I just read an amazing article that stated that social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are now more popular than email.  I am not going to write about why Twitter is great or how Twitter can increase traffic to your blog, those topics are getting kind of stale.  I want to share with you a couple of ways that I have been using Twitter to help me create content for my blog, while engaging my followers and blog readers at the same time.  No, this isn’t a review for the new “Fresh from Friendfeed” plug-in, as I am very against automated blogs.  This is a way to use real relationships with real people to create real content.

If you have been blogging for over a month, I am sure you have experienced a day where you just could not think of a good topic or content for a post.  I experienced this last week and Twitter came to my rescue.  Let me provide you with a little background information, in addition to Tycoon Blogger, I own several other niche blogs and as such I have several different accounts on Twitter.  This example is related to my career blog.  Here is what I did.  I simply reached out to my followers and asked them a question.  I asked them how they were getting through the recession at work.  I received an overwhelming response and I was able to compile and summarize their responses and add some commentary.  The next step I took was to send a thank you “tweet” to all the followers who contributed to the article and of course I included a link to the post.  These combined tactics resulted in providing me with a great article and my highest traffic day ever.

As an added perk, this idea spawned another.  One of my followers happens to be a CEO of a technology company, and the idea popped into my head that it would be great reading to hear a CEO’s view of the current job environment.  He agreed to the interview, but I still haven’t been able to pin him down on a day or time.   I guess you will just have to subscribe to my blog to get an update.

So there you have it, two very simple ways that Twitter can help you create fresh blog content; ask a question and ask for an interview.

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There are a number of reasons why readers don't stay on your blog as long as you'd like them to, and these reasons will vary from blog to blog. It's very difficult to cover such a broad range of answers in an article like this, but here are a few things that can help bloggers in any niche keep readers visiting longer:

Provide engaging content.

This is a must. If your readers don't like what you're providing, they're not going to stay. Period.

No matter what your topic is, no matter what form of content you choose (text, photos, videos, etc.), it needs to be interesting. Keep in mind, what you may consider interesting, others may not. This is when you need to decide whether you're blogging for yourself or others.

Make your blog easy on the eyes.

Nothing is more of a turnoff than a terrible template. If you like clashing colors, like bright green text on a hot pink background, that's cool, but understand that most people don't, and will not stay on a page like that, nor will they purposely return.

Fonts that are too small or difficult to read are also big turnoffs. The same goes for oversized fonts, and too many flashing banners.

While it is considered a good thing to have a unique style, there is a line that (in my eyes) you just should not cross. You could have the best content on the web, but if your design is terrible, your content won't matter. Don't go overboard- keep it simple and easy to read.

Don't annoy your readers with excess ads.

I personally find excess ads, pop-up subscription boxes, and any kind of pop-up in general, to be absolutely annoying, and I'm sure many others will agree.

Have you ever come across a webpage that had ads all over it, to the point where you had a difficult time finding and/or paying attention to the content you originally went there for? How did that make you feel? Keep that in mind when putting ads on your blog.

Now don't get me wrong, I think it's perfectly fine to run advertisements (after all, they're on every single one of my blogs), but there's a fine line between 'lucrative' and 'overkill'. Don't cross it.

Make navigation simple.

This is a key point to keeping your readers on your blog. The easier it is to navigate your blog, the more likely your visitors will explore. Have links to your most important pages, and perhaps recent posts, on every single page of your blog. Usually these are placed in a sidebar or menu near the top of the page.

Link to related posts.

A very effective technique to encourage your readers to visit more pages on your blog is to link to other posts within or at the end of your posts. There are a couple ways you can do this.

You can create links within your content, which seems to be the more effective way of advertising your other pages. The closer the links are to the top of the page, the more likely they will be seen. This is a great way to advertise posts on related topics, or even somewhat unrelated topics that you just happen to mention within your post.

You can also link to related posts beneath your content, something along the lines of 'if you enjoyed this post, here are a few more you may like'. WordPress users can install a plugin that will do this automatically, based on keywords, though I'm not quite sure how accurate it is if you don't have many posts containing the same key terms.

Have a 'best of' page or section in your sidebar.

Show off your best and/or most popular posts by either listing them on a separate page, or in your sidebar using a widget or simply typing them. Pointing readers to your best content is an excellent way to be sure you are making a good impression, or at least, the best impression you can make with what you currently have.

