blog writing - Express Writers

How to Write Content for a Blog

August 25, 2022November 29, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Blogs are synonymous with online content. They stand out as some of the most popular and widely used formats for content today. But, here’s a million dollar question: how do you write them? If you’ve ever wondered how to write content for a blog, you’re not alone. While it’s true that writing blog content can be challenging, it doesn’t need to be, and my simple guide is here to help you learn the steps. Read on for tips on how to write content for a blog, another short how-to post in my #howtowrite series! [bctt tweet=”Need some pointers on creating good blog posts? Here’s a nutshell guide on our own Write Blog, covering #howtowrite a blog. ” username=”ExpWriters”] Why Blogs Matter In addition to communicating valuable information to readers, blogs also serve important SEO purposes. When they’re well-written, they relate to Google and other search engines that a website is authoritative and relevant and that the writer well-versed on a given topic or in a given industry. Additionally, blogs are a critical platform for any company that wants to build a well-rounded content strategy and are essential to companies striving to bond with their clients and showcase their brand voice. Without a blog, it’s difficult to build up a consistent brand voice, and companies are finding that blog content consistently stands out as one of the most relevant and trustworthy sources of online content out there. To be exact, they’re the fifth most trusted source of online content among readers. What’s more, blogging has the potential to have a massive impact on a company’s leads and engagement rates. The more blogs you publish, especially if they are SEO optimized with the right keywords, the more people will find their way to your site and its content. And if you’re writing your blogs well, they’ll want to stay, share, and download. How to Write Content for a Blog: 6 Simple Tips to Start Using Now If you want to learn how to write content for a blog, you’re in luck. These simple tips will help you get started. 1. First Things First: Know Your Audience Knowing your audience is essential to writing good blogs. If you’ve never built a target persona before, now is the time to do it. In addition to giving you an idea of who you’re speaking to and what they care about, a target persona will also serve the critical purpose of helping you get inside your readers’ heads and solve their most pressing problems for them. When you understand your blog’s audience, everything else can flow naturally. It’s critical to remember who your audience is throughout the writing process, and keep them in mind as you work to craft content your readers can depend on. 2. Spend The Time to Craft Great Topics Topics are the lifeblood of your blog, so it pays to come up with great ones. If you’re having a difficult time harvesting blog topics, turn to trusty sources like your website FAQ and Quora. These are often untapped gold mines of great ideas and outstanding information, so it pays to pay attention to them. As you craft the topics for your blog, pay attention to which perform well and which don’t. This will give you a good idea of what you should be crafting going forward. 3. Make Your Hook Captivating The hook, or the opening part of your article, is one of the most important components of all of your content. With this in mind, spend some time making sure the beginnings of your article are as good as possible. They should be constructed to grab your reader’s attention and keep it. This means including relevant facts, stats, and information. It also means addressing the reader directly and ensuring that you know your audience well enough to know what will appeal to them. 4. Organize Your Blogs to Make Them More Readable While many people bypass this detail, organizing and optimizing your blogs is essential. To make your blog content as readable as possible, organize them into small, digestible chunks and ensure that you’re never presenting your readers with dense blocks of information. In addition to making your content more user-friendly, breaking it into approachable pieces will help to make it better for SEO. For an example of a blog with good formatting, check out this piece on the Write Blog about blog optimization: It’s super long-form, so we even added a visual Table of Contents to tell the reader what’s coming and keep them on the page. Here’s another piece that exhibits great formatting, on Search Engine Journal: 5. Write Evergreen Content Evergreen content will become the cornerstone of your blogging strategy, but only if you let it. Evergreen content is the type of content that users can visit at any time and count on it to be relevant. It’s also the kind of content that will earn you blog views long after the publish date of the content itself. With this in mind, publish evergreen content whenever possible on your blog. It will boost your content strategy, and your readers will thank you. 6. Keep Writing Writing a blog can be tough, but it’s critical to keep going – even (and especially) when it gets hard. If blogging were easy, everyone would do it. Because it’s not, though, it’s up to you to find ways to make the blogging strategy work for you as much as possible. When you run up on writer’s or topic blocks, talk to people in your community and look at blogs you admire. This simple strategy will help you stay on the bleeding edge of the industry, even when you face the challenges that all bloggers do. Great Blog Content Starts Here While it’s true that great blog content is hard to come by, it’s also true that you can learn to create it with a few simple steps. This guide gives you the framework you need to learn how to write content for a blog, and begin crafting your … Read more

