Internet Babel

Making your blog unique is a crucial step in gaining more exposure. Getting more traffic, more readers and ultimately making more money with it.

Here are some things to consider when making a fresh blog…

Domain name – Is your domain name really unique? If not then consider going with a new one. Ultimately you want a domain that will instantly let anybody know what your site is about to an EXTENT or give some motivation into making them click it if glanced in a search listing or if seen anywhere. If you see YouTube.com the main thing that entices you immediately is YOU. It’s instant flattery and involvement of in reality nobody the ‘you’ ironically means anybody who sees it, but that subconscious flattery of ‘you’ thinking it’s referring to ‘you’ is enticing. Then you have to think about the ‘tube’ why tube, what’s that, how do they mean it… it’s quick, catchy marketing. It makes the domain easy to remember and gives it a unique quality.

Obviously this isn’t a rule of thumb, it’s not like you follow that structure and your site will go boom, it’s all about the whole package. But a good domain is part of it at least. If you own a blog and it’s like ”blogspot.kevin. bla bla blah” consider buying a real domain. A freely hosted sub domain only lets people know you weren’t committed enough to buy a real domain therefore can’t put much value on your work. All a sub domain / freely hosted site does it lump you in with a whole bunch of other blogs that couldn’t be bothered to go the whole way. Which only says to your readers (if you have any) that all you’re interested in is exploiting profit from the blog for yourself and are not willing to put any of your own money in, even though you expect people to listen to you.

A few things to remember when considering a domain name…

• Make it sensibly short
• Make it catchy
• Make it clear to read, avoid words that are typically tricky to spell
• Make it relevant but different

Now obviously if it’s your personal blog you can just go with your name. But… unless you’re already known on the net for something, like achieving something, I think this just seems a bit self-indulgent. Like Shoemoney for example… that’s his nickname sort of but it’s the name of his company ‘ShoeMoney Media’ so that’s good, plus it’s catchy and viral and he has a class logo. But if your name is just something common at least try and think of an alias for yourself that could make your blog viral.

Personally I prefer to go with an actual name not relevant to me as an individual for this blog because this blog isn’t really about me, it’s about making money online. My thoughts and stuff are here but mostly a compilation of ideas and tips and what not. But if it is a truly PERSONAL blog I think it’s fine to go with your own name (just make sure your content is great!).

Design and structure – There’s obviously no given design that is guaranteed to look good to everyone because that’s what taste and opinion is. But just make sure your blog has a design that YOU like and a structure that is solid, code wise, and a navigation that is easy to see and use.

Try to avoid using a common design though. If you use WordPress for your blog for example and you’re a good designer, try designing your own theme. That way your blog will be exactly the way you want to see it and it will be absolutely unique. If you’re not a good designer but have some money, try paying a good designer to do that for you. If you’re not a good designer and don’t have a lot of money, just pick a free one, there are tons around. But try and pick one that you haven’t seen a lot, that looks fresh and has a good layout.

Even if you pick a theme that doesn’t have the perfect layout you’re looking for but does have great graphics and colors that would suit you and your blog. Pick that and you can always edit the code and mess around with things to perfect it for yourself.

Posts – Obviously the posts on a blog are the most crucial thing in making it successful. If you just post what other people post by re-wording everything you hear other people say… I mean… you might have some success but it’ll be quick and patchy up and down scales of success based on other people’s thoughts.

Make your blog posts unique by writing everything yourself. Expressing your own views on things, being as opinionated as you want without pandering to anyone or compromising your writing style for search engines.

A good topic for opinion is politics. So if you’re political and know a lot about politics… go start a blog and write your mouth off. Political blogs famously get a lot of attention and comments just due to the whole atmospheric tension around the topic of politics. Almost everyone has entirely different views in some areas of politics, hardly anyone agrees with each other on everything, which is why it’s such a great blog topic. But, if you don’t know about politics, don’t go and do that now for the sake of it. Make sure you blog on something you enjoy and are passionate about.

