How to Make a Good Blog Great – 9 Tips
Only 7% of a speech’s meaning is communicated by the words that you speak. Thirty eight percent is conveyed through your vocal tone and a massive 55% by your body language. OK, so before you ask what the heck does this have to do with How to make a good Blog great, let me ask you a question: does the quality of a blogs content only account for 7%? No, it doesn’t. If it did then everybody who ever uttered the phrase content is King, me included, would be talking absolute rubbish.
You might have the flashiest blog or website on the internet, all the bells and whistles, the latest and greatest flashiest plugins; but what sort of reaction do you think you would get if you published a blank post? Muted, a few comments letting you know you have published a post with nothing on it…
Design and navigation are also incredibly important, however it comes back to the content that you produce and the message that you deliver. With that being said here are;
9 Tips on How to Make a Good Blog Great!
- Set One Goal. Each post should only have one goal. (If you want to achieve 2 goals, write 2 posts). The clearer you are about what you want to achieve the clearer your blog will be.
- Start Big. You only have a small window of time to capture the reader’s attention. Hit them hard, like a punch to the sola plexus, with a great title and a powerful opening line.
- Limit how much information you provide. People are bombarded with information every day. If you give them too much information they will stop reading. Only give enough information to establish your main point. Save the rest for another format; video, EBook, Report, web seminar.
- Make a recommendation; too many options can impede people’s decision making capability. Give 2-3 options with advantages and benefits and then give your recommendation.
- Keep it conversational. Write a blog post as you would hold a conversation with friends or colleagues. Don’t try and impress with big words.
- Tell a story. Stories present concepts in a simple, concrete fashion that people can picture in their minds. Stories help consolidate a lot of information and make it memorable.
- Give a call to action. Don’t make people guess what you are after. If you want them to do something, tell them. Then tell them again – even better show them how and why to do it!
- Keep it bite size. Don’t burden the reader’s eyes with masses upon masses of text. Present your ideas in small bite size chunks.
- Don’t bore them. Bored people shut down and click out of your website. On a recent blog post “How Long Should a Blog Post Be“Â I received a comment on Facebook
Anything that is too long will simply send your readers to sleep. You do not want to do that. Use images, bullets and headers to break up the text and give the reader a break.
There you have it 9 Tips on How to Make a Good Blog Great I trust that you will find the content valuable and in keeping with Tip 7 – Give a call to action, I would like for you to do the following: Leave a comment below to share with me tips that you use to engage your audience. Then secondly use the share buttons, Twitter, Facebook, Google +1 to share this post with your followers.
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James Debono is a small business owner and Internet entrepreneur. James dedicates his time to helping other small business owners leverage the power of the Internet to drive business growth and positive change. Click here Join James Debono on Google+
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Hi James,
Great post! I love tip nine – so many ‘experts’ say posts should be at least 500 words and I’ve read a few that were ebook length but many of my posts that have received the best traffic have been 300 words or less.
Good to see you have implemented tip seven although having two calls to action may contradict tip one ;o)
My tip would be to include a variety of media i.e. video, podcasts. so as to cater for all learner groups including visual, audio and kinesthetic learners. Of course a variety of media will boost your search engine rankings as well.
Cheers, Caylie
Caylie Price, Better Business Better Life recently posted..50 Tips From The Best Aussie SMEs
Hi Caylie,
I guess it all comes down to what your audience want. If 300 words gets you the best response then why change!
Providing a strong mixture of content; video, podcasts is definitely important and more and more content marketers know that is the case.
Finally, I think I will have to include a tenth tip.
10.
Don’t be greedy
: Don’t’ ask for more than one call to action. You may come across as greedy. Make your call to action clear.
What do you think?
Thanks for your comment,
James
Great tips on how to make a good blog great. The only caveat I would add is that I have read far too many blog posts that go to the opposite extreme of providing too much and don’t provide enough.
Think if you had removed the opening paragraphs and text after each bullet point. That’s about all you might get in some posts I’ve read. Give enough meat to leave them wanting more and knowing you can provide it.
Nicole Bandes recently posted..Family Habits – Money Talk with Kids
Hi Nicole,
Be succinct, make your point and move on!
If the audience wants more, they can always connect with you. Or leave a comment.
Thanks for your comment,
James
All of these tips are great, James. They’re all so important. #5 — Keep it conversational — is probably my favorite because I find that there are so many blogs that make me feel like I’m reading a dissertation. The information might be great, the length might be perfect, but if it’s so dry that I can’t focus, I’m off the page. There’s something about conversational posts that I think is also more conducive to comments. People feel more inclined to engage, perhaps.
Renee DeCoskey recently posted..Committed to Commenting: A Blogging Resolution
Hi Renee,
No 5 can be difficult as it takes time to find your voice online.
However as you have said once you do find a conversational tone it can really help engage and build a community for you and your brand.
I appreciate the comment.
James
Agreed. When I look back at some of my earlier blog posts, it’s interesting to kind of watch my voice develop. I don’t know why I find it to be such an intriguing aspect of blogging, but I do!
Renee DeCoskey recently posted..Committed to Commenting: A Blogging Resolution
Thanks James, useful tips… My blog posts seem to be anywhere between 300 and 800 words, some days I have more to say than others. I do try and keep them as short as possible as I know my attention span isn’t that great and it’s well known what with Twitter and the like people don’t concentrate for long anymore.
Jo Harrison recently posted..5 Ways to Analyse Twitter with SocialBro
Hey Jo,
I guess it all boils down to what produces the best results for you.
Also it is very difficult to write towards a set amount of words. I personally feel it takes over your thought process and prevents you from writing freely.
Thanks for your comment
James
I’d add two more tips to your list:
1. Don’t be afraid of white space. The eyes need a place to rest when reading online — unlike in print — so surround your writing with lots of white space.
2. Link to your other related content. This can help keep each post to a reasonable length but still provide more details to those who want them.
Great advice for every blogger (and would be blogger).
Hi Lesa,
I agree with both of your tips. Therefore the post becomes 12 Tips on How to Make a Good Blog Great!
Also another benefit of internal linking, to your other related content is that it improves the
SEO on page optimization
which can learn more about by clicking on the link.Did you like what I did there!?:-)
Thanks for your comment
James
Great tips you have here, James! I usually write too short rather than too long posts because English is not my native language. What I’ve notised is that it’s easier to write a how-to post of something that I’ve learned to do myself recently. That way I can go through the stages where I had trouble myself.
Hi Armi,
Yes, it is definitely much easier to write a blog post about something that you have experienced and practiced. It certainly helps the conversational flow of the post as well.
Thanks for your comment,
James
Thanks for this post, James! I’m still learning, so every little bit helps. I’ve already implemented a few of your tips–can’t wait to see the boost in traffic
Hi Jenny,
I am glad you have already taken action on these blog tips.
That’s fantastic!
James