5 Tips for Writing a Blog (How to Attain and Retain Readers)

While I may have just started writing a blog myself in the past couple of months, I have learned a lot during this time both through personal experience as well as through research. Maintaining a blog properly definitely takes time, but it doesn’t have to be complicated if you follow a few generalities and are committed.

1. Know Your Target Audience
You may be writing for those who love to bake, or you may be writing for social media professionals. Whoever it is you're writing for, be aware of them –what are their behaviors, likes, and dislikes? Why would they be looking for your blog content in the 1st place? What’s going to get them interested and keep them coming back to read more? It’s important to cater to your audience and match your wants and needs with theirs.

2. Keep it Short but Sweet
In today’s busy world, no one has the time to sit and read your 2,000 word post. Aim to keep your posts between 300-600 words; with 500 being a great target. This length is short enough to keep your readers attention, but still long enough to share decent content. Note the last couple words of that sentence, decent content…no one’s going to care about your posts if the content is garbage. If you’re going to write, spend the time to write well and generate content that is useful, interesting, and relevant.



3. Pictures really are Worth 1,000 Words
Don’t be afraid to use images and videos in your posts. Not only do visuals attract readers, but they also make your blog posts even better for sharing, tweeting, and pinning. Please give credit where it’s due though; don’t run out to Google and post the 1st picture you see. Either purchase clipart or use images with creative commons licenses. I like to search photopin.com or use the advanced search on flickr.com (scroll down on the search page and check the creative commons license option).

4. Make it Easy for your Readers
Make your posts easy to read. Don’t write walls of text. Instead, break paragraphs up with spaces, use lists, or use bullets. Feel free to make text bold or italicized to emphasize it or drive a point home. Include popular social media share buttons to make it easy for readers to share your posts with their networks. All in all, make your blog simple, clean, attractive, and user-friendly!

5. Speak from the Heart
What should you write about you may ask? Well, that of course depends upon your ultimate goal for the blog as well as your target audience, but I would say write about what you love and/or know well. When you love something or are an expert in the subject, then the writing should flow smoothly and you should never be at a loss as to what to write. To get you started, some common post themes are lists (like this one), how-to’s, responses to other articles and blog posts you’ve read, authority posts, and reviews. In the end, find a voice that is unique to you and own it; don't be afraid to share your brand story!

And, as one final bonus tip –proofread! Don’t be afraid to let your post sit for an hour or even a night to let it rest and give you a fresher perspective when rereading it.

What other tips would you share with bloggers? Drop a comment below!

photo credit: Robbert van der Steeg via photopin cc        photo credit: RLHyde via photopin cc