3 Easy Ways to Keep Up Your Blogging This Summer

December 31, 2020July 18, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Can’t wait to escape to the beach and enjoy your margarita this summer? Hold on there, if you’re a business owner or marketer… The sad news is your business and marketing won’t run itself, if you’re gone and no one else is left to run it. That’s especially true of your online presence, like blogging and social media. It might seem ridiculously tempting to just let the blog sit still for a month and take off, but here are some killer statistics that prove why you shouldn’t let your blog stagnate (even for a week). Why Consistent Blogging Wins Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than those who don’t. That’s a LOT of SEO ranking juice. 92% of companies that blog more than once a day (that’s a lot of blogging) have won customers from their blog. And finally…ready for it? Marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads than those who don’t. Why would you put all of that on hold for a month? Don’t let your online exposure and presence drop because of time off. The good news is that you don’t have to fold up that beach towel just yet. 3 Ways to Keep Your Blogging Healthy Despite the Summer Holiday Keep reading for my top three methods to have a consistent content flow to boost your online presence despite the summer vacation season. 1. Stock topics and keyword research in advance. This one’s very simple. I’ll break topic skeletons and keyword research topic searches into two points. #1: Topic skeleton fodder For the topic skeletons, all you need is Word and a couple hours of time. Come up with great blog topics by asking yourself a few questions and digging down with solid answers. It doesn’t even have to be perfect, what you write down: a professional blog writer can finalize your content to perfection and come up with headlines that will earn more clicks than your rough sketches. Here are a few questions to ask yourself. Outline your answers in a doc, which can be a rough sketch you send to your writer. Your story: Your founding story alone can make multiple great blog topics. Think of the value points of your company and why you believe in what you do. For example: “My T-shirt printing company stands out because of the ink we produce and the quality assurance we give our clients.” What are your client’s biggest pain points? Each pain point can make a new blog topic possibility. Example, “My T-shirt printing clients come to me with the problem that a lot of shirts are made cheaply. The print might come off in the wash or with use too quickly.” Aha! 7 Ways to Preserve Your T-Shirt Print-Ons, or How to Wash Your T-Shirt And Avoid Fading (Every Time). There you go – winning blog topics out of a few customer pain points. The second side of this point can garner a double list of blog topics. #2: Keyword Research For keyword research opportunities to help you come up with great SEO topics, I love SEMrush and KWFinder. It’s simple to research for your best keyword opportunities when using these tools. Check out my nutshell guide to keyword research for an in-depth guide. If keyword discovery requires too much time to figure out, check to see if the writing solution you’re using can do the keyword research for you. (We offer keyword strategy ourselves here.) 2. Invest in a blog writing service. There’s no way around this one. If you want your blog to literally run itself, you’ll need to invest in a good blog writer (or two). Here are key things to ask for when you’re reaching out to your potential blog ghostwriter so you can find a perfect fit: Writing samples: This is key. Those with experience will have a large portfolio available and diverse samples. Online & search optimization writing skills: Although the creative skills of a genius writer are at the core of successful online writing, and that should be your primary concern, you should check secondarily for a skill set in SEO content optimization skills. Make sure your writer knows how to write a unique meta description for every blog, meta title, and how to use your topical keywords naturally throughout the post. 3. Don’t just hire a writer; get a specialist who fits your industry. Have you heard of the Google E-A-T and Y-M-Y-L standards? Basically, Google looks for expertise, authoritativeness, and trust in every post going out on the web. For the intense industries, like finance or law, Google looks for even higher standards (Your Money or Your Life). You need an expert copywriter if your content falls in a high level category to get the most results out of your Google presence. To make sure your blogger can match these standards, ask for relevant samples in your industry and their real-life expertise in your niche (example, 10 years as a paralegal). Conclusion Don’t let summer get your ‪content strategy down. With a serious, active blog strategy, your leads, online presence and revenue will stay on the rise. It’s easy to enjoy time off when you have experts keeping your blog up. Invest in your online content today & save with code summer5. Visit the Content Shop.

