In the struggle for user(or consumer)’s attention, the theme of your blog plays a crucial role. A good design makes it easier for the reader to discover, navigate, share and access your content. A good theme coupled useful plug-ins enhance consumer experience and thus contribute to the success of the blog. In crude terms, it helps you put forth your content with greater confidence and establishes a degree of familiarity with the reader.

Benefits of a Premium Wordpress theme:

• Sophisticated designs tailor made to your tastes:

A premium theme helps you integrate everything you want into a layout of your choice. For example, if you want your twitter profile integrated into your blog’s theme, a free theme may not have the functionality. A Premium wordpress theme lets you select the features you want and blends them into a pleasing layout.

 

• Personalized web presence:

Premium Wordpress themes add to the individuality of your blog. A reader develops an instant identification for your blog and it helps him connect to your content in a much better way. Premium themes cut into the monotony of blogs with similar themes and make  your blog more visible.

 

• Better support and accountability:

Premium themes offer much better support than Free themes. Payment for services increases the accountability of the designer towards your designer. Premium themes from professional designers can also be superior in quality and might help you use Wordpress as a CMS.

Benefits of a Free Wordpress Theme:

• Fully Functional yet Free:

A Free Wordpress theme is the best bet for people who can’t afford or don’t want to pay for premium themes. There are several free themes available which allow minor customization and which are fully functional.

 

• It is easier to shift:

A free theme makes transition easy. In case the theme doesn’t work for you, you can easily shift to another theme, saving expenses in the process. There are times when a redesign doesn’t go down well with the audience, a free template makes the transition in such a case easier

At Effect Works, we use a free theme provided by Woo Themes. Our custom header blends seamlessly into this theme and it also offers us several colour schemes. This, despite being a free theme, suits our requirements completely.

The choice of a custom premium theme rests with you. Custom themes can be cheap or exorbitantly expensive. But if they provide your business the necessary competitive advantage, then we suggest you go for them. Check out our services page or contact us with your queries.

No matter how small your business is, it needs a website. The internet is all over the place and the line between real and virtual is rapidly diminishing. So if you don’t have a shop on the internet – probably your competitor has.

But if you have a website already, do you need a blog? A lot of people who come to us (and even those who don’t) have asked us this question – Does my business need a blog?

In our opinion, businesses – regardless of their size – can perform better if they have a blog. We’ll give you five good reasons why your business needs a blog:

A blog makes a website personal:

When people read your blog, they know that they are not talking to the webmaster or a web designer. A blog is a very good mouthpiece when you want almost direct interaction with your customers(except perhaps live chat – which is pretty difficult to implement and continue)

You can speak about your company’s ethics, talk about your employees, let your employees interact with  your customers. You can also use a blog to explain yourself – from the horse’s mouth as they say. Blogs are extremely useful in cases of controversies and competition.

Make your website more dynamic:

After a while static content on your website makes it boring. Lets face it, why would I visit a website knowing that I am going to be greeted with the same text and graphics. If you cannot afford or do not relish frequent changes to your website, a blog is a very comfortable way to make your website dynamic.

You can share pictures, videos, links, podcasts and many more goodies through your blog. This way, your customers have something new to look forward to, every time they visit your website.

You can read your customer’s mind:

And we mean it. You can analyze the behaviour of your customers – gather their comments on specific issues, conduct quick opinion polls, get product ideas, suggestions.

Once in a while you can put up their feedback on the blog and make them feel special. A blog is a really good way to involve your customers into your business. It is very good for word of mouth  and overall brand building too.

A blog increases your visibility on the Internet

If you post to a blog regularly and you are able to churn interesting content, people share your content. They’ll write about you (good things and bad), they’ll share links and they’ll mention you. So you are making more buzz than before.

You can also leverage the powers of social media, micro blogging and social networking and integrate all of them into your blog as components. And you’ll be all over the internet(in a good way)

Because what we’ve said above is true

The four points above do claim a lot and many of you might not feel a blog’s true power. Some might feel that a lot of people talking about your business isn’t a good thing – because you don’t have sufficient control over them. Some might feel that being all over the internet isn’t such a wonderful idea.

We agree here that a blog is a very powerful way of communication and carries a lot of responsibility. If it is your mouthpiece – you have to watch your mouth. But that is where we impress upon you that hiring a blog consultant is essential.

Take Google for example – Google has a network of individual and service specific blogs through which they make announcements, share links and information and communicate with a huge community of developers and end users. Every word they say on their blog can generate a lot of buzz – so they have to watch what they are writing.

A blog and a blogging consultant can really take your business to the next level, help you merge your offline and online sales programs and help you connect to customers on more than one level.

Additionally if your blog consultant is well versed in nuances of Social media and Internet Marketing, you can also benefit from a very potent force on the internet .

So, if you aren’t already there, please hop on the Blogging Bandwagon.

We suggest you check out our Portfolio and Testimonials for businesses who have opted for Corporate blogs. You can also check out our services and offers for more information on what we have to offer.

In this post, I’ll explain you the most underrated way to get more blog subscribers.

In the previous posts, you learned how to make your blog posts better and how to get more comments in your blog. When you write good content and have a compelling reason for them to comment, you should also be able to convince them to subscribe to your blog.

While there are many ways you can use to increase subscribers, this single method that I’m going to share will be useful for you and mostly it will be something that you have never tried.

Feed Ad Swaps

This is the most underrated way. I have used this before and it works really well. So what is feed ad swaps? You share your friend’s blog link or subscription link at the end of your feed and you friend does the same in return.

How to get started?

Find your blog’s subscriber count. Now go to the blogs in your niche and see whose blog has nearly the same amount of subscribers. Contact them and let them know about feed ad swaps. Make them understand the value of feed ad swaps. You can give them a screenshot of your subscriber count.

