Top 10 blogging tips

Most of the “rules” about writing ezines and newsletters apply to writing posts for your blog, but there are some important differences. Keep these 10 tips in mind and you’ll be posting great blog content that will attract leads and customers in your niche.

one. Write with the reader in mind. Do you remember WIIFM? It’s marketing jargon for What’s In It For Me? That is what you should keep in mind. Your reader will read your post looking for what’s in it for them.

two. Make it valuable and worthwhile. Don’t waste people’s time. If you don’t have anything to say, no problem, lots of other people do. So share their articles, do an interview, review a book.

3. correct for glaring typos and grammatical errors. You wouldn’t leave home with dirty hair or without a sock, so why would you post misspellings? Respect your readers by polishing your stuff.

Four. Keep it short and simple dear. (KISS). Most people are scanners. You may have a lot to say and find it interesting, and you may be. But people are reading online and out of time. Get to the point quickly. Posting short posts more often is a better format than posting long articles every few weeks.

5. keep it alive, make it nimble and elegant. Even if you are not a born writer, you can write for your blog. Simply write as if you were talking to your friend… or to yourself! Remember though, get to the point quickly. Keep in mind the journalist’s rule of 5 W’s in the first paragraph: who, what, why, when and where.

6. Link often. This builds credibility and positions you as an expert in your field. People don’t have time to know what other people are doing, you have to tell them. Linking to other blogs and websites also helps you build a network of associates who, in turn, will link to your blog.

7. Use keywords frequently. This will help you stay on purpose and the search engines will love your blog. Your ranking will go up. This is one of the reasons we ask you to write your purpose statements before you start your blog. The clearer your purpose is, the more consistently you will deliver messages that are on target. And the more often your keywords appear, the better your search engine results will be.

8. write clearly (short sentences, only one concept per sentence). No double talk or jargon; no more than one idea in a sentence, don’t make your readers have to think about its meaning. Spoon feed them. Use commands and scripts liberally.

9. Write like you speak. It is okay to use common speech expressions.

Examples:

Go figure.

Don’t even go there…

Now I ask you…

I will love it…

(And remember the age group of your readers…)

10 Use a clear title and don’t be afraid to make bold statements (but don’t mislead people either). Make it fancy and use keywords. Example: Ex-Techno-Weenie Masters HTML Code

BONUS: after writing a post and BEFORE hitting the save button

Use this checklist to ask yourself a few questions as you read typos and grammatical errors:

__ Is the topic clear to someone who only reads the headline?

__Does the lead paragraph tell who and what the story is about and why the reader should care about it?

__ Is the angle you’ve used likely to seem newsworthy?

__Would someone who knows absolutely nothing about this topic understand this post?

__ Is the publication free of jargon?

__ Is it written in a journalistic style and does it strive to be objective?

__ Have you peppered the title and post with keywords and phrases that will be attractive to search engines?

__ Did you remember to ask your readers a question at the end, or something to encourage readers to comment?

__ Did you remember to write with the reader in mind, always with WIIFT in mind? (What’s in it for them?)

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