From Start to Finish: A Guide On Creating & Maintaining a Solid Blog

August 25, 2022March 22, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Blogging is crucial for brands and businesses. One simple reason: marketers that blog get 67% more leads than those who don’t. If you haven’t launched your blog yet, or you have one but you’re not yet serious about it, it’s time you make that commitment. And I’m here to help you. If you’re ready to write for and launch your blog, just how do you launch a successful blog? Many people experience a fear of the blank page, or let’s say blank blog, and try to think up ways to conquer the world, or make a dent when they hurry up to meet a blogging schedule or launch their new blog. Then the worst of the worst happens, in the blogger world (or blogosphere). With no definite direction, newbies risk the all-too common problem of floating by: becoming the next sub-par blogger with no audience presence and no ranking potential on Google. Don’t be that blogger; read our guide to start off strong and maintain a blog that you’re proud to show off to your friends, family, and most importantly, potential customers. Your Brief But Ultimate Guide On Creating & Maintaining a Solid Blog After years of writing and publishing blogs, and with over 300 keywords in the top 10 pages of Google, I like to think that I know how to write blogs that rank; I’ve also been the most-read guest blogger at Search Engine Journal and Content Marketing Institute. So, here’s a few thoughts from my vault. I. How to Start a Blog Without further ado, here are thirteen ways to start and maintain a solid blog: and to make it easier, I’m going to break them up into I. How to Start a Blog & II. How to Maintain a Blog. 1. Find YOUR Niche Not just a niche but your niche. The one that makes you thrilled to wake up, excited to voice your thoughts on. Yeah – if you know that feeling, and you can identify what makes you feel that, you’re golden. And narrow down here. Do you like the business niche? Okay, what kind of business? Coaching entreprenuers? OK, what age group? You like young, inspired people? Okay, that’s your blogging niche. Could you be the world’s foremost peanut butter authority or an expert on locksmith tips for an average homeowner? Hone down, my friend, hone down. Find your niche and your viewpoint on any and everything about your topic. And here’s a tip for those who have a niche that’s somewhat broad and maybe a bit unoriginal. It’s okay: businesses and people may have been ruminating on the topic for years, but as long as you’re able to follow the next few steps, you’ll find yourself running with the big dogs. 2. Develop a Unique Idea and a Point Developing a unique idea is difficult and somewhat daunting, but it’s doable. Maybe you want to explore how to write a unique post in an in depth way that few bloggers, if anyone, has explored before. The post linked to in the last sentence isn’t necessarily a unique blog topic, as many people have explored how to write a unique post before, but it is very unique in its depth and how it gives the step-by-step process the author takes to come up with an idea, writing the blog, and posting it. Although you can also develop a unique blog post by giving broad strokes, you want it to be at least somewhat focused. A successful blog post won’t be titled “5 tips on X” and ramble for 1,000 words; you’ll get very few hits. What you can do is expand your idea and tie together seemingly disparate concepts in an interesting way. Unique spins show that you’re well versed in your topic as well as gives your blog some SEO weight. 3. Analyze the Competition and Keywords Figure out what the crux of your blog is and whittle it down to a key word or phrase (one to two words in most cases). Use SEMrush (see my guide here) to take a look at how often your SEO keyword is searched. If it looks good, make sure to put it in your title, description, and metadata. Also, have some minor keywords sprinkled throughout your post. This will generate a few more hits you wouldn’t have otherwise had. After you have your unique idea and keywords, analyze what you’re up against. Search common keywords related to your topic and check out what the competition on the first page looks like. Domain authority is a big one. If you’re up against heavy hitters and massive corporations, you may want to rethink your keywords. Again, keep it natural enough that the average person will search for it, but try to avoid going up against H&R Block if you’re blogging about tax law. You’ll also want to be mindful of backlinks. This will let you know if you’re going up against blogs or posts with 54 viewers or 54k viewers. Needless to say, one is easier to knock out than the other one. Finally, take note of the age of the blog. Shoot for blogs that are older and not updated or newer. Those are the low hanging fruit you want to compete against. Older blogs that are updated frequently get an air of authority about them in the search engines. 4. Research and Find Links There are two types of links that you’ll want to use to create a successful blog: internal and external links. Internal links are links to your own site. This will generate more hits to your site and show the search engines that people are staying on your page for longer. This correlates directly to domain authority. External links should be chosen carefully and should be to high-ranking sites. These links, again, add up to domain authority, a higher ranking in the search engines, and more page views. Keep in mind that this should come naturally. Ideally, backlinks in today’s SEO era come through shares: you reach out to someone who has a great site, ask them to share your content, and if they really like it, link to … Read more

