The rise of the blog post has been rapid. According to WordPress statistics, more than 70 million new blog posts are published every month. When you consider that WordPress-driven blogs account for about 27% of all posts, that means the total number of blogs per day could be over 10 million.
That’s a lot of content to be competing against, which is why your blog posts must be fabulous.
How successful is your blog post?
Measuring the success of your blog posts is tricky. Some say you should go by the number of comments you receive. I guess that can be an indicator, but I rarely comment on a post that I read, so it shouldn’t be your only metric.
It’s better to look at the amount of traffic/views each post gets and the length of time people are remaining on it for – that will give you an indication if it’s being read or not.
But you’re not here to find out that; you’re here to find out how to create the perfect blog posts that people will want to read.
Well, here are my five top tips on how to improve your blog writing.
Make your blog post original
The biggest mistake people make is to rehash a blog post they enjoyed reading. I’m not saying you can’t take inspiration from other peoples’ work, but if you try to recreate something you’ll just end up with an inferior copy.
That’s why originality is essential. Put your spin on your ideas and talk about your opinions. Showing your personal stance on a subject is also an excellent way to encourage readers’ comments.
On top of the originality of content, you also need to develop an individual style. The great thing about blogging is that it’s personal, so you can allow your personality to shine through. Your readers will find this far more relatable than a blog that’s written in a flat, bland style.
Think about your audience
You’ve probably been told to write about what you know. That’s not bad advice unless it is irrelevant to your readers.
The whole point of blogging is to attract people to your website site. If your hobby is horse riding, writing about that would be pretty pointless if your website was about curtain making.
When you’re creating your content calendar, think about what’s important to your customers. Perhaps there are recurring questions you’re asked continuously. If so, that would be a good starting place.
Every post you write has to be there to help your reader, so you can forget blatantly promotional posts too.
Be spot on
Accuracy is essential, both in term of grammar, punctuation and spelling and in your facts and figures.
Readers will forgive the odd typo, but your credibility will take a hit if they occur regularly. Likewise, if you’re quoting statistics in your posts, make sure they are accurate and that you cite the source from which they came.
Shake it up
Not everyone likes reading blog posts, which is why it’s crucial you try to mix things up. Try adding videos, podcasts, eBooks and infographics.
Make your posts as visual as possible with eye-catching pictures (but make sure they’re relevant). Write a mixture of long and short posts. Long copy has proven to outperform short copy, but that doesn’t mean short copy doesn’t work. Not everyone has time to read a couple of thousand words on a topic so make sure you include a few shorter articles.
Give them answers
I mentioned earlier about writing for your readers, and that means providing them with information that’s relevant to them.
Don’t start writing about a topic if there’s nothing of substance from which they can learn. People read blogs to improve their knowledge. If they’re not learning from you, why should they waste their time reading your stuff?
Go forth and write quality blog posts
There you go. They were my top five tips on how to write perfect blog posts. Why don’t you try them out and see how you get on?