Many people ask me for advice about how to write great blogs. How do you make your blog stand out from the crowd?
Here are my 7 tips for writing blogs that will grab readers attention and get your blog post loved, read and shared.
- Use a compelling headline
The title of your blog post is one of the most important aspects of writing a successful post. People will scan a blog title for around 2 or 3 seconds and decide if they are going to continue reading. Get them hooked at this first moment with your title.
Make people curious about your post. Use words such as HOW, WHEN, WHAT, WHAT, YOU, WHY, WHO, add questions and numbered lists.
These are all tactics which have been shown to work well for blog writing. In this blog, the title told you what you will learn by reading this blog. Make it simple and clear and choose to write about compelling information that is useful to people.
There are sites to analyse the impact of your headline such as EMV headline analyse or https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer to give you feedback on the strength of your headline and makes suggestions to make the headline even better.
Use a mix of 25% common, 10% uncommon, 10% emotional and at least one power words (eg now)
Tip: Try writing 20 headlines for your blog and try them out on friends to see what they are most likely to read. After a little practice, you will naturally be blasting out strong titles and headlines.
2. Identify the profile of your reader
Get clear who you are writing for and who is your audience. Write for your reader, not for you. It is important that you know the profile of the person you are writing for so that you can angle the copy appropriately to them. What do your readers want? What do they want more of? Are they looking for a chatty style or a more formal approach?
Readers read because they are curious, want excitement and joy and to get good information or stories. Be clear with yourself what your readers are wanting and looking for. Write down who is your target in as much detail as possible and come up with some keywords that represent your blogs best. Use these keywords in Search Engine Optimisation (google this and learn how to do this for your particular blogging software). Head for sites such as Keyword tool.10 and Advanced Twitter search to find the most used hashtags in your niche or check Quora for questions most asked on your topic.
Ask your target group face-to-face what they want blogs about. Answer their questions in your blog writing.
3. Read other blogs
Read blogs about blogging: copyblogger, Pro Blogger, Upworthy are all good sites to check out. Read blogs about your niche and link to other blogs and leave useful comments.
Use RSS feed to connect to other sites that you enjoy reading. Subscribe using a site such as Feedly. Add news sites, youtube, twitter, bloggers, trade publications.
4. Images
Include a powerful picture for your blog piece. Think about what visuals you add to your blog. Humans love visuals and learn best when there is something visual to look at and it breaks up the density of words on the page. Use full width, not wrap around images. There is no need to save paper space in digital spaces. Images make your ideas more concrete and offer a visual metaphor for the ideas you want to get across.
5. Use lists and bullet points
Break up the reading text by using plenty of lists and bullet points. This makes your ideas easier to navigate and scan through, which is what blog readers want to do.
Sites for royalty free images include – Unsplash, pexels, pixabay. Or look at paid for sites with more choice such as shutterstock.
6. Headings
Use plenty of headings in your post. Cut up the text with headings and subheadings to make it easier to read and easy to scan. Google rankings really likes 2 and 3 headings. The first heading is a title. Use no more than 4 lines in a paragraph. Keep paragraphs short which makes for easier reading. Six-line paragraphs are too long.
Use a one-line paragraph. That’s powerful.
Be useful to your reader and answer the questions they may have about your topic.
7. Post regularly and add A Call to Action at the end
One of the most important aspects of being a blogger is to blog regularly. Be persistent in your jottings and postings.
Add a call to action at the end of the post – something you want the reader to do such as sign up for your newsletter, follow you on social media or buy your book, listen to your podcast, go to your website.
Keep working and keep posting. Let the writing flow. Get feedback. Write for the bin. Just keep on doing it. The more your practice, the better you get. Some say it takes 100 posts to get good at blogging. If you only blog once a week, it will take you 2 years to get good. Every day, and you´ll be like a blog boss really soon.
Ask for comments, ask questions, seek engagement with your posts.
Many bloggers have had their blog posts made into books and got published this way.
Have you enjoyed this blog? What tips do you have for blogging? I would love to hear from you.
