First there was this blog. Then there was Facebook, Twitter and now… Linkedin too!
So if Linkedin is your social media network of choice, visit our group at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3261105 and follow our latest updates on there!
But there are steps you can take to try and hook readers into responding – and one response can often open the floodgates. Whilst fifty comments doesn’t seem particularly more impressive than forty, one comment looks far better on the page than none.
So, if you’re looking for a practical guide on how to make people connect with your piece, a few methods are outlined below. Some are common sense, and others you might already be practicing. None are failsafe and none can guarantee you’ll grow a community rooted deep within your posts, but adhering to the checklist with every post you write can help to make your blog look a lot more lively than it might otherwise – and a lively-looking blog always encourages traffic – the only real source of comments.
Make Your Content Current
Whatever topic your blog is written around, you’ve probably already mastered the art of getting to a distinct point in the space of one post. You can make that point all the more powerful by embedding it in an example that is current – ideally topical on the day. If you’re writing a news-based blog then you already have this covered, but if you’re not, then basing your post on current events will see far more traffic flow through your site and readers who have something urgent to say.
Backlink With Cunning
If you’re not already, you should really be reading blogs (even inferior ones) based on your subject, or one that’s similar. Traffic-sharing can be achieved by making comments on competitors postings, so long as you get to create a backlink when submitting your username. It’s win-win for you and your competitors, creating a benign sense of competition between bloggers. No doubt they’ll start doing the same back to pick up some of your juicy traffic. Presto – we have ourselves a bulked up comments section.
Find Yourself Some Link-Partners
After you’ve created this blogging alliance, and when your presence is felt as a regular comment contributer, it’s time to start getting yourself on your competitors’ blogrolls. The blogosphere is like no other working environment, in that links are essentially free, so traffic between sites can only be viewed as a healthy flow. The Internet’s fluid nature means that readers are unlikely to give up reading one free blog for another – instead they’ll just read both. So email those other blog owners and suggest a link exchange. Eventually they’ll be posting entire articles on their blogs recommending some of your stuff.
Ask Questions Of Your Audience
People are moved to speak when they’re enquired upon. So ask questions of your readers. Let them know that your blog isn’t a one-way mouthpiece, but rather a means by which to express themselves and share their views. Eventually, once a strong base of commenters is built, you can begin to devote posts to their responses. A simple question or challenge in the headline followed by a short post is no challenge to write, and readers will jump straight in to see which commenter is winning the race to be the cleverest of the bunch before leaping in themselves. Often they’ll get involved without even looking at preceding comments.
Be Subtle About Being Contentious
Though it’s liberating to have a soapbox, some of the most tedious blogs online are essentially opinion-holes. One person’s opinion is rarely of great importance and can be a real turn-off for readers, even if they share the same point of view. If you’re outraged by something in the press or have a genuine gripe you want to air, then approach it with caution. Again, ask a question in an ‘is it just me?’ fashion rather than mounting a direct challenge against your readership and you’ll more than likely have people sympathising rather than taking offence – moving them to get involved in the discussion.
Involve Your Real-World Friends
The one place that you’re best placed to receive clicks is from real-world friends. They know you best and are more likely than most to be interested in what you post, so it’s essential to let them know what you’re doing with your blog. Thanks to Facebook, this won’t require spamming them daily in their inbox. Rather, use the ‘book to post a link to every article you put up. Chances are they’ll take a look, even if only to see what you’re up to. And if you hook them in, you’ve got yourself a reader and a potential commenter.
Involve Your Virtual Friends
It sounds terrible to say it, but – in this context – your virtual friends are more important than your real-life pals. Utilise Twitter to it’s utmost potential by linking to your articles there, with a short explanation regarding what the post is about. Since Twitter flourished in January ’09, most blogs have seen that their number one source of traffic has become this rapid-fire monster of status updates, so it’s an invaluable tool. Build up your followers (always keeping an eye on the number you follow) and link them with every post you put up. Chances are, if they follow you, they’ll be interested enough to pop in – and ultimately comment.
Don’t Overdo It To The Point of Spam
Spreading links all over the web is essential, but it’s important to know where to draw the line. If one person is seeing numerous links to your post, clearly put up there by you, you’re probably overdoing it. That’s not to say you should link it all over the place under numerous assumed names. That would just be weird. The key is to be aware of the various audiences your link will be seen by, on every site you place it, making sure that there’s no overlap. Multiple audiences converging on your site from different sources – and backgrounds – is a recipe for debate.
Be Sure To Comment Yourself
As the writer of the piece, it’s often tempting to sit back and see what reaction you’ve received in virtual silence. Though it may seem awkward and self-celebratory, it’s good to show that you’re willing to take on feedback and contributions, responding to readers’ points in the comments section. Obviously it’s best not to react to trolls and it’s unwise to become involved in a never-ending, spiralling debate, but a presence in the comments area from the author of the post is one that readers often find reassuring. People like to be listened to.
Aggregate And Spread The Word
Even if it seems alien to you, Digg, Reddit and Stumbleupon are a blogger’s friend. If you’ve seen a past post picked up by Digg that’s then gone on to go viral, you’ll know that the amount of traffic a post can pick up from a presence there can be ridiculous. These social media aggregators are great for getting your posts read and reacted to – so sign up if you’ve not already, and have yourself a nose around.
