When you choose to add a custom WordPress blog to your unique website, it is important to make sure that the blog reflects the same personalized touches that you included in your website. This will enhance your site and ensure that your blog stands out among the vast crowd in the blogosphere. You want readers to easily make the connection between your custom WordPress blog and your website. This will strengthen your branding power.
Paying attention to even the most minor details will give your readers a more personalized experience. If you leave your blog in its standard format, it creates a more impersonal feeling than when you create a custom WordPress blog.
Here are five tips for personalizing your custom WordPress blog. Incorporating some, or all, of these things into your own blog can help forge a bond between yourself and your readers. With an increased readership, your status goes up, leading even more potential customers to your website.
1. Put more thought into your “About Me” page
For most of us, the “About Me” page is where we plug in our basic information: a list of our qualifications and experience, and maybe a blurb about our “real” selves. Aside from the short blurb about how you live with two obese cats and a paranoid ferret, the information that most people typically find on the “About Me” page of a blog is the same as any other web design blog.
Do things differently on your custom WordPress blog
You don’t have to follow the pack. Spice your page up a bit and give your readers a glimpse of you. Don’t bottle up the fact that you practically live on Reese’s Pieces and have never missed an episode of “Friends” – even if they are reruns! Add photos of yourself, your adorable family, and even the obese cats. Each little piece of you that you add to your “About Me” page will only serve to endear you more to your readers. People have more confidence in someone when they know more about them.
2. Make your comment responses stand apart
A great way to engage your readers is to reply whenever someone leaves you a comment after a post. But, the more comments there are, the harder it can be for readers to pick out your responses from those of everyone else. Have a unique avatar that makes your comments easier to find. There is also a “Highlight Author Comments” custom WordPress plugin, which will automatically display any comments you make in the comment thread.
3. Don’t let your footer be a waste of space
The footer space on your custom WordPress blog should be given as much attention as the rest of your site. Use this area wisely. Make it more visually appealing and interactive for your readers. Add a tasteful Flicker slideshow or your contact information, a contact form or a “Hire Me!” button, or any helpful links you want to make easily available.
4. Do more to engage your readers
Your readers want to be able to interact with you. This can easily be done by ending each post with a question, which will induce readers to answer you in the comment box. Whenever someone leaves a comment on your post, be sure to respond. If they say, “Great post!” answer them with a “Thank you!” If someone asks you a question, make sure you answer it. Add sharing buttons to the bottom of each post, as well, and invite your readers to follow you on social media sites. When you are doing more to engage your readers, they will spend more time on your custom WordPress blog.
5. Create a custom avata
Many blog writers are happy to leave their avatar as the same anonymous silhouette that is set by default, even after creating a custom WordPress blog. By creating a custom avatar, you will strengthen your brand power and put less distance between yourself and your readers. People want to put a face to your name. It makes the things you write about more personalized because your readers feel that you are talking directly to them. You can use a headshot of yourself or any image that you think fits well with your custom WordPress site.
When you add more personalized touches to your custom WordPress pages, you will build a stronger reader base. Readers want to know the person behind the great web design posts. By giving them a little bit of yourself, you will strengthen the bond between you, which will benefit your website in the long run.
