I recently got a few emails and DM through twitter asking to write up a blog post about how people can get the maximum effect of blog posts on each one, thus increasing their traffic and range of visitors. I thought better of it than to post this on my site and help a select few out, as opposed to posting it here and contacting a much greater audience. So Let's Begin... Below I'll show excerpts from one of my most popular blog posts, and explain why and how I wrote it for impact. My titles are always structured like this. I split it into 2 halves to save me having thousands of categories. The first half is before the hyphen (-) which gives the general area I'm going for. So if it was based on sport I may put "Basketball Scholarships" as the first part. The second is the closer of the deal, so make sure it's accurate and looks nice. If it's irrelevant to the interests of the reader, you've failed this task I'm sorry to say! On the same scheme, I would put the whole title as "Basketball Scholarships - Do's and Don'ts of getting a place!". This then gives the reader the chance to witness the content of the article without reading it. This then saves time and makes the experience a lot more enjoyable. What's the first thing you notice? Informal? Humour? This was the plan. The opening line to all my blog posts is always a little jokey to ease the reader a little, letting them know that they aren't about to be bombarded with thousands of facts and small text. This helps them to concentrate on the post and relevant details, and essentially (for the publisher) recognize the blog/article as an easy read and yet an informative post. Yet again, opening with an informal statement. For professional bloggers who make a living off their site, this isn't a well used to strategy, but for hobby or building bloggers, I personally recommend using it until you get a wide range of loyal readers. Structuring is a massive point I have to make. Never create a post with just fact, fact, fact,fact... it will appear messy and too formal. Internet readers are generally lazy or get distracted easily. So by adding in humour or personal snippets of ingenious wit, you bypass these stereotypical flaws and achieve a good impact. embolding and italics are a great way to achieve emphasis with words but over using them can lose this effect, so use them wisely! Images are a great way of adding colour to your blog if you have a fairly neutral colour scheme. They draw attention to the general niche of the article and allow the user to make an assumption on whether the post is relevant to their needs if the title isn't already a give away. This is a habit I picked up from DailyBlogTips a few years back and never stopped since. This short sentence will entice your readers to communicate with you, meaning your blog will be more active and not appear to be dead to potential readers! Further Notes! - Punctuation, Grammar, Spelling: This doesn't generally have to be mentioned, but always ensure you have correct Punctuation, Grammar and Spelling. This allows the reader to browse your blog without having to carry a pocket sized version of the Da Vinci Code around the decrypt your text speak. Original Blog Post;- Blog Layout – Are Appearances Everything? Related Posts;- How Many Hours Do You Spend Working On Your Blog? Novice Writers - Do We Really Stand a Chance? Full time Blogging - Would You risk It For The Biscuit?
I have to agree, great idea, I always put a question or a "what are your thoughts" on my posts, sadly as my blogging has been a bit on and off for a while I had a lot of readers who have since left but it is a great method to get people in. One that I want to add is, write your article then leave it for at least an hour and come back, re-read it out loud to make sure that it still makes sense. I have had a lot of problems with my writing over the years (and was one of the reasons I started blogging), by forcing myself to revise posts they come out far better than just a single write and publish. Stuart
That's actually a very good point. I've often read through posts that haven't made sense, and then I worry that I may have had the same effect on other people. It's always a shame when you write up an articles and read it back through a month later and you realize it makes no sense in some parts and you've missed the critical period of impact... Thanks for your reply, I'll be sure to use that advice and link the credits to your blog whenever possible. Jay.
Great posts.. thanks for sharing.. i just created fresh blog.. and i think bolding text within your niche totally works..