How to make your blog more interesting & popular and make more money blogging

If you're really serious about blogging, then you need to start getting serious about focusing on and learning how to improve the content of your blog.

But where do you start? There's so many blogs out there and even without your niche or general blog topic area, you have a great deal of competition to deal with. But don't let that discourage you from implementing a few of the best tried and tested ways to get more targeted and profitable traffic to your blog and in turn increase your blog ad revenue.

First, you want to work on your content and creativity. Remember, first and foremost, it's all about content, content, content! If the content just isn't cutting it, you are not going to catch new blog readers and you're certainly not going to retain a blog audience.

So what are some of the best strategies and tactics for effectively targeting your blog content, coming up with better ideas for articles and generally making your blog more readable and appealing? - not to mention appealing to the search engines!

• Hold a contest or host a giveaway. Make sure the prizes are directly relevant to your theme and sought after by your target audience in order to draw more attention and targeted hits to your blog site.
• Pose questions to your visitors, either by creating interactive polls or calling for opinions at the end of your blog posts - people like having the chance to get involved or to have their say on products or topics that interest them.
• Write about famous bloggers or internet personalities within your niche market or general interest area. This can often work to attract their followers or fans to stumble upon your page whilst searching for information about that person. Depending on your chosen subject, you may be able to organize for them to answer a set of interview questions or fill out a fun meme which you can then post to your blog. You could even buy a paid review from a famous blogger.
• Answer comments! Creatively, if possible. When you're just starting out and can easily keep track of your visitors, acknowledging feedback is a terrific way to foster return readers and start to build up a reputation. Showing that you care about your blog and what you are writing about is crucial to carving out a little community for yourself, you work and your expertise.
• Put up some YouTube videos showing your knowledge in your chosen subject - with links back to your blog of course. You could find some YouTube tag videos or popular video memes that people within your market are passing around and filming, if you're stuck for your own ideas.
• Brand your blog with a catch phrase - choose something memorable for your description that goes beyond the blog title that lets people who land on your page know a little more about what you do and what you're about.
• Use Yahoo! Answers to leave links back to your blog when you are answering questions... only when it's relevant, of course.
• Try to participate actively in communities or forums where your target audience already gathers. Don't forget to place your blog link in your message
• Ensure that your content is SEO (search engine optimization) friendly. Make the most of your keywords! Don't ignore the potential to drive organic traffic (visitors who land on your site/blog via unpaid organic or natural search engine results) to your blog through the clever use of SEO tactics like considering the relevance of and using specific keywords and phrases, with the primary objective of pushing your site or page up to a better position in search results, mainly focusing on Google indexing and ranking.
• Pay attention to your Google Analytics and blogging platform (ie: BlogSpot/Blogger or WordPress) statistics. Use the stats to discover what particular things you've written have received the most clicks and see if you can make sense of what's working better for you in your niche and why that's been the case. Have the topical/of-the-moment writings been the most successful or have your reviews or opinions been receiving the most hits, for example?
• Understand the importance of titles. Titles appear clear as day in search results, they are the first thing that is going to catch a surfer's eye or lose them. You've got an instant to grab the attention of someone who is looking for specific information or to solve a problem - so whether you're going to use the question approach (the exact words that people looking up certain Why Is or How-To's first think of and use to type into Google) as your title, or go with titles that include "the best..." or "the Top 10 [whatever]"... it is important to make it catchy but in my opinion, above all, the key is to make it as relevant as you possibly can. Pinpoint the issue and address it directly to people searching for the particular thing that you are writing about. It's always best to think of your reader than worry about trying to be overly creative first up when it comes to titles for your blog posts.
• Add a search box. It's always handy for visitors who land on your blog to be able to find anything else of interest to them that you might have written about already. Another handy tool is the "popular/top posts" widget/plug-in on Blogger/BlogSpot so you can display your most-read entries right alongside your content in the sidebar. It's a great way to show visitors what you have to offer and keep readers interested.
• Tag properly. Sure, tagging can be time-consuming, but see it as a necessary evil. Avoid spam type tags for your blog posts and again, always shoot for relevance.
• Don't ignore design elements. Again, even if it seems time-consuming, images can do a lot for your website or blog. As can an attractive banner, header and background. It's all part of the branding - no one connects with a bland white brand. Be yourself when it comes to the template and design but don't stray too much from the general feel of your topic - make sure it tells visitors something of the theme or purpose of your writing.
• And last but not least... share, share, SHARE! Using social media to share your work and linking in with networks of people who share your knowledge and passions is where it's at. If you're not sharing your articles and blog entries on at least Facebook and Twitter, then you're really missing out on a whole new stream of visitors who truly have an interest in what you have to say. Just like on forum sites, participate in discussions on social networks and interact with well-known and active members of the online niche that your blog belongs to. Again, be careful of posting in cases where it could be considered spamming, but when it's appropriate, get the word out there, use your links, let your followers know when you've posted new content to your site or blog and if you've got the type of blog where you take interesting photographs (in the case of product reviews, fashion or travel, for example) think about posting your pictures to Tumblr (with relevant tags to help you out is a good hint because many people use the search feature on Tumblr to discover new images quickly and find users to follow) with a link back to the review or blog entry that the photo relates to. It's a good way to generate interest in your blog and your photos at the same time.