How to Write a Blog Post People Will Read (Part Two)

One thing that’s really hard for me to accept as a person who writes for a living is this: as technology and social media increase, word counts decrease.

Not only that, but well-performing websites and blog posts have figured out how to “package” information for maximum views.

Frankly, this hurts my heart. I mean I did read William Zinsser’s “On Writing Well” and, yes, he did advise that writers should only use as many words as necessary to clearly articulate their point, but in a 140-character, 15 second video world, even that is saying too much.

All this is to say that the #1 sin I see committed on blogs in general (but especially blogs that are seeking to build an audience) is that you use too damn many words!

So here’s three solid suggestions for how to structure blog posts that are not wordy and that people are more likely to read.

People like “top” posts.

Top 5, Top 10, whatever. For some reason, ranking things (even if it isn’t a true rank, but a “in no particular order” list), really motivates people. So if you write a blog about running, you could do a “Top 5 Running Apps” or “Top 10 Things You Should Do to Prepare for a Marathon). If you read my post on getting your blog off to the right start, you also know, then, that said post should be called “Top 5 Running Apps” or “Top 10 Things You Should Do to Prepare for a Marathon”).

If your paragraph goes beyond four lines, bullet point it.

Yep. Chunky paragraphs are the bain of web reading. People see them and they run the other way! It’s crazy because studies show it’s not the content but the actual paragraph length. Some studies have had the text in a chunky paragraph and then broken up and readership went through the roof on the latter. So don’t do the chunk. If you absolutely MUST have all that information in there, break it up into bullet points. And make the bullet points short!

Use the “ABC” Method of writing.

When I was in college my professor shared a life-changing quote with me. It seems overly simple but stay with me on this one. In good writing you “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, then you tell ‘em, then you tell ‘em what you told ‘em.”

In the writing world we call this the “ABC” (Abstract/Body/Conclusion) method of writing. When we’re writing, being reiterative seems ridiculous but think about when you are reading a good article. It usually repeats the point several times throughout and you leave not annoyed but…with a good sense of what the author was trying to convey!

Especially in longer posts, I tend to do an intro, then the body and my conclusion summarizes the body in bullet points, to make it even easier. Plus, this gets your point across to those notorious “scanners.” They’ll zoom straight down to the bullet points.

Which brings me to a bonus item. If you summarize in bullets, put your calls to action in those bullets! If you’re selling something, make it a bullet point. If you’re linking to an affiliate account (if you don’t know what that is, we’ll go over it later this month), put that. If you want people to sign up for something, ask there. People are more likely to read that call to action in a bullet point than in your text!

So those are just a few tips on setting your blog posts up so that people actually READ them. My next post will tell you how this set up can help you SHARE your posts – and make sure others do too!

Blogs All Serious Bloggers Must Read: CopyBlogger

This is going to be a running list. I am on the mailing list of a lot of blogs about blogging. Many of them are run by people who make GOOD income from their blogs, so I tend to believe their advice!

Copyblogger (www.copyblogger.com) is a blog you should ALL subscribe to. It gives lots of great advice on how to draft content so that it gets read, about search engine optimization (SEO) and posts like this latest one on how to keep a list of fresh content ideas.

If building an audience is a craft, Copyblogger is a great tool that helps you get good at it. Go, subscribe!

How to Write a Blog Post That People Will Read (Part One)

I see them all the time in my Facebook feed. You do too. People's blog posts. And you mean to click them, you really do. But first you have to read this other thing. And somehow you never get back around to your friend's blog post. So when they ask what you thought about it, you shamefully ignore them.

This scenario plays itself out over and over again every day on the internet. So how can YOUR blog avoid this fate? Let's discuss.

If you've been reading this blog so far you know that by now you should have:

• Decided whether you want to blog just for yourself OR to build an audience
• Determined WHAT you want to blog about

You've all done these things right? (Slow nods)

If you've done the second thing especially, you have a few pieces of information at your disposal, especially if you've (smartly) picked something you can naturally talk about and are interested in. You know:

• The language of your "thing"
• The things that make people happy about your "thing"
• The things that frustrate people about your "thing"

Using these pieces of information you can write a blog post that is highly relevant and, more importantly share-able.

Step One: Find out what people are talking about

How do you do that? Consult the great and powerful Google, of course! Use Google Trends and run a few of the keywords you know are associated with your "thing" into it. If your "thing" is gardening, for instance, you might run a search on the words "soil," "planting," or "fertilizer." The articles that come up are trending topics for those keywords.

