With all the competition out there among niche blogs, there is more to getting and retaining readers, and profiting from your traffic than just your content. If you decide to become a niche blogger, you will quickly realize that the design of your wordpress theme plays a large role in the success of your blog. Here's a quick list of the things I look out for in a WordPress theme:
1)Reader Friendly - The overall layout must be one that is very reader friendly. I don't want my visitors to spend more than a few seconds figuring out where important information is found on the page. The key sections should stand out from the rest of the niche blog content and menu options.
2)Number of Columns - This is totally dependent upon the niche blogger and his/her preferences. I often prefer to use a 3-column wordpress theme. This setup allows many of the site navigation widgets to be in the far right column, and the ads/banners/intro text in the column directly right of the main page content.
3)Header Friendly - A header can quickly help to brand your niche website in the minds of your visitors. If they can put a picture next to their image of your blog in their head, then they are more likely to become a repeat reader. This will definitely help increase profit from such traffic as repeat visitors are more likely to trust you and thus will have an lower threshhold for buying from your site or affiliate links.
4)SEO Optimization - This is perhaps the most important factor that I consider when choosing a niche blogger WordPress theme. SEO optimization is what will help increase your blog's value to the search engine. Some blogs are very well designed to help increase the number of on-site backlinks to your homepage. Things to look out for are the text headings and tagline. If they are missing, then skip right by that theme and find one with better default SEO optimization strategies.
5)Speed of loading - You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of new visitors to your niche blog. If that time is wasted waiting for the site to load, they may rush to the "back" button and never actually read a word on your site. Any WordPress theme you are are considering must load very quickly. Remember, a significant percentage of internet users still use dialup to access webpages.
Now that you know what to look for in your next niche blog's WordPress theme, you may still be looking for information on how to research and develop the content of your blog. Sebastian Vandershunt has setup a free informational site tracking his progress of starting a niche blogger empire. He shares every step he takes and invites you to follow along at squidoo.com/thenicheblogger |
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