Readers and subscribers.
Two vital components to any successful blog.
So where do you find them and how do you bring them back time and again?
By providing engaging and relevant content.
Give your community exactly what they are looking for!
Seven simple tactics and watch your content spread like wildfire!
1. Pick Your Niche
“Stop Writing about Everything. So many brands create content and try to cover everything, instead of focusing on the core niche that they can position themselves as an expert around. No one cares about your special recipe… Find your niche, and then go even more niche.– Joe Pulizzi, founder Content Marketing Institute
Shareable content has a purpose. There is passion and authenticity behind it, a vision that is driven by overarching goals. Goals that were laid out when you started your blog.
Before you begin to write your post, determine whether or not it is aligned with your desired goals. Will it produce the results you are hoping to achieve? Outlining the major points of your post and then fleshing each one out will keep you focused and on track.
If a blog post feels forced, dump it and move on. If you can’t connect to your content, you can be sure that no one else will.
2. Choose Your Words Wisely
“Writing without revising is the literary equivalent of waltzing gaily out of the house in your underwear.”
― Patricia Fuller
Clean up your post and eliminate all of your unnecessary or “weakening” words and/or phrases. (Adjectives and adverbs are typically the first ones to cut!)
Remember that keyword density (the percentage of keywords used based on the number of words in your post) is a very important part of organic SEO. Optimizing your blog posts is one part of the writing process and a big step toward increasing traffic to your website or blog.
3. Post Great Content, Consistently
“Content is king.” – Bill Gates
There is no getting around this one. Content is still king. Posting great content on a consistent basis is the key to creating shareable content.
However, many writers find the obstacle to creating consistent content is perfection-itis. The need to make every word, every image, every call to action absolutely perfect. While we would all love each of our posts to win a Pulitzer, it is equally important to realize that sometimes good is good enough. Write your post, edit it and move on.
By consistently posting, increased traffic will begin to happen as readers refer and search engines find you. With a little effort, your blog can and will change your business.
4. Write Catchy Blog Titles
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Mark Twain
The right title can create a viral sensation. It can cause your blog to be shared or fall into the sweet space of oblivion.
Work to write short, effective headlines for blog posts. Start with your main keyword and then work it into your title and post. The challenge is to make it feel natural. Always envision your consumer and speak to them directly. What would catch their attention?
Your post titles should:
- Stimulate the curiosity of your readers and
- Summon their emotions – whether it’s anger, frustration, happiness or excitement
5. Check the Readability of Your Post
“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very;” otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” C.S. Lewis
Reading your post out loud allows you to feel what your reader will feel as they read through it. It also allows you to sense where you can edit or eliminate unnecessary verbiage.
I always read my articles out loud (to the utter frustration of my family) to hear the flow of each sentence and make certain it isn’t too wordy or choppy.
There’s no shame in editing as you read through. Practice makes perfect!
6. Apply the Rule of One
“Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.” – David Oglivy
Apply one of these rules to each of your posts:
- Offer a solution for your readers
- Offer an answer that your competition isn’t
- Show “how-to” do something
- Encourage your readers through facts to make a decision
- Entertain your readers through a relatable story
- Inspire your readers through “feel good” stories
- Make your readers laugh, cry or think
- Let your readers get to know you and understand that you really can make a difference in their life or situation
Now ask yourself: How does this article make the lives of my readers better or easier?
7. Inspire Your Readers
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” Stephen King
Want to inspire your readers and create deeper connections? Intersperse fun, relatable stories with educational and informative articles all while making it entertaining and engaging.
You don’t need to do a hard sell to get people to buy from you. What you need is authentic, relevant information that offers insight into who you are and why they need to take action with you today.
Hi Rebekah.
Thank you for sharing these tips. I loved the quotes too. As a very new blogger I am reading as many of these tutorials as possible and it was encouraging to see that I am learning rapidly how to apply these techniques and improve my blogs!
