The post How to Personalize Your Blog Like These 10 Top Bloggers appeared first on ProBlogger.

Lots of bloggers seem to do everything right, yet they don’t see much success.

They write well-structured posts, they pay attention to SEO, they know the ins and outs of their blogging software … but something’s lacking.

That missing “something” can often be personality. It’s the difference between a blog that readers come across and instantly forget … and a blog that makes a connection and an impact.

Does your blog need a bit of extra personalisation? Here’s how ten top bloggers make their blogs stand out:

#1: Include Great Photos, like Caz and Craig from YTravel

Blog: YTravel

Some blogging topics pretty much demand great photos. Travel is one of those (and others include food, craft and fashion blogging).

Caz and Craig post gorgeous, smiley photos of their family. Some of these are simple candid snapshots, like in 17 Tips for Flying With Kids to Keep You Calm and Happy, and others are a little more posed, like the photos in Getting Settled in the USA + Where to Next.

Lessons learned:

• Photos of you, living the lifestyle you blog about, help your reader to feel connected to you: they know what you look like.
• If you’re looking for help taking better photos, check out my other blog Digital Photography School. You can find our beginner-friendly tips here.

#2: Add Some Flair, like Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

Blog: Pat Flynn

As soon as you visit Pat’s blog, you see huge text of his name and photos of him with what he’s about – “father, husband, serial entrepreneur” – as well as his quirky humour: “protector of baby yoda”.

Lessons learned:

• Don’t be afraid to go big! That might mean a huge photo of yourself, a bold statement, or an About page that’s filled with images.
• Talk about who you are beyond blogging: Pat lists his favourite book, movie and game, and writes about his family on his About page.

#3: Develop a Strong, Identifiable Tone, like Shannon Kelly White [language warning]

Blog: Shannon Kelly White

Salty language tends to polarise readers: some love it and find it a big part of a blog’s appeal; others will be put off and won’t return. Shannon swears – frequently and enthusiastically – on her blog (even in her tagline and navigation menu):

Lessons learned:

• Tone is memorable. It can make otherwise fairly dull posts a much more interesting read, like Foods Your Toddler Might F*cking Choke On.
• Even if your tone alienates some readers, it’ll win the hearts of others. As one of the comments on Shannon’s About page puts it “I love someone who swears as much as me and sounds just as cool.”

#4: Get Custom Illustrations, like Ramsey from Blog Tyrant

Blog: Blog Tyrant

As soon as you visit Blog Tyrant, you’ll see the red-shirted blogging super-hero avatar: this illustration features in the banner image on the home page, and in the feature images for several of his posts:

It’s also on the front cover of his free report.

Lessons learned:

• Custom illustrations can create a sense of consistency across your blog. Blog Tyrant’s not the only blogger who uses them in this way: Social Media Examiner have their little jungle explorer in their header and at the start of each post.
• If you’re not comfortable including personal photos, a cartoon version of you can be a great alternative.

#5: Focus on your ‘About Page’, like Elsie and Emma from A Beautiful Mess

Blog: A Beautiful Mess

New readers may land on any post on your blog … and you can bet if they like it they’ll be checking out who the blogger is behind the post, by clicking on your “About” page next.

It can help to give them a quick glimpse into who you are and what you’re all about. Sisters Elsie and Emma do this stylishly with a bright, bold photo and short but cacthy introduction.

Lessons learned:

• An “About me” widget in your sidebar is a great place to create an instant connection with your reader. Include a link to your full About page too.
• Happy, smiley photos of you are always a great draw. Some bloggers include these in the header, but the sidebar is a great alternative.

#6: Be Consistent With Your Branding Across Platforms, like Chris Ducker

Blog: Chris Ducker

Chris Ducker uses the same (smiling) headshots on each of his blog post images, his About page, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, creating a consistent brand across multiple platforms:

Lessons learned:

• If you’ve gone to the time and expense of getting professional headshots done, use them – not just in your banner image, but on social media too.
• You may want to have variations on your headshot, from the same shoot (compare Chris’s front page image with his About page headshot, for instance).