How will this help?

When you are advertising your link, some of your friend’s blog readers are going to visit your blog. Since you are advertising your blog in another blog belonging to your niche, their readers will be very happy to visit your blog. And above all, it is easier to convince the visitors to become your subscribers.

Start Low

It doesn’t matter if you have only 100 subscribers. Advertise your blog in the feed of another blog that has the same number of subscribers. Slowly, as you gain more subscribers, try swapping with bigger blogs.

Multiway swaps

You are not limited to swap your feed with only one friend at a time. You can contact two or more blog writers and introduce each blogger to everyone in the group. Now you can swap ads with everyone. If you have ten bloggers with 100 subscribers each, your blog link will be seen by 1000 subscribers.

You can do this easily with any blogger and it increases blog subscribers very quickly. You also get good blogging friends at the same time. This is the most underrated way of getting more blog subscribers.

How do you increase your blog subscribers other than offering good content? Please share your views in the comments.

If you want to get more comments in your blog, you should be following the 3 best ways to get more comments on your blog. But before you do that, you should spend sometime on make your blog post better.

How do you do that?

1. Format it properly

I bet most people wouldn’t read your post if it isn’t formatted properly. Will you be reading this post, if I had one line in red, the next in blue and the next in green? Or will you read it if my first sentence is very big, second is small and third is of different size?

Format the blog post properly. Don’t write long paragraphs. People don’t like to read long paragraphs.

2. Add a picture

Add a picture to a post whenever it is possible. It is said that a picture is worth 1000 words. Why would they say that if it isn’t true? Pictures have proven to work. They have been used for many years and their value is only increasing. By adding a matching picture, you can make the post more popular.

This blog post doesn’t have a picture because this is a normal how to post which doesn’t need pictorial representation. But in my last post, you would have seen a picture. Add only those pictures that go by with your post.

3. Maintain the flow

When you writing a blog post, you have to make sure that there is a flow in your writing. If I write paragraphs that have no inter relation, the post will make no meaning. If your post doesn’t make any meaning, you cannot expect anyone to comment. People only read things that are interesting. You have to make your blog post interesting. For it to be interesting, you have to maintain the flow.

What do you do to make your blog posts better? Do you follow any of the above? Please share your views in the comments.

If you said yes to any of the above questions, this post is for you.

Blog comments are one of the ways to measure a blog’s success. The number of comments shows the relationship you have with your readers. It clearly tells you the way your readers like your blog.

I’m always asked some of the best ways to get more comments on a blog post. It hurts when you see “No Comments” in almost every single blog post. It is as if you are the only reader of your blog. But don’t worry. Here are 3 ways that will help you to get more comments in your blog.

1. Ask your readers to comment

Yes! This is the best way I’ve ever known to get more comments. If I could do one thing in every single one of my blog post, I would choose to ask my readers what I want. In this case, if I want them to comment, I’ll ask them just that.

If you have read any of blog posts in various other blogs, you would have noticed that I always end my post saying “Please share your views in the comments”. If you haven’t seen that before, scroll down and see the last line in this blog post. But don’t forget to continue reading the post from here.

Image Source: Question Proposal by Eleaf

2. Ask them questions so they can answer in comments

If you want them to comment, make it easy for them by asking a question. When you ask a question, you will get a quick answer in the comments. Most people who read the post don’t know what to comment about. Why not make it easy for them by asking a question to which they can respond to, in the comments.

I always do this in my blog posts. So I know it works.

3. Reply to every comment you get

Replying to every (good) comment will increase the number of comments you get. When you post a quick reply, your reader might want to respond to your reply. This will increase the comments. Not only will that, but the new readers who never used to comment in your blog, will also start commenting.

So check out the posts in which you have got comments and reply to them.

Do you get the number of comments you expect to get for every blog post? What methods do you use to get more comments on your blog?

Please share your views in the comments.

The secret is…. Blog Consulting

What is Blog Consulting?

Blog consulting is a service in which you get one-on-one help from a person on various blogging topics. You get every single question answered by the person. You will learn everything about blogging, from writing a blog post to attracting a community.

Here are the 3 reasons why you should use a blog consulting service

1. One-On-One Help

When you are reading a blog or when you are attending a group training program, you cannot get your questions answered, especially if you have a lot of questions. If you are new to blogging, you would have more than a dozen questions. So how will you get your questions answered? This is where blog consulting comes to play. Using a blog consulting service, you can get one-on-one help. Whatever your doubt maybe, it will be answered.

2. Learn Blogging In A Very Short Time

There are so many tips on blogging in the web. But where do you start and where do you end? How do you arrange the articles in order so that you can learn it the perfect way? When you are using a blog consulting service, you will be explained everything about blogging in a proper and ordered way so that it is easy for you to grasp. You will be taught how to write your first post, how to maintain your blogging consistency, how to get more subscribers to your blog, how to earn more money from your blog, how to use your blog to move your business forward and most of all, how to build a community. The best part is that you’ll learn all this in a very short time.

3. Expert Tips That You Won’t Get Anywhere

The best blog consultants always give their special tips and also share their experience which they don’t tell to everyone. You get to learn the expert tips which you will not see anywhere in the web. Blog consultants share the mistakes they made when they started and also how you can avoid them to reach success in a short amount of time. This is one of the biggest benefits in using a blog consulting service.

Why Us?

There are many blog consultants but why should you choose us?

The Effect Works team has over 10 years of experience in blogging and social media. In 10 years, we have seen how blogging has changed from a hobby for many people to a business for most these days. While this transition took quite a long while for most of us, our aim is to help people shorten the time frame.