Kavit and His Blog Content

Kavit Haria is a blogger who wishes to accomplish two main interests, lifestyle design and giving back. He is from the UK, and reading his about page you will find, “I am a Tabla player, teacher and performer. I am called to speak on the topics of music marketing to groups of musicians. I am also a soon-to-be-qualified medical geneticist.” He also is a fan of starbucks, this automatically makes him a good man .

Kavit’s writings seem to cover a variety of topics, most are thought provoking and related to everyday life in general.

Some recent posts from Kavit:

• Sparking a Fire
• Less Priorities Creates Higher Results
• Never do anything for the first time!
• If you’re a vegetarian
• Rwanda’s monthly national “tidy up” afternoon

Kavit is an overall strong writer. He does a great job of using images within his posts, he does a good job of linking to other bloggers that inspire his posts, he posts consistently, and his posts flow well. Writing wise the only suggestion I have for Kavit would be try expand into new post styles, for example writing a few lists. Lists are great link bait and they are easy reads, and alongside them hit up a few blog carnivals every week as they are a very easy way to expose your best content to many bloggers.

One other great idea for Kavit that really would grab readers is to bolden a few important lines from each article and use sub-header tags. This grabs a reader’s eyes, helps break up content, and just makes the read more enjoyable (especially for lengthier posts). When I am in a quick read mode I will simply read the sub-header tags and bold text as the whole post and if the writer did them right I still get the main gist of what’s being said.

Blog Design Pros and Cons

When it comes to the blog itself, Kavit has done alot right. He boasts a lot of simplicity and cleanness with his blog’s overall appearance. Let’s take a look at the pros:

• Clean header
• One sidebar (just a personal preference)
• Use of y/m/d/t permalinks for posts over just listing the post number
• RSS featured at top of sidebar
• Clean sidebar without tons of junk

What Kavit really needs though is a way to gain more pageviews per reader visit. Just by scrolling through I would bet Kavit is easily doing less than 1.2 pageviews per visit. From my post on Maximizing Pageviews Per Visit, two recommendations I had were the use of the related posts plugin and featuring your best content above the fold.

Kavit can accomplish this by creating a simple CSS menu bar or by listing his “top ten posts” or something similar just below the RSS count in his sidebar. The cons can be summarized as such:

• Lack of related posts attached to each article
• Lack of featured articles
• “No Comments” standing out
• Lack of subscribe options below each post

If Kavit can get his best content out there he will have a much better shot at gaining new subscribers and daily readers. Also, adding an option to subscribe to his feed below each individual post may help as well.

The other big issue is how your blog feels to new readers activity wise. If I feel like I am walking into a dead blog I will not want to subscribe. I suggest not showing your RSS reader count until your surpass 100, and changing your comments heading title. “No Comments” sounds a lot worse then perhaps “Leave a Comment”. This goes for the single posts as well, remove the “0 Comments” and change it; I personally use “Share your knowledge”. Appearance is important.

Bottom Line

Kavit is a good guy, he seems to have a good mission and a good flow for what he writes about. He enjoys his writings and his blog is a hobby over a “get rich quick” kind of gig (no ads that I saw). His writing style is good and the more he can highlight key parts of his posts the more it will stand out to his readers.

The blog itself is well designed and is very clean. He has a single sidebar setup with featured RSS at the top which by itself is a big plus. What I suggest Kavit does to improve his blog is to features his RSS below each individual post, put out his best of articles in a list type fashion or through a link in a menu bar, and change his default comment tags.

• Darren’s latest video had a great message, Forget About page Rank and Build a Better Blog.
• Daily Blog Tips covered a solid entitled 10 Tips for Writing Better Posts. (also check out the Pro Blogger Test).
• Performancing wrote a post with 27 Tips for Building a Kick Ass Blog which has been dugg nearly 900 times. The post itself is a fantastic example of what TO DO to create a kick ass blog, deep interlinking. The post linked to 20+ other articles within the site.
• DoshDosh writes on How to Set up Google Custom Search for Your Website and Make Money.
• A simple post but Shoemoney had a guest writer contribute  a quick writeup of How to Get More RSS Subscribers Through Feedburner.