10 Reasons You Should Start Blogging for Your Business Today

January 1, 2021December 22, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Nowadays, it seems like everyone has a blog. But have you ever stopped to consider why? For one, many people misunderstand the purpose of blogs. Blogs go far beyond the mundane – they’re used for everything from showcasing personal writing to offering actionable tips that can help people solve problems and make their lives better, raise brand awareness, and in many cases (like ours) drive a huge percentage of online leads to their business. 10 Key Reasons to Start Blogging For Business (Now) To me, blogging is like the surety of an umbrella on a rainy day. As long as we consistently blog (along with a formula of high quality content + promotion of what we create), we keep our SEO rankings up and thriving, and our visitor numbers flourishing. No matter how “rainy” the day gets, these leads will come in. If you’ve ever considered starting a blog for your business, here are the top 10 reasons you should do it right now. Learn how to be a better blogger today with our free email course, 10 Days to a Better Blog. 1) Blogging will drive traffic to your site Blogging is HUGE, HUGE for driving traffic to your site. Not convinced by me just saying it? Okay, okay… go read two of these posts: How We Gained 300 Positions in One Day – 100% through blogging! The Power of Content Today (Case Study) – Published back in July 2015, this is still relevant to our post today. I discuss how content is the cornerstone of online marketing. Seriously, though, how do people typically find your website? If they come to it via paid aids, it’s likely that you’re spending a lot of money that you don’t have to. If this sounds like your situation, it’s probably wise for you to start dividing your time differently. Instead of spending tons of money on paid ads, you can start blogging, beefing up your social media presence, and optimizing everything you do for SEO. Here’s why it works: if you don’t blog, your website is a little stagnant. It’s likely that you don’t have a ton of pages and, of the pages you do have, very few of them are updated that often. In a setup like this, you don’t have many pages indexed in Google, which means that you’re only marginally visible to people who may be searching for a company like yours. This, in turn, means that one of the only real ways to grab traffic for your site is to pay for it. When you blog, though, all of this changes. Every time you write a new blog, you provide a new page to be indexed in Google. By creating content that your readers and customers love, you ensure that people can find your page. Plus, when you share your blogged content on social media, you create an entirely new outlet for traffic and social shares. (And content is HUGE for Google. Their recent 160-page doc, which we analyzed, discusses how their standards rely on the quality and expertise of the written content.) 2) Blogging can help you make conversions Once you’ve begun to drive traffic to your site via content, you’ll need to find a way to convert that traffic, right? Enter the power of the blog. Because every page you write is a new page that Google gets to index, every page you write is also an opportunity to create new leads and help those leads convert into subscribers, sales, or shares. Blogs work best for conversions when you focus on including a high-quality CTA at the end of every blog post. By doing this, you tell your viewers exactly what you want them to do and help ensure that nothing is lost in translation. It’s really that simple. 3) Blogging helps establish you as an authority What’s one of the most important aspects both of ranking well and drawing in new readers, done with blogging for business? If you answered “authority” you’re right on. Page authority is incredibly important and it’s not something you can buy. The only way to create authority on the web is to create content that is genuinely useful, helpful, and interesting to readers. Nowadays, the majority of people (about 81%) conduct nearly all of their product research before ever speaking to a company or its customer service representatives. One of the primary places that people turn to conduct this research is the web. When you build and maintain a business blog where you publish valuable, educational, helpful content, you can be the person who provides the answers to questions your would-be customers ask during the research process. By doing this, you establish your company as a leader in the industry, as well as helping ensure that when the customer is ready to purchase, they’ll come back to your site. 4) Blogging for business is a long-term plan There are many marketing tactics that produce short-term results. While those things can be effective to drive huge bursts of traffic, they’re seldom cut out to be a long-term solution. Blogging, on the other hand, is designed for the long-term. When you sit down to create a blog, you create a valuable piece of content that long outlives your efforts and your investment in it. By generating shares, drawing views, and producing conversions, each blog you write has the potential to draw traffic long beyond the day it is published. In fact, HubSpot reports that upwards of 70% of its monthly traffic and 90% of its overall leads come from blogs that were published in previous months, some even as long as a year ago. 5) Blogging is low-cost, high-return Have we mentioned that blogging only costs what you want to invest for writing and imagery? The ROI is way, way worth the small investments. Blogging is both one of the cheapest and one of the most effective ways to drive traffic, views, and attention to your business website and, while it has the potential to produce a huge return investment, … Read more

