All bloggers have one thing in common.  A desire to build readership.  It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in making money or not.  If you weren’t interested in others reading your blog, you probably wouldn’t have one to begin with.

So if we all want to gain more readers, the first thing we need to think about is, “Am I making a great first impression to my visitors?”

If the answer is no, then you’ve got some work to do.  If the answers is, “I don’t know”, then create a poll and ask them if you’re offering what they expect.

When working to create a great first impression, it’s not whether you think you are, but whether your visitors think you are.  So ask!

Here are a few things you should keep in mind that affect first impressions:

Blog Design

The design of your blog is the breaking point.  It’s a thin line that separates what seems to be a well thought-out and professional looking blog vs. one that looks like it was thrown together by a 2 year old.

If your visitors see a design that looks thrown together, they’ll start to think you really don’t care, and they’ll start to lose interest and eventually not care themselves.

You don’t have to pay a small fortune to have a great blog design.  There are many premium themes that cost no more than $50, as well as great looking themes that are free.  Spend some time picking out the one you like the best.  It’s not a race, you want quality, and you want something that will make you happy if you had to use it for the next 5-10 years.

A great place to find free themes is the new Revolution 2 themes.  If you have some money to spend, Thesis Theme is a great choice, as well as any of the Woo Themes.

Quality Of Content

The quality of your content is the backbone of a great first impression to your readers.  If you miss-spell every other word in your articles, or write in broken English, your readers will be so confused at what you’re trying to say that they will give up entirely.

If there is anything you should understand about internet users, it’s that they want things to be as easy as humanly possible.  If you make your articles easy to read and easy to understand, you’re golden.

Keep sentences simple and short.  No complex words.  You’re not trying to show off the fact that you can use a dictionary.  You’re trying to make a point, or demonstrate how to do something.  Do not let your readers feel dumber than you.

Also write in full thoughts.  Don’t start one thought, jump to another, then jump back.  Organize your writing and stick to it.  When giving someone cooking directions for a meal you wouldn’t say, “Mix the flour and the eggs, then put it in the oven for 45 minutes, then mix in the milk.”  It does nothing but cause confusion, so why would you put your readers through that?

Landing Pages

Sometimes your latest post might not be the impression you want to present to first-time readers of your blog.  You may have written a post giving a shout-out to your specific readers.  Maybe your most recent post is a guest post written in a style in which you normally don’t write.

You don’t want your visitors turned-off by this.  So one of the best things to do is to offer landing pages.

Instead of leaving links everywhere that direct to the homepage of your blog, leave a link to a landing page designed specifically for your target market.

If you leave links on Twitter, make sure they point to a special Twitter landing page.  If you comment on another’s blog, make your link point to a special landing page geared towards the readers of that blog.

You can have hundereds of landing pages if you wish, although a small handful will most likely be enough.

If you’re interested in finding out what you should include in these “landing pages” then take a look at my post called, Create Blog Interest With Social Media Landing Pages.

You’re blog is an extension of yourself.  If you’re interested in gaining readers, or being successful at all with it, then first impressions are very important.  I urge you to consider trying these methods if you’re not already.  You’ll see a big difference!

What tips do you have for creating great first impressions of your blog? Am I making a great first impression on you?