Here are 5 Simple Tips for a Clean, Effective Layout

• Feature your best content. The best place for this is in the header, but if you don’t have space put it right towards the top of your sidebar. This will help new readers coming in via search engines find your best content more easily, and as a result will help you add more RSS subscribers in the long run. 5 to 10 articles works.
• Feature your RSS Subscription Option. The most common place you will find RSS subscription button and the like will be at the top of the sidebar, this is critical. If people can’t easily find your RSS icons, then they can’t easily subscribe to your feed, and if they can’t easily subcribe to your feed, they may not subscribe at all! Newer designs now place RSS subscription options right in the header, but bottom line is keep these well above the fold.
• Don’t display more than 6 posts on your homepage. Some people will display 10, 15, or worse even more posts per page on their blog. Not only are you eliminating the easy opportunity for more page views per visit, but you are lowering the chance that someone clicks an ad. Your highest performing ads will be above the fold, not five miles down your page of scrolling.
• Match your adsense colors to your theme link color. This may sound like a simple task, but some people find it to be a good idea to use purple ad links when their dominant link color is blue. This is dumb! It doesn’t increase clicks, it doesn’t enhance the user experience, and no, it isn’t cool. Match your adsense colors to your theme, no questions, just do it.
• Don’t have your logo take up the whole fold. This is up for debate, but personally I feel the smaller the logo the better off you are. Not only are you wasting advertising space, but you are taking away from the cleanness of your blog design. Place it in the top left of your header, link it to your homepage, and call it a day.

5 Tips For More Consistent Posting

1. Brainstorm beforehand – I used to just sit down and write whatever came to mind, which works every once in a while, but there are times were I just can’t think of any new ideas. So for the last two weeks I have been putting time into brainstorming post ideas beforehand, writing down potential titles that I can use. The more you brainstorm the more ideas you have to work with, and the more time you can then spend writing when you sit down to write.
2. Make a posting schedule – Making a schedule for the week can help with posting more often. If you are used to just “writing whenever” you may notice you post sometimes once a day for 3 days straight, or 3 times in one day and then just once the next two days. Make a schedule with just a simple layout of how many posts you want to write per day, and if you meet your goal for the day, save any other posts for tomorrow.
3. Use automatic posting – Sometimes you just sit down and go on a writing spree where you can literally write for hours straight without thinking about it. These are great times to get as much content pre-written for later days as possible. To setup a post for automatic posting, when you are done simply pull down the box to the right that says “post timestamp” (with wordpress), check the box, and set the date and post time to whatever future time you’d like. Then click publish and your post will go live automatically at that pre-set time.
4. Become inspired – being inspired to post is the easiest way to post, when you want to post then you will post more, as a result posting more consistently. A few easy to become inspired can be to read other articles from bloggers in your same niche, read or watch the news, or just relate to what is going on around you throughout the day. Darren from ProBlogger actually seems to do this a lot, and the reads are great because of it.
5. Write series of posts – These can be tough to get used to (atleast they have been for me in the past), but a series of posts around a specific theme can be a great way to post consistently. You know beforehand exactly what you are writing and what it is related to, and best of all you are writing great content for your readers to back to later. If you are really good with your series, draw up a simple logo for it in photoshop and display it with each post.

All of these ideas have been tested and work more often then not. The goal of site exposure is to get new readers related to your core content into your blog to either bookmark your site, subscribe to your feed, or both. The following are 6 Easy Ways to Increase Site Exposure:

