By Hector Cisneros
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| Courtesy of Max Pixel |
With the success
of our blog comes compelling questions as to how we did it? How were we able to
grow our readership organically from nothing to as many as 85,000-page views in
one month? The growth of a blog audience is a marketing question to some extent,
but many bloggers forget one very important aspect of blogging – that of what people
want! People want to read high-quality articles that are Relevant, Timely, Useful,
Focused, Educational and or Entertaining. A high-quality blog that is useful to
lots of people will garner readers and subscribers. Even if you have a great distribution
system, if your blog is mediocre, it will produce poor results. In this episode
of Working the Web to Win, we will explore the many elements of a blog and what
is needed to end up with a high-quality product that compels an audience to read,
comment on and share your articles. So, start reading and taking notes as we pen
– The Making of a Great Blog Post and Other Enigmas.
Getting Started,
A Few Important Elements - I want to start out by saying that there is no one perfect
way to create a blog. In fact, there are dozens of ways to write blogs. However,
all great blogs include a great compelling headline, are grammatically correct and
clean, have high-quality, authoritative content, are relevant to the audience, are
timely, useful, focused, and provide educational and or entertaining content. You
can use programs like Ginger and Grammarly
to help fix your grammar. On top of this, the timeliness of a blog or article is
specific to something that is of current interest. They can be designed to take advantage of trends
like hot news items, current events or highly needed information for specific industries.
They can be seasonal to take advantage of holidays and regular recurring events,
or they can be evergreen, based on principles that are always useful.
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
A few more items
almost always seen to show up in high-quality blogs. Things like the clever use
of appropriate subheadings and multimedia elements like videos, animation, photos,
pictures, graphs, and podcasts. Also, don’t forget to use keywords when appropriate
to the content, adding backlinks to your websites and social sites, and always provide
attribution and links to other authors' content.
What is the Ideal
Length - The last element worth mentioning is article
length. When I first started
writing blogs and articles, I was told that a blog post should be about 400 words
and that articles should be between 500 and 800 words. My experiences, experimental
testing and research have revealed that this is not the ideal length for a blog
post or article. In fact, the length of the article is more related to its quality
and usefulness than to any quantity of words predetermined by a publishing company
trying to manage the cost of print. We generally
create blogs that are in the 1,400 to 2,200-word length. We always want to make
sure we are providing useful information, and we also want to make sure we have
enough material to use during our BlogTalkRadio show. You see, our blogs are the
guidelines for our show. Your blogs/articles will be written for a specific publishing
purpose, publisher or end in mind. This will also influence the blog/article length.
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| Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons |
We have written
about blogging and article writing many times over the years. In the past, my business
partner and blogging buddy, Carl Weiss wrote, an article called – “The Write Stuff – How to Blog & Make a Profit,”
which talks about what he calls - “The ABCs of Successful Blogging.” He states that
A stands for - Always intrigue the reader. B stands for – Bring your
readers a great read. And C stands is for – Create a sharing atmosphere. This
article and the article “Is Blogging for Business The Write Stuff?”,
talks about how to write and market your blogs. If you enter the words “blog,” “blogging:
or “article writing” in the search box on our blog you will find many articles to
help you get more from your blogging efforts. At the end of this article, I will
also provide a short list of other blogs that can further your understanding.
Types of Blogs/Article
and Themes - Did you know that the design
layout (i.e., the flow of content) of
most blogs fall into only a few dozen categories? When I say categories here, I
am talking about themes. These themes can all be either - Topical - Based on Trending
subjects - be Seasonal, Evergreen or even a combination of all four types. A theme,
however, is more about the way the content information flows. I usually write a
combination of current events and list articles. These are my primary themes.
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
I love writing blogs
and articles based on themes. In fact, after you have been writing awhile you discover
themes that are the most popular and work best for you. These often become your
go to themes, but themes can go beyond these limitations as well. For example; you
can have a List theme, a Pro Versus Con theme, it can be a Review article theme,
a True or False article theme, A lesson learned theme, A Best practices theme, A
holiday theme, a “things to watch out for” theme, etc…
Early in my writing
career, I had a great mentor, Dr. Ivan Misner who helped me with blogging and creating
my first book. I also learned a lot about blogging from writing and publishing articles
on EzineArticle.com.
This writing platform and syndicated publishing company are where I cut my writing
teeth publishing my first articles and learning about themes and publishing. Their
platform has writer training information and article
templates to help you write better articles. It's geared for articles
published on their platform, but it’s still good stuff. We have also published a
book on Amazon that covers all aspects of internet marketing,
including blogging that you might find useful, especially if you have Amazon Prime.
Along these same lines, I have found that getting and regularly using a blog buddy
to be a godsend. I think a good blog buddy can help any author get to the next level
faster. I recommend you get one.
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| Courtesy of ezinearticles.com/ |
A Few Do’s and Don’ts
- Do have A Great Compelling Headline.
- Don’t Mislead the reader with your Headline.
- Do be Focused and provide High Quality, Relevant, Timely, Useful, Focused, Educational and or Entertaining content.
- Don’t talk about more than one main subject in your blog/article.
- Do Choose one type of blog - either Timely, Trending, Evergreen or Seasonal.
- Don’t try to be all types at once.
- Do use Relevant Multimedia videos, pictures and podcasts.