A few things to remember when making good posts…

• Use relevant images to catch the attention of the reader and entice them to read on
• Use paragraphs to break the post up into easily scalable reading pallets as apposed to one huge lump of text
• Finish the post on a good note. Or a note to provoke or encourage comments
• Include your opinion on topics you discuss in the post

So how do you set your opinion apart from the thousands of other bloggers with the same opinion as you so that you can get more attention / readers?

Well… there isn’t a simple answer to that, the only one… two answers really being

1. Try your hardest
2. Be yourself

That’s it!

Here are 50 5 ways you can help break free into the small handful of unique blogs…

1. Be honest – Nobody likes a bullshitter or somebody who lies to try and boost their profile. If you’re not a millionaire, don’t pretend to be one. Just write what you think and what you know.
2. Don’t get egotistical – No matter how much people start liking you. It’s when you convince yourself that you are something special that they stop liking you, the reason a lot of celebrities start getting hated also. Because they start to believe the hype surrounding them and being what people imagine them as and then ultimately looking like narcissistic cunts.
3. Don’t be intentionally controversial – If, really, you’re not a hateful person. Don’t become one to get more attention. Because soon enough it will feel unnatural to you and your readers and it will be obvious you are trying to be someone you’re not. Always be yourself.
4. Always write from scratch – Never borrow from people, like borrow chunks of text to re-word or whatever. Write from YOUR brain, it’s your best resource. Why cheat your readers into copycat posts and re-worded knowledge when you could give them your actual views. No matter how inferior you think your thoughts are, there will be people that will agree with you, so never sell yourself short or underestimate your own thought.
5. Be over ambitious – Be over ambitious. Make your blog as best as you can possibly make it. Write as best as you can because I think ultimately, that is the only way to get noticed. It’s very hard to get noticed if you’re writing like everyone else, writing what everyone else is writing about… doing what everyone else is doing. Be unique in every sense of the word and think super big with everything that you do. Revenue wise, exposure wise, everything. Never let anybody tell you ‘it can’t be done’ and try. Because if you don’t try, you can’t succeed.

Changes - Whenever you do something on your blog. Make a change to the design, the logo, whatever, it will have a knock-on effect.

If you have had a blog for a while now and have gained some readers and they love your blog. Say you make a change to the design. Completely re-vamp it. And you ask their opinions and they don’t like it. Should you change it back?

In the short-hand I think most would think yes, because it’s what your readers want.

But to be honest, I don’t think you should.

Think about it. If you’ve had that design for a long time now, the readers have gotten used to it. They’ve grown comfortable with it. Obviously because they have gotten used to it, a change in it is like a change in a pattern, they go and expect to see what they remember. So their first reaction will be unfamiliarity, which will sometimes lead to them not liking it. So you will probably find that there will be people who will hate it straight away. But the design shouldn’t be why they stay anyway, if they like your content, surely they wont go just because of a design change.

So, stick with it. If it’s what you like, keep it. Don’t be too influenced by other people’s opinion. Your opinion after-all should be what makes your blog yours. So make sure your design reflects your opinion, don’t compromise for the sake of pleasing everyone.

Think viral – This is going to be the last point. As I think it’s the most powerful one.

Viral marketing is by far, the fastest way to gain exposure to a site / blog and gain stability. By viral I don’t mean setting your hair on fire or tattooing a site on your face for the sake of getting instant link-bait. It’ll work… by why sacrifice so much just for a bit of quick viewing, not worth it.

I mean… think long-term viral. Make everything as good as you can. Viral doesn’t have to be wacky to be viral. It can just be brilliant. If you write brilliant content, absolutely brilliant content with relevant points and you make constant observations that connect. That’s viral. Because it will get you link-bait and people will talk about you, to an extent.

But make everything about your blog viral, not just your content…

• Get or make a unique logo
• Make your subscribe buttons unusually large or visible. Do something different.
• Think up a completely unique name
• Make new pages with rare tools other bloggers don’t showcase
• Give good resources
• Implement new things that you don’t often see on most other blogs

By doing things like this. You will stand out! by being remarkable, unique and different. You have to out-think the things other people think of these days.

Which brings this to a close because my brain is nearly empty. Thanks for reading and make sure you post your comments or thoughts on this article and other ways you can think of making a blog unique.

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