Writing a blog can be a great way to express yourself, share information with the public, and build an audience to promote your personal brand. But to develop a blog that readers will want to return to time and again, it’s important to work on developing robust strategies to improve writing skills as a blogger. A few simple tips and tricks will help to make your blog more interesting and compelling and keep your audience coming back for more day after day.
According to experts, the most important thing you can do right now to make your blog more compelling is to publish content regularly. Let your readers know your publication schedule, and be sure to meet your deadlines. The more frequently you update your blog, the more likely readers will be to check back in to see what you have to say. A blog that is updated irregularly, with days or weeks between entries, is not one reader will remember to check. One that is updated every day at noon can quickly become a habit. One that is updated every three hours around the clock can become a staple source of information.
Keep Content Relevant
However, the frequency of updates only becomes useful when your content is helpful and relevant to your readers. In the online world, content is king, and that means that to keep readers interested, you need to provide what they can’t get anywhere else. Whether that takes the form of original research, perspectives that differ from the mainstream or exclusive content unlike anything on the web, the more unique and different you are, the more likely readers are to choose your blog over others. Remember, there are somewhere between 150 million and 200 million blogs on the internet, making more than two million original posts each and every day. Readers need a compelling reason to choose yours over the other 200 million options.
According to Mr. Terry Graton, the CEO of SmartWritingService.com,
“Original content is the key to gaining readers. Anyone can post a quick paragraph restating the conventional wisdom on the day’s top story, but to really build an audience, you need to provide facts, analysis, or viewpoints that readers can’t find elsewhere and that will make them keep coming back to see what you’ll say next.”
Connect with Your Audience
In addition to providing content that is relevant and useful for you readers, blogging also offers a unique format that allows writers to connect with their audience in a deeper and more advanced way than some other forms of writing. Because blogging is a personal medium, writers should allow themselves to speak directly to their readers through the use of direct address (“you”), and they should also share personal experiences and views in order to contextualize their blog posts. When you share a little bit about yourself, it helps to humanize you and make you seem more “real” to your readers. Readers appreciate forming personal connections to the bloggers they read and letting them see a bit about your life, and your personal viewpoint can make your writing more compelling.
Keep the Reader in Mind
If you’ve tried all of these strategies and are looking for additional ways to connect with your audience, experts say that one place to start is to look at the content you are producing. Would you read it if you were not the writer? Does the content put the reader first? Many bloggers treat blogging as a personal journal and imagine that an audience will find them. However, in reality, readers flock to writing that puts their needs first.
Whenever you write, experts advise that you need to consider what the audience wants to read and how to make it enjoyable for them. That means creating content that is designed to be informative and entertaining, and also content that respects the reader’s time and investment in reading your work. Don’t, for example, simply deliver an advertisement for a product or that promotes things you’re selling. Blogs with the highest readership treat the blog content as the main attraction, not as a honey trap to send readers to a purchase page.
If you put your readers first, offer personal insight, and create useful, compelling, and original content, you will position your blog to attract a devoted and regular audience.
