Here’s a simple tip for all the bloggers out there. If you own a blog, chances are that you’re blog contains different types of elements somewhere whether it’s a plugin that does something, or a list of links to important articles.
Below are 6 elements every blog should have, no matter what niche is. Without these elements, a blog is incomplete.
1. Great High-Quality Content
This is a no brainer. This is the most important element of a blog. It’s the reason why your readers are reading your blog in the first place. Without this content that you write, there is no blog.
2. Visible RSS/Email Subscription Link
Every blog needs this no matter what. No excuses. A blog isn’t a blog if readers can’t subscribe to it whether if it’s through RSS or email subscriptions. You need to be able to send out content right to their feed readers or email inbox. Otherwise, it will just be a regular site.
The location of the subscription links are also important. Most of the times, they are located on the highest point of a blog’s sidebar. It’s also a good tactic to optimize them within each and every post, just below the content. Use the Subscribe Remind WordPress plugin to add a little snippet of text at the end of each post to remind readers to subscribe .
3. About Page
Readers love reading about the blogger who owns the blog. It provides them with a way to connect to you indirectly, and by having an about page, you are increasing the trust and loyalty they have for you. If you need help with writing your about page, check out Darren’s post on How To Write Your “About Me” Page from ProBlogger.
4. Contact Page
You need a way for people to reach you. Having a page that is dedicated for this is essential. If you don’t have one yet, try using the Cforms plugin. It creates nice-looking contact forms that you can put on your contact page.
5. Archives and Categories
Whether it’s on the sidebar, or on top of the page like I have for this blog, you need to provide your readers with the links to all the different categories that your posts are written on. It makes organization and navigation 300% easier for both the blog and its readers.
6. Featured Content
Whether it’s your most popular posts or most commented posts, it’s important to have some form of featured content listed somewhere. As you can see, the most popular, most recent, and most commented posts for SlyVisions are located on the sidebar. It doesn’t matter which one you have as long as you have some form of featured content. This gives new readers a quick look at your best work.
If You Don’t Have Them, You Don’t Have a Blog
These 6 elements are essential. If you don’t have them, you don’t have a blog. Just take a look at every blog you read and go over the list. Does it have those 6 elements? 99% of the time, the blog will have these elements. If you see a blog that doesn’t, do the blogger a favor and point them to this post. 
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You made me think of adding back my most commented widget
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Problogineer Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
what do you mean , which widget ?
Great post.
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I remember when I had an advertising page instead of a contact page. No one uses either xD
Danny Cooper´s last blog post…What’s on Your RSS Reader?
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I own an at agency so we make a lot of contact forms on websites to capture information for direct mail and email. I’ve always wondered about having this on my personal blog because I figured most people would just contact me through the comments. But now i’m starting to think of all of the missed opportunities of not having something like this. Thanks for thee tip.
paunchiness´s last blog post…Movin’ On Up
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I really like this theme, I want to move to a magazine format. Where did you get it? And I thought you were going to put the cartoon back up?
Debo Hobo´s last blog post…Profit Over Safety-The Outsourcing Of America Continues
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I don’t agree with the featured content. All other points are good, but I think featured content is just an added bonus not a requirement.
Adam
Adam - Creadiv.com´s last blog post…Questions Session 1
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kouji Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 7:14 am
i think featured content comes into play more if you don’t post that regularly. i find that, while i’m waiting for the next post to come out, i use the featured content area to find something interesting from way back when, to tide me over.
kouji´s last blog post…haiku poem
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@Hussein - That would be a good start.
@Danny Cooper - No one visited the pages at all? How’s that possible?
@paunchiness - Missed opportunities? Bows the perfect time to redeem them!
@Debo Hobo - The theme was created by Woo Themes. I’m currently in the process of giving The Sly Guy a true illustration with 3D depth. You’ll see him again pretty soon.
@Adam - Creadiv.com - I can understand why you would think that. I just believe that blogs need to have a way to present some of their work to new readers by giving them a one-way stop.
