Blog Post: Armchair BEA Day 5 - So Fresh and So Clean!

How do we keep people coming back?

That's a big question for most bloggers, us too. Honestly, we just try to keep things interesting and updated regularly.

There are so many awesome features that blogs have out there like Feature and Follow Friday with Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read. There's also Tune in Tuesday with Kate’s Tales of Books and Bands. Top Ten Tuesday with The Broke and the Bookish. And we even have an original feature here called Turn off the TV and Read.

I think one of the most important things though is to have fun and keep things relevant. Blog about something useful or something interesting. Reviews of books and products are helpful, but they're a dime a dozen so you've gotta ask yourself, why would people read my reviews? What does my stuff have that no one else's does? I think that's the key to getting people to keep  on tuning into your one woman (or man) show. Or multi-people show haha.

Lately we've been all about getting people involved and really developing a dialogue between people so we're going to start doing things a little more interactive to engage readers, which will hopefully bring them back because readers are awesome. ;)

5 Things That Keep Me Coming Back to Blogs:

1. Amusing content - if your reviews, recipes, blog rants etc. make me laugh I will most likely check out your sight everyday. We all need a laugh sometimes, plus it adds a unique spin on things.

2. A clean & organized blog - When it takes me thirty years to load content on a blog I get board. My days are action packed with work, homework, blogging, and attempting to have some fun or get a little TV watching in before I pass out from my incredibly long days. I do not want to spend twenty minutes loading your website so I can see what's on it. I'm telling you now I'll never last twenty minutes I'll deem it a waste of time and move on. Now I know that sounds harsh, but you guys know it's true. When you have a mess of columns all over your blog ions long it looks cluttered and it's hard to get through which is a big turn off.

3. Colors that don't blind me - Guys for the love of all things chocolate flavored stop putting white text on a black background. Do you understand what that does to a person's eyes after reading for more than a minute? I feel like my head might actually explode, which is terrible because I need my head it's where my mouth lives and I need my mouth to drink coffee. Choose your colors carefully. Stare at them for a while and make sure they don't blind you before publishing them for everyone to see.

4. Fresh content - I don't need a website to be updated everyday. People have lives, that's okay and normal. But if you don't update your blog at least twice a month I'll most likely forget it there. I would say try to update at least once or twice a week if possible. Sometimes it's hard coming up with things to post other times it's like a tsunami of things to post. Either way Fresh content is always nice.

5. Responses - If I take the time to comment on your post because I think it's something really awesome or maybe I think your awesome, possibly both I don't think it's too much of a hardship to respond. A simple 'Thanks!' would suffice, but I'll tell you I love meeting new bloggers and creating a dialogue with them. Some people are so awesome and I totally cyber stalk their websites and twitter feeds (don't judge me). I know everyone is busy, I am too. But just a quick response back to a comment can make a persons day. Remember how happy you were when you got notified of said comment? Don't you want to make someone happy too?

How about you guys? What keeps you coming back for more?