We’ve talked about why you should blog and the topics you might cover in your blog. Now we’ll discuss some of the top tips to keep in mind while you’re writing each blog entry.
1. Blog About What You Know
While we would encourage businesses owners to take the time to research topics and write about them regardless of their familiarity, it’s important that most of your blog posts be on topics with which you are very familiar. Your writing will take less time and be more genuine.
2. Learn About Your Competitor Blogs and Improve Yourself
Competition Research can cover and include a lot of areas, but Competitor Blog Research is relatively new and not widely implemented. In short, take a look at what your competitors are blogging about. Adopt the best aspects of their blogs and improve on areas where they struggle.
3. Write Pillar Posts
Most blog entries will likely take an hour or two to compose. They’ll cover normal topics and generally be the written thoughts and ideas of the author. A “pillar post” is the kind of article that can define a blog (sometimes referred to as “Epic Content”). A pillar post may take days or even months to finish. They’re generally much longer and more detailed. The benefit to writing the occasional pillar post is that these are posts that attract far more visitors, links and social sharing than your normal posts.
4. Use Social Bookmarking Sites to Bookmark Your Posts
Social Bookmarking sites like DiGG and StumbleUpon are more than just a place for you to bookmark sites for your future reference. Members and Followers on those sites and others will see sites bookmarked and will visit them. Search engines will also follow the links and index your posts if they haven’t already. Taking just a moment to submit a new post to a few Social Bookmarking sites can increase the traffic to your website and blog substantially.
5. Include Images in Posts
An image should be included in each and every one of your blog posts. First, a clever image can draw attention to your post when it’s shared on sites like Facebook. Second, you can reinforce the point of your blog by including an appropriate image. Finally, you can use the ALT and TITLE tags to add a description to your images that include your targeted keywords.
6. Write Daily
While you do not need to necessarily post a new blog post daily, you should at least set aside time to write daily. Doing so will ensure that you regularly devote time to your blog, but it will also ensure that you do not have to spend quite so much time at a single instance to get a blog written. And as your writing improves, you’ll need less time to finish posts and will start to be able to post daily.
7. Make small posts as well as Large posts
Varying your post sizes will keep your blog fresh and different, and also make you feel more comfortable with your posts. If you write a post that seems short, that’s OK. It will be balanced later by longer posts.
8. Do not copy other articles or blog posts from other sites
It’s sometimes worthwhile to quote other articles or blogs on your own site because they include valuable information that you wish to share with your readers or customers. However, putting content from other websites on your own, even if you have permission to use it, is not a good idea since search engines may detect the use of “duplicate content.” If you do it infrequently, the content may simply not be indexed. If you do it frequently, your site may be penalized and listed lower in search engines, or not listed at all.
9. Post interviews and reviews in your blog
While most blog posts should be your thoughts and opinions, it’s great to occasionally include interviews and reviews. These posts will give your readers variety, as well as bring in fresh perspectives. You might interview clients as well as influential individuals in your industry or market.
10. Read and Comment on top blogs
Read other blogs to continually improve your own blogging and writing skills. Comment on other blogs to help others or thank the author for sharing something useful. These comments will also lead visitors and search engines back to your site and create valuable backlinks. Creating backlinks is an essential part of any good blog or website marketing program. Six blogs you should be checking:
BONUS: Get a Professional Design for Your Blog Website
One of the most important aspects to your blog, beyond having great content, is having a professional design. You might have great information to share, but if your visitors are put off by the look of your blog, or if it doesn’t work or doesn’t attract search engines, all your time spent blogging will be for nothing. Be sure to invest in your website and blog up front so that you have a great looking site, and then you can focus your time on writing and marketing.
6 Business Uses For A Blog