A Guide To Compounding Blog Posts: Increase Your Blog Traffic Month after Month

December 31, 2020September 17, 2015 by Josh McCoy

What if you could write a post that people loved so much, they kept sharing it month after month? You could take a vacation; give your blogging fingers a break for a while. Heck, you might even be able to go outside for a minute. Can you imagine how much traffic a blog like that would create? Unfortunately, some things are just too good to be true, right? Wrong. It’s entirely possible to produce blog posts like this. There’s even a name for them: compounding blog posts. Designed to produce perennial traffic, compounding blog posts are capable of generating the same amount of interaction and attention as six so-called “decaying” posts. Fortunately, creating these posts isn’t even as difficult as it seems. Read on to learn more. The Difference Between Compounding Posts and Decaying Posts Compounding posts are like fine wine and decaying posts are like a three-day old cheeseburger: one is a lot more appealing than the other. Additionally, one gets better with time and the other doesn’t. Compounding blog posts command more attention as they age. They produce more visits and generally include authoritative words that reflect common search terms. If you needed more convincing, compounding posts are responsible for producing a whopping 38% of overall blog traffic. Decaying posts, on the other hand, glean less traffic as they age. They are far more common, however, and make up roughly 9 out of every 10 blog posts. Unlike their more glamorous cousin, decaying posts don’t add value to your site and may even drive readers away based on poor content or sub-par execution. Obviously, the smart content marketer wants to stay away from that three-day old cheeseburger and grab a glass of fine wine instead, right? Right. How to Create Compounding Blog Posts: The 4 Pillars of Great Posts Fortunately, writing compounding blog posts is not as difficult as it may seem. Like most things in content marketing, compounding blog posts follow a somewhat predictable outline and, in order to write a compounding blog post, the smart content marketer simply needs to know what that outline looks like. Generally, a compounding blog post needs 4 things: 1) A Great Topic: When it comes to creating compounding blog posts, you want your topic to be broad. This is because narrowly focused posts lose attention over time and decline in value – except for a small category of niche individuals who may display continued interest. Broad topics, on the other hand, are interesting for a wide variety of audiences and are capable of drawing attention for a long period of time. Although narrowly focused blogs have their place in the blogosphere, they generally aren’t the go-to type of content for compounding posts. In addition to boasting a broad topic, compounding blog posts also need to offer tactical advice. This means that they should help readers make decisions, solve problems or learn new things. Examples of content like this include product reviews, instructions and how-to articles. These posts should be authoritative and welcoming all at once and should be thoroughly researched and fact-checked, so as to avoid disseminating improper information. 2) A Smart Title: When creating compounding blog posts, a great title is essential. Ideally, this title should reflect common search terms and seek to answer customer questions. People are most likely to click on the search engine result that best match their queries, so think about how people ask questions when it comes time to head to Google. When people are looking for answers, their Google searches generally begin with “how do I….” or “what to do when….”. When they’re looking for information, on the other hand, queries generally resemble “the best X, Y, Z” or “Highest-selling __________________.” That said, the titles of compounding blog posts generally contain the words “How,” “Why,” “What” and “Best.” Considering common search terms while writing your blog titles is an effective way to incorporate common SEO practices into your content. Keep in mind, also, that marketers have found that compounding blog posts often have 6-13 words in their titles. 3) Great Content Structure: It’s unlikely that clunky, difficult-to-read content is ever going to become a compounding post, so keep that in mind as you devise your content structure. The piece should be easy to scan and laid out in a user-friendly fashion, with headers and subheaders to break up content and separate ideas. Additionally, the post should make ample use of visuals, headlines marked out in bold, bullets, lists and high-quality links. These are all ingredients of great content and serve to make the piece more valuable and useful for your customers. Additionally, great content should be tailored to your target audience’s preferred word count. Most research suggests that the ideal word count for a blog post is roughly 1,600 words. This takes a reader about 7 minutes to complete and is short enough to maintain attention while also being long enough to cover the topic at hand. 4) Unique Information: In order to stand out and become compounding content, your blog post needs to present information in a decidedly useful and helpful way. This means that your post should help customers learn new things and solve problems. Additionally, it should drive awareness and be formatted in such a way that people want to share it. Learning from the Best: HubSpot’s Compound Post Analysis HubSpot is a popular inbound marketing and information platform for content marketers around the world. Although it may seem like successful organizations such as this are immune from worrying about compounding or decaying content that simply isn’t true. When HubSpot began to see the term “compounding blog post” popping up around the web, they did a bit of research into their own content. Over the next several months, they learned that content above 1,000 words receive the most social attention on their site and that posts with 2,000 words or more generated more social shares. According to the results, HubSpot devised a plan to fill in the gaps … Read more

