Your Guide to a Powerful & Profitable Blog
Awesome Content: Set Up For Online Success
What is it that separates the millions of mediocre bloggers from the ones who build traffic and achieve amazing results? What is that propels some onward and upward into the fame and fortune while others with seemingly similar sites find themselves struggling just to get a small handful of readers?
If you’re like most bloggers, then you’ve probably been kicking yourself trying to figure out the answer to these questions…trying to find the key that unlocks the large steel doors that are holding you back from the success you are looking for.
I’m very excited because I’ve discovered the essential elements necessary to connect with people on a large scale. As always, I want to do whatever I can to help you achieve the same level of success that I’ve achieved so pay attention and join with me as we take our blogs to the next level together.
The 3 Essential Elements for Online Success
There are three essential elements of a blog that must be absolutely maximized in order to see success at the highest levels.
- Great Content: Articles that are fun, compelling, easy-to-read, meeting user’s needs, providing excellent information, well-written, and use proper grammar.
- Great Design: A layout that is easy on the eyes, easy to navigate, looks professional, sets you apart from the crowd, is search engine optimized, and is warm and inviting to the readers.
- Great Influence: You as the author must be connecting personally, answering questions, exhibiting strong leadership, demonstrating sacrifice by putting the readers needs before your own, etc.
The Total Package & The Law of Multiplication
Each of these principles has a multiplier effect on your influence throughout the internet. The idea here is to openly and honestly rate you and your website in each of these categories using a scale of 1-10. If your content is a 10, your design is a 2 and your influence is a 4 then your overall potential is 10 x 2 x 4 = 80.
You’ve heard it said that content is king… and that is true but only if it is supported by the principle of the ‘total package.’ It’s not enough anymore to have just great content. You absolutely have to have all three elements in order to accelerate your success.
Arguing about which one is the most important is a dead point. The most important of these three is the ‘total package’ and not any single element. In other words, if you want to make it big then it’s either all or none.
Let’s say that in our example you increase your design until it can be rated a 4. Our new equation would look like this: 10 x 4 x 4 = 160. Push them all up to 10′s and you would have something like this 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000. Great content all by itself will only give you a fraction of what you can achieve when you combine it with an amazing layout and a personalized, genuine style of connecting with people.
Group Discussion:
Which of these areas do you need to work the most in? Do you have amazing content? Do you have an amazing design? Are you influencing people by engaging with people in genuine ways?
Share your thoughts and experiences about these concepts in the comments section below. Let’s work together to take all of our blogs to next level.
I’ll see you in the comments.
Ron Boracay said:
For me, I need to work for all of them. I must continue to grow and enhance my knowledge and skills with those essential elements you mentioned Nick.
Professional bloggers or those who are known as an authority blogger should also continuously improve and enhance those elements.
Javs said:
Good and inspiring post for newbies like me. I have just now started new blog in blogger and I feel like moving to wordpress. Hence I am searching for tips and guidance. This post definitely help me and my thumbs up for this.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Javs –> I was using blogger for a while and I understand how to use it pretty well, but I can honestly say that the best thing that I ever did for blogging was to switch over to WordPress. There are so many more options and so much broader of a community with help, plugins etc. Everything about it is so much better than blogger.
Javs said:
I have setup a site and configured the wordpress script for it to use it as a blog. Now I am struck in using themes for it and all appears to be no follow including my image link for my home page. If you dont get what I am saying visit http://www.practiseseo.co.cc. I dono how to make them as normal ones. Please visit it and say me how can I solve it. Its under construction so you may not get any posts there.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Javs –> You have to add the plugin “No Follow Case by Case” and all the links will change back to normal.
Steve Brown said:
Its true great content and link baiting surely helps in all the times. Never matters its a blog or website.
Ron Boracay said:
Yeah, I think, this is the most important thing or aspect of blogging. Make your site standout by, having a good content or better to be called as link bait.
Steve Robillard said:
Based n the rule that the exception proves the point I think Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com proves you can go pretty far with poor design if you have the other two. But I sure wouldn’t want to try it. As Jakob himself has said he has one of the few sites that can get away with such an lack of design.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Steve Robillard –> I agree that it can and has been done, but I also think that it is the exception to the rule and that it takes much longer to build a following. If you implement all 3 of these concepts then you can massively speed up the growing process. This site is the perfect example. I’m seeing extremely exciting growth here at Site Sketch 101.
