10 Easy Ways To Write Better Blogs

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In this content-driven age, we need to constantly find new and exciting ways to keep our blog posts new and exciting for readers…and it can be quite challenging. In my quest to simplify the process, I aimed to encapsulate a few of the most reliable blogger tips in a short list along with their benefits.

Before you can really determine a process, you need to identify the goal. A few common goals of blogging are:

Increase traffic to website (SEO & social signals/sharing)
Position yourself as a credible authority on your topic
Increase awareness of your product, service and brand

Obviously there are many different reasons you will be maintaining a blog with the ultimate purpose being to generate more sales. Despite this, you can’t go into it with selling, as your main goal.I’m sure you know by now, this simply does not work. Content perceived as “too salesy” works the opposite of what you want to achieve and actually repels people.

Scroll down for the text-based version of this graphic showing my top 10 favorite blogger tips!

1. Draw From Real Life Situations/Ask Your Clients!

If you want content that is relevant and relatable for your audience, strive to draw from more from real-life situations. This can come from your business or simply by asking your clients and others in the business community what they struggle with.

2. Write In Short, Concise Paragraphs

Keep your points short and to the point at all times and leave lots of “white space” through out your blog post. Try not to go longer than 3 sentences without leaving a paragraph break… attention spans get lost easily!

3. Watch The Pros

Use Twitter lists and your favorite RSS reader to keep track of blogs from the pros. Stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before you and watch what popular sites are doing.

I personally recommend these sites for some of the best blogger tips:

Copyblogger
Jeff Bullas

4. Make Use of Sub headers

People want to be able to quick scan your articles and still get value from them. Sub headers allow you to do this by always boldly addressing the topic you are about to discuss, similar to the way each of these points are listed in this post.

5. Spend More Time On The Title

The title is what’s responsible for getting people to read your content in the first place so it’s arguably the most important part of your entire blog post.

Check out these helpful resources on crafting the perfect title:

6. Add Multimedia

I saw a huge spike in reader engagement after incorporating more custom-made graphics, videos and slideshow presentations into my blog posts. You can track reader engagement by checking the amount of time they spend on each blog post in your web analytics.

7. Keep It Current

Current means relevant in the content world so staying on top of trends is very important. Try to be one of the first ones to release content helping people leverage new tools or information in your industry.

When LinkedIn sent out emails to the top 1%, 5% and 10% viewed profiles for 2012, I quickly created a blog addressing this and giving a few LinkedIn tips. This resulted in thousands of organic visitors coming to my site through Google search and social sharing.

8. Write With A Purpose

You should always have a goal in mind when writing blog posts. What new market are you trying to reach? Which existing market are you trying to strengthen your relationship with?

This also means considering SEO when selecting keywords for your blog. It doesn’t make sense to optimize for keywords people aren’t searching for. You can determine this easily by doing some research using Google Keyword Tool.

9. Don’t Be A Slave To SEO

To contradict my last point, you shouldn’t become a slave to SEO. Always start with creating compelling, original content that will be indispensable to your target market. As the future of SEO continues to sit in an air of uncertainty, content will always remain key to a successful online strategy.

10. Do Top 10 Lists…Like This One!

Numbered list-style blog posts are a classic that will never get old. It promises a punchy, valuable delivery and never fails unless you’ve broken rule #2. Keep it simple, keep it short and keep it high value.