Does Your Blog Pass the Stop-By Test?

Imagine you’ve just checked-in to a hotel, reception have handed you your room key, You open the door, only to find your room in a complete state – bed unmade, towels on the floor e.t.c.
I guarantee you would turn back and find somewhere else.

The same principle applies to a blog. When visitors stop by and find your blog a complete eye sore or of no value, they would simply turn back and go elsewhere.

Let’s ponder on a few things

(1) Is your blog clutter-free and presentable?

Do you have a good theme installed?
How many side bar widgets do you have installed? – Must you really have all that?
Do you really need all those social bookmarking icons? Are your text font / size readable by all?
All these factors constitute to the overall appearance of a blog.

Let’s go back to our hotel analogy – although a blog/hotel may have something of value to offer, if first impressions are negative, chances are, the visitor will not return.

Remember first impressions counts, so take time to plan your blog’s structure.

(2) Is your blog offering something of value?

Once that first impression bridge has been crossed, content is your No.1 product of value.
Either you have a news or an entertainment blog visitors are reading your stuff because you have something of value to offer.

Bare in mind, in most cases, visitors on your blog are there simply for their own interests.

What are your thoughts on this?
Have you recently done a stop-by test?
What would you suggest?

5 Essential Plugins For A New WordPress Blog

These are exciting times guys…
As we enter the beginning stages of YourBlogTools.com, I will be documenting series of action steps taken to get this blog up and running. If you are just starting out on WordPress then you are not alone – just follow on.

Listed below are some of the plugins I first installed

1. All-in-one-seo-pack
   Optimize your blog for search engines. Be sure to enter in your blog’s tagline, description and keywords.

2. Google-analytics-for-wordpress
   Begin to track the volume of visitors to your site, your visitor’s location, how they arrived at your site and more.

3. Google Site Map generator
   Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site. This generator tool would automatically notify Google each time a page is created on your blog.
   
4. Wp-recentcomments
   Use a section of your blog to display recent comments. I am currently using a plugin by mg12 which has been tailored to my current WordPress theme.
5. Recent-posts-plugin
   Prompt your readers with other related information within your blog.

Have you recently started a blog? Can you remember the plugins you first installed?