Cynthia
I failed at the first three blogs for reasons that I really didn’t know much and I wasn’t sure what or to right interesting and attention grabbing posts but after I overcame some personal issues I took three days to fill out the most important things I wanted and the about me was one I found very difficult bit I’m on a spiritual path so I launched my blog no matter on the first of the year and the about me was how I discovered by creative side and so I’m been writing about the behind the senses of madefromtheocean and sharing my dream life. It’s gotten almost 6000 views. And I’ve been overwhelmed with endorsements, comments of people inspired, how I’ve blossom, and owners of websites wanting to post about my beach crafts on their websites so my point is your advice is one of the few that I agree with. Everything is orginal how to’s, my own rules of beach living with sayings I believe life should be or how to take things better because life’s full of lessons, and my content is key to why I’m truely getting so much attention but I also believe God said now your ready for the path I have had planned for you. And it’s amazing how to share a personal side but not to much and sell and make my crafts that is the best thing to write about and then I think to post and to guest post of a little more outside beach stuff. If you would like to share your thoughts. I would love it. I’ve had wifi issues that caused me to be hacked and my accounts have been hacked so my posts are not a lot bit it seems to still have an average of 100 views and I’ve only shared it with 5 top sites so far. Now I’m started to make time for everything without a planner because I wouldn’t remember where I put or what day it is so I found out that the day I give me a break is when I literally fall asleep standing up just like today I’m starving and I need to get food but I tried so hard to wake up but it just didn’t happen and the reason for that is im trying to research how to gather the information to prove that my wifi isn’t working still and it’s been over a year. But if I don’t get it fixed I’ll sign up under a different name and it’s the only service around but I’m going to sue them for the damage because I documented everything. So now I’m done and can start blogging on other sites I like. So I’ve read your emails but this is the first time I’ve started to enjoy sharing and learning. I hope it’s successful but I’ve established my reputation so far where I feel it’s time to take it to the next level but I’m only going to share with the blogs I want to not people putting me on the spot like I’ve had some pushy people to like or read their bio when I’ve never had or can do that. I’m sure it’s what I’ve got to learn but later on. Thanks for listening to my blabbing. Learned a lot from you.
Michelle
Http:// http://www.treasuresmadefromtheocean.blogspot.com
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Hi Rebekah!
I find this post very informative. I believe that my way of bloggining covers some of these critical area’s, but not close to all of them. I will work and see how I can incorporate some of these techniques and tips that you’ve provided through this article!
Thank you, Nils Rahm
I loved all your tips, I have needed some great advice to get my blog moving in a better direction. Thanks again
So glad to know I’m not the only one who reads my posts, aloud, before publishing! Fortunately, it’s usually when I’m alone so my poor family doesn’t have to endure it. ;P I’ve often considered broadening my niche because it feels so darn small in the world of travel bloggers…but this confirms that I should hold tight to my little corner of turf and stick to day tripping. Great post, Rebekah.
LOL…you’re not alone Erin! And I would definitely stay stick with your niche. As the saying goes, the riches are in the niches!
Good points! I know it disturbs me when I read something that appears to have been written and posted without proofreading. Something we all forget is that you should always have someone else proofread as well. Sometimes we’re so close to what we’ve written, we don’t see our own mistakes. If you have no one to proofread, then set the post aside for a while. Then later proofread a second time for errors you may have missed prior to that. We’ll all have a mistake from time to time, but multiple errors can turn a reader off very quickly.
I couldn’t agree more about the proofreading Jodee. It makes me cringe when I see misspellings littered throughout the post.
Finding your “niche” and becoming recognized as an expert in that field is the trick. The days of trying to being all things to all people are long gone.
A couple of years back I bought a nifty keyword tool call “micro niche finder”. I used one of your “how to” techniques to build a following around this niche by writing a series on “how to use micro niche finder” and amazingly, some of these blog article still show up on page 1 of Google. So you’re right again Rebekah, find that niche and feed it!
Rebeka your comments on niche have really struck a chord with me.
I have jumped about a bit on the various crafting/arty things I do, which may confuse my readers.
Perhaps need to take stock of my focus. Great post.
You mentioned SEO, keyword ratio. I’m connections to our shop web site, a butcher shop. So should content pertain to meat, quality, my blogs will tend to be about making life easier for the cook (slave) of the house! Any advise?
This is such a great post, loved it. Found you through a G+ post.
