Starting a blog isn’t difficult. And if you have significant knowledge on a subject or sufficient passion for a subject, writing consistent blog posts isn’t especially difficult either. But even the most experienced, talented bloggers sometimes struggle to make their blog truly unique.
Why is having a unique blog so disproportionately valued? And what steps can you take to make your blog more unique?
The Value of a Unique Blog
Making a blog unique isn’t just for your own personal satisfaction. There are inherent, objective advantages to having a blog unlike others on the market, including:
· Brand differentiation and memorability. Differentiating your blog makes it stand out more, which makes it more memorable to the people visiting it. In turn, those people are going to be more likely to return to your blog in the future – and recommend it to other people. Remembering your brand will also be valuable for increasing the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising campaigns.
· Novelty and visitor appeal. People don’t like to see the same content over and over. If your blog is a simple rehash of content they can find elsewhere, they’re not going to find your website very valuable, even if your content is well written. Making your blog unique adds novelty and will make your website more appealing to visitors.
· Competition minimization. On top of that, making a truly unique blog means avoiding hotly contested niches. You’ll effectively be minimizing the amount of competition you face, which means you’ll have a larger share of traffic for the niche you choose.
How to Make Your Blog Unique
So what actionable steps can you take to make your blog unique?
· Hire a professional designer. With a Long Island web design company, you can professionally design your website, rather than just making tweaks to a simple template. Obviously, the content is the true heart of your blog, but people may not even get to your content if your website is bland and formulaic. Spicing things up with a unique, captivating design can instantly make it more appealing.
· Choose underutilized topics. Take a look at competitor blogs within your field and see what types of topics they cover regularly. More importantly, look for any valuable topics that aren’t being covered regularly. Are there any gaps in topical coverage that you could offer on your own blog? Is there a niche that doesn’t seem to have a prominent content hub in the digital world?
· Create a unique format. In addition to choosing unique topics, consider creating your own unique format. The best way to do this is to combine different types of mediums. For example, you can combine the advantages of written content, illustrations, photographs, video content, and even audio content to create a more compelling multimedia piece. This is especially effective if most of your competitors are sticking to traditional written content.
· Develop a signature voice and style. Work on creating a voice and style that is uniquely yours. Too often, new bloggers attempt to replicate the voice and style of already successful brands, but this is only going to draw unfavorable comparisons. You’re better off developing a tone that is unlike anything else in your industry. Experiment to see what works best.
· Be authentic. Increasingly, people want to engage with brands they feel are authentic. This is especially true when reading content on blogs. Instead of adopting a tone or an angle that you think people want to read, simply be yourself. Injecting your own personality and your own viewpoints into your work, especially if you’re passionate about that work, will only benefit you.
· Support your work. Next, make sure you support your best work. When you write a piece you’re especially proud of, go out of your way to promote it across social media channels and all your marketing and advertising strategies. The extra boost will make it more visible and give people a better impression of your blog.
· Get feedback (and listen to it). Collect feedback from your visitors and readers and pay attention to what they have to say. You don’t want to blindly accept all suggestions, but each piece of criticism and each suggestion you receive could tell you something important about the state of your blog. Keep adapting if you want your blog to become even more innovative.
With a truly unique blog, and ample differentiation factors to distinguish you from your competitors, you’ll be in a much better position to attract traffic, retain your readers, and ultimately make money.
It’s not easy to stand out in such a crowded market, especially if you’re covering a somewhat saturated topic, but your extra efforts will be worth it in the long run.