Banana Scoop

The More Feature is Another Click as is the Next Page Function

If you’re WordPress, I immediately advise you to use the More feature if you’re not already.  This feature allows articles to be cut off at a certain point requiring the blogger to click again to read the rest of it.  Think a front page of the newspaper reading, “Go to C4 for more”.  Except that when they actually click it, it counts a page hit.

Do not abuse this though.  Sometimes I see blogs that have only one or two sentences and then a More button.  Remember that you need to make the hook first for them to even click More.  The hook can be a nice overview or summary, or even an image [refer to The Internet is Full of Men, Capitalize Their Disgusting Instincts for details on how to choose your image].

If you’re reading this, you likely had to go to the next page from the first page.  This is a neat feature that allows you to essentially cheat and manipulate most interested readers in another page view.  Cheat and manipulate are harsh and cruel words, but it’s the honest truth.  If you’re articles are particularly long, there’s not much harm in asking your readers to acknowledge the extra effort by click one more time in reading the rest of the article.  To access this function go to the HTML tab of a post editor page and type <?—nextpage–>.  This will acknowledge a margin very similar to the more page.  My rule is to only include such a button if articles reach over 2000 words as most of my articles are 1000 a piece.  You may follow any rule you want, but there is a noticeable amount until your readers shrug off your article in whole because it’s 3-4 pages long.

First Come, First Viewed Because Current Events are Googled More than Old Events

It’s common sense that current events are Googled more than older events.  So if there is a hot topic that semi-relates to your blog, talk about it.  Over 5 billion people must be using the internet, and if half of them are searching for a current topic, a couple are bound to stumble upon your website.

Capitalize on pictures, like I said, find interesting pictures that people don’t often see for current events and use them.  My view count on episodes of Breaking Bad reviews aren’t high because I found something more profound in the episode before everyone else did, but because I posted it literally an hour after it was over with unique images no one else can find.  And right now, it’s registering about 100 hits a day even if the review was about 2 week old.  And don’t get me started on the hits I’m getting from last night’s review.  Things like this stack up and as they gain popularity, your indexing on Google Images increases.

A Blind Shotgun Spread is More Beneficial than Blind Sniper Shots

I used the word blind in that header, twice.  The metaphor for blind is that in my case: I’m an amateur writer, where I have no training in how to write, publish, or tag.  I go by my gut, so I would consider myself ‘blind’ in this endeavor.  The gun metaphor refers to the types of bullets shot off by the guns in terms of topics to blog about.

If you’re only blogging about one subject [the sniper] and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re probably going to miss.  A lot.  However, if you take blog about multiple subjects [a shotgun], even if you miss majority of your shots, you’ll hit something.  My blog revolves around movies, television, video games, and books.  I have readers coming by who their own blogs are about strictly books, others about strictly movies, others about strictly videogames, etc.  The fact that all those people come together on my blog is an advantage to me.  Widen your scope and if you can’t widen it, learn something to widen it.  It can’t possibly hurt and documenting your move into a new subject will definitely be something people want to read. 

Get in the Wagon, Buckle In, Roll Down Your Window, and Take Notice at the Journey.  It’s Going to Be a While.

I’ve been blogging for over a year now, and I’ve had my ups and downs in terms of viewership.  I was rounding 1000 hits a day before I changed Banana Feed to Banana Scoop and I literally felt like I was on top of the world.  That took a year to accomplish.  Over that year, I learned a lot.  Look at what other professional blogs use.  Every time you click something, remember how they made you click it.  Take notice of mundane activities on the internet and try to replicate on your blog.  You’ll find new ways all the time to make your blog marginally better for your audience.  Attaining your audience is crucial.  Establishing a relationship with a reader so that they’ll come back enough to possibly make your site a bookmark on their bar is the entire goal.  But that takes time.

Well that’s about all my secrets.  Well most of them at least, I do have to keep some for myself.  So for those struggling bloggers out there, I hope this helped you guys out.  And if you’re scoffing at the 300-400 views I’m getting because your site gets thousands, please let me know what to do!  Sharing is caring and with 7 billion people on this planet, it wouldn’t hurt to share some of your audience.  Thanks guys, ciao!

Pages: 1 2