Even better than user-generated aggregation is getting your stuff noticed as a regular source on a trusted aggregation site – and they don’t come much better than Google News. Getting on their source-list is much easier than you might think, though getting signed up is purely at their discretion. All you can do is give it a go. You may be surprised by the result.
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I quite often get asked by friends if I had to take a course to be a web designer and how I got into the industry. My background is quite similar to that of many web designers in that I never had any kind of formal education in design or indeed an art or technology related degree.
When I finished college I had no idea what I wanted to do career wise but knew that I wanted to go to University – so I took the best course that my A-Level grades would allow. I ended up studying Law at the University of Liverpool, although I never really enjoyed it, this is where I first discovered my love of the web and design. A friend of mine was studying Animation and showed me a few pieces of his work in Flash. Now being the geek that I am, I knew I just had to have a go for myself. After scouring the web for Flash tutorials, I discovered Photoshop tutorials. Flash quickly got put to one side and I became pretty much addicted to experimenting in everything from Photo manipulation techniques to creating web layouts. This then turned into reading up on User Interaction, Usability & Accessibility and learning to hand code HTML and CSS – when I should have been reading up on Criminal Evidence and admissibility. I finished my degree, but I knew that a career in Law wasn’t for me and that I wanted to be a web designer. I managed (after various jobs) to land a role in a small IT Team as a designer. After that everything thing else just seemed to fall into place.
I’m entirely self-taught when it comes to web design (like many others) and it just goes to show that you don’t necessarily have to have a formal education in design to get into the industry. With enough hard work and determination you can make it as a designer, even with no formal training.
Make sure you Enjoy It
As much as I love design, there are times when it can really get you down, whether it’s an overly picky client or you’re feeling particularly uninspired. My point is, make sure that your love of design is strong enough to see you get through these times. Like any career, if you don’t love what you do then you will never be the best that you can be.
Learn Photoshop
Photoshop is the tool you will use the most during your web design career, so it makes sense to fully understand it. Photoshop is so versatile that it can be picked up relatively quickly but takes a really long time to fully master. The best way to learn Photoshop is to follow as many tutorials as possible, but don’t just limit yourself to web layout tutorials – I’ve learned techniques from Photo Touch up tutorials that I’ve been able to use when designing web layouts.
The most important part of following tutorials is to understand the steps and the techniques used, for example if the tutorial is telling you to apply a certain layer style try to understand what that particular function does and why it was used. Pay attention to the steps involved, don’t just mindlessly follow the tutorial otherwise you’re not really learning anything.
Once you’re starting to get the hang of Photoshop, maybe instead of just following tutorials you can experiment and put your own twist on them. One of the best ways to get your head around Photoshop is to experiment with all the different tools to understand what they do and how they can be used together. You can find some great tutorials on www.psd.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/ and www.good-tutorials.com
Get on Twitter
If you haven’t got a twitter account get one and get involved with the design community. I’d start off by following some of the more experienced designers and maybe even design studios. One of the great things about the design community is that everyone is willing to help each other out, if you’re having trouble or need help with something, send out a Tweet and you can guarantee that someone will get back to you with some advice.
The other great thing about following other designers on Twitter is that they regularly tweet links to articles on the latest technologies, design trends, best practices and tutorials.
Try following some of the designers on lists like these: http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/social-media/designers-on-twitter/
Swot up by Reading Web Design Articles & Books
Being a web designer is so much more than learning how to use Photoshop and making things look “nice”. There’s so much to consider when designing a website: Usability; Accessibility; Colour Theory; Grid Systems; Wireframing; User Experience and User Interaction to name but a few. Smashing Magazine is a great resource for all things web design and development. Another useful resource is Sitepoint which contains some really good articles on design principles and hand coding should you decide to learn to code.
Learn or at least be aware of HTML and CSS
With tools such as the Basekit Web Site Builder you don’t necessarily need to learn how to hand code HTML & CSS in order to create stunning websites, but another string in the bow and all that. A good understanding of HTML & CSS will not only give you a better insight into how websites are built, it will also help you in your designs as you will begin to realise what is and isn’t possible with HTML & CSS when coming up with design concepts.
Although the Basekit Web Site Builder is great for building new websites, if you want to work with clients who already have an existing website you would need to know HTML & CSS. By knowing how to hand code HTML and CSS you will open yourself up to a wider range of projects in the long run.
Stick with it
When you are first starting out, it is difficult – very difficult. There is so much to take in and learn that it is easy to feel overwhelmed, especially when you take a look at the portfolios of some of the more experienced designers. I wrote a post for BaseKit a few months ago, which is definitely worth a read if you are new to the web design industry – The Newbie Designer Confidence Killer.
Design and Build a Portfolio Site
Once you’ve learned the basics by following tutorials and reading articles, it’s time to put your new found skills to new use by building a portfolio site. Even though you may not have any commercial projects that you can showcase, you can always work on some personal projects that you can show off to potential clients. The Basekit Web Site Builder would be the perfect tool to build your first portfolio site!
This post was written by Lee Harding of Lee Harding Web Design – creating modern beautiful and usable websites. Want to write for the BaseKit Blog – get in touch!
Picture from Flickr user Helen Olney
