By Contributing Author
The humble blog has evolved quite a bit over the years. Though blogs were at one point merely recreational –– something for people to play with during off hours –– blogging has become a practice that nearly every company employs to boost their presence online. What’s more, thousands of individuals attempt to monetize their blog every day. However, since more and more people are creating online content all the time, competition for readership has never been fiercer. The question then becomes: how do you craft content people will actually read? For starters, you can follow these four steps:
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Write a Simple Headline
A headline is an implicit promise a writer makes to a reader. A good headline should tell a potential reader exactly what the piece is about and do so in a quick, efficient manner. No one wants to read a headline stuffed with multiple keywords that stretches across two lines. If you want people to click on your work, keep your headlines in check.
Promote it Properly
Promoting a blog isn’t as straightforward as most people seem to think it is. Indeed, simply posting blogs to social-media pages or on online forums and leaving them be won’t engage anyone. To make your blogs stand out you have to go the extra mile and provide personal touches. Using unique images, writing compelling descriptions, and sharing content with people you know will find it interesting can help get the word out on your blog.
Create Consistently
The wonderful thing about most blogs is that they’re not time sensitive. Unless you’re covering a breaking-news story or reacting to an event, odds are your blogs will age relatively well. That means blogs can remain valuable for years after you’ve written them. And by that logic, the more you write, the greater your own blog “library” will grow. Covering a wide array of subjects and linking between your pages will help ensure would-be searchers can find exactly what they’re looking for on your site. Which brings us to our final point . . .
Answer a Tough Question
People read blogs that provide them with useful information. Blogs are resources as much as anything else, and readers want to learn something when they click on a web page. As such, it behooves all blog writers to deliver on the promise they made in the headline of their article. At the end of the day, your blog needs to offer a solution to a problem in plain English. Dodging a tough question in a blog is one of the fastest ways to tarnish your site’s reputation. Rather than skirting an issue or making a sales pitch, come right out and voice an opinion or make a suggestion –– it’s the only way readers will take you seriously.
