#1 It's all about giving value and building trust.
The entire reason of having a blog is to provide your readers with value and educational materials to read. If you keep the phrases value and trust in mind when writing blog posts, your posts will be much better, your readership will grow much faster, and your people will be more loyal. Keep in mind, you're providing content for free. When you go above and beyond and over-deliver, you'll be hitting a home run. Some of the most read blogs in the world are worth millions and millions of dollars. These blogs were built by providing relevant and useful content overtime. That's it, plain and simple.
The key to building trust is to understand that your readers are looking for specific content only.
If you have an educational blog on Schishons, a shitsu and bichon dog mix, you could provide information about:
· Feeding tips
· Breeding ideas
· How to better care for your pet
· Links to different dog related products
Some things that will kill your trust immediately:
· Writing a post on a MLM your readers should join
· Loading it with banner ads on cars for sale
#2 There is no ideal length of a blog post.
As long as the information you are providing is relevant and informative, post it. This may range from a one line post pointing out a useful article, to a 2000 word article.
#3 Pay very close attention to the titles of yours posts.
The title tag is what Google places weighs when it looks to rank your post higher than others. It's best to load your title with a keyword or two.
Targeted Keyword: Atlanta Wedding Planner
A good example of a title: 3 Ways a Wedding Planner in Atlanta Can Help Your Wedding
A poor title: Read this about Wedding Planning in Your Area
The reason the first title is much better is that it mentions the keyword exactly and includes a specific location.
#4 There are good ways and bad ways to link in posts.
First, please understand that every blog post does not need a link. We encourage links every third post or so.
Good ways to link:
· Linking to your products or services in a "non-salesy" way.
· Linking to other blogs, or articles of interest and why your readers should check them out.
Bad Ways to Link:
· The entire blog post is simply a link to an article.
· Saying: Check out our products here (and that's it).
When posting to links, only post to things that are relevant. Remember you do not want to loose the trust of your audience. If you recommend something too far out in right field, you're going to lose subscribers.
#5 Interaction is critical.
To get the important interaction from your readers, you need to write "enticing" content. At the end of the post, ask for feedback in the form of comments. You can also send out an email to people on your mailing list or those following your RSS feeds saying; I want your feedback.
Example:
I hope you enjoyed this post. I want to hear from you. Give me some comments, your thoughts, your links, your ideas, opinions and beyond. I promise to write back to each and every one.
#6 Write in a tone that everyone can understand.
Some of you may be writing highly technical blog posts. This is fine, but realize that not every one of your readers may be as advanced as the next one. In order to "appeal to the masses," you want to keep things relatively neutral in nature.
Let me contradict this statement for a second though. If it's your intention to only attract a certain readership, then keep your writing to them specifically.
If your blog was about Advanced CSS Programming, then write solely for this audience. It wouldn't make sense to provide basic how-to information for beginners on your blog.
#7 Include personal information to further build rapport.
Remember you're looking to give things of value, and build trust. Well you also want to build rapport. One of the many ways you can build rapport is to include some personal information about you and your family.
Some examples might include:
· A photo of you and your family
· Information about your kids birthday
· Comments and photos from a recent family vacation.
Not only do your readers want good information, they also want to know you're a real live person just like everyone else!
#7.5 Just have fun!
Blogging should be fun. I wouldn't look at this like a job and a mundane task. If you do that, you're going to have a hard time blogging. Have some fun with it, I promise you it's not that hard!
#8 Here are objectives to consider for successful blogging.
· To be informative and educational, providing something of value to the world.
· To build report with readers so you can sell your products and services.
· To obtain top ten search engine rankings for your different posts.
· To build a portal of useful information. Example: A portal for real estate investors to come and hang out. (When your blog becomes "the go-to portal," you're golden.)
· To increase your RSS followers.
· To aid in increasing your expert status.
Beginning with the end in mind is a great way to start, happy blogging!