Sawaram Suthar — March 30, 2017 Follow @sawaramsChef Gusteau Ratatouille said— “Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great!”
These words can be rewritten perfectly as— “Anyone can write a blog, but only the fearless bloggers can be great!”
Other great words, by Albert Einstein— “Try not to become a person of success. Rather, a person of value.”
There is so much truth in these statements.
When you create content, focus on the quality, not the quantity. What makes a good blog post is a good topic or idea, decent grammar and spelling, and obviously a strong mastery of the essay form. But if you want to attract thousands of readers to your blog and make people say ‘Wow,’ you need to go further than the essentials.
The biggest challenge for bloggers today is giving visitors a memorable and enjoyable experience that will make them come back to the blog. For this, you need to create an engaging blog that will not only attract thousands of readers, but also make you stand out from other bloggers.
Here are 7 great and surefire ideas to make your blog worthwhile for your readers—
1. Headline Formulas Always Work
Headlines can make or break the success of your blog post. The headline is the most crucial element. It’s what draws readers to your content from social media site, search engines and other blogs.
The headline is the very first part of your post that readers look at and judge whether it is worth reading or not. Attention-grabbing headlines are something that can set your posts apart from run-of-the-mill content.
Your headline is a promise and your blog should deliver on it. If your content fails to deliver the promise your headline makes, it’ll annoy people— and, obviously, make a bad impression! And while headlines attract readers to your posts, the content should always meet their expectations.
Here’s a simple headline-writing formula, given by Jeff Goins:
Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise
To make your headline draw people in, you must use evocative power words to give the reader a clear and positive idea of what they can expect from the post.
2. Break It Up
Did you know that only 16% of readers actually read blog posts until the end? Everyone is busy and they only have time to read content that they consider fruitful and interesting.
You don’t want to lose your readers’ attention, right? Nobody wants to read something that is long and boring.
There are ways to make your blog posts awesome. One of them is breaking up your long form post into shorter sentences and paragraphs. Your content needs to be clear and compelling. It should also be laid out so that readers can easily digest it at a glance.
Irrespective of industry, or niche, you need to focus on creating a valuable content rather than a general one. Imagine, a health blogger who shares a perfect blogging tips on how to write and promote a blog that can attract maximum visitors.
Edit your content ruthlessly. It’s important to be as brief as possible.
3. Share Real life examples
When a reader can relate to something, they are more attracted to it. Readers always look for more than hypothetical examples. When you want to share something new with your readers, or shout out about your products/services, pepper your content with relevant, real-time examples.
Sharing relevant examples will make your content more valuable to the reader.
4. Catch Their Attention with the First Sentence
The first sentence of your content is the most important, after the headline, of course! If your first line is boring and doesn’t encourage the reader to proceed to the next line, your content is dead. And if the second sentence doesn’t encourage them to continue to the third line, it’s equally dead. This progression of sentences, each inducing the reader forward until… they are safely hooked. A writer earns that with his lead.
Your first sentence should be efficient enough to reel in the reader, and at the same time, it should also give a clear idea of what the rest of the product will be about. Here are a few things you can do to make your first sentence engaging—
Ask a provocative question: If you go through Neil Patel’s blog posts, most of them start with a thought-provoking question that makes you want to read on to see what will be next!
Source: Neil Patel
Tell the end of the story first: “In just 3 minutes, you’ll know how to make $ 50,000 with Blogging.” This sentence is BIG and surely an exciting promise, telling readers what they can get/ how much they can learn from this blog post.
Share a Quote: Admit it: Chef Gusteau grabbed your attention in the beginning. Right?
Make a promise: “After you read this, you will be ready to confidently choose the niche for your next blog.” Be bold and make your readers a promise, but make sure to keep it!
Hey, what’s the problem?: The trick is pretty simple. Tell them what they DON’T want and you’ll surely grab their attention. “You just hired an SEO consultant…..and you hate him.”
Invoke the mind’s eye: “Do you remember the first day you read about Neil Patel’s blogging strategy?” Creating a mental picture in a reader’s mind is the most powerful thing you can do as a writer.
5. Embrace Clarity, Brevity, and Relevance
You must have heard about Seth Godin. Do you know why he is so popular and has so many followers? The answer is the briefness and conciseness of his blog posts— no unnecessary images, videos, or in-depth content boring readers. His only motive is to provide VALUE.
Source: Seth Godin
Brevity, clarity, and relevance are the three most important ingredients in copywriting. Conciseness and the exacting use of words in writing can make your content stand apart. Brevity is important because people don’t care about useless details. The only thing they care about is value. Anything beyond valuable content kills their interest.
Write less and say more. Win customers. That’s it!
But wait, did I mean sacrifice clarity in the quest for brevity? Absolutely not! Maintaining a strong balance between clarity and brevity is the key to success.
Don’t omit essential details and leave your readers baffled. It will make your blog post structure crumble. Don’t think your readers know everything. They can read your content, not your mind. It’s better to take them by the hand and spell it out for them.
6. Break Your Blog Post into a Series
If you’re running a blog and want to both engage your existing readers and acquire new ones, a blog post series would be a very effective way to do it.
Source: GetResponse
Writing a successful series on your blog will not only help you attract readers and bring them back, but it will also help you get a better ranking with search engines. Search engines deliver results that are valuable to their users. When you write a series of detailed, valuable blog posts around a topic, Google takes notice.
Every high-quality blog post you publish is another chance to get quality traffic from a search.
7. Storytelling
People enjoy reading a story. Recently, storytelling has become a hot buzzword. It is a powerful marketing tool to encourage readership. If you want to showcase your brand’s personality and reputation, storytelling is the best and most effective way.
It can help you to create a strong reader base. People might forget names, but not a good story. That’s something everyone loves to read..
Add some interesting facts, statistics, and points into a relatable story that will stay on your reader’s mind.
Stories can help the reader relate to you. Sharing great stories is one of the most powerful ways to convey the value you offer and your value as a brand. Storytelling is the secret ingredient to making your marketing successful.
The bottom line:
Writing a blog post is damn hard work. You need to know your objective, polish your writing skills, and, most importantly, you need to understand your reader’s mind and interests.
Once you start caring about your readers, you’ll start winning their hearts. Try understanding their concerns. Try answering their queries. Figure out how exactly your opinion can help them.
Keep trying and your traffic will start increasing over time. More readers will start engaging with your blog posts. Your comments and social shares will improve.
And, most importantly, a continuous stream of readers will flow to you.
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