Making Your Blog Turn Heads

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Now that you have a blog and you are sharing content on a very regular basis, it is important that the purpose of your blog is well defined and that your  content really draws the attention of your readers.

There are many different reasons to have a blog (a lot of them compelling and solid). Your blog can be for personal satisfaction, it can be for the entertainment of others, it can be for the education of others (with interactive discussions), it can be for the eventual purpose of selling your products and/or services (eventually), or it can be to share your branding with other people. Whatever the purpose of your blog is, it is essential that you identify your topic right up front. Not only do you have to ask yourself what the purpose of your blog is but you also have to ask how much value your blog holds for your readers. Is your blog content for yourself or is it to help people in your niche or industry in some way?

No matter what the purpose is of your blog, if the content is well written and compelling, people will want to read what you are sharing and will keep coming back time after time. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of poorly written content on the Internet and readers understand the difference between well-written and poorly written content. When content contains errors, it is highly distracting to readers and they won’t have to patience to look beyond the errors to look at the meaning of what you are trying to say.

The benefit to your readers

When you are blogging for business, you need to make sure that your content is customized for your readers. Before you even put a single word on the page, you need to identify the needs and wants of your readers and make sure that you present the information in a way that is compelling, concise, clear, educational and enticing. As you are writing content (for all of your blog articles), you should have the marketing principle WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) in mind. In other words, it doesn’t matter how brilliant and wonderful you and your business are. All that matters is that you are able to solve the problems of your readers and give them what they want and need.

Identifying your target market

It is critical to your business that you have an extremely clear understanding of who and what your target market is. No matter what your business is about and what you are selling, the goal will be the same. Your ultimate goal is to sell your products and/or services to as many people as possible. Depending on what you are selling, your content must be written in a way that is appropriate for your particular reader. Whatever the topics of your blog articles are, you should always strive to educate your readers. They should walk away after having read your content at least a little bit more educated than before they started reading.

The attractiveness of the content

The visitors to your blog not only need high-quality content to read but they also need to choose to read your content based on the visual appeal. If your content doesn’t grab their attention initially, they won’t make the effort to read it. It is important to achieve balance when it comes to your blog. You want the entire blog to appeal to your readers. It is very important to consider demographics when it comes to writing content. The demographics of your target audience will drive the type (topics, angles, etc.) of content that you share with your readers.

Your blog is a shared service

The blog content that you write is not done haphazardly. It is well-organized, well-written and well thought out. The better the quality of the content, the more people will want to read it (and all of the other blog articles that you share with your audience). It is also important to understand that a stagnant blog will not have the positive effect that a blog with interactive features will have. Also, you should make sure to give your readers a call to action so that they can give you what you need and so that they can also reach out to you so that you start to develop your relationship together.

Conclusion

Your blog is one of the most important pieces of your web presence. It has tremendous potential to help you develop strong and mutually beneficial relationships through its allowance for interactivity. People love to have discussions on topics about which they are passionate. They also love to be wowed by exciting details that may not have occurred to them before. Not only is it exciting to interact with people but in many cases, new content topics can come out of the stimulating discussions that you have online.

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Author

  • Carolyn Cohn

    Carolyn Cohn is the Co-Founder & Chief Creative Services of CompuKol Communications. Carolyn manages CompuKol’s creative and editorial department, which consists of writers and editors. Her weekly blogs are syndicated globally. She has decades of editorial experience in online editing, and editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Carolyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

4 Responses

  1. Lee Patrick says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Informed Ideas For Writers
    • Discussion: Making Your Blog Turn Heads

    Hi Carolyn,
    I am just learning about this. I guess the first thing is to set up the account to ensure the tags are good. To be honest I am such a novice, I don’t understand it yet. Would appreciate any pointers you can give.
    Posted by Lee Patrick

  2. Michael Barker says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: The Content Wrangler Community
    • Discussion: Making Your Blog Turn Heads

    Good article Carolyn,
    I try and be a bit more sensationalist with my headings, as people are so used to having promotional blogs shared with them – For instance, I did a look at bad marketing campaigns, but instead of calling it “The biggest mistakes in advertising” or similar, I titled it: ‘Wang Cares’, Say it Aloud to See Why This Marketing Campaign Was Such a Flop http://www.webxpress.co/blog/8/wang-cares-say-it-aloud-to-see-why-this-marketing-campaign-was-such-a-flop/

    I also use images for blog posts, because a good image gets carried in when you share in social media and the right image can attract attention. I look at the image and caption the way you would an online ad.
    Posted by Michael Barker

  3. John Murphy says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: AssociationofWriters.com
    • Discussion: Making Your Blog Turn Heads

    I’ve been doing a blog/web page for just over year & find it useful and interesting…though not quite as much fun a writing or as interesting as Tudor history!
    Posted by John Murphy

    • Jimi Mikusi says:

      I dont know if I'm witnessing Internet history right here on your blog- but this is my first witness of the acronym "WIIFM" and I think its great. It really is an important point that you dont need to look any further than your own browsing habits to know is true! Thanks!