Ron Boracay said:
Useit.com of Jakob Nielsen is an exemption. He is an authority and no matter what kind of design he have on his site. Still more and more readers will visit his site, and that includes me.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Ron Boracay –> You guys make look at him as an exception to the rule, but I would argue that he is an example proving this rule. According to his site, he’s been doing this since 1995. I’ve been running this site since June of this year and according to Alexa.com, my site ranked higher on the daily rank for the past two days. It has taken me 3 months to gain what it has taken him 14 years to gain. If you want to follow his example then I invite you to do so.
Ron Boracay said:
Oh, I didn’t check those stats of him. Thanks for the information Nick. But yeah, I think its time for Jakob to take his blog to a new level.
ZXT said:
100 percent agree Nick. I don’t think there’s an exemption to the rule when it comes to site design. No matter what’s your current design, if you can make an improvement then I am pretty sure your traffic will improve too no matter how small.
Arisu said:
Now, you´re looking at it the wrong way: he´s popular “despite” having a bad designed page.
But most popular blogs have nice designs, even if simple. So having a good design is part of the “easy” way of having a successful blog… even if looking for nice templates and implementing them is not that easy.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu –> I completely agree. Well put, Arisu.
Charles - Creative Lab said:
What I’d really like to know is how your default style wordpress blog with just one “hello world” comment is a PR4.
That I really want to know
Ron Boracay said:
There are so many things that plays into the equation prior to page rank dude!
COntent, traffic, links, age and many more.
James Murdoch said:
You total Package concept is great and i agree with it wholeheartedly. I think the first thing that attracts a reader to your blog is your design but again i think design will not be able to hold the interest for long if there will not be a great article and if you want that person to come back again on to your blog you need to have an easily navigational blog which pleases the visitor.At the end all we want is a content smile on the face of visitor.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
James Murdoch –> I agree. I’m always attracted first by the design, then by the content, then by interacting with the author.
Ron Boracay said:
That’s why, its a total package. Your blog wont be powerful or profitable enough if you lack one of those elements. Although, you may still survive just by having one or two of those said elements, but, if you want to take it to another level, better to get and excel with those key elements.
ZXT said:
I agree it should be the “total package” to maximize your blog potential. But Steve is also right, if you will take 2 out of 3 from the choices then I think it should be the Great content and the Great influence then the Design can come last.
Question for Nick, why did you choose a 2 column design instead of 3 or 4? I usually see 3 column from other popular blogs if not 4.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
ZXT –> I just felt that this design complimented the overall goal of my site better than any other design. I feel that I’m able to fit all of the information that I feel is vital into the layout without making it feel to busy. But you’ll notice that it is sort of a 3-column on the home page. There is sort of a make-shift 3rd column on the home page.
ZXT said:
Oh I didn’t notice that before. Yeah it looks like 3 columns from the home page. By the way, are you using 1024 width here? Because at work I am using a 17″ LCD monitor with 1280×1024 resolution and theres a big margin on the right side.
At home I got this 22″ LCD so the gap is much much bigger. Not sure if its the best but will you consider having your width adjustable? I mean the main article column so the gap won’t be this big with bigger monitors and high resolution ones.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
ZXT –> I’m not going to make the width adjustable because most of the textures and borders that you see are made in photoshop and they are a set width. I can’t make an image get bigger and smaller and still retain the quality that I’m looking for. So I chose a layout that was designed for the most common screen width and would still be viewable and larger resolutions. I have a larger resolution and I see the gap on the right, but I don’t mind it.
ZXT said:
Nick -> Okay now I understand Nick. So what’s the resolution of this blog? 1024 x 768? I think that’s the lowest resolution right now because I don’t see anyone still using 800 x 600.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
ZXT –> I don’t remember exactly how wide it is but it’s close to 1000 if I remember correctly.
Bruce Teague said:
Right now I’m re-doing #2, and unfortunately I’m not very good at design. I think I’ll be able to put something out that’s not too bad… eventually.
I struggle the most with #1. My content isn’t anything anybody needs. I tried to make my post contain information that could be deemed valuable, but it kind of through off my writing style.
I think I do well with #3.. when I’m not in the middle of a redesign at least. I say that anyways. I put my opinion out there. I don’t have the “authority” behind it yet though.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Bruce Teague –> The best part about design is that you can find templates to start from. I was just browsing some templates this morning at Theme Forest and I found several really nice ones that I would recommend. If you want some recommendations just email me and let’s chat.
