expect that you tell them what they should know about what is going on in your domain.

5. Be Engaging

You need to connect with your audience. Like I said in an interview for Readers’ Digest, your readers can get a sense of how you are without getting too personal.

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These are the things I suggested you first do to grow your traffic. They all cost nothing buy your time.

1. Publish Great Content Right Away

I suggest waiting until you published 3 to 5 blog posts before announcing it to the World. It allows you to start fine-tuning your topics. You are free to make adjustments without distractions.

Write the type of posts readers can expect when they will come back. On my introductory post, I included my first blogging tips; it was about The must-have to start a blog that can easily grow once your blog takes off. You want to give your readers an overview of what your blog is all about. Doing that increases your chances that they subscribe to your RSS feed.

2. Stick to a Posting Schedule

But unless, you are a celebrity, most people will take a wait and see position before subscribing to your feed. So you will need to write at a constant interval to maintain a steady flow of traffic. At the beginning, unless you publish something, chances are that you will get low traffic that day. You have not yet established a reputation on Technorati nor Google on which you can count to bring new visitors. This will come with times and added content.

3. Use Twitter and Facebook as a Promotion Tool

I assume that everyone who is launching a blog is already active on a few Web communities or social networks. Use your connections to tell the World about what you are doing. Start by preaching to the converters.

I send a tweet with a TinyURL every time I published a post. I start my tweet with the post title or I enhance the title by turning it to a question or adding some facts. I also share a link on my Facebook profile.

Earlier this week, I used the Facebook application Networked Blogs (used to be called Blog Networks) to tell 15 Facebook friends that I launched a new blog. I asked them to validate that I am the blog owner. I did a second batch 2 or 3 days later. I selected friends from different circles to increase my visibility.

4. Practice Word of Mouth

Whenever you meet people who ask you what is new in your life, make sure to introduce your blog. Find an angle that can grab their interest but be brief. This may imply going out more often to meetings, conferences and parties. But it can also be done while you are shopping.

5. Be an Active Commenter

When I started At Home with Kim Vallee, I used the metrics for every post I published I need to submit 3 excellent comments. I still make an effort to discover new blogs every week. I either comment or if I find a really cool story, I will talk about their story with due credits on my blog. You need to comments on big, medium and small blogs. I will talk another time about their respective advantages.

Use the name of your blog as your signature since this your brand. You need to establish name recognition as quick as possible. I learned this trick from Bea of La Tartine Gourmande, a blog that is a feast for the eyes and the mouth.

We scratched the tip of the iceberg here. Be assured that I will write plenty more posts on helping you how to grow your traffic. In the meantime, which is the best free method that you used and hopefully, still currently use to promote your blog?

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