#7: Use Color to Boost Your Brand, like Jadah Sellner

Blog: Jadah Sellner

When you visit Jadah’s site, your eyes are instantly drawn to her beautiful color scheme:

The colours of her clothes tie in with the color theme of the site: it feels like everything fits together seamlessly. (The whole combination feels like a warm, earthy makeup palette)

Lessons learned:

• Color matters! Perhaps bright colours aren’t quite right for your blog, but you can still create a similar banner image that takes colours from a photo of you and uses them for text and other elements.
• Use color consistently across your site: check out Jadah’s contact page for some examples.

#8: Use a Brand Statement in Your Content, like James Schramko from SuperFastBusiness

Blog: SuperFastBusiness

The first thing you see on James Schramko’s site is a brand statement calling out his business coaching services and who they’re for. Instantly, it’s clear what he’s all about and – crucially –what kind of audience/customer he’s making content for.

Lessons learned:

• Don’t be afraid to be direct and let people know exactly what you’re about and who you’re blogging for.
• Make sure, though, your focus isn’t just on yourself and your own story but on how you can have an impact on readers’ lives.

#9: Have a Tagline and “Call to Action” that Cuts Straight to the Chase, like Kelly Exeter

Blog: Kelly Exeter

If you can tell your ideal readers, in just a few words, that your blog is exactly the right place for them:

(Your name) is a (what you do) who helps (your ideal reader)… (do what you offer).

And if you have something to offer, get your readers to take action straight away… There’s no use putting them through some complicated email subscription auto-responder series, just get them to click a button and “FIND OUT HERE” what you can do for them.

Like Kelly:

Lessons learned:

• Think about your tagline as who you serve (“smart people”) and what your blog will help those people do (“amplify their ideas”).
• Add a compelling call to action that gives your audience immediate access to what they came to your blog for in the first place

#10: Personalise Your Reader by Defining Them (or Helping them Define Themselves)

Blog: Puttylike

Emily has a TedTalk that identifies her personality type as a “Multipotentialite” and she creates an audience of people who identify with her definition.

The genius move by Emily is that on her home page she uses a quiz as a lead-magnet (“Are You a Multipotentialite?”) to convert random visitors to her site into repeat readers.

Lessons learned:

• Define your audience. Help your audience define themselves. Use a quiz or questionnaire.
• Develop a lead magnet that converts web traffic into an audience for your blog and put that front and centre.

How are you currently showing your personality on your blog? Did anything resonate with you as you looked at the above examples … and what will you try next?

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The post How to Create a Sense of Anticipation on Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

People read and then subscribe to blogs that they think will enhance their lives in some way in the future.

Many bloggers create a sense of anticipation on a blog quite instinctively – but there are numerous things that you can do quite intentionally to create anticipation and increase the chances of someone subscribing.

So how do you convince people that something that you’re yet to create is worth signing up for?

Today I want to share one effective strategy for building anticipation on a blog with some practical ideas on how to implement it. Like yesterday’s post – it’s not rocket science – but it is something that has worked for me.

Highlight Current and Past Quality Content

Probably the most convincing argument to a reader that you’ll write something that they can’t live without in the future is to have already written something that they have connected with.

Your current and past posts are your most effective advertisements for a continued relationship to those arriving on your blog.

As a result – one of the most effective strategies for creating anticipation on a blog is to put your best content in front of those visiting your blog – show them what you can do and let the quality of that work speak for itself.

Think back to to blogs that you’ve subscribed to lately – if you’re anything like me you’ve subscribed in most cases as a result of reading a post you thought was helpful, interesting, entertaining… etc

Most of us click the RSS feed icon or subscribe link based upon the quality of what we already read in the hope of seeing more of it.

So what’s the lesson here?

Actually there are two lessons – one is obvious and the other many fail to do.

1. The obvious one is to write great content and to do it regularly – its got to be your number 1 priority as a blogger.

2. The less obvious one is to put your best content into the view of those who are yet to subscribe to your blog – particularly first time visitors (who are crucial to target if your objective is to build the number of subscribers to your blog). Let me share a few ways you can do this.

How to Highlight Your Best Content

There are numerous ways to highlight your best content so and in doing so give people reason to subscribe to your feed.

1. Sneeze Pages – Perhaps the most useful technique that I can show you is to creating Sneeze Pages on your blog. I’ve recently done this on Digital Photography School. Look at the ‘Digital Photography Tips’ section in my sidebar (pictured left) – these links point to ‘sneeze pages’ that highlight my best and most popular content.

