Quick Tips For Writing a Successful Blog Post:

Writing content for the web is not everyone’s cup of tea. When it comes to writing for blogs, blogger have to face and overcome the additional challenges of producing content that is easy to share, provides valuable information and engages readers. Here is a list of basic things to focus on when writing a blog post.

Define your goal: Yes, you can write a post with a specific goal in mind. If you have been blogging for a while, then you would be able to assess the impact of your content by feedback and links to your previous content. Your own experience will actually tell you how to write a popular post that gets lots of love from Twitter or a ton of link backs. Write a controversial piece to fire up massive comments, or simply answer a very specific question in your niche to build trust. Know what you want the outcome to be before you start typing. If you are fairly new and have no experience with blog writing, take a shot. Dare to try things and observe the impact.

Research: It is very important that you are not just repeating what someone else has already posted. Most of the time this happens not because we trying to copy other people but due to our lack of research. A simple search on Google and Twitter will give you a pretty good picture of what has been said around that topic. Research will give you a better understanding of where you stand and how to approach a topic.

Your two cents: Chances are, there is already some content published on the same to topic you are writing about. That is fine as long as you are adding to the conversation. Again, focus on answering questions that are still open; disagree-do something to add your two cents. Don’t make people leave your post with a sense of “been there, done that”. Kick it up a notch and reference the previous material and then take the discussion further. In other words, provide value or die!

Be Yourself: The beauty about blogging is that you are the publisher as well as the content creator; remember that when you are writing a piece. Also, try to be yourself when you are writing.

Forget the search engines: There is a lot to chew on this topic but there is the quick version: do you write for search results or you write for your readers? Forget the search engines when you are writing, and focus on communicating with human being; computers or robots don’t benefit from your amazing piece of work. Once you are done, go back and optimize as much as possible.

Intelligent Headlines: Of course you’ve heard this before, first the headline, then the first paragraph and so on-provided the reader is reading your post. However, you also need to take this in consideration-social media is an attraction tool and if you think about it, the only part of your content that makes it to Twitter , Facebook and the others, is usually the headline. With the invention of the 140-charater media, we are forced to allocate a little more time on crafting that headline. That being said, though a cute headline will probably get you that click, if there is no meat in the other side, you are bound to lose the visitor.

Never in First Person: The focus of the post should be on others, not yourself. People care about getting their needs covered and their questions answered. A good exercise to accomplish that is to prohibit yourself from writing in first person. 

Make it fun to read: People love it when you throw in a little humor or use some sarcasm here and there, without being obnoxious of course. There are bloggers who get away with a lot more; if anything, some people can’t get enough of them. There are, however, exceptions. “Fun” should start with you. If you are not having fun writing it, it will most likely reflect in the post.

Provide resource: Don’t be afraid to share links to other blogs, especially if somebody else has written a great post on something related to your topic. This is not only appreciated by your readers but it also builds your relationship with other bloggers.

Examples: Use lots of real-life examples to illustrate your point. You can even point out the people as case studies. This makes for a more entertaining read and allows people to see how a concept works in the real world.

Images: It might not be considered as important but having bad images on your blog can damage your chances of a good impression. There is a lot of good content you can use for free websites like Flicker. Here are a couple of quick tips when using images:

Optimize them for the Web so that they don’t affect your loading time, while maintaining their good quality. Optimize them for search engines. For example change the file name from “DC_10112009.png” to “my_cat_sleeping.png”.

Get Rid of the clutter: After you finish writing your post, strip it down. Eliminate the fluff. Find simpler ways of getting your point of access. Get rid of all the unnecessary words that you used to appear smarter or because you felt that the post was too short. Don’t be afraid, people appreciate the simplicity when reading.