Google Trends is fairly easy to use. You go there, search the keyword you want to know about (let's go with "garden soil." At the top a line graph will appear with various points marked off by letter. Hover over those letters and you'll see the articles and other media trending on this topic.

 So now you know what people are searching for/reading on your topic of choice. 

Step Two: What do YOU know about what people are talking about?

This is where the last two things come in. Let's go with the analogy about gardening. If you garden you have personal experience with it. Say you see that an article is trending lately on a particular kind of potting soil and you've used it. Perhaps that warrants a review of that soil. Or perhaps it warrants your top five choices for potting soil. Or perhaps a post on picking the right potting soil that mentions the trending potting soil. The possibilities are endless but I think you can see where I'm going with this, right?

Step Three: Craft a blog post that's easy to read and share

How do you do that? Ah...we'll go over THAT in part two of this series. But until then, get to searching and remember that if you have any questions, leave them in the comments! I know somebody is reading this blog!

How to Get Your Blog Off to a Good Start

From this point out I’m going to assume you all are #2’s. If you have no idea what that means, read the inaugural blog post!

Ok, so you’ve set up a blog and now you want to build an audience. This is the part where my friends, family and, yes, even my landlord, tend to ask me for advice. Before we set about what I do or don’t (think I) know about this, let’s get our expectations straight.

1. Audiences aren’t going to develop overnight. Virality is rare and usually is associated with cats doing weird things or flash mobs doing the “Harlem Shake.”
2.  It’s going to take you a little while to hone in on what makes you worth following.

So with these things in mind, my opinion is that at first, at least, you should blog to get into your stride. What exactly are you writing about? You should decide that. Most blogs have a “schtick” whether it is clearly stated (i.e. Bariatric Foodie, “Play With Your Food”) or implied (as in my friend Melting Mama who does general life commentary/advocacy and reviews utilizing her raw sense of honesty). It may take a few blog posts to decide what you want to talk about and what your schtick is. During this time, don’t worry so much about promoting your blog.

If you are looking to build an audience to monetize you might also think about the look of your blog. You need not spend a bunch of money fancying up your blog. There are some very nice templates out there. You might consider investing in someone to create a header for you that can double as your Facebook cover photo/Twitter profile image. This creates a unified look that brands your blog.

You might also consider (if you’ve not done so already) buying a URL. It’s so much easier to communicate your own URL than the one your blog platform gives you. If your blog name is available, snag that. If it’s not then either abbreviate in a way that’s easy to remember OR do something else associated with your blog (for instance if Bariatric Foodie had been unavailable I might have gone with playwithyourfood.com).

Now that you have a look of sorts it’s time to wrap your head around an important concept in blogging: content. By content I mean whatever it is you are trying to build an audience around. Shopping tips, recipes, running advice, general life “isms,” whatever. This is your content. Don’t think of content as blog posts. Blog posts contain content. Think of content like the good stuff people are going to want from you.

Here are a content-related habits you can start now to make things easier down the line:

• Tag every post. (Vocab: a “tag” is a keyword that you can use to categorize posts that are alike. Like for my blog, I could use a “protein shake” tag to organize my protein shake recipes). This makes things easier for you and your readers to find (if you make your tags visible on your blog).
• Get out of the habit of using cutesy blog post names. If you’re a true beginner you’re not even ready to go into SEO (search engine optimization) yet but I will say that the more ambiguous your blog name, the harder it is for search engines to connect you with people who might want to read what you want to say. If your blog post is about how not to end up in traction after running a marathon, consider naming it “How not to end up in traction after running a marathon.” Yes, it’s plain but it’ll work to your favor.
• Learn the writing process. Most writers (by nature or force) follow a pattern of writing. Your first draft is almost always garbage but you have to get it out in order to get to a good draft. From that first draft you can either re-draft or edit. Then you should look everything over a final time to make sure it all sounds good. Do this and you'll have good content that people want to read. 

And in keeping with that a few general habits that will have you writing for success on the web:

• Don’t use paragraphs that are more than five lines long. Ever. If you can keep it to three lines.
• In general don’t use any more words than you have to.
• Write as if you are speaking to a fifth grader. That’s not an insult to your readers but that’s the age of comprehension that works best for internet writing.
• Speak in your own voice. Don’t try to be academic. If people want academics they’ll read a journal or newspaper. People read blogs because blogs are written by people. So try to stay true to your voice. If you’re a jokester, incorporate humor. If you’re sarcastic, a few wry quips. Whatever makes you, you — write that way.