• Participate in blog carnivals. Carnivals are a great way to get free link backs and bring in new readers related to your site content. You can find a variety of blog carnivals over at blogcarnival.com, and to participate all you need to do is submit one post per week. The more carnivals in your niche, the more free exposure you will have for your best content.
• Comment on other blogs in your niche. The more thought and effort you put into participating in someone’s community, the more closely that blogger will scope you out. Commenting is a fantastic way to get to know other bloggers and if you make it on the top commentator list (if the blog has one), then you open yourself up for free mentions and traffic related to your niche. Last month Financial Blogger was the top commentator; he won a free site review and has had his blog mentioned just about every week since the beginning of August. It works.
• Link yourself up in forums. There are tons of forums out there, and atleast a good handful should be directly related to your niche. Write a good well written post in one of these forums and link everyone up to a post related to the conversation. I use this strategy especially for sister blog StockChartsToGo.com, taking a few minutes everyday to post in forums yielded several hundred new readers to the blog last week alone.
• Join a blog network. Blog networks are easy to join and if you find a good one it can yield some decent exposure for your blog. Make sure the network is related to your blog and alongside the traffic you can get to know other bloggers. It is an all around happy family.
• Email bloggers in your niche your best content. These is a hit and miss kind of game, and as long as you don’t spam, this is ok to do. I will email out a few of my favorite posts to a handful of different bloggers perhaps once a month. Keep your email simple and to the point, and especially if you have been commenting on their blog you have a good chance at getting them over to atleast check you out. If you are real lucky they will give you a mention and subscribe to your feed, so go for it.
• Post Link Love. A simple post with 5 to 10 links to other bloggers posts is a good way to promote the, “give and you shall receive” methodology. It let’s other bloggers know you think they rock, and more than likely next time they view their stats they will see your link and check you out.

Top prize is the “ultimate business blog package”:

• A designed logo from David Airey.
• Custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill of Nate Whitehill dot Com (he is currently doing a redesign of this site .
• Personal marketing / advertising plan from Maki of Dosh Dosh.
• One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley of I love Typography.
• Signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on Wordpress.

There is a 2nd and 3rd place prize package along side like a ton of random drawing prizes, and I would go through them all, but there are too many to mention, just head over to David’s logo design blog and find out more. The Giveaway is setup as a drawing so everyone has a shot at winning something.

There a ton of sponsors involved, check them out: custom WordPress theme, blog advertising, I Love Typography, Lorelle on WordPress, Graphic Design Blog, improve your website design, search engine optimization, professional blogger, Smart Wealthy Rich, Daily Blog Tips, WordPress designer, critique your blog, Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog, Mom Gadget, Terinea Weblog, blog-op, WordPress themes, WordPress skills, Marketing Tools Review, design for the Blogger platform, guide to social media, Wishful Thinking, business growth consultant, professional mediator and conflict coach, product launch expertise, Business Blogwire, david the designer, winning brands, watercolour studio, The Blog Experiment, Smart Wealthy Rich, Contest Blogger, Freelance Folder, and Niche Marketer.

To enter subscribe to David’s Feed or post about the contest on your own blog.

1. Install the Related Posts Plugin. This plugin will allow you to display a list of related posts below each individual posts. For example, if you look below this post you will find the “related posts” showing up which gives readers another way to click through to more of your content.
2. Utilize Deep Interlinking. Every post I make I try and somewhere within it link to another post, page, or article within my blog. Interlinking helps readers find related content to the topic they are currently viewing, as a result keeping them on your site longer.
3. Feature Your Best Content Above the Fold. I am constantly working at improving this, but basically the concept here is to show new readers your best stuff. A majority of people come into a site from some sort of link and are taken to a page they may or may not care about. Having your highlight content right there for them to view gives them another option to stay on the site and alongside spurring more pageviews it can also add RSS subscribers.
4. Create Some Sort of Archive. My archive is my stock education database of tons of posts focusing on investment education. This page is one of the top most viewed pages each and every day and allows viewers to find and link right into my highlight content. Link readers to your archive with a menu bar link or a mention every once in a while within a post.
5. Write Good Content. This is probably the toughest of them all, but if you can write strong content that readers love than they will surely be searching around for more. If you have 1 – 4 setup properly referring them should be a piece of cake.

These tips can be used with any blog regardless of your content. Make sure to check your google analytics often, and if you are averaging more than two pageviews per visit, know you are running a very effective blog.