Image Source: Somewhat Frank
Actually, there is no big secret for writing great blog posts. You write great blog posts
- When you write highly valuable content
- When your blog posts solve pressing problems
- When your readers can relate to what you’re writing
- When you focus on one particular issue
- When you can engage your readers
- When you become an expert in your subject
You may think, “big deal, aren’t these things common sense?” Sure they are, but very few people — surprisingly — stick to them when they are creating their blog posts. They get too busy thinking about what they want to say, not caring about what their readers want to hear. It’s not that you always write what your readers want to read, but remember that your readers are coming to your blog looking for an answer. Provide that answer and things are going great. Stop providing it and there is nothing to stop your readers from going to other blogs and websites to seek answers to their questions.
Here are a few things you can do to
Write great blog posts
- Provide value. Your readers should return enriched when they visit your blog and they should eagerly wait for your next blog post. This is a sign of writing great blog posts that people should wait for your next post. In order to achieve this, think like your readers and be ruthless when you do that. You don’t need to be extra harsh (because then you may end not publishing most of your posts) but make sure your readers gain something from them.
- Make your blog posts easy to read. Organize your content under appropriately-worded headings and sub-headings and use bullets whenever you need to organize ideas one under the other. Leave it up to them whether they want to skim through the main (highlighted) points or read the finer print too. They should be able to get the main gist of your blog post merely by going through your highlighted text.
- Be original. Creating totally original content isn’t possible these days (because everybody is writing everything under the sun) but within your niche you can definitely provide insights that are totally original and hard to find somewhere else.
- Use your original voice. It doesn’t matter if you cannot find original ideas to write about, but you can definitely use your own, original voice, your own writing style. Maybe you can write technical content with a healthy dose of humor (very few bloggers have a sense of humor) or maybe you can weave folklore around your worldly tutorials.
- Focus on one topic at a time. This makes writing easier for you and reading easier for your readers. The more focused your blog posts are the better are your titles. When your visitors come to read a particular blog post they know exactly what they’re trying to learn or experience.
- Be persistent. You are not always going to publish great stuff (as long as 60-70% is great) and to be frank your readers don’t mind, but you need to be regular and persistent with your publishing routine. If you publish everyday, then make sure you publish everyday (you can preschedule in WordPress). If you publish every Wednesday, then publish every Wednesday.
- Respect your readers. Show respect to your readers and they’ll show respect to you. Use easy, conversational language but don’t assume as if your readers have low reading abilities. Avoid using curse words even if 90% of your readers are OK with them.
- Back your text with some great graphics. Graphic images make your text more engaging, although you don’t need to use images when you can’t find the appropriate ones.
- Encourage your readers to give feedback. Asking for feedback not only makes your blog posts engaging, you also get new ideas to write even better blog posts.
Are you following some more guidelines to create great blog posts? Please share them in the comments section.
