The Ecommerce Blog

Your Largest Investment Isn’t Just Your Home Anymore

When you consider the amount of time, effort, money and energy you put into your blog weekly if not daily, it’s time to look at this as an investment. If you’re working on your blog twenty or more hours a week, consider it a job. While your blog may not be paying you by the hour, the benefits long term could be substantial. In the future, websites and blogs that are established and ‘well built’ will likely see a steady income or nice resale value.

2. Maintenance Is Vital

If you let the roof, gutters, driveway and plumbing on your home go without upkeep, it will gradually turn into a money pit. This holds true with your online real estate. A fresh coat of paint equals fresh content. Cleaning out the gutters twice a year is the same as checking your backlinks and removing dead links on your site. Don’t wait until things start to collapse and die before freshening up and making needed repairs. It becomes too difficult if you do it all at once. Set a maintenance schedule and try to stick with it. Google will love you and so will your readers.

3. Choose The Right Colors

You wouldn’t paint your house pink, blue and red, and you probably shouldn’t paint your blog those colors either. Choose colors that complement your style, topic and personality. Stay away from color combinations that are too busy or don’t match. Stick with a basic three color scheme and accent your call to actions properly. If your blog is too noisy and distracting, guests may be drawn to and pay more attention to your neighbors (The competition.)

4. Location, Location, Location

Those three annoying but oh, so true real estate words. If you’re not on the search engines, you may as well pack up and move. Go watch television or take a sewing class. Successful blogging may not be for you. If you’re just blogging for fun, fine, don’t bother reading the rest of this. You must at least attempt to hone in on a niche. Dedicate a good portion of your blog to one subject and optimize for it. Select the main two to five keywords you want to rank for and go at it. Don’t lose focus and forget about obtaining traffic or you’ll be writing for no one. If you’re not located in the top ten on Google for anything, chances are your traffic will dwindle down to just your cousin and mother. Neat.

5. Widget Filled Sidewalks

When people approach your home, there needs to be a smooth walkway upon entry. Tripping hazards and clutter will detract guests from the true beauty of your home. If you have great content but it’s surrounded by too many ads, widgets and other animated garbage, your visitors may instantly be overwhelmed and focus primarily on the distractions. While you want your ads and fluff to be seen, you don’t want anyone tripping all the way to the big X in the sky. Find a happy medium and don’t bombard your visitors with screaming clutter.

6. There Goes The Neighborhood

Tacky decor, messy living spaces or half naked roommates isn’t what you’d likely want anyone visiting your home or blog to encounter. Not all readers have the same taste. Appealing to all may not be what you’re trying to achieve, but you can likely increase your on page viewing time and return visitors by cleaning up at least some of the smut. If nude images, foul language or distasteful ads are the first thing readers see when entering your site, some may be offended. Monitor and remove explicit ads and surround your anger or harsh language with well written content. Nobody likes a rant without substance. If you’re vulgar and that’s your niche, try to build up to it and let them read a little before getting slammed in the face all at once.

7. Ur Adress Iz Missin’ A Numbah!

There’s this nifty tool online called spell check. Especially if you’re a blogger without a solid English base, you should try to pay attention to grammar and spelling. It’s very hard to capture a sale or serious audience if you sound like a third grader. Drop your post in Word or use your browser to detect errors before publishing. Get to know and become friends with Firefox. Save the text talk for never and use short cuts only while running away from gangs with guns.

8. Interior Looks Great But The Curb Appeal Sucks

“Click Here To Enter.” … Why? I clicked on your link to enter. I typed your keywords into a search engine to enter. I filled the white box at the top of my screen with your URL to enter. Let me enter! I don’t want to click another anything to get to your information. Online users want things yesterday. The least you can do is give it to them now. If your website is well designed and offers great navigation, don’t hide it. Make your homepage deliver right away.

9. Nobody Is Knocking On Your Door

Gee, I wonder why? Let’s see… You have no contact me, about me, phone number or email present. Your call to action is key to being accessible, personable and connectible. This is most important if you’re trying to sell something. If your readers can’t find where to contact you, what’s the point? If you want your visitors to know more about you and trust you as an authority, you have to clear off your porch and give them a place to knock. Some will want to email you or inquire personally. You may be missing out on advertising, linking or networking opportunities. Secluding yourself from the public is a good way to limit your future success, Grizzly Adams.

10. Thou Shalt Not Kidnap Thy Guests

It should be on a blogging commandment list somewhere. I’ll leave that up to the blogging Gods, but if your visitors want to leave, let them! Don’t force them to listen to your music, x out of pop up ads, or register just to read your content or get more information. Remember the golden rule while adding this nonsense-maligarnomy to your site. Author’s Note: The term “Maligarnomy” was specifically designed for use in this post only. Unauthorized usage of the term maligarnomy without prior consent is not permitted. With that being said, don’t borrow content for your blog without properly crediting the author or owner of photos. It’s similar to stealing your neighbor’s flowers directly from their yard. It’s just something you don’t do…

About the Author
Cecilia Sherrard maintains and runs the largest Cleveland Real Estate website and also writes for the Ohio Real Estate Blog A full time Realtor since 2002, the YouShouldOwn.com team of agents assist home buyers and sellers all over Ohio and throughout the country.