One of the biggest challenges for bloggers is to provide visitors with a memorable experience that will lead them back to the blog at some point in time. In order to do this you’ll need to have a blog that stands out from all of the others in your niche. You’ll need a way to separate yourself from other blogs and show visitors that you’re worth remembering.
If you want to make your blog stand out from the others, here are 7 different things you can do.
RELATED READING: 7 Keys to Establishing Your Authority as a Blogger
1. Publish Epic Content
Probably the most obvious way to stand out is through your content. If you become known as one of the best sources of information in your niche people will remember your blog.
Epic blog content can help you in a number of different ways, including attracting links, attracting subscribers, encouraging social media sharing, providing evergreen content that can serve your blog for a long time, and establishing your reputation as an expert or authority.
There are a lot of blogs that publish quality content, but far fewer that take it to the extreme by publishing epic content.
Here are some examples of epic content in the internet marketing, blogging, and SEO industries:
-
The Ultimate Guide to Running Online Competitions by Matthew Barby
-
How I Built a Top 100 Blog in 12 Months and How You Can Do it Too by Matthew Woodward
-
Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide by Brian Dean
-
SEO in 2014: The Big Fat Guide by David McSweeney
-
34 Ways to Increase Your Blog’s Email Subscriber List by Stuart Walker
-
How I Rank My Sites by Jason Chesters
-
Building a Private Blog Network – The Right Way by Lewis Ogden
Creating truly epic content takes time and effort, but the results can be well worth it. Rather than publishing a high quantity of posts, use your time to focus on creating an epic post that can be used to set your blog apart.
Keep in mind that epic content is much more than just a long post. Don’t focus on word counts. Instead, work to create something that will be incredibly useful and detailed for your readers. A lot of epic posts tend to be very long because of the detail that is involved, but the length is not the primary reason that it works.
2. Quality Images and Graphics
Blogging and social media have become increasingly visual in recent years. Social media sites like Pinterest and Instagram are obviously highly visual in nature, but Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have all become more visual as well. Images and graphics are extremely important in today’s social media environment.
Using appealing images with your blog posts will not only make them more pleasant for visitors, but they’ll also lead to more sharing at social networks, and your content will stand out more once it has been shared.
The good news is that you don’t have to be a professional designer or have expensive software in order to succeed with the images that are used on your blog. Online photo editors like PicMonkey and Pixlr make it easy to create quality images for use on your blog.
Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Rebekah Radice’s blog posts always use graphics that stand out. The one below is from her recent post, How to Use Google Plus to Generate Massive Exposure.
Not only does the graphic look great, but it uses the consistent style the Rebekah has become known for. Using highly recognizable images and graphics can also be extremely effective for branding. Most of Rebekah’s graphics are also tall, which works well with social networks like Pinterest.
Another example is Ashley Faulkes of Mad Lemmings. Ashley’s graphics also have a consistent look that helps them to stand out and to be recognizable. The image below is from a podcast episode, The Current State of SEO – Social Signals and Guest Posting with Brent Carnduff.
Ashley also tends to use tall graphics that work well with Pinterest.
To learn more about using images for promoting your content and on social media please see these links:
- Visual Social Media: How Images Improve Your Social Media Marketing – podcast at Social Media Examiner
- Getting Visual with Your Content: 10 Effective Ways to Use Images – infographic and article by Lane Jones
- How to Maximize Content with Visual Marketing – by Peg Fitzpatrick
3. Take Advantage of Your Strengths and Experiences
While there may be a lot of other blogs that cover similar topics as your blog, each blogger will have their own unique strengths and experiences. Take advantage of your own strengths and your experiences to help make your blog stand out.
Think about yourself and what unique experiences and strengths you have that others do not. Don’t publish all the same types of content and be just like every other blog in your niche.