So in summary, here’s are my general tips for starting a successful blog that you’ll eventually build an audience around:

1. Just blog at first. Figure out what you have to offer and start writing about it. Don’t worry about promoting your blog right off the bat.
2. Give your blog a look and feel with a nice blog template and header.
3. Set up any social media pages you intend to use, although you won’t promote them until you have content.
4. Create content. Content is the “good stuff” people will want to come to you for.
5. Learn your own voice and start using it. Find out what makes you unique.

There! That’s a lot of stuff for one blog post so I’ll stop there. I think 10 of you read the inaugural post. I’m impressed! I personally don’t care if 10 or 10,000 people read this blog. My goal is simple: I had to figure this stuff out for myself. I don’t want anyone to have to flounder the way I did.

BUT if you are liking what you’re reading or have questions, please leave a comment. I’m happy to go over anything you want to talk about.

So you wanna start blogging?

I'm gonna start out by saying I'm no Darren Rowse. I'm not Seth Godin or any of those mega-blogging stars that make millions of dollars off of their blog. I don't have millions of followers. In fact, in the world of blogging, I'm probably pretty small potatoes.

But let me tell you what I do have: I have a small audience that is highly engaged. I have blog posts that perform strongly YEARS after they've been written. I have built a social media presence that is thriving and growing. It's not uncommon for my Facebook postings to get more than a hundred responses, which is actually pretty impressive given the size of my audience.

It's also not uncommon for my Facebook posts to keep performing days and even weeks after they are posted. All indications point toward the fact that people actually seek out my blog page on Facebook and the top search term used to land on my blog is my blog name which means this: people come to my site not just looking for A blog, they come looking for MY blog.

But I think the thing that qualifies me to write a blog about blogging is this. I'm still learning! I'm getting better at what I do. Each day I have a new realization, a new discovery or, at the very least, come to acceptance on some classic blogging truth against which I'd been rebelling up to that point.

I wanted to start this blog because I see a lot of people out there trying to blog. Trying being the operative word. But as many other things in life, blogging falls under what I call the Yoda clause. "Do or do not. There is no try."

So what do you do? That's what this blog is gonna be about! I'll start out by sharing what I've learned so far. Then I'll just report out what I'm learning along the way. I don't contend that I'm always right. I welcome healthy debate. But what you'll always get from me is the truth as I see it. I am a professional writer by trade (yes, I actually collect a paycheck for writing) who is also studying to be a professional marketer. So I'll also bring any advice I pick up along the way.

Well then. Now that I've done the tap dance let's get started, shall we?

The first thing you need to do is decide WHY you want to blog. Yep. Right here, right now. In my estimation there are two core reasons anyone would want to blog:

1. Just for yourself/your close circle. And if that's the case, this blog might bore you to tears.
2. To build an audience for any number of reasons.

You #2's have a variety of reasons why you want to build an audience. Perhaps to push your personal agenda. Maybe some of you want to make money. Perhaps others want free stuff or notoriety. 

Only you know why you want to blog but I will say this. If you are a #2, or even think you are, notice the words "build" and "audience." That's your task. You can write all the compelling content you want and if there's nobody around to read it, you're not going to be satisfied. And I hate to break this hard truth to you but I must rip the band-aid off early: nobody is going to think you're as great as you think you are. At least not without some convincing. And that takes a lot of effort, a lot of learning and, alas, a lot of time. 

So, why do you want to blog? If you are a #2 be prepared to make a time and effort commitment. Few things worth doing are easy. But if you want to build an audience - and I mean really build an audience - you can. And I'm going to help you!

I think that's about enough for one post. Stay tuned for future posts which I will TRY to do with some regularity although with two jobs, two kids, two pets, studying for my master's degree AND running a successful and growing blog that might be a challenge for me. But I love a challenge, don't you?

How Bloggers Make Money

Description:

In this series you'll learn some different ways bloggers can monetize (or create income from) their blogs. We'll cover the basics of each kind of income stream, the pro's and con's of using the income stream and how to maximize the benefits to you and your readers.

This is not an exhaustive list of monetization schemes, but these are the most common ways for a beginning blogger to make money from their blog!

Posts:

• Advertising: Learn how bloggers traditionally make money from advertising. 
• Affiliate Accounts: What is an affiliate account? How does it differ from advertising and how can it best work for you?
• Sponsored Posts & Product Reviews: Learn to get paid for giving and sharing your opinion!
• Google Adsense: How the almighty Google can become an income source.