Wow, this was incredibly helpful! Found you via Adrienne Urban.
I was just considering adding natural living and parenting to my site but I think I need to think more on this. I will make sure I have my niche!
Thanks again!
Thank you for taking the time to stop by Candace! You might find that adding those two topics to your site make sense, but you should definitely weigh the pros and cons first.
It might just end up being additional content that doesn’t serve a purpose.
Fabulous post. Thanks. I think (am I ??) I am going many of these pretty well. The niche part is the hardest b/c I have a lot I want to write about. But overall I am pleased to see I’m fairly on target.
Found you on G+. Thanks for this!
That’s great to hear Adrienne! Stay the course…you’re doing a terrific job!
I’ve just stumble across your fantastic advice..thanks for the great tips x
So glad to see you here Kylie! Thanks for stopping by to say hi.
Hey Rebekah, I can definitely vouch for all of these ideas you’re giving us here. I would add that another way to keep the content going is to follow up with it on social media. If you can touch a person with your thoughts through your blog, you’re connecting with them on a mental level. However, if you can follow up with that when they share and converse with them, you just connected on an emotional level and perhaps created a faithful blog reader!
Well said Wade! Connecting the dots when it comes to our online presence is how to take a mediocre blog and make it stellar.
If you can share and converse across multiple channels and capture the attention of your readers, fans and followers – you are building a powerful personal brand that stays top-of-mind.
I hope I am inspiring others with my blog posts and making my readers ‘think.’ As well as creating some fun and interactive posts to keep my blog fresh!
Really enjoyed your post! x
Thank you Victoria Marie! Enjoying what we write about and knowing it resonates with our readers makes it all worthwhile!
Super reminder at the start of a new year to stop being all to everyone and focus on your niche. It’s so easy to get discouraged and pull away from the niche back to the general market. Today is planning day and I am so glad to have found this post. Inspiring. Thank you.
It’s a common mistake Corinne and a trap we all fall into at some point. YAY for planning day. Those are the best!
Hey Rebekah,
This is a fantastic blog post! Keep up the great work. I love reading your posts!
Great Article, I think you covered all the Great Points, Thank you
Great list of tips. My blogging go to tip has always been to focus on a problem the reader is having and write a solution for them.
Great tips Rebekah!
I’ve also found that reading aloud is a great help to see how others will experience your content.
Totally agree Bob. I have to read everything I write out loud, including presentations. It helps me hear what my readers or the audience will hear. Everyone should try it, even if it makes you feel a little crazy the first time! 😉
Ok, Rebekah…I am becoming a huge fan of yours. Your post are crushing it. This particular one has so much actionable content in it that I had to print it out and put on my wall..thanks!
You just made my day Chris – thank you so much!
Hi Rebekah,
Great article. I’m starting to build my platform and have been reading quite a few posts on this topic. It’s great to see that most bloggers are providing the same strategies. But, I really like #6 – The Rule of One. I haven’t come across other posts that mention it. Great tip.
I have just been informed by my teacher wife that it should be practise not practice.
I constantly battle with grammar and spelling .Speaking a post out loud has really helped me.
The biggest advice I could give is practice, practice, practice. I’m not there yet but it is blog posts like this that keep me going. Thank you.
I really loved the rule of one concept. More often, we try to accomplish more than one thing in every blog post. I believe that each content should be targeted towards an audience. It works best.
Rebekah, visiting your blog for the first time. Really liked it 🙂
~ Chitra
Great article! I just started blogging for working mother magazine, so these tips are very timely.
That’s great to hear and congrats on the new blogging job Tirralan!
This is a great post – one I wish I would’ve written myself! I love your ‘Apply the Rule of One’ concept. And you have given me another action step to apply to my list of ‘things to do before I have published a post’: read my post out loud! What a great concept. Thankfully, I have no one to hear me but my beloved cat. =)
Thanks again!
Juli
Reading out loud is such an enormous help to me. There is something about saying it rather than just reading it that allows you to hear what your readers will hear. It connects me to the post in a very different way. My husband isn’t thrilled when he has to listen, but he’ll live with it. You’re lucky to just have the cat who can’t complain! 🙂