In having these sneeze pages I not only increase my page views – but I show new readers to my blog just how much I’ve already covered and hopefully increase the sense of authority and credibility that I have.

The subscription rate from users hitting these sneeze pages is extremely high (note – I have prominent ways to subscribe on these sneeze pages and the pages that they link to).

2. ‘Best of’ Sections – Another is to create sections in your sidebar or front page that highlight your best work. Check out this example from a previous design of the ProBlogger website, where we this is the ‘Best of ProBlogger’ section on my front page of this blog. This section is ‘hot’ – quite literally. Check out this heat map (taken a few months back using the CrazyEgg tool) of this section to see how many people click on it.

The benefits of this are numerous – but ultimately it’s about driving people to previously written quality content. My observations are that it’s these popular pages where many subscribers to my blog come from.

Since this screen shot was taken, ProBlogger was redesigned to create different themed sections that highlighted various themed articles even more. You can read more about how and why we changed the design of the ProBlogger website here.

3. Landing Pages – Another strategy is to use a plugin like Landing Sites to sense when a reader is arriving on your blog for the first time and showing them other posts you’ve written on the topic they are searching for.

This works well – particularly if you have a large archive – because someone arriving on your blog not only sees one post on the topic that they’re looking for but numerous (increasing the perception that you’re a comprehensive source of information on that topic).

4. Interlink Posts – You should be regularly linking to your previous best quality posts in new posts. In doing this you constantly drive people to the pages where they see writing of a quality that is likely to convince them that you know what you’re talking about. The more pages that they view that they find useful the more chance of them subscribing.

But Wait There’s More

The key to the above four techniques is to send new readers to your highest quality and most helpful posts and then to present them with opportunity to subscribe on these posts (update: here’s my post with more tips on how to build anticipation on your blog).

However this highlighting content isn’t enough on it’s own.

It will definitely work to some degree but there are numerous other ways to create anticipation on a blog and to these I’ll be turning my attention tomorrow.

The post How to Create a Sense of Anticipation on Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

The post 5 Simple Font Changes to Boost Readers, Comments, and Shares on Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

This guest post is by Bnonn of Information Highwayman.

You may not realize it, but the font settings on your blog can have a huge effect on how many people read your content.

And how many people read your content has a huge effect on whether a post goes viral.

How huge? Well, by some accounts I’ve read, just one common mistake with colors could reduce readership by a factor of five. And if you’re not making that mistake, you’re probably making at least one of four others. So in this article, I’ll give you the five most important best practices for presenting text to keep readers glued to your content, and away from the old back button.

Font size—16px minimum

At the very top of the the pile of legibility problems is font size. Back in 2005, Jakob Nielsen reported that in a survey of web design problems, bad fonts got nearly twice as many votes as the next contender—with two-thirds of voters complaining about small font sizes.

Sadly, nothing has changed since then. A random sampling of new blog designs at SiteInspire (a web design gallery showcasing the best of the best designs) shows that the average font size for body copy is 12 pixels. Some as low as ten pixels. None over 14 pixels. Similarly, if you randomly sample offerings from the popular Elegant Themes or ThemeForest, you’ll find that every single theme sets post content at 12 or 13 pixels.

And of course, other theme creators tend to follow the lead of the bigwigs.

But as usability and typography expert Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects points out, 16 pixels is the font size that browsers were intended to display by default—and it is not big. 16px text on an average screen looks about the same size as 12-point text in print. That’s the default size for most magazines, as well as all word processors, because it’s the size people find most comfortable to read. Many people—especially those over 40—find it very difficult to read smaller text. As Reichenstein observes:

There is no reason for squeezing so much information onto the screen. It’s just a stupid collective mistake that dates back to a time when screens were really, really small … At first, you’ll be shocked how big the default text is. But after a day, you won’t want to see anything smaller than 100% font-size for the main text. It looks big at first, but once you use it you quickly realize why all browser makers chose this as the default text size.

Use dark on light text—reversed is no good

Fortunately we’ve pretty much moved past the days when content authors thought that fuchsia on blue text was cool. But white on black text, known as reversed type, is still pretty common. As are variants like white on some other dark color.

