As with anything, getting started writing a blog can be the hardest part. Once you’ve done the writing, there’s still more to do—the photos, the social sharing, but even before all of that, there’s the most important part: the content. If you want to write stronger, more engaging content, here are some tips for writing a better blog post.
Start with a good idea, and a good angle.
If you’re wondering if your starting point is a good one, there are a few ways to tell. A person who approaches their blog from an analytical standpoint, concerned mostly with traffic to their blog, is likely using a tool like Google keyword search to develop topic ideas. A more creative person is more driven by instinct and intuition, more concerned with sharing their own experiences and less concerned about traffic. The third approach is the person who is writing on assignment. This person is working on a sponsored post, sharing content about a destination, or writing an offer to their subscribers. Chances are you fit into at least one of these profiles, but you’ll want to lean on all three of these perspectives to come up with a good idea and a good angle.
The Analytical Approach
When you have an idea, you can run a simple Google search to see how many results you find. This will tell you whether it’s a hot topic (millions of results), a niche topic (very few results), or somewhere in between. If it’s so niche that no one is searching for it, you’ll want to broaden your idea, or if the content is too popular, you’ll want to narrow your focus. For example, if you’re thinking about “California road trip” and there’s millions of results, try narrowing your topic to the specific region “Road trip through Sonoma County,” for instance. With fewer search results, your blog post will rank higher. It will also reach the audience that’s more interested in your niche topic, Sonoma County vs. the entire state of California.
If I see above 10,000 and below 750,000 results or so, I know I’ve landed on a good topic. Yes, this is a broad range, and it’s because search traffic isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to writing a good blog post.
If you’re writing a blog post solely based on these numbers and for the sake of traffic, there’s a good chance that your blog post isn’t very readable. Remember, you’ll want to incorporate the other two mindsets when writing your next blog post.
The Creative Approach
If you’re more of a creative person, you’re driven by instinct, passion, and a sense of purpose. You’ll have the urge, desire, and need to tell a story. Oh hey, this is me. I become so passionate about ideas that they consume me until I can get them down on paper. Maybe this is you, too.
Whenever we travel, it’s like lighting strikes me with an idea I can’t shake, like that one time we were in Sardinia. I was five months pregnant and we were road tripping in a camper van. Shortly after my pen hit the paper, 6 Things No One Told You About Sardinia was born. My Sardinia blog post became my #1 post to date, and I ended up writing a follow up post, 4 Things You Must Do In Sardinia, that would help feed even more traffic back to the passion-post.
The most important takeaway here is that you need to straddle both ways of thinking—think analytically, but not so much that you aren’t being creative. Find a topic that lights a fire under you, even if it’s a small flame. At the same time, a creative person should write for more than their own fulfillment—and find a way to make their passion projects also speak to readers. In my example, I wrote that secondary post based on how people search (“things to do” is a very common search term).
The Marketer Approach
The third approach is the person that’s been assigned the task of writing about a specific topic. This could be a sponsored blog post, an ad campaign, or a landing page. The marketer is coming from a different angle: necessity.
My advice: don’t sell your topic short. Take time to search keywords to find a good angle that readers will find interesting. Use your creativity to make the idea more compelling–can you share a personal experience? A real review instead of a sales pitch? Maybe an experience on the periphery?
For example, if you’re sharing content about a fall trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, go beyond the “need to know” information like the trip details and costs. Why not share curated things to do in Ann Arbor in the fall, like seeing fall foliage while kayaking, or where to find the best apple cider donuts. This will illustrate subject matter expertise, and you’ll be found by people searching for these experiences, not just the location.
Once you have your idea on paper, proofread.
My teenage nieces have been telling me about Grammarly, which is a free online writing tool used by 20 million people that checks your work for grammar. It also reads your writing and tells you if you sound confident or professional. If high school is a distant memory for you, you’ll probably remember when spellcheck on Microsoft Word completely changed our worlds. And today, there’s a grammar checker? Amazing.
When you’re writing a piece that requires creativity and your own voice, or the voice of your client, I recommend using my simple proofreading trick: read the content aloud. This is the best way to ensure that your content flows, is easy to read, and is free of typos and grammar issues.
If writing isn’t your forte, you may choose to use Grammarly, but please remember that writing in your own voice can sometimes beat out perfect grammar. Today’s readers have different expectations of media—they gravitate towards content that flows more easily than to content that is grammatically correct. If correct grammar makes your blog post more difficult to read by taking the personality out of it, don’t mess with it.
Picture Perfect
Now that you have the ideal mix of content on the page, and you’ve proofread the content out loud, it’s time to add some color. Photos help share your story and break up content so it’s more digestible.
Choose photos that correspond with your content, and use your own photos whenever possible. If you don’t have your own photos, search for free photos on sites like Unsplash and Pixabay, or you can pay for photos on sites like iStock. These sites are easy to search. If you’re using free imagery, see if you can include a caption to reference the photographer.
While it’s easy to find photos on Google, many of these photos are rights protected and require purchase or permission to be used. Using photos you’ve found on Google search dramatically increases your chance of copyright infringement.
I learned this lesson the hard way very early on in my career. I was sharing a kayaking event online, and I needed a thumbnail image that looked like a lake in Central Oregon. I searched Google, found an image, and since it was filling up a small space on the website, I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to use it. Several months later—after the event had come and gone—I received a letter from Getty Images informing me of my copyright infringement and asking me to pay a fine of $1000. This was a wake up call.
If you’ve been using images you found on Google, and you weren’t aware of copyright infringement, now is the time to update your website and digital marketing materials with rights free photos from reputable sources like Unsplash and Pixabay. Chances are if you haven’t heard from Getty Images yet, you will soon.
You’re ready to hit publish.
After hitting publish, I always send my link to my trusted editors—my marketing manager, Brittni, who was the editor of her college newspaper, and my mom, who seriously needs to go on Jeopardy, and who I consider my biggest fan. Who comes to mind when you think of your trusted editors? I’m sure you know who your people are, too.
Over time, we get familiar with our own work, and it helps to have a second or third set of eyes on it. This is a great way to catch any final edits that may have slipped through your own proofreading. Plus, with digital publishing, you can hop in and make any final edits that will take immediately.
Now, it’s time to share.
Share your content on all of your marketing channels. Share on social media channels—Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. If you have an email subscriber list, share your post through a dedicated email, or in your next scheduled newsletter. For all of these platforms, take the time to write a compelling line or two that grabs the readers’ attention. Sometimes, you can pull from the opening lines of content, but only if they feel compelling. The stronger move is to think about your description like a movie trailer or like that single line on the back of a book cover. Make your content irresistible.
I’m challenging you to put these tips into action to start writing better blog posts today.
What tricks do you use to write a better blog post? Comment below.
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