If you blog frequently, it goes without saying that if you don't get people's attention, no one will read it. Not unlike any other source of information, simply having content isn't enough - you have to work to get those eyeballs. Don't despair - there are creative ways to go about doing this, and you won't have to expend any additional energy.
You may have heard the term "SEO", or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a critical way that webmasters get their content or sites to rank higher in natural search. It can be complex and expensive, but if you are creative, you can do some basic SEO for your blog at no cost. Many search engines use technology called "bots" that crawl your content to determine relevance to search terms. Basically, they read the text and interpret those terms accordingly. Your task is to make the bot's job easier by using keywords, tags, and keeping your blog easy to load (also called "lightweight").
If you saw my post about how I set up this blog in 58.8 seconds, then you are probably thinking of starting your own blog. Fantastic! Blogs are perfect for establishing you or your business as thought leaders, and even though there are a ton of them out there, I fully encourage it.
Once you start your blog, you'll want to get some followers - "build it and they will come" does not apply here. You are fighting for mind share against millions of others in the blogosphere. One well known way to attract potential followers is to claim your blog on Technorati. Technorati is a search engine for blogs, and they have indexed over 110 million blogs!
Claiming your blog involves putting the blog's URL in their database, and then posting your claim token in a blog post (e.g., XW53TBZ6CQH9). You then verify that claim token, and your blog will be included in their search tool.
Will it be seen? Hard to say. I believe the quality and frequency of your content will be as much a driver as anything else, but if you disagree, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
A karate sensei I know often says "it's not practice that makes perfect, it's perfect practice that makes perfect!" The point is, if you don't practice what you do properly, then you won't end up doing whatever it is you do properly. That's certainly applicable to martial arts, but when it comes to something like writing a blog, I'd suggest otherwise.
If you want to be effective at writing blog posts, you do need to practice. However, a blog is really intended to be your voice - your opinion is what matters and will drive people to read your posts. Too often, I read blogs that are monotonous and boring. They are written as if read from a script, much the same way when a speaker reads from a teleprompter. It just doesn't sound genuine.
So I submit that when it comes to writing a blog - practice can make perfect...just don't be too perfect and you'll find many more people will listen to what you have to say.
I just changed the standard template for my blog to this new look - I love the old fashioned look with parchment. The template is called "Aspire" and I downloaded it from Blogger Templates Blog.
I would call this a somewhat "advanced" technique for beginners, or anyone using the Blogger platform. It took a little time to get the template to look "right", and I am still working out some kinks. However, if you are feeling intrepid, take a look at some of the templates that are out there and give it a shot!
The creation of this blog was borne out of a challenge I issued - to myself! The challenge was - how quickly could I set up a blog by myself?
You might ask why I would issue such a strange challenge - I'll tell you why. But first, a little information about me: I've spent over 20 years in Marketing and Product Management, mostly in the technology industry. The particular market segment I've focused on is the small and medium-sized business market (SMB), and it's a segment I am very passionate about. The SMB segment has unique challenges that no other businesses face, and I have always tried my best to understand those challenges, and offer ways to address them. It's fair to say that small businesses are the economic engine that drives the world's economy. Don't believe me? I bet you didn't know that 98% of all businesses worldwide are classified as having less than 20 employees!