Being unique in a crowded niche is not easy, but some bloggers manage to do it very well. Noah Kagan of OkDork has some incredible experience that not many other bloggers in the internet marketing and businesses niches can match. He has built successful businesses like AppSumo, and was an early employee at Facebook and Mint.
Noah’s background gives him a lot of credibility and he is a wealth of knowledge. If you want to learn more about Noah check out this podcast from Lewis Howes – Noah Kagan: Genius Marketer On Why He Got Fired by Facebook and Made Millions Anyways.
4. Be Practical and Useful
Just publishing quality content is not usually enough to make your blog stand out. What can really help to push you over the top is to focus on publishing content that is practical and can be put into action by your readers. When your visitors are able to apply what they have learned at your blog, and when they see results, you will stand out.
By doing this you are truly helping your readers, while many other bloggers are just publishing content that looks great, but doesn’t really directly benefit readers.
An example of a highly practical blog is Blogging Wizard by Adam Connell. Adam’s posts like The Complete Guide to Building Your Blog And Getting More Email Subscribers and The Definitive Checklist for Effective Blog Post Promotion are full of actionable content that readers can start using and put into practice immediately.
Make sure that your content is not only relevant to your target audience, but also actionable. Readers will remember you if you can help them in some way that is important to them.
5. Display Your Personality
One of the best ways to stand out is to connect with your visitors and readers on a personal level. When readers feel a personal connection to you they will be far more likely to subscribe, or at least return to your blog later.
There are a few things you can do to try and connect with readers. First, be very active in the comments section and respond to every comment that is left on your blog. This gives you some excellent personal interaction with your readers and it shows that you value them and their feedback.
Next, be active at social media networks. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ aren’t only great for promoting your posts and getting more traffic, they also provide outstanding opportunities to connect and interact with your audience.
The About page is also an important page on your blog that will allow you to share more about yourself with your visitors.
Adrienne Smith is a perfect example of a blogger who truly connects with her readers. She responds thoughtfully to every comment, interacts through social media, and her appreciation for her readers is very clear. It’s no coincidence that Adrienne’s posts get loads of comments.
6. Eliminate the Fluff
Don’t feel the need to publish new posts constantly. Many bloggers think that they have to publish a post every day or they will not be able to attract an audience. The result of this is that you’ll feel a lot of pressure to constantly come up with new topics for posts, and you won’t dedicate very much time to each post because you are writing so many of them. Many bloggers that take this approach wind up publishing a lot of fluff or filler posts that offer very little value to readers.
Instead, cut out the fluff and focus your time only on creating great content for your readers. If you only publish one or two really awesome posts per week instead of 5 or 6 useless posts, you’ll be much better off, and so will your readers.
7. Unique, Quality Design
The last approach that I’ll mention in this article is to use the design of your blog to stand out. Visitors are much more likely to remember your blog if the design stands out to them in some way. It could be a color scheme that gets their attention, a custom header design that stands out, custom graphics that make your blog unique, or just a quality design with a good user experience.
Getting a quality design sounds expensive, and it certainly can be, but there are some affordable options. ThemeForest is a huge marketplace with thousands of templates and WordPress themes that you can purchase for less than $100. This is a great way to get a professional-looking site at a fraction of the cost of a custom design.
There are plenty of other places to buy WordPress themes as well. One of my favorites is Elegant Themes. They have more than 80 different themes, most notably Divi. Divi is a highly flexible theme that includes all kinds of layout and design customizations that you can do with a drag-and-drop editor, no coding or experience needed.
Of course, if you have the budget or the skills to create a custom design that is also a great option. TwelveSkip, the blog of Pauline Cabrera is a great example of a well-designed blog with an appealing color scheme that will stand out and be remembered.
What’s Your Approach?
How do you make your blog stand out? Please feel free to share from your own experience in the comments.
Marc is the founder of ProfitBlitz. He has been working online for more than a decade and loves to write about topics like internet marketing and SEO. When he’s not working he enjoys travel and photography.