It seems like a modest notion. People are drawn to attractive things. But some bloggers appear to overlook that. They think that the content of their blog is more vital than the design. Well, they are wrong. The most enlightening blog in the world will not be effective if it is indecipherable. Here are five things to look for in your blog.

1. Legibility– First of all, no reader will visit your blog for five seconds if they can’t read it. Is the text nearly the same color as the background? Do ads muddle up, cover up, cut up, or hover over your posts? You have a two second window of opportunity to hook a reader and draw them in. You’ll miss it if your site appears like it was planned by a kindergartener.

Email marketing can be an effective way to build your blog readership. But you have to do it well. Get it wrong and you risk alienating readers. It’s all about being appropriate. Sending too many emails can result in email overload and readers will unsubscribe from your emails and may quit visiting your blog.

Ensuring that your email marketing is really effective means that you need to send high quality emails no more than once or twice a week.

The beauty and downfall of blogging is that anyone can do it. But if you don’t blog correctly and use professional copywriting tactics, then your blog content is only going to turn out so-so. This means that you will be missing out on the steady traffic that you could have gained if your posts were sharp, compelling, and intriguing to your reader.

Blogging the right way can improve your search engine rankings and even build your back links. When you write content that is exceptional and attractive, readers will be likely to pass along to their friends and link to it in social media. If your content is flat and poorly written, then no one will want to read it, bottom line.

The truth is that excellent blogging is achieved by going back to copywriting basics. Starting with the obvious…

Blogging has the ability to take up such a massive amount of time as it is that the thought of taking out more time to plan posts ahead of time probably doesn’t sound that appealing. But pre-planning blog posts can actually end up saving you time in the grand scheme of things and make for more well thought out posts that more people are interested in reading. Why, you ask?

Let’s explore.

For starters, when you take the time to pre-plan posts you avoid hitting the inevitable lull that comes with blogging (and just writing in general). It happens to the best bloggers out there: that time when you sit down to write out a stellar post and are hit with… nothing. By having a slew of posts already in queue, or ideas set for each day, you avoid hitting the dreaded writer’s block. You also avoid the rush of “oh my gosh what on earth am I going to write about today!!!” that inexorably comes each morning when you sit down with no plan in play.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”

Thomas A. Edison

I always like this phrase because I think it can be applied to just about anything, especially blogging. Nobody is perfect and no matter what is your previous experiences or knowledge there will always be something you don’t know. Luckily – you CAN LEARN!

But the only way to do it – is by trying. If you don’t even attempt to accomplish a task you will not be able to complete it and it is especially true when it comes to working with WordPress. While it gets simpler and easier to use with each new version, new iteration - it still requires a certain level of knowledge. And even if you are a techno-geek, there are tasks, associated with blogging you will not be familial with and yet, have to be completed.

What’s the biggest difference between your blog and your competitors’? What’s the main reason anyone reads your blog over all other similar blogs? Beyond small discrepancies between content, publishing frequency, and getting “the scoop” (which can all add up to make huge differences), the voice of a blog is extremely important.

It doesn’t matter how unique, relevant, or indispensable a blog’s content is; if the blog does not read well, it is not worth reading. And an article that “reads well” online may be vastly different from a paper that reads well in an English class. I’ve found a common trend among well-written blogs that often blends them in amidst the crowd: They are too formal.