7 Tips for Better Blog Posts

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7 Tips for Better Blog Posts
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Denise Wakeman,
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Founder, The Blog Squad

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illing your blog with content that will continually draw readers is a multi-part process. It’s

F a lament I hear often – professionals and business owners struggle with coming up with
content, but also how to make their blog posts great. It involves establishing good posting
habits, understanding your reader, and being creative about finding topics for your posts.

First, let’s review some basic blog posting habits. You are most likely practicing some of these
suggestions, and it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. This is the foundation of successful blogging.

Tip #1: Clarity

The first and most important rule for creating effective content for your business blog is to be
completely clear about why you’re blogging in the first place. Be clear about the profile of
your ideal reader (your customer) and about the core message as it relates to your business.
If you have a really clear idea about who it is you’re writing for, it’s going to be easier to write.
Your blog posts will be on target and on purpose. You won’t be meandering off into subjects that
are irrelevant to your audience.

Tip # 2: Know what your readers want

Always write with your reader in mind. Write as if you are answering the question “what’s in it
for them?” Your readers are asking themselves all the time whether this blog is worth their time
to read. You’re more likely to keep them interested if you’re "walking in their shoes." Address
your readers’ major issues and concerns. If you don’t know what they are, ask.

Tip #3: Edit Often

So many blog posts start off with, “The other day, I was thinking about…” or “You know,
summer’s almost over and…”. A blog post is not an essay and it’s not poetry. Get to the point
right away. Follow the rule of KISS = Keep It Simple, Sugar! (or Keep it Short, Sweet, and
Succinct). That means you can actually write less.

Write short, declarative sentences and omit all unnecessary words. This means read and re-
read your posts before you publish. If you haven’t been trained as a journalist or taken a lot of
writing classes, it doesn’t matter. If you can write an e-mail, you can write a blog post. However,
your blog writing will improve when you re-read before publishing to be sure you have taken out
all unnecessary words.

After you click the “publish” button, read your post again. Often this is when you will catch
typos or grammatical errors you didn’t see before. Show respect for your readers by having clean
copy. It doesn’t take much for readers to abandon your blog; some might unsubscribe simply
because your spelling is sloppy. In the online world, your words are all you’ve got.

2 © Copyright 2010. Denise Wakeman, The Blog Squad, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
http://DeniseWakeman.com

Tip #4: Create Keyword-Rich Headlines

Write compelling headlines by using strategic keywords that are relevant to your topic.
Keywords are often touted as gold by search engine optimization experts who want to charge
you an arm and a leg for their services.

But let’s make a complicated issue simple.

Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal reader. If this reader was searching Google for
information or solutions to a problem, would she find you? Make a list of all the words or
phrases she might use to search for you, your business, and your solutions. Those are the
keywords and keyword phrases that you want to use frequently on your blog.

When you write a headline for your blog post, use these keywords in the title. This alerts the
search engines as well as your reader about what’s important in your post.

For an in-depth discussion on writing effective blog post titles, read Chris Garrett’s post on How
to Create Headlines with Go Viral with Social Media.

Doing keyword research from time to time will help you stay
on top of what your prospects want. You’ll find out exactly
how readers are looking for the information you’ve got. Use the
free keyword suggestion tool at WordTracker to make this
simple. Your post headlines can also make it easy — or
difficult — for people to find the information they want.
Headlines should be as descriptive as possible.

Don’t be vague. You can be cute, but not too cute, as long as
what you’re putting in the title clarifies what you’re really
writing about or what the reader is going to learn.

Remember, it’s all about your reader. It’s about helping them
find and use the content you are giving them. Blogging is going
to be a fruitless exercise if your readers can’t get what they
want out of reading your blog.

Tip #5: Write great first sentences

Write an optimized first paragraph using the same keywords you used in your post title. Make
your point right away rather than leading into it. Use clear keywords in the first sentence of the
first paragraph, and then summarize them again before you close your blog post. Always close
by asking readers for their comments.

Tip #6: Keep it short and spacey

When writing, keep paragraphs short. They should be one or two sentences at the most, and then

break for a new paragraph. White space is your friend.

Sometimes just one sentence can be effective as a paragraph. You want lots of white space
between paragraphs on your blog.

Remember, most readers are in a hurry. Text on a computer screen is also harder to read than text
on paper. You want to make it as easy as possible for your readers to grasp your message
quickly.

Tip #7: Use bulleted lists

Use bullet points and lists as often as possible. This makes your post easy:

• To read
• To scan
• To understand
• To remember

Research shows that people prefer things to be easily digestible and chunked down for them. It’s
easier for them to remember your message if you’ve given it to them in a list of three or five
items. Some online writing experts also recommend keeping lists to an odd number of bullet
points, but the important part is to use lists whenever you can.

There are many, many ways to ensure you have great blog posts. These seven tips provide a
good starting point and checklist to help you stay on track and create content your readers will
devour and will move them to action.

What other tips would you add to this list to write better blog posts? Share your best
blogging tips at http://facebook.com/BlogSquad.


Denise Wakeman is an online marketing advisor and co-founder of
The Blog Squad. With nearly two decades of business and online
marketing experience, she helps authors, speakers, service
professionals, and small business owners optimize and leverage great
business blogs as well as strategically use social media tools to gain
visibility, build credibility and make more money selling their books,
products and services. You can learn more about Denise at
http://www.DeniseWakeman.com.

And now I would like to invite you to claim your free instant access to
my 5-part video course on how to get the best out of your blog. Visit
http://masterbusinessblogging.com to claim it now. Blog on!


7 Tips for Better Blog Posts

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