Some helpful tips and advice on content

[paulbart1]

This is my definition of content.

"Content is the backbone of a blog, without it, you can't move"
Okay it is a terrible quote. But what I mean by it is that...Content is the reason people come to your blog in the first place...They don't come to look at your Adsense and click (unfortunately), they come to read and learn something.



So, first thing is, step back (or just lean back on your chair) and take a look at your blog. If you feel that it is overcrowded with ads, chances are, so do your readers and viewers. You have to view your blog from the outside, ask people to view it and ask for opinions. Anyways, before I go on...

Content!

When coming to write your content, keep it original. Be yourself. Do not be another copyrighter. That's boring funnily enough. Viewers come to read what YOU have got to say, not what you have got from someone else's blog or website.

In reality, people will connect more with your own style of writing than they would with reading a copyrighted piece of work. This does not mean you cannot get guest posters (I will cover Guest posting in another post) to write on your blog. It just means, write as if you were to speak. They we are, I said it by accident.

Write as if you were to speak.

That is being you. It makes your content original and unique and no-one else has any content like yours.

Now of course you can't just write as you talking otherwise it would be something like, "heya mate, so im just blogging and here I think you should....."

Try and be informative with your posts but make it in your own style of writing.

Read through your posts and ask yourself:

Realistically, what does the reader gain from this?
If you can answer that question comfortably, then you are on to a winner with your content!

Really, the main objective to each post, article or bit of content is to provide an insight into either your life, a subject/topic and the reader will want to come away from the post knowing something that they didn't already previously know!

I could write on about content all day but honestly, I feel I can describe the importance of content in a few lines.

Content -

Informative

Helpful

Useful

Interesting

Connection made between the reader and the blogger

500+ Words (none of this short posting)

Requires effort, thought and time.

Heres to you, Hope this post helps you with some ideas for content!

Paul

[csuds]

I don't agree with some of it, but thanks for posting For example, I don't always write as if I'm speaking because my writing "voice" is different than the one I use for informal speaking.

Also, I think that short posts can be very effective, depending upon what they're about. My blog is personal (it's about my life and nothing more), so I have several short posts. *shrug* People seemed to like them.

I'm pretty intentional about my content, and I often draft posts and then come back and edit them to make them more descriptive and concise. I'm a huge fan of the writing process, so I utilize it when I blog. I rarely just post my first draft

[Maya]

The truth is that content is king. Good content can mean good ranking, bad content or no content can impact organic search results.

[MrPolarZero]

good tips! Just to add some, a content must be written along with passion. If you don't love to share your knowledge and insights, then writing is not for you. You must also know how to use your imagination. You can be able to write unique stories if you know how to describe a situation in your own perspective.

[spirit87]

I like your advices about originality. This is one of the most important points, especially today when we see so much copied content. It takes time and effort, but in the long run, original and helpful content always wins.

[ChickenFreak]

Originally Posted by paulbart1

Informative

Helpful

Useful

Interesting

Connection made between the reader and the blogger

I agree, and I'd be inclined to make "interesting" the top priority, where "interesting" includes engaging, amusing, and so on. I find that the blogs that I regularly return to are not the ones with the most useful, solid content, but the ones that are the most entertaining to read. It seems logical that the most useful blogs should win the most readers, but I suspect that it's not true.

[inkelf]

I think it depends what type of blog you write. I am a factual blogger and so I write in what I hope is an entertaining yet factual tone of voice. For personal blogs I don't think it matters as much on the type of writing since these types of blogs are usually written for the author and maybe their friends.

The length of the posts can also vary. People often get bored with long blog posts where short blog posts can seem a little underdone. It again depends on the type of blog you write. I have one blog (SEO) where most of my articles are between 400-500 words and then a travel blog where some articles go up to 800 words. It all depends on how much information you want to tell your audience and whether you can keep them reading for the whole post.

I do agree with your comment on ads however. My sites are still with basic templates until I can afford to pay someone to make me a personal one but I do think appearance is a big part of what encourages readers to stay on your site. Of course content is key, but poor visuals can drive readers away no matter how good your content is. Just my 2 cents...

[LloydBurrell]

Originally Posted by inkelf

It all depends on how much information you want to tell your audience and whether you can keep them reading for the whole post.

Still, it also depends on the niche. For example, I believe blog posts featuring tourism should be kept short and informative, whereas articles related to professional advice should be sufficiently long to entail all the information you need to share in a structured manner.

___________________
Lloyd Burrell
Publisher
Office Desk Reviews

[voidtitan]

People often get bored with long blog posts where short blog posts can seem a little underdone

I my opinion people sometimes make the mistake of fixating too much on word count when writing a post - e.g. a post needs to be 500+ words, a post needs to be less than 1000 words etc.

A post needs to be concise and adequate in its treatment of its topic. If that takes 100 word thats fine, if it takes a 1500 words so be it. The real art is to pick post topics that are both interesting but also restricted enough that it makes sense to tackle them in a single post.

Striving to flesh out a post to fill 500+ words tends to promote poor writing, at least in my own experience.

[inkelf]

Originally Posted by voidtitan

I my opinion people sometimes make the mistake of fixating too much on word count when writing a post - e.g. a post needs to be 500+ words, a post needs to be less than 1000 words etc.

A post needs to be concise and adequate in its treatment of its topic. If that takes 100 word thats fine, if it takes a 1500 words so be it. The real art is to pick post topics that are both interesting but also restricted enough that it makes sense to tackle them in a single post.

Striving to flesh out a post to fill 500+ words tends to promote poor writing, at least in my own experience.

Yes I completely agree with you. It all depends on the type of blog that you write and the subject that you are writing about. The aim is to keep the reader engaged until they have finished reading your post whilst also informing them of everything you deicde to write about. Depending on the subject and your target audience this will be different for every blog.