The world has gone blog crazy, and why not? A blog is a great way to express your feelings, your desires and your greatest ambitions. For business, brands and marketers, blogging gives you a chance to put a personality behind your logo, to reach out to your audience and to keep those individuals updated with the latest news, tricks, techniques and lessons that will help them reach their ultimate goals. If you can learn to develop eye-popping and pleasing blogs again and again, you will soon learn why blogging is one of the most effective means for generating traffic, leads and tons of new business.
The Goal Of A Blog
When you write blog after blog, your goal is to gain an audience. You want readers and lots of them. More than that, you want to get those readers talking. A good blog always has a long list of comments following each post. The more readers you have and the more comments your posts generate, the more attention your blog, business and/or brand will gain.
Now that you know what you’re trying to accomplish by blogging, let’s look at all the elements that go into eye-popping and audience pleasing blogs so that you can create them anytime you feel inspired to do so.
Have You Done Your Research?
A good blogger always conducts plenty of research. Not only must you know what to write about, but you also must know your audience to know what those individuals will most react to. This can be accomplished through keyword research and social media monitoring. Find the keywords people are searching for most, but also get on Facebook, Twitter and a few popular forums in your niche to find the questions they’re asking and the problems they’re facing. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to create blogs that always hit to the heart of the matter. Then watch the traffic and comments flow.
Engaging Titles
When naming your titles, use your keyword for SEO purposes and include something about your readers’ problem if possible. For example, if your keyword is ‘acne cream’ and you know, by monitoring social media and reading popular forums, that many in your niche are looking for a night acne cream, you might title your blog, “10 Reasons Why SoAndSo Night Acne Cream Really Works” or something to that effect.
People love lists, they love top tens, expert tips and tricks and mistakes to avoid, things like that. You must know your audience and what they respond to, but you’ll soon find out as you progress. Thanks to analytics platforms like Google Analytics, you can determine which blogs are the most popular with the audience and which ones are mere duds. The more you publish, the better you’ll get at creating titles that get results.
First Paragraph
Your first sentence of your first paragraph must hook your reader in. This can be done by relaying a similar experience to the one they’re going through. For example, “Would you like to create more popular blogs?” or, “If your blogs aren’t getting the readership you’re hoping for, you’re not alone.”
The rest of the first paragraph should let the reader know that they’ve come to the right place and that you know what you’re talking about. In other words, your first paragraph should be a continuation from the title and the reader should know exactly what they’re getting from clicking on your title, and the first paragraph should also include stats, facts and general knowledge that this blog is factual and that it can help the reader with any goals he or she is trying to reach.
Relevant And High Quality Photo
It’s recommended that you complement your first paragraph with a nice photo. If possible, frame photo with the text, left or right justified. This gives the blog a more professional look and it will set the blog apart from other blogs of its kind.
Formatting
As you continue your blogging, make sure your paragraphs are short and concise and that there is lots of white space in between. This is easier on the eyes and your readers with short attention spans, which will account for most of them, will thank you for it.
You should also make sure to include lots of bullets and/or bolded subheaders (much like this blog is broken into bolded subheaders). This breaks up the content and makes it much more desirable and digestible for your readers.
Call-To-Action, Question Or Comment
Unlike an article, which almost always has a call-to-action, blogs are more conversational and, again, they’re more designed to get the conversation flowing. For this reason, at the end of your blog it might be a good idea to add a question or a comment. Some blogs have calls-to-action and this is perfectly acceptable, but a question or comment is more likely to get people talking and leaving comments, thus relating to more attention and readership for your blogging venture.
Header And Graphics
We’ve now covered what makes a great blog, but what about the blog headers, blogging software and graphics you use? This is up to you. As long as the graphics coincide with the theme, niche and tone of the blog and the blog is easy to navigate, and it’s easy to leave comments on the posts the readers most enjoy, then your blog will go far and your business will benefit from it.
Now make sure you understand your niche and your audience through and through. That’s how blogging is done and once you get started, you’ll see why a blog is the preferred marketing device for small businesses and major corporate entities alike.