6 Ways To Not Suck At Blogging

June 19, 2024January 12, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Blogging is like a full-time profession for many of us, and because of that we have a dedicated interest in our audiences. We are the place that they come for content and we have a responsibility to provide current, accurate reporting as far as content is concerned. Our opinions usually shape the final decisions of a number of our readers and because of that a lot of power rests in our hands. Creating captivating blog entries is always a challenging task, especially when you have a lot on your plate and little time to get it all done. In order to be a successful blogger, you have to understand what success means to a blogger. For some it equates to a lot of clicks, but to others it means providing a source of information to our readers. We are tasked with presenting an unbiased view that is free from fear or favor when it comes to a particular topic and we should take our responsibilities as bloggers very seriously. Success Tips To Help You Make Your Blogging ROI Increase If you truly want to succeed and produce a blog that you can be proud of, here are a few things that are almost guaranteed to net you success. Success Tip #1: Put Your Audience First How many bloggers out there truly know their audience? How many of them are simply assuming what their audience wants and instead miss the attractive points that would draw the crowds? Understanding your audience is one of the most important things any blogger can do. By understanding what drives your audience, you locate the motivation behind their need for content and this allows you to better home in what they love to read. Putting your audience first means taking their likes and dislikes into account. Usually in niche blogs this is a simple matter because only an individual that follows the particular area of interest would be a reader on such a blog. When it comes to more open, wide-ranging blogs there is a lot more scope for you to be good (or bad) at presenting your ideas. Knowing your audience helps you to streamline your ideas to present it in a more palatable fashion to your readers, according to Copyblogger. Know what they read and what interests them and you’re well on your way to creating riveting content that will ensure that people take notice of what you say. Success Tip #2: Be Unbiased In Your Representation Of Facts Anonymity has made it easy for anyone to be a blogger and hide their real identity. It doesn’t do much to promote trustworthiness, however. When you produce a blog, what you write on it is a direct reflection of your own opinions and ideas. However, if you’re blogging about a factual piece of information then you should be careful to separate your ideas from what makes up the body of truth. Representing fact is important and the more accurate you are in presenting the fact uncolored by bias, the more your audience tends to trust you. Creating trust in an audience means that it is more likely that they will come back to you for news since in their opinion, you are a reliable location to get the truth. Opinion pieces are welcome since the aim of most blogging is to represent a blogger’s opinions on a particular issue. You must be careful to draw the line between opinion and fact since blurring those lines will lose you credibility in the eyes of your audience. Showing your audience two sides of the story before chiming in with your own take on the issue is a very good way to present an issue in a simple, unbiased way. Success Tip #3: Don’t Get Complicated One of the things that turns a lot of readers off from a blog is content that is simply padding. Overcomplicating an issue is a very common way to pad a word count, but it does your audience no favors. The more complex a piece of content is, the less likely that you’re going to get readers willing to sit through your filler text. Get right down the point and do it effectively and efficiently. It might be a lot easier to simple research a point in depth rather than trying to create meaningless phrases and words to make up a word count. Keeping it simple helps connect with your audience without alienating them. In some industry blogs, using jargon that is common within the industry does not count as being complicated. This exception is because such blogs are usually aimed at industry professionals that are already familiar with these terms. General Blogs should try to maintain a conversational tone without inserting obscure words and phrases. Doing so usually interrupts the flow of your conversation with the reader and could lead to them dismissing your entry as not worthy of their time. Success Tip #4: A Picture Paints a Thousand Words We’re no longer in the dark ages of the Internet where a single jpeg file could take as much as ten minutes to load on a dial up connection. Thanks to the wonders of easily available high speed internet, using eye-catching images is not only an option, it is recommended. Quite a lot of human beings have the ability to process graphic information far more readily than textual information. It’s the reason why memes are such a popular thing in internet culture today. Utilizing images capitalizes on this ability by giving your readers content in a breathtaking flurry of color and shape. Selecting the right image for your post is as important as writing the post itself and due care should be taken to choose an image that best represents what you want the reader to take away from this entry. Images are probably the best way to communicate simple ideas and you should utilize them in blog posts as often as you can in order to give your content … Read more

What Will Blog Writing Be Like In 100 Years?