Reversed type reduces not only the number of people who’ll bother to read your content, but also their comprehension of it. This is because it strains the eyes. Staring at reversed text for an extended period tends to create a kind of “glare” effect, where you feel like the letters are too bright to look at. Depending on what research you consult, studies show that light on dark text reduces your readership between 50% and 400%.

Why risk losing so many readers? Black or very dark gray on white looks clean, and there are plenty of great themes that use those colors.

Line width—45 to 75 characters

Here’s another little-known rule that a lot of blogs break. In order for your eye to easily follow one line to the next, you want no more than 75 characters in each line. This is called the line measure. Beyond a measure of 75 characters, it’s hard to track the end of one line to the beginning of the next without getting lost.

On the other hand, if you have a measure of less than 45 characters your eye will get fatigued quickly, because you’ve barely started to read one line when you have to jump to the next. You feel like you never get a chance to rest.

For this reason, your ideal post content area will have lines of text about 60 characters long. Of course, you do also have to take aesthetics into account. On many blogs, the “ideal” measure leaves a huge gap on the right margin, or makes the text seem squished into a tiny area. I use a measure of around 70 characters on my own website for exactly that reason. But if you’re pushing past 80 characters, you’re reducing your readership—guaranteed.

Line height—130% or more

Fortunately this is a less common mistake. If you’re using a professional theme, you probably don’t need to worry.

To give you an example, I’ve set this paragraph at the default line height (also called leading, after the strips of lead used to separate lines of text on old printing presses). It feels cramped and uninviting to read, and it’s hard to follow the lines from one to the next because they blend into each other.

On the other hand, this paragraph is set with a line height of 200%—equivalent to double spacing in a word processor. I’m sure you’ll agree that the lines here feel way too disconnected from each other, and unless you’re submitting a research paper this is not the way to go.

Finally, this paragraph is set with a line height of 150%. That means that for every pixel of font size, there’s one and a half pixels of distance between the lines. This turns out to be pretty reliable sweet spot for most fonts you’re likely to use on a blog—but feel free to experiment between about 130% and 160% to see what works best for your own content.

The left margin—don’t break it

This last tip isn’t exactly a font issue. But it fits into the same general category. Bloggers routinely include images in their posts. Whether or not that’s really a good idea is a topic for another time—but for now, let me just give you one piece of advice.

The left margin is sacred. It’s how we track text down a page in the Western world. It’s the “ground” out of which the lines grow (often to quite different lengths), and it’s the foundation for our eyepath as we read down the page.

But if you break the left margin, that all goes to hell. Your eye has to scan around to try to pick up the new margin, so you can keep on reading.

In other words, every time you left-align an image, you put a speed-bump in your reader’s path. And you’re compounding the problem by dragging his attention away from the text with your visually dominant image. Needless to say, readers who keep being distracted and having to relocate the left margin often don’t read to the end of a post—so they often don’re share it or comment on it.

Bonus tip: drop caps increase readership

By “drop caps” I mean initial capitals, where the first letter of the first word of your post stands out much bigger than the rest. According to research conducted by Ogilvy & Mather, this increases readership of a piece by an average of 13%.

Drop caps aren’t built into most blog themes, and they can be tricky to do on the web, but if you’re up to a little coding, check out this tutorial on how to create them.

Five mistakes: which ones are you making?

Now is the time to head on back to your own blog and see which of these five important best practices you’re not practicing. Then, fixum! But don’t forget to share the changes you’ve made in the comments below!

Bnonn is known in the boroughs as the Information Highwayman, he helps small businesses sell more online by improving both their copy and design. When he’s not knee-deep in the guts of someone’s homepage, he is teaching his kids about steampunk, Nathan Fillion, and how to grapple a zombie without getting bit.

The post 5 Simple Font Changes to Boost Readers, Comments, and Shares on Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

The post An Introduction to Using Images on Blogs appeared first on ProBlogger.

Image created in Canva

The following post was originally submitted by Duncan Riley from the Blog Herald, Weblog Empire and updated with current tools and tips.

I asked Duncan to explore the topic of using Images on Blogs. I think you’ll agree that his article below is a very comprehensive exploration of the topic, which I hope you will find helpful.

Any good blogger will tell you that images and imagery are vitally important in the development and rise of any good blog, but they can also be frustrating, time-consuming, and challenging to work with. Nonetheless, it’s crucial to understand how to effectively use images on your blog.