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This post was like another stab at me to get my About Me page together. I have one, but it was written like 8 months ago before is even blogging and my site was just that, a site.
Now that I am blogging and have a direction, a brand even, I know that I need to upgrade that page….and it is going on my goals for next week.
Also, I need to add a contact page. Danny says no one uses it, but you only need for that odd moment that someone wants to contact you. So, I have to get that together. Thanks for the links and suggested readings, Sly!
Freddie´s last blog post…Around the Blogosphere: October 8th, 2008
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Before I leave blog, I always visit his/her about me page. It just intrigued me.
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Sly Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I do that every time I visit a new blog that I have never been to before. It’s always interesting what people write about themselves.
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kouji Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 7:17 am
uh oh. this suddenly reminds me that my about page is quite vacant. :O
kouji´s last blog post…haiku poem
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When you don’t have a way for people to contact you in a highly visible location, you do tend to get comments that go, “I’d love to contact you, but couldn’t find the contact form.”
Which reminds me, I’ve just changed themes and I don’t think the contact page appears above the fold anymore! OOPSS!!!!
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Sly Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I checked out your site and the contact page is perfectly fine.
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@Freddie - Get yo about page up sucka! You not responding to the urgency son! Why you puttin off for tomorrow what can be handled today! Get it done!
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@Freddie: Get your About Me page up already!!!!
@Sly: I think I have everything. Although, currently, my archives aren’t too clear on how to get to them. that’ll appear better in SuiteJ v.2.0
Cheers!
Jay
SuiteJ´s last blog post…What’s On Your Desk… And What Does That Say About You?
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Sly Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
SuiteJ version 2?! Can’t wait to see it!
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SuiteJ Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Yeah, I am adding quite a few “elements” to it. It’ll look the same, but just “chunkier”
SuiteJ´s last blog post…What’s On Your Desk… And What Does That Say About You?
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Sly Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Ah I see. Well, I’m looking forward to it.
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Man, everywhere I go this Normal Joe is throwing sammiches at me and Suite J tries to head butt me!!!!! This is crazy!
Ok, ok, I am going to upgrade my About Me page with some urgency. Geeezzzeeee!!!!
Sly get a hold of your group here, LOL!
Freddie´s last blog post…Around the Blogosphere: October 8th, 2008
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Frankly I feel that to be a blog it should also have some form of social media integration such as a simple addthis button at a minimum. Without social chatter, blogs will fall apart.
Fourth Floor Marketing´s last blog post…Using Social Networks for Links and Traffic
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Sly Says:
October 9th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Although I agree that social media integration is very important, I don’t think it’s something that is a MUST for all blogs. It’s a good point to bring up though.
Sly´s last blog post…6 Essential Elements Every Blog Must Have
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I’ve been looking to feature content for a while actually but don’t knwo how - is there a plugin that does it or what?
Simon from Otooo´s last blog post…Best Free WordPress Themes
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Sly Says:
October 9th, 2008 at 7:34 am
I don’t use a plugin for mine (but in sure there is a plugin for it). What I actually did was make a links category that I named Popular Posts. I then plugged in the WordPress PHP code on the sidebar that shows a specific links category, in this case, Popular Posts.
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kouji Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 7:18 am
that’s actually a rather cool idea. i wonder if there’s a way to do this for blogger…
kouji´s last blog post…haiku poem
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I haven’t put up the contact page, still thinking how to do it. Just able to change wp template.
Sherry´s last blog post…$2200 Worth of Prizes @Brad Blogging
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Great post, it will be helpful for the newbie bloggers out there.
QuickPWN´s last blog post…iTunes App Store Apps
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Your are so right about these elements, but one thing they should not have is too many widgets and plugins installed so that the blog loads too slow. If your page does not load quickly the reader will be gone before it does.