January 1, 2021March 17, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Have you ever wondered…what will blog writing be like 100 years from now? Will we see space aliens eating blogs, bring new meaning to “digesting” what one reads? Will writers be telepathically transmitting stories to paper? Will paper even exist—it’s on the way out the door right now, isn’t it? What the heck WILL we see; lots of green and UFO activity? Let’s go BACK in time to think about the future. Dial the clock back 100 years from today and it would be the year 1914. What was writing like back then? It certainly wasn’t as we know it today. In 1914, World War I began. A lot of writers were reporters and journalists who put themselves in the heat of the action as one of the greatest wars to engulf the world revved up. 1914 was also a year of significant events in literature. Writing 100 years ago didn’t involve handy word processing programs like Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. Spelling and grammar check wasn’t computer automated, it was left up to writers and editors to sort out. The rules of grammar were much more stringently held to, and reading literary works published between 1900 and 1920 reveal an astonishing evolution of style and the interpretation of the so called rules. Blog writing, social media and online content marketing didn’t even exist yet. Oh yeah, and personal computers and handheld mobile devices, they were pure fiction! If things have changed this much in 100 years, what can the next 100 years hold? Speculating About the Future of Blog Writing We’re not exactly talking about a scientific topic, now are we? But speculating can be fun nonetheless. In the past 25 years alone we have seen an unprecedented improvement in technology, all of which has contributed to blog writing as we know it today. For example: Microsoft Word is arguably one of the most popular and used word processing programs in the industry. According to a Wikipedia history of Microsoft Word, the first version of the program was developed by Richard Brodie and Charles Simonyi in 1981. However, it wasn’t until the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 that Word became a sizeable commercial success and started being used by the masses. Later, Word began to receive labels per Windows OS to match each OS. Today, we can purchase Microsoft Office 365 for home or business. The new suite includes Word and is integrated with the latest advancements in cloud technology, providing an interface, work station and even files that can be accessed from any device in any location so long as you have a log-in and an active Internet connection. Before we had personal computers with word processing programs, we had something called a word processor. When I first started writing, I used a Brother Word Processor WP-230B—talk about a dinosaur! It could switch between a typewriter and word processing mode. It was pretty limited in capabilities compared to today’s computers, but it got the job done with better efficiency than handwriting or a traditional typewriter. Enough reminiscing. Let’s talk about the future of blog writing, a huge topic as of late, particularly in the area of guest blogging. Guest Blogging to See De-Evolution In January of 2014, the blogging community held its collective breath as Google’s Matt Cutts declared the “decay and fall” of guest blogging while staples in the industry said guest blogging is not dead. There is truth in both opinions. Cutts’ is correct that spammy, bad quality guest blogging is dying. And as it should! The writing industry has always stood for quality, which is why bad quality writing on the Internet is ever so surely being replaced by high, editorial quality content. It’s likely that in the following years we will see an increase in the quality of guest blogging as it returns to its roots. It will become more finely tuned, relevant, educational and engaging. Blogging & SEO In just the past 5 years we’ve seen amazing changes in the realm of search engine optimization. Keywords are going, going, gone as a hardcore staple, which opens up blogging and other types of online writing to better flow, higher quality and just plain good writing. In essence, online writing is returning to the true roots of literature: telling a story and telling it well. The Future of Blogging Is Bright Let’s talk about the origin of the blog. Back in the day, blog posts were something anyone could whip up. They were opinion tools, a means for anyone who had an opinion of any kind to blurt it out to whoever took an interest and decided to read. Today, the landscape of blogging has radically morphed. Blog platforms offer a myriad of tools and social channels all designed to help you create and communicate something. Blogs now support audio and video and the comment areas of can contain anything from intellectual discussions to bunkering down in the trenches in an attempt to defend a particular thought or idea. Blog writing is, and has always been, about self-expression. Today, the blog is a content marketing tool leveraged by the freelancer, small to medium sized business owner, and the big corporations. In the business world, blogs are used to communicate informative, relevant information. They’re a means of sharing thoughts and ideas via social media and stirring up conversation. However, it’s still a powerful tool for the would-be writers who write for the sake of writing and self-expression. Once you step into the world of content marketing, you can easily lose sight of these almost pure forms of blogging. They’re still out there. They’ve been there since the inception of blogging, and it’s my bet that 100 years from now they’ll still be here. The would-be writers and folks who blog for the pure self-expression of it are often the pioneers who push the technology right along, but without the recognition companies and businesses receive. According to ViperChill.com, over 181 million people actively use … Read more