If you compose a list of your top posts and find that you are not truly satisfied with what you have, use that as inspiration to grow and perform better as a blogger. This happens to be a good way to reflect back on your accomplishments and set goals according to what you have or have not achieved.

Have a page catered to new readers.

After blogging for a while, we tend to forget that not everyone is up to speed with what is happening on our blogs. Create a page to help first-time visitors explore your blog. Link to key pages and any posts that you think would be helpful to them. Link to this page in your sidebar or menu, so that it displays on every single page of your blog. You may be surprised by your results.

Make off-site links open in a new window.

Once visitors are directed to another page, all too often they either stay there or go somewhere else, rather than hit the 'back' button on their browsers. When linking to another website, add target="_blank" to your link tag so that the page opens in a separate tab or window. This way, your page remains open and in order to leave, your readers must close your page manually.

All of these techniques have helped me over the years as a blogger, and I can almost guarantee they will prove to be helpful to you as well. 

Do you have any other tips you'd like to add?

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As promised, here's my take on the topic, why it's important to go back and edit your older posts: 

To add more information.

When we write, it's not uncommon to forget things, or remember something later on that we'd like to add to our post. Sometimes it's a piece of information that clears up any misinterpretations of our words. Either way, if you later see something important you'd like to add, add it. People will still visit your posts long after they've left the front page of your blog. You still have an audience to cater to, even if they aren't exactly following along as you post something new.

To stay relevant as times change. 

As times change, so does technology and our knowledge about many things in this world. If you've spent several hours writing a very detailed post, let's say you blog about desktop apps, something that is constantly building on itself, always improving, you may find that your post may not be relevant a year down the road. It will no longer be considered as valuable as it once was. Do you choose to leave it as is and take the cut in traffic, or do you update it to meet the changing times?

To fix or remove broken links.

Have you ever come across an old page that had some great information, but when you clicked on a link the author had recommended, the page didn't exist? How frustrating is that? Take a lesson from that experience, and make a point to go back and either fix or remove broken links on your blog.

And aside from the displeasure you could cause your readers, it is very possible that broken links could affect your search engine rankings for the worse. If you are concerned about SEO, I suggest you do a thorough check on your blog's links. 

If you're not familiar with link checking services, try Dead-Links, Xenu's Link Sleuth and/or W3C Link Checker. (And if you know of any better tools for this, feel free to share them in the comments.) 

To match a change in opinion.

As times change, so do our opinions about certain things. Maybe we posted a rant or stated that we weren't fond of a particular thing, or even raved about something, for that matter. But later on, something happened, whether it be an improvement or an action or piece of information that made us reconsider our original thoughts on the topic, and we no longer support our previous opinion.

Let's say someone found your blog via search, and the first page he or she landed on was that one in which you stated your thoughts about something you no longer support. This person bases his or her opinion of you and your blog on this post. Is that what you want? You are responsible for your own words, whether you say them now or have said them in the past. They are still there for the world to read. 

To optimize your post better for search engines.

You've written a very informative post that could help a large number of people, but you didn't target the right keywords and you aren't getting very much search traffic. The best thing you can do at this point is go back and optimize your post for search engines, and see what happens to your traffic levels.

These are the reasons why I think bloggers should go back and edit their older posts. (Of course, some of these reasons may not apply to all bloggers, like those who keep a personal diary.) Can you think of any more? 

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Feel free to expand on this- why or why not?

I will be sharing my view on this topic in the next few days..

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Many people are still under the impression that blogs are online journals, which is what the software was originally created for, and don't realize that many online magazines and the like are actually built with blogging software as well. They will visit some of their favorite websites every day, unaware that they are actually reading blogs.

And that's fine. As a web publisher, you aren't obligated to market your website as a blog if you don't want to. But also keep in mind, if it's not clear to your visitors that they're reading a blog and that they can subscribe via RSS, it's likely they won't.

Of course, this also depends on your chosen niche and general audience.

If you're blogging about internet-related topics, and your readers are of a younger generation, it's likely they already know about RSS, or have at least heard about it.

Now if you were blogging about knitting, or some other topic that is geared toward a slightly older, less tech-savvy crowd, it makes sense that they may not know about RSS.

It's up to you to know your readers and cater your website to fit their needs. Educate them about RSS by creating a separate page explaining what it is and how they can subscribe. Make sure it's easily accessible.

Teach them and they will follow; it's really that simple. 

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