- Don’t mislead with
sensational irrelevant multimedia links – this trick can cost you more than readers.
Courtesy of Flickr - Do give attribution to any multimedia content you may be using including free images.
- Don’t use any multimedia elements that are not listed as free to use without purchasing them.
- Do summarize other content with attribution or quote them directly with attribution. Never plagiarize, you can be sued.
- Don’t copy a person’s content of any kind without their permission; it is illegal.
- Do use relevant Sub-Headlines with keywords if possible.
- Don’t use sensational headlines if your content can’t meet the expectation
- Do share your blog/article with all of your social nets and share it with influential readers, authors, and other bloggers. Also, make sure you reciprocate by sharing the blogs and articles.
- Don’t expect to have people clamoring to find and read your blog/article, it must have a distribution channel, and that channel must have a sizable audience.
Now let’s look at
the individual parts of your blog/article in a little more detail.
The Headline – The
first thing a reader will see when they reach your
article is the title, aka the
headline. This title must be catchy, intriguing, easy to understand and compelling.
If the headline doesn’t get them to read a little more, your prospective reader
won’t even click on the social post to get to your blog. Also, understand this.
If you try to trick your reader with a sensational headline, but your blog/article
doesn’t live up to your hype, you would have succeeded at either disappointing the
reader or making the mad, (both of which gives you a bad reputation).
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| Courtesy of Pixabay |
Adding Your Name
– It is appropriate for you to include your byline at the beginning of anything
you write unless the publishing platform you're using wants you to do it some other
way. It can be as simple as; “By Hector Cisneros” – or it can include biographical
information like many of the online and print magazines do.
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
The Subheading –
Using subheadings are another way to intrigue the reader to keep going. It is also
very helpful if they are the type of person who scans first to determine if the
blog has what they are interested in. These subheadings need to be catchy like the
main headline, but also appropriate to the content they proceed. Trickery is also
a no-no here.
The Body of your
article/blog – Here is where the meat and potatoes
are served up. It has to be the
answer to the question - “where’s the beef”? Your article must provide the goods.
A “Good Read,” as my business partner Carl says. Your content needs to be useful,
easy to read and understand. I try and avoid big words and write at a fifth-grade
level. However, your vocabulary needs to match the target audience as well. Along
with this, your writing also needs to be unique. Prose authored by you provides
a value add, and increases your credibility. If you're just quoting other authors
all the time, you provide little value. Also, the body is where you will add your
list of useful items and make good on the promise you made in the opening paragraph.
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
Your Call to Action
– I like to conclude my blog/articles by making a point and providing a call to
action. My call to action usually includes asking them to learn more by following
the links and reading the articles
they lead to. I also sometimes ask readers to
take action by sharing my article, to call me or to do something altogether different.
I don’t normally include a sales pitch here, but if you're tempted, make sure it’s
a soft sell.
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
Descriptive Summary
– Most blogging platforms ask for a descriptive summary. In Blogger, it is used
to display what’s in the article on the search listing. It is also one of the places
a reader might go to if they are looking for a better idea of what’s in your blog/article.
I usually provide keywords and a few details like a list of items covered, but I
don’t provide too much information, just enough to make them want to read the article.
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
Company information
with a call to action or offer – On our blog, we usually include a company call
to action and offer form asking the readers if they want a free copy of one of our
eBooks. We also encourage them to explore our blog, share it with friends, family,
and co-workers, leave a comment and to call us if they need help with internet and
content marketing. We believe that this should be listed after the descriptive summary.
Your Bio – Your
bio should be relatively short, highlighting any accomplishments, awards, and accreditations
you have achieved. It should be no longer than a paragraph in length.
Shortlist of articles
you will find on our Blog
- Internet Marketing: Lessons Learned & Best Practices Part 4 – Content is King
- Best of the Best for 2016 - Blogging and Post
Casting Tips
Courtesy of Flickr - How to Triple Your Blogs Views in 60 Days or Less
- The Write Stuff – How to Blog & Make a Profit
- Is Blogging For Business The Write Stuff?
- Top 12 Marketing Secrets for Filling the Credibility Gap
- The Secrets to Building an Audience for Your Business
- To Autoblog, or Not to Autoblog? That is the Question.
It is my hope that
you find this article useful enough to recommend it and share it with other writers
and authors. It is part of my company’s belief system “to freely share useful information
with others.” In turn, we believe it comes back to help us in other beneficial ways.
Follow the links in this blog and read the articles that they lead you to, they
will broaden your view of what it takes to make a great blog.
That’s my opinion;
I look forward to reading yours.
This article discusses
the elements needed to create a great blog or article. A full list of elements is
explored, and details are provided to help the reader understand and create their
own great blogs. It also provides many links to other resources.
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If you found this
article useful, please share it with friends, family, and co-workers. I recommend
checking out the links in the blog, along with checking out other related articles
on our Show Notes Page. Don’t
forget to listen to the BlogTalkRadio show on
this subject. If you have a related useful comment or opinion about
to this article, leave it in the comment section of this blog. Also, don’t
forget to plus us, on Google+ and share us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as
well.
Hector Cisneros is COO and Director of Social Media
Marketing at Working the Web
to Win, an award-winning Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville,
Florida. He is also co-host of the weekly Internet radio show,
"Working the Web
to Win" on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Eastern. Hector is a syndicated writer and published author of “60 Seconds to Success.”
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