Social Media & Blogs: Making Your Posts More Social

December 31, 2020February 3, 2014 by Adam Oakley

We’ve spent a lot of time predicting what 2014 will hold for small businesses and their online content strategies — from the evolving fate of SEO to key Social Media solutions and trends. While consulting (our well researched) crystal ball, we kept finding one theme over and over and over: Killer content is hands down one of the most crucial strategies for better search engine results. Enter the Blog: Quality Content Crucial to Your Success Blogging is a wonderful way to produce quality, industry-driven content that will win you dedicated followers and new sales. According to Social Media Examiner’s own 2014 social media predictions, this is the year to “finally start that blog.” They warn that small businesses without a big social media ad campaign budget may run the risk of getting lost in the shuffle unless they produce and share their own quality content for their niche. And although blogging might not pop into your head first when someone says “social media”, we’d like to argue that blogs are both social and crucial to your social networking success. We love how Brian Clark puts it best: Blogs aren’t just social media, “Blogs pioneered social media.” Here’s What Blogs are Not Static: That’s right. We’re back to content quality already. Blogs share information, but don’t just present facts. One of the most common blog mistakes people make is confuse them with a well-crafted press release or product description. Blogs are less newsy, more inviting, emotional and entertaining. In fact, blogs should always encourage conversation. Promotion-heavy documents: Just as blogs aren’t newsy in the traditional sense, they also aren’t sales documents. Although a blog post is a great way to create buzz about your new project, share one too many promotional posts and you’ll find your follower base dwindling. Pitches are one-sided and after a while will bore and alienate even your most avid readers. Before you post ask: What will my readers get out of this kind of content? Why would they feel compelled to share it with their friends? Will they want to continue the conversation in the comment section? These questions should help you shift your focus from your agenda to your audience — where it belongs. One-time Communications: The best way to kill a conversation? Don’t talk. It almost goes without saying that blogs that aren’t updated aren’t effective. But the opposite is also true. Business blogs that are regularly updated generate 67% more leads for their companies than their blog-less competitors. So get blogging! And don’t let time be a barrier. Remember there are many qualified business bloggers who are just a click away. Just Words: That’s right, visual interest is also key to an engaging, social blog. Here are a few eye-catching options: A Well-Placed Image: This is actually not an option. An image is a must. A well-chosen picture will make your blog appealing when people read the post or see it linked on a social platform. When selecting an image, make sure to use a picture that offers more than a pop of color. Instead, try to make a statement or offer extra insight on what the readers should expect. Infographics: You can also let infographics do the talking from time to time. This captivating information-graphic mashup gives readers plenty to take in. From a visual presentation of stats to fun flow charts, infographics offer a valuable mix of content and visual oomph that will get people to your posts and keep them there longer. They are also fun to share, so you’ll be social before you know it. Video: Online videos are popular — like over “188.2 million Americans watched 52.4 billion online content videos” in the month of December 2013 kind of popular. So up the chances that people will find and stay on your blog with the most popular type of online media. 7 Characteristics Successful Blogs Share Ok, enough about what blogs aren’t. Let’s move on to the hallmarks of successful, social blogs. Here are the most important components to take your blog from one-sided conversation to a fun place to hang out and keep coming back to. 1. A Call to Action: You may never know who wants to join in the conversation unless you ask. At the end of each of your blogs, find a creative way to get your readers involved. Pose a question. Ask them to share their opinion. See if anyone has had experiences to prove or disprove your point. That’s right; blogs need to be a dynamic exchange of information. 2. Periodic Contests: To get things really going, you can run a comment contest from time to time. If your audience knows that every once in a while you give something back, they will eventually become your adoring audience. Pick a Number: Let’s say you run a fitness center. With this low-maintenance approach, you’d ask people to post what workout they did that day in the comment section on your “20 Minute Workouts” post by 5 p.m. Later that evening, just use an online number generator to randomly pick a number. If the generator gives you the number 8, then the lucky 8th commenter will win the resistance band you featured in one of the arm workout sets. Trivia Questions: You can also drum up comments by posing a question and getting people to guess the right answer. If you get more than one correct answer, make sure to go with the one with the oldest timestamp. 3. Sustained Conversation: If readers do answer your call to action and comment, make sure to comment back. Thank them. Answer their questions. Address their issues. You can also return the favor and comment on other bloggers’ posts who comment on yours. 4. Easy-to-Use Share Buttons: Optimize your content by making it easy to share. That way, you won’t be the only one sharing your post on Facebook or Twitter. You’ll get your blog’s fans in on the sharing action. If that’s not … Read more