Bruce Teague said:
I’ve actually found one I really like, although more for its back end functionality. It has lots of positions and hooks. It also has the basic frame work I’m looking for, but I need to jazz it up a bit. Its appearance makes me think business meeting.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Bruce Teague –> If you need help setting it up or if you want any advice or tips, just let me know.
Digigirl said:
I like this concept. It’s an easy way for a person to evaluate their own site in an understandable way. The problem I see is that the ratings are very subjective. I may consider my design (or content or influence) a 10 while you consider it only a 2. What really matters is what the *user* ratings are. So the question is – how do we gauge that? Influence, easy enough to gauge using traffic and subscriber numbers. But content and especially design, hard to say.
User testing? What do you think is the best way to get a handle on this?
Arisu said:
The design and the content may be subjective, but when you create a blog is for people that enjoy the same things you do. If you think your design and content is good, many people will think so too, so don´t worry that much about it.
Talking about it, I think your blog has great content and design
About “user testing”, just ask some friends to check it out and give you an honest opinion. I think “user testing” is a must for navegability and usability.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Digigirl –> Now I like the way that you think. You’ve actually taken some time to search out a way to apply these principles in a practical way. That’s good.
One of the main reasons that I wrote this post was because I’ve recently been reevaluating the direction and goals of this blog. I do this quite often. I was trying to answer this question in my own mind, “What is the #1 concept that I’m building my content for?” As I thought about it, this is the answer I came up with. My goal is to help people build powerful & profitable blogs and I believe that it will only be accomplished with great content, great design, and great interaction.
I say this to you for one reason. Answering your question here isn’t something that I can do in a quick response here in the comments but it is something that I’m devoted to doing day-by-day here at the site. I’m working every day to help you answer that question a little bit more each day.
I’ve written articles about developing better headlines, about gauging your site’s usability and navigation, about writing effective articles, about finding great templates and layouts, about engaging with other bloggers, etc.
Let me do this. Let me put together a grading checklist and I’ll try to post it up in the next week or two. We can then work together as a community to grade ourselves on as many important factors as possible. I hope that this helps a little bit and that you can see where I’m coming from here.
ZXT said:
Excellent question Digigirl.
Not sure if this right but I think its little bit of both. Well initially you can design your blog based on what you think is alright and maybe a little research from other successful blogs. Then as you go along, you can ask your readers on what you can do to improve your blog.
From there you can make it better I guess.
Arisu said:
I think that the “how to” be successful, awesome or millionare is part is the easy part, the problem is put the theory to work – and the number one step to do that is to think that you can.
We all can achieve great content, design and influence. There´s no need to choose only one or two and hope that will be enough.
And there are lots of resources out there, so not being good at it is no excuse – list posts, awesome quotes and tutorials are not that hard to do, even if you´re no Shakespeare (I think non of us is XD).
The design and the codes are a little more complicated, but WordPress and Blogger have taken care of most of it – you just need to spend time choosing a nice template and plugins – and for a little customization, well there´s a lot of people willing to help you to change the header image or the background for free if you ask them. Premium themes are not that expensive either.
And influence is just about taking the time to show your readers that you appreciate them. Whatever you can come up to -even if little- will make them feel great. And the time spend in building relationships, is well spent time -it makes you feel better than a day off at work
-.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu –> Great comment. You’re right in so many ways. I especially like what you said about influence. It really is all about showing people that you care about them. When people realize that you care and that you will interact with them personally, then it goes a long ways.
Arisu said:
Nick>> Thanks. I know by experience that the little details count a lot and it´s all about showing that you care. That´s all you need to build a strong community and if you take care of your readers, they´ll do it for you too.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu –> I’m learning more and more that connecting with people and helping people is more rewarding than anything else.
Chris Cline said:
I agree,
When you show people that you care it really goes a long way.
Great post I will implement all three.
Ron Boracay said:
Care that will result into trust. Which is, the greatest achievement you can get in the blogoshphere.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Chris Cline –> Great. It takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Judith said:
You nailed it! The only other thing folks have to be brutally aware of is all the hard work that is behind what you describe. I bet you spend more hours than most assume building this great site and writing the quality content that you do. Being successful online isn’t fast or easy and certainly is not for the week of heart.
Andrew said:
That’s so true Judith. The irony is though looking around the IM world so many people claim to have the ‘quick fix’ answers in some $97 clickbank product, and even more are looking for the quick fix only to give up, usually just a few steps away from every realising that with just a little more work they could have had everything they wanted.
