Blogging: Meeting your readers

I usually write a blog post every day, but I missed Monday this week and yesterday published a photography post on a Zillion Ideas. Last week’s photography post was published on my local newspaper’s website.

Search Engines

We do have to rely on search engines and SEO to help our readers find our blogs. I managed to get more readers yesterday because they followed a link from the newspaper and I got some from social media, Facebook and Twitter. I have to at least try to do my SEO to attract readers. The heading before this paragraph is an H2 tag and that will help with SEO (search engine optimisation). The photograph will help even more, not just because people search for images but because  there is text in the form of it’s ‘alt’ text. I’m not very good at SEO and still learning, but keep trying to improve it. I installed a SEO plugin on a Zillion Ideas yesterday. Having my post linked to a newspaper helped bring readers to my blog too. I write here on WordPress and on A Zillion Ideas, because I am unrestricted on what I can promote and advertise on the other site.

Engaging readers

Now I’m actually going out and photographing events. I am meeting some of my readers or to be more politically correct ‘engaging’ with my readers! I do get people come up to me and ask what publication I’m from. I also get requests to take people’s photos. This has meant that I have to take a more professional approach to writing, photography and editing. I also help others with their writing, which keeps me aware of problems and writing styles.

Christmas

I haven’t always enjoyed Christmas, for many people it can bring back unpleasant memories. I am using my photography and writing to make it more interesting and less boring. We think and worry far too much when we are bored. I am stitching my photos together to make videos and those will be shown through December. I’ve already made one with photos from January through to April 2014. I have uploaded that to Facebook and I’ll try to link it to one of my blogs soon. I’ll also be writing posts with a Christmas theme for the next month. Editing images to make ‘Merry Christmas’ images for a variety of purposes is also something I do at this time of year. I’ll use those images on my blogs, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Christmas Lights

This Friday, I’ll be out and about photographing the official switch-on of Wednesbury’s Christmas Lights. I’ll meet a few readers and perhaps find some new readers. I’ll get lots of images for my posts during December and hopefully even get posts published by my local newspaper.

That’s how I’m developing my blogs and improving the writing and photography. I hope I’ve given you a few ideas today too. You can ask questions or share your thoughts in the comments box below or follow me on Twitter for updates.