Wordpress Logo

There are probably hundreds of new blogs popping up every day, but many start off on the wrong foot. Here are some of my tips on what you should do as soon as you set up a Wordpress blog for the first time.

1. Make sure you have something to write about

There’s nothing more irritating than a blog that is updated on an infrequent basis with very little interesting or useful content. Very few people will read your blog just because you’re writing about how exciting you dinner was last night.

2. Tell everyone who you are

Add an “About Me” page to the site, describing who you are, what you know and why you’re blogging about the topics mentioned on your new site. Adding this information gives visitors perspective about your site, helping them to realise there is actually a person behind the blog!

3. Do create a Google and Yahoo sitemap of your site

Make it as easy as possible for all of the search engines to find content on your site. The simplest way is to use a Sitemaps Plugin for Wordpress.

4. Make it easy for readers to find old posts

Make it as easy as possible for readers to find old posts that you’ve written. You can provide a complete index of posts you’ve written in an archive using the Clean Archives Plugin, and point your readers to related posts using a related posts plugin (the w-a-s-a-b-i.com plugin appears to be offline at the moment).

5. Make your RSS feed easy to find

If you want long-term visitors to your site, make it as easy as possible for them to read the latest articles. Feedburner makes your RSS feeds usable by most RSS readers and makes it easer for you to track how many people are reading your RSS feed. Some people just prefer email, so I also suggest adding Email subscription, which Feedburner now supports.

6. Let your visitors get in touch

Encourage interaction with your visitors, so I suggest setting up a contact form and allowing comments on your posts. When someone comments on a post, make the effort to reply to it too.

7. Don’t plaster your blog with adverts.

Sure you want to make money for your blog, but as soon as you stop thinking of your visitors, then you lose traffic. If you lose traffic, you lose the number of advertisers interested in your site.

Part 2 will be coming soon!


  • Filed under: Blogging