Selecting a good theme (design) for your blog can be fun, but it is also a critical factor regarding the overall success of your blog. There are a few key elements that you must keep in mind when selecting your blog’s theme.

It doesn’t matter if you’re working with WordPress, TypePad or any other blogging platform… The single most important thing you can do when selecting a theme for your new blog is to try to look at all the available options from your reader’s perspective. Why? Because in the end, it is your target audience who will visit your blog frequently to read the information you publish – and if the design you select makes your readers grow tired of it fairly quickly, then the blog will never become a popular destination.

Keep reading: How to pick a winner theme for your blog

Starting a new blog from scratch can seem like a colossal task. Watching that brand new WordPress installation with the ubiquitous “Hello World” post can make even the most prolific writer tremble in fear - as he feels a mind-numbing case of writer’s block creep slowly down his spine.

Fortunately, things don’t have to be that way. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time… so if you follow this simple strategy, you’ll have a blog that is packed with great content a lot sooner than you had ever imagined.

Keep reading: How to give your new blog the upper hand

The Copywriting Forum members have been asking a few questions about how to start and run a successful blog… and while the tips shared have been great, I feel that some background information is missing to build a solid foundation for new bloggers to rely upon.

For that reason, I’ve decided to write a series titled “The copywriter’s guide to blogging success” – and the good news is that it all starts today. So let’s dive right in…

The very first step in having a successful blog is to find a good theme to write about. A blog that talks about everything and nothing all at once will rarely be successful, so finding a good niche or industry to focus on is essential.

Keep reading: How to find the best niche for your blog

Have you ever watched a movie so arresting that it made you completely forget that all you were watching is fictional? We all have, plenty of times. Actors like Anthony Hopkins, Sean Penn and Robert DeNiro seem to have the natural ability to cause that effect on command… and they can, but their ability is not natural. They have studied and perfected a series of techniques that are known as “method acting”.

In method acting, an actor goes deep into the skin and mind of the character and studies every little possible detail. By becoming the character, they are able to suspend your disbelief and convince you that what is happening on the screen may actually be true. But the truth is that they are fooling you, you have not lost your mind… instead, you have willingly stopped disbelieving in the fiction.

Keep reading: Method copywriting - Your ultimate goal

Once you’ve written your award-winning copy, you’re all done, right? Well… not exactly. Wise marketers always keep an eye toward the future. While your product might remain the same in the months to come, people will not.

Their needs will change, technology will change and their goals will be adjusted to fit their lives better. By tracking customer feedback, you will be in a good position to tweak your copy from time to time (or rewrite it completely) to better fit the emotional standing of your target audience.

Keep reading: Is it time for a copy re-write?

If you’ve studied copywriting for any length of time at all, you have probably stumbled across the acronym AIDA. That stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. This formula has been used by copywriters (especially direct mail copywriters) for years and years. However, I find that it is a bit incomplete.

While I recommend that you base your copywriting process on the AIDA formula, I do want to add a few elements to it that will dramatically increase your copy’s performance by appealing to the emotions of your customers.

Keep reading: The advertising formula that always works

Listen to a few conversations during the course of your day and you’ll likely make a few interesting observations. When telling a story, some people give you just the facts. Others provide intimate details. When you offer information to them, some will stop you and say, “Oh, let me write this down,” a few will look at you intently – hanging on every word, and still others will appear anxious for you to get right to the point. This is because there are a variety of communication styles. People have preferences in the way they give and receive information.

The challenge, as a copywriter, is to provide your sales information in the way that your target customer will most willingly accept it. If you have a target group that consists of one behavioral/communication style, your copy will be easy to write. However, if your target audience is made up of a variety of styles, your job will take a little more effort.

Keep reading: What’s the key to effective communication?