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kouji Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 7:19 am
and that’s especially true if it’s a blog i’m unfamiliar with. if i’m a regular, then i can still forgive the occasional slow load.
kouji´s last blog post…haiku poem
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Archives are must-have but there’s not much value add in having chronological archives…
Ajith Edassery´s last blog post…Compete.com - Traffic and site analytics solution
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Featured content doesn’t really want to make me read it anymore than any other post personally. I seen a few blogs with featuredand all times I just read something different.
Bruno Auger´s last blog post…Basic Computer Lingo
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I agree with all of the points above except the fifth. The explanation will be a tad long, so I’ve decided to write a whole post and notify you when I’m done.
Consider it as a really, really long comment
Rajaie AlKorani´s last blog post…Fame, Fortune, or Fun - Why Do You Blog?
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Sly Says:
October 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I’m looking forward to it Rajaie.
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it is great post. as u said in the post, if we don’t have those 6, it is waste to have a blog.
Christmas 2008´s last blog post…Easy Homemade Christmas Gifts
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Great post, and very helpful for the new bloggers out there.
Salwa´s last blog post…Why You’re Not Blogging – and Why You Should Start Today!
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I don’t know how to install the contact form plugin.
Sherry´s last blog post…Wanting to know about posture, kettlebell, fitness
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Well done Sly. The problem with the archives is when you have many time blogging, a year or more. In this case is better to add a page to show the archives.
Mr Javo´s last blog post…Improve Your Posts With Internal Links
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Sly Says:
October 10th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Mr Javo, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. There is no way I would put my archives into the sidebar. It just adds to much clutter!
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I try install the form last night. Having problem with that still as there’s error. Still have get it solve.
Sherry´s last blog post…Win $20 every week
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Sly Says:
October 10th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Hmm. What kind of error are you getting? I might be able to help.
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It appears that cforms was not able to create abspath.php in your cforms plugin folder. Please check file/folder permissions and re-activate cforms.
If the problem persists, please create abspath.php manually with the following content:
Sherry´s last blog post…Cheque or Western Union?
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Sly Says:
October 11th, 2008 at 9:36 am
I think it has something to do with setting permissions in your http://FTP. Try reading the readme file again to see if it says anything about that.
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its kind of tricky, I can’t do it. So I asked a friend to help me out.
Sherry´s last blog post…Cheque or Western Union?
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Good stuff. I’m doing all of these, but I actually wrote a post on whether people actually check out the About pages of blogs they visit. I do it about 50% of the time, and I’ve been disappointed most of the time.
Mitch´s last blog post…Lots Of Twitter Information
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Sly Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I read your post, Mitch! Good stuff.
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Mitch Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Thanks Sly; I appreciate that.
Mitch´s last blog post…Feedburner & Feedburner Feed Smith
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I like the Most Popular Pages as featured content. Obviously those pages struck a chord with readers so putting them front and center is a smart idea.
Mike Collins´s last blog post…Free vs Paid Website Hosting
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Sly Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Even just putting the links on the sidebar will suffice. As long as you have one, you’re good.
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you can see the contact page on my blog but still something wrong.
Sherry´s last blog post…Win the Arras Theme @WP-Premiums
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for the longest time, my rss link was tucked away on the sidebar, under a lot of other things. moved it to the top recently. wonder if that’ll help me out.
kouji´s last blog post…haiku poem
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Sly Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I’m looking at it right now, and it’s a good place where it is. You should be fine.
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Nice tips, especially the RSS one, lots of blogs I can’t even find the RSS feed.
David - Chicago´s last blog post…Speaking Of Facebook - It Needs Change Management of Customer Service
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my friend told me that my hosting is not email enabled thats why contact form not working.
Sherry´s last blog post…Win the Arras Theme @WP-Premiums
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Sly Says:
October 13th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Ahhh. That makes sense. What hosting are you with?
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@Sly I am using Shann Host.
Sherry´s last blog post…My pizza
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I think these are the top most thing each and every blog should have. I have modified my blog after reading this article. Thanks for sharing!!!
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oh yeah the host told me that there’s nothing wrong with their host. Tell me use other contact form.
Sherry´s last blog post…Win $15 via PayPal @Free Ebook Collections
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