When I'm thinking about what i have to be a good graphic design blogger, i began to write useful post about some important writing for graphic design related blogger. As we know, there is a lot of graphic design related blog all over the world. Some of them are very excellent and well known in all over blogosphere. I don't know why, but i can't find any articles about it. I just found one simple article about Writing Tips for Graphic Designers.
Now I'm going to share some of important writing tips for graphic design related blogger. Not only for graphic design blogs, but also for web design & photography blogs. There are some important things that i learned from being a graphic design blogger since months ago. I hope that this article will help every graphic design bloggers to grow their blog rapidly.
1. Be Passionate
If you want to have a good graphic design blog, you must have a passion on it! If you don't have a full passion on it, your blog will be hard to grow. Readers will always sense about your passion. If you don't have passion, your reader will sense it. They will leave your graphic design blog and move to another blog. I really have great passion in blogging. I spend most of my time in front of computer blogging in weekdays, even Saturday.
2. Be Honest
Good graphic design blogger always tell reader about all resources that they use to write his article. Good graphic design blog always provide every source they taken to write his article. At first, i don’t realize this. But this is one of the most important things to be a good graphic design blogger. Most of good graphic design blogs put backlinks for every resources they use. It will give credits to other people who provide resources so that graphic design bloggers can write their posts well. Mostly, they put backlinks at the bottom of their posts. If you do this, you'll get more respect from other bloggers.
3. Write Some Draft Posts
Unless you have some writer, you should write some draft posts to ease your work when you accidentally become very busy. I always have 3-4 draft post when i publish new article in the same day. Currently, when I'm still writing this post, i have 6 draft post already. It doesn’t only makes my works easier, but also gives me some time to review my works – what i have to fix in my draft posts.
4. Post Frequently
I think you understand about this part, especiallu if you are the only writer of your blog. Good graphic design blogger always post frequently with their fixed interval. I always post every 2-3 days depending on the quality of my post. Speckyboy.com posts almost everyday on January 2010. Some of graphic design blogger posts everyday. But it’s up to you, depending of your time & writing skill.
5. Be Active in Social Media
Now, there is so many Social Media such as Twitter, Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious, Mixx, etc. The secret of getting more traffic to your blog is being active in Social Media. Be sure not to spam! I hate spams and you hate them too, right? The more active on Social Media, traffic of your blog will also increased. Learn more about Social Media in Mashable.com
6. Provide High Quality Images
Always provide reader with high quality images to raise your credibility, especially when you write a post with a lot of words. If you want to save your bandwidth & space, be sure to use good enough images. Don't use low resolution images taken from google and other search engine. Be sure to get large enough images & resize it to fit your blog width.
7. Be Sure That Your Articles Is Easy To Read
This is important. If a new reader comes to your blog & they can't read your articles easily, then he/she will say, "I won't visit this blog anymore! So hard to read! Good bye forever! :D" So, use readable standard font that is used widely by other graphic design bloggers. Make sure that they fit perfectly to your articles. Do not oversized & undersized, remember that this is internet, not a book. Do not use fancy fonts that require more attention to be read.
8. Do Not Steal Bandwidth - Hotlinking
If you want to use image on your post, save it in your own web hosting. Do not attempt to steal other people's bandwidth. It's not nice among bloggers. Good graphic design bloggers always use image under their own web hosting. I used to not knowing about this when i start blogging. If you want to avoid this, use hotlink protector such as WordPress Automatic Hotlink Protection plugin (for wordpress user).
9. Use Good Looking Template
What is the first impression of new people in their first visit? Good or Bad? It depends on how good looking your blog is. Although you have very excellent content that is nowhere to be found except in your blog, if your blog is bad looking, people will not visit you again. I really like Psdtuts.com's layout. It's simple & nice looking.
If you don't understand about web design, there are several options for you:
Ask your friends. You must have at least 1 of your friend who is a web designer
Learn from web design blogs and web design forums. You will get much there.
Use professional template provider such as Elegant Themes & Theme Forest.
10. Place Subscription & Social Media Buttons On The Right Place
Most of good graphic design blog place their subscription & social media button on eye-catchy spot. If you do this well, i will give you more traffic, because readers will easily share your post via social media buttons & subscribe to your blog via subscription button. Speckyboy.com has a good layout of subscription & social media placement above and below every posts.
You are a graphic designer, right? Use your own design for those buttons. I learned a lot from Hongkiat.com & Tutorial9.net to make my own button designs. It will raise your credibility among other graphic design bloggers.
11. Be Active & Find Your Buddy Who Has Similar Interest
Unless you have thousands of readers, be active and ask for friendship to other similar graphic design blogger. Also ask to be a guest writer in their blog. Not all of them will be your friends surely, but it's better to have 2-3 friends instead of nothing, right? I've also applied to be a guest writer for 1stwebdesigner.com. You may also apply to be a member of Smashing Magazine Network to drive more traffic for your blog.
12. Ask Readers To Share Your Post
Design a special banner to request readers to share your post. Make your sharing buttons visible. Not all reader will share your post, depending on personal reader usefulness of your post. But if some of them share your post, you'll get additional free traffic from them. In order to be successful on this point, write high quality post on your blog!
13. Learn From Other Graphic Design Blogs
Always learn from other graphic design blogs. Sometimes they have something that drive traffic to their blog that you don't have. Watch carefully how they drive traffic & how they decorate & design their blog. If needed, ask them how to make your blog better. As i told you, i learn a lot from Hongkiat.com to write articles & design my blog.
14. Submit Your Article To User News
Currently, there are so many graphic design & web design blogs who has community user link who allows you to submit your article and published in their blog. If you have just started your graphic design or web design blog, you should do this to gain free traffic from other blog. I have around 80 blogs on my list, so it takes time to submit my article to 80 blogs. But it worth doing.
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