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How Blogs Work

Blogwam was originally set up as something of a ’showcase’ to show my clients what a ‘real’ blog could be i.e. a great Content Management System in that they, my clients, could control and publish their own content to the site without them having to contact me and ask me to do it for them.

I used to build boring static web sites for my clients and both they and I used to get SO fed up with them having to contact me to change a telephone number or address when those web changes were necessary.

A well designed and set up Wordpress blog makes all that frustration go away. Huzza!

It also means that anyone can create a seriously professional presence on the Web without having to ask their 14 year old nephew to do it for them. So many of my early web design jobs were to take over a site that ‘Cousin Kevin’ had walked away from ( having discovered ‘girls’ !)

So Blogs, specifically self-hosted Wordpress blogs, are where it’s at as far as I’m concerned. Certainly they are what allow me to work for myself doing nothing but… even when I’m asked to occassionally ‘build’ a web site for someone I always suggest a blog. I now, when I have time, build blogs to order.

In the last couple of years a Wordpress blog can not only look fantastic but can also do the most amazing things that, no way, a static web site can do.

What that essentially boils down to is interactivity:

It’s not just knowing how to add video or audio to a page – which in blogs is simple, there’s so much more to a blog in that ‘readers’ can add their own input ( and , by definition, want to know what the response to that input will be). It’s called ‘interactivity’ and the most successful blogs ( earning big bucks!) have it in spades!

SO! A self-hosted Wordpress blog, nicely ‘themed’ and so on was the way it was – blogs by definition generate loyalty because the better written ones are a reflection of the personality of the author. Which leads me neatly to the 4 rules to create a good blog:

  • Show off your personality, it’s YOUR blog godammit!
  • Let people give you feedback ( comments/email etc.) and, by doing so, give visitors a reason to return again and again.
  • Create loyalty – if you’re honest and tell it like it is that shouldn’t be a problem.
  • Get personal, so your readers feel an emotional attachment to you.

Do the above successfully and your credibility in your marketplace or niche will increase.