And I don’t think it’s limited to online success either. As I tell me kids, anything worth having in this world is going to take some work to get.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Judith –> That’s where most people fall off. They think that all that is necessary for their success is to throw out an article every once in a while. They fail to see the time that people spend getting involved in the social community, tweaking the layout, optimizing their SEO, etc. It really does take a lot of work.
Ron Boracay said:
Agree with you Judith, there is no such thing such as Overnight Success, true success comes when hardwork, patience and smart way of doing a thing comes along together, also, the package on this post is really essential.
Andrew said:
Nick, thanks so much for this article. I guess I knew this already, somewhere deep down in the bowels of my soul but I could have never hoped to have articulated it so well.
Sat Chen said:
All of these are really important.But content is the most important, in my view anyway
Sat Chen said:
My site is now in the 17 million alexa ranking. So I like to think that I am doing something right
.
Ron Boracay said:
Seems like this is not so “on topic comment’, but I love to discuss the alexa ranking you just said.
The lower the number of your alexa ranking, the better.
I think you are thinking the wrong way prior to the Alexa ranking dude.
ZXT said:
-> Sat Chen, Ron is right, you might be thinking the wrong way as 17 million Alexa ranking is far from being doing okay.
You might wanna check my articles about Alexa ranking as I improved from 17 million to 600 thousand in just 2 1/2 weeks and it keeps on getting better.
http://www.nothingbutrandom.com/8-ways-improve-alexa-ranking/
http://www.nothingbutrandom.com/5-proven-alexa-ranking-tips/
Ron Boracay said:
Reading your blog post about alexa and it was quite good Zee. Maybe, will try to apply some of it to some of my blogs.
Its funny how the Alexa ranking contributes a lot into becoming a profitable blog (blogger).
ZXT said:
-> Ron, glad you like it. Well advertisers look into your Alexa ranking to have an idea how popular your blog/website is. And Alexa is a good tool for comparing blogs popularity.
So having a good Alexa rank helps your blog to make a profit by attracting more advertisers.
Ron Boracay said:
Just read all about it yesterday, and yeah, traffic and PR is what advertisers really cares about.
Jason Dunn said:
As far as the online hosted services go, I recommend at least checking out TypePad. I started a WordPress.com blog and I like it, but I fell in love with TypePad. It takes a little longer to set up, but I feel like I’m working on a professional blog now.
Mukund said:
Wonderful post! As always! Great design and Great content are simply the back bone of a blog. I has problem with my computer and I could not comment in your blog. I am sure I am very low in the list. Any way! Congrats to those who going to win the contest!!
Robomaster said:
I recently created a blog at http://www.osneo.com
It’s the first blog I’ve ever had hosting for, but since I learn quickly and am rather tech-savvy, I got most of the stuff down quickly. I believe I am writing quality content, but desperately need critique and feedback. Would any of you more experienced bloggers be willing to go over my site and give any suggestions? I’d be incredibly grateful to you if you could! Thanks a bunch!
Ron Boracay said:
First of all, thanks for jumping here Robomaster.
Anyway, I think its not the right place to ask for a review? But I gave your blog a look. Seems like you have a lot of rooms for improvement there.
Start with 3 essential elements discussed above.
ZXT said:
Hi Robomaster, I am not an experienced blogger but nonetheless I gave your site a quick look.
I think you got a good design, simple but nice. What you need to do I guess is to give your blog a shoutout. Make everyone know you have a good tech blog. Make it your status on YM, Facebook, Twitter, etc and go to same niche blogs and make a comment there leaving your blog in the process (url)
You may want to check out my articles about Alexa (helps to promote your blog) so pls check the url on my previous comment above.
Lastly, use http://www.websitegrader.com to check your blog grade. Right now I think you got a low score of 66/100.
Splasz said:
Actually I have a general comment for your blog. I just love it
I found lot’s of things that helped me improve my blogs.
Thank you really much.
Bless
My Latest Blog Post: Lista stron z darmowymi wektorami
Self Improvement said:
I think I need to write in a manner that grabs readers attentions and keeps them hooked. I also like my design but sometimes feel that it’s incomplete, like it’s missing something. I can’t figure it out yet, but once I do I will change it around. But for now, I need to focus on building a community and writing better for my readers.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Get More From Life This Instant
Anthony Feint said:
I think content is the most important – with it comes influence. But of course, I do think design is hugely effective. On blogs not so much, but when it comes to web apps (my specialty) it sets you apart from the competition.
My Latest Blog Post: It’s Time to Think About Income