The Ultimate Guide: How To Grow Your Animal Jam Blog! (Part 1)

Hey jammers! Panda here! ^.^

So, a lot of you have been emailing me, or leaving comments on blog posts and pages asking me some of my tips for getting views on a blog. Although I wouldn't consider myself an expert by any means, I do have a few "secret" tips (LOL they're not secret at all, I just included that to sound cool ;D) for creating a blog that is successful.

Keep in mind that you will likely have to put in a lot of work in order to create a blog that actually gets views. I blogged every single day for about 4 months without anyone commenting on my posts. Was it discouraging? Umm... YES! But was it worth it? YES, YES, YES!


Also, if you're just blogging for the fame of it, then STOP. Please, just stop. Nobody ever got "famous" because they created cheesy, fake content, desperately hoping to become the next Beyonce. No, no, no. People become popular and successful by creating HIGH QUALITY STUFF and being 100% REAL with their viewers.

However, you are pretty much guaranteed a plentiful following on your blog if you follow these tips I'm about to share with y'all.

But enough of my rambling. Let's get on into the tips!

(This guide is going to be kind of a doozy, so proceed only if you're 100% interested in growing your blog. Things are about to get REAL. <-- am="" i="" lol="" p="" so="" weird="" why="">

Are you ready for my number one tip? I may have mentioned this in other advice posts, but it's worth repeating again. No, it's worth repeating a HUNDRED times!

Be yourself.

It's that simple.

If you find yourself inserting goofy little tidbits into your posts on instinct, don't edit them out! If you're a silly person, include your jokes and ramblings in your posts! Trust me--it may seem like they're pointless words that nobody will ever want to read, but your viewers WANT to read engaging content with an appealing voice. So don't edit out pieces of your voice in your posts!

Be weird. It's okay.

Switching gears completely, it's time to talk about your blog's look. Unfortunately, people really do judge a book by it's cover, so if your blog isn't lookin' it's snazziest, then you've got a real problem on your hands.

But don't worry! We can totally fix that.

People like to see clean, organized design. Clutter, dozens of bright colors and confusing fonts are a major turnoff when it comes to blog design. If people see that your blog is messy, they'll leave straightaway.

Here are a few things that your blog should have or should be doing:

• Your blog header should be closer to a rectangle than a square. When someone lands on your website, they should be able to read the title of your first post and at least 2 lines of the post without scrolling at all. This leads to a super clean design, and is pleasing to the eye.
• Pick a dark color for your body/main text. Some nice colors to choose are: dark grey (Not black! Black is harsh on the eyes due to it's high contrast with light backgrounds!), dark purple, dark blue and dark green.
• You should have a consistent color scheme throughout your blog. If your blog has mostly warm colors, like red, orange and yellow, don't throw a random bright blue header into the mix. Everything has to work together nicely.

If you need some more help with your blog's design, I'm always happy to help! Or you can order some commissions from the Commissions page to spice up your blog a bit! ^.^

Also, check out the AJGC Commissioner Academy for some epic tutorials on editing!

Now, let's focus on your content. As we said earlier, you should definitely be yourself, and include bits of your personality in your writing. Don't write boring posts--nobody wants to ready those.

Come up with different series ideas, create a post schedule (but only if you can actually stick to it--otherwise it just becomes a disappointment for your viewers!) and make sure that the majority of your posts are at least 400 words. This shows that you're providing value for your readers, and not just random fluff.

Ooh! I almost forgot to talk about keywords! 

Keywords are important. Very important. ;)

In case you didn't know, a keyword is essentially an important word in a passage or body of text. For example, the keywords in my blog's name (Animal Jam Graphic Central) are "Animal Jam," and "Graphic." The reason I get so many views from Google is because people will type "animal jam graphics" into the Google search bar, and my blog will come up in the first result or two most of the time. Google ranks blogs with keywords in their blog names or blog post titles higher than others, because those keywords match the words that the user typed into their search. If you have the words "Animal Jam," "Jammer," "Jamaa" (or something along those lines) in your header, you're good to go!

If you were also interested in starting a YouTube channel to go along with your blog, then you might be wondering:

Do I start my YouTube channel at the same time as my blog? Or do I start one before the other?

Sounds like a "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" question, doesn't it? :P

Anyways... I would highly recommend that you start a blog first, and grow your following a bit (maybe to around 40,000 views) before starting a YouTube channel (or at least before you start devoting a large amount of time to your YouTube channel). This is because it's easier for people to find your blog than it is for them to find your YouTube channel. 

If you are starting a YouTube channel, though, make sure that you have a good profile picture, channel banner and video thumbnails. Also, make sure that you have a high-quality screen recorder and are skilled with any given editing software.

Well, folks... that just about wraps it up for this part of this mini-series! I'll be making a 2nd part when I get back from vacation! ^.^

I hope you enjoyed... and good luck with your blogs!!! <3 div="">

-Panda