If you’re planning to start a blog for your business, you should have an idea of how to grab people’s attention with the written word. Writing blog posts that people will read is a skill you can develop with these helpful writing tips.
Write Compelling Titles
The first place to start is the title. The title you choose is what will ultimately get your visitors to click the link to read the entire post. Some of the best titles are ones that answer a question or solve a problem, just like the title of this post. You were probably looking for tips on how to be a better writer and found our post.
A good place to see examples of great titles is from the blogs you read. Don’t copy them, just analyze what titles make you want to click. See how they are structured, is there action built into it?
Using words like "discover" are great for using in titles. Remember when you were a kid and you discovered something new and the feeling you had? You can create the same emotion in people reading your blog.
“5 Tips for Discovering Your True Potential"
Discovering something new or reading a secret taps in to people’s inner desire for gossip. This technique is used a lot on magazine covers. You can learn a lot from gossip magazines.
Break Up Your Paragraphs
Can you imagine how hard it would be to read this article if there were no paragraph breaks? I’m sure you wouldn’t have made it to this sentence.
When you write you need to break up your text into easy to digest segments. Using bullet points and subheadings makes it easy for someone to get the gist of the article. Using block quotes is another method of making your content easier to read.
- Keep your paragraphs short
- Use bullet points where possible
- Add subheadings to major areas of your article
- Use block quotes to feature important content
- Use enough line spacing, so lines of text are easy to read
Read, Reread, Then Have Someone Else Read It
Nothing will make a person click away from your article faster than when you have spelling and grammar errors. I just read a post from a blog I read regularly. It was written by a guest writer that in the first paragraph the author mentioned they were a professional journalist before they transitioned to copywriting for the Web.
As I read I was shocked that no one caught all the errors. At the end of the article I looked for the comments area to share my disgust and found two other people beat me to the punch.
Having someone else read your writing not only helps to correct errors, but they might also be able to help you grammatically. What sounds good in your head might not sound good to others.
Do Your Research
In order to be credible as a writer of nonfiction you can not post information that is untrue. Many times your readers will be people in your industry looking to learn more. If they read something you wrote and they know for a fact you have the wrong information they will probably never read another article you write.
One of the biggest reasons to blog is to share your knowledge and show your visitors you know your industry. If they read one false or misinformed statement after another all your credibility just flew right out the window.
When you quote or use a fact from another website create a link to that page that opens in a new browser window, so people can see how you came up with that information.
Unless you are writing fairy tales make sure what you write is true. This single tip will help grow your audience dramatically.
The Length of Your Posts Are Critical
A lot of our clients often say they don’t want their websites to be too "wordy". My response is always, "How do you expect your visitors to learn about your company if you don’t tell them?"
Your posts should be at least 750 words. How can you expect to educate people with a post that is only 200 words?
If you are truly passionate about what you are writing you will find it easy to write more than 750 words. We are also seeing proof that Google and other search engines are placing more weight on longer posts. They know the importance of truly informing your audience. At the start of this sentence I am already at 774 words. See how easy it can be.
Conclusion
Yes every post you write needs a summary of what you wrote. Write conclusions that get people thinking at the end of your post. This helps to make it more memorable. You might want to include some type of call to action.
You can see we are telling people to take action on what they just learned. This means they will usually spend more time dissecting your article, rereading it to make sure they didn’t miss anything.
Our Conclusion
Blogging can be a very satisfying form of expression, sharing your knowledge is very gratifying. It also shows your readers you are an Authority in your industry which gives them a feeling of trust. Use these writing tips I have shared, and write something. Share your passion with others and see how that converts readers to customers.