Is your blog terrible? Maybe it’s not terrible, but you know that it could use some improvement. If writing doesn’t come naturally to you, you may feel a little lost when it comes to creating blog content. But relax – it’s not like you have to write the next Harry Potter book. Blog posts don’t have to be daunting! With that in mind, here are some tips to make your writing efforts run more smoothly.
Read more.
Imagine, for a moment, that you are a chef. What kind of chef would you be if you didn’t try a bunch of different foods, comparing their flavors and discovering your likes and dislikes? When you read more, you’ll absorb more inspiration for your writing. Your reading material doesn’t necessarily have to be related to what you’d like to write about, although reading related blogs will definitely help you in the long run.
Have a strong opening.
Let’s say I trashed everything I’ve already written and started over. Hypothetically, my new blog opening is now something along the lines of, “Here are some useful blogging tips!” You’re snoring, right? In a world where many people get their breaking news in 140-character snippets, you need to catch a reader’s attention immediately. Remember: it doesn’t matter how groundbreaking your article is if you can’t even get people to read it.
Say something worth saying.
On the other hand, it doesn’t help to use a lot of flowery words if you don’t really have anything to say. Don’t just blog for blogging’s sake. If you start out with a strong message, the rest should flow from there. It’s much more difficult to put together an article with no real purpose – and besides, who really wants to read that?
Avoid redundancy.
Also, try not to repeat yourself. Additionally, make an effort not to say the same thing over and over. This will bore your readers. It will also turn off your audience and drive away traffic.
Get it yet?
Avoid the wall of text.
See how this blog post has been broken up into sections, with short paragraphs and headers? This is how you write for the Internet. It’s easier on the eyes, and readers can skim your headers to see if what you’ve written looks like it’ll be interesting. Writing long, unbroken paragraphs certainly isn’t the biggest mistake you can make, but it won’t be winning you many return visitors.
Proofread.
An amazing, well-written blog post will help boost your credibility. However, a mediocre blog post full of spelling and grammar errors will do more harm than good – your readers will be wondering how you made it this far in life without learning where you’re supposed to put apostrophes instead of paying attention to what you’re saying. If you don’t have faith in your own ability to proofread, have somebody else look over your article before you publish it.