Types of Images

For ease of use, let’s categorize images on your blog into two categories: design imagery and content imagery. Design imagery includes any images you may want to use in the header, sidebar, or footer to enhance the overall visual appeal of your blog. Content imagery refers to photos and images you include within or exclusively as blog posts. While we will cover common ground in dealing with both types of images, there are some distinct considerations for each.

Toolbox

While there are various tools available, let’s focus on free resources for image editing and creation to suit different needs and budgets:

1. Canva: an excellent web-based graphic design tool that offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of customizable templates. It provides an extensive library of free images, icons, and illustrations to enhance your blog’s visual content. It’s what we use here at ProBlogger.

2. PicMonkey: another useful tool for creating visual content for your blog with photo editing and design plus templates for logos, banners, thumbnails, and more

3. GIMP: powerful open-source image editing software available for PC, Mac, and Linux. Many users consider it as powerful as Adobe Photoshop but without the price tag. GIMP offers a comprehensive set of features for manipulating and editing images.

Posting Images to Your Blog

The method for posting images to your blog depends on the blogging platform you use. Most platforms, whether free or paid, offer image hosting as part of their services. However, it’s essential to consider the bandwidth/traffic limitations of your blogging package and how image sizes can impact your blog’s loading speed. To optimize your images, you can utilize image editing software such as GIMP or Canva, which allows you to resize and compress images.

TIP: If you’re having trouble wityh your image file size being too big, try using TinyPNG which is a free service for Smart WebP, PNG and JPEG image file compression.

Copyright Issues

Copyright laws vary, but in general, using copyright-protected images as extracts or complements to your posts falls under Fair Use or Fair Dealing. However, using such images as part of your blog’s design may not be considered fair use. It’s crucial to familiarize yourself with the legal concepts of fair use and fair dealing in your jurisdiction.

When it comes to commercial sites, it’s safest to assume that the images are copyrighted unless stated otherwise. It’s advisable to avoid using such images unless you understand the legal implications.

It’s also important to follow the unwritten rule in the blogosphere of providing attribution when using images from other blogs. Include a link back to the source blog within or at the end of your post, giving credit to the original creator.

Where to Find Copyright-Free Images

To find copyright-free images, you can explore the following resources:

1. Unsplash: offers a vast collection of high-quality, copyright-free images contributed by photographers worldwide. The images are available for free and can be used for both personal and commercial purposes. We’ve previously used Unsplash a lot at ProBlogger.

2. Pixabay: provides a diverse collection of copyright-free images, illustrations, and vectors.

3. Pexels: another popular platform that offers a wide range of high-quality, free stock photos and videos. You can search for specific images or explore their curated collections.

4. Freepik: provides a vast selection of free vectors, PSD files, icons, and photos. It’s a great resource for bloggers looking for graphic elements to enhance their visual content.

5. Canva’s Free Image Library: In addition to its design tools, Canva also offers a free image library with a wide variety of high-quality photos and illustrations that you can use in your blog posts.

Remember to review the specific licensing terms and requirements for each resource to ensure proper usage and attribution.

What services are there to help bloggers with images?

There are several ways you can enhance your image experience as a blogger:

Forums: If you encounter any image-related issues, check out the user forums of your blogging platform or hosting service. These forums often contain valuable information and discussions on similar problems. You can search for solutions or even post your own questions.

Support: If you’re using a paid blogging service like TypePad, take advantage of their customer support. Reach out to their support team via email with your questions or concerns. While they may not directly assist with image-related issues, they can point you in the right direction or provide helpful resources.

Blogs and Bloggers: Many bloggers have encountered and solved image-related challenges. Utilize search engines like Google and blog directories like Technorati to find blog posts or articles discussing similar issues. You may discover valuable insights and solutions shared by experienced bloggers.

By utilizing these resources and tools, you can effectively incorporate images into your blog posts, enhance your blog’s visual appeal, and navigate any image-related challenges that may arise.

Remember to always respect copyright laws, give proper attribution when necessary, and strive to create a visually engaging and appealing blog through the thoughtful use of images.

What tips and tools do you have for using images on your blog? Drop them in a comment below.

The post An Introduction to Using Images on Blogs appeared first on ProBlogger.