OK, so maybe the title to this blog is a little blunt – but hey, if your blog isn’t getting you the traffic you want & you feel like you’re talking to a wall, then yeah, it sucks!
My blog sucked for a while (it still does sometimes)…til I realized that there were WAY easier ways to do this thing, increase my readership & decrease my workload.
I figured out some not-so-secret ninja tips to improve my blog & now I want to share them with you.
1) Be an expert
You don’t have to be THE expert, you just have to be AN expert.
People’s psychology when reading is they either want to learn something from an ‘expert,’ or they want to read an ‘expert’ opinion and disagree with it. Either way, they want to read from an ‘expert.’
Position yourself as a highly knowledgeable person in your field, speak with authority, use short/punctual statements & make your point quickly.
2) If you’re not an expert, interview the experts
If you can’t speak yet from an expert role, that’s OK. One thing that works hugely in blogs is interviewing influencers in your industry.
This is as simple as reaching out to people with a 3-question email & comparing the answers of a handful of respected people in your field. Then, when you share this content, you can tag them, have them share it & use their names in your SEO keyword descriptions.
If you need help coming up with an email to send the people you’re trying to interview, I have an awesome template here:
Awesome sample email from @DigitalMktr on getting an influencer in your industry to do an interview with you #TCS2015 pic.twitter.com/hWhltdDi9V
— Juan V Lopez (@JuanVLopez) February 17, 2015
3) You don’t always have to be a creator – be an aggregator
A lot of blogs fail because people think they have to come up with something original every single time they write. This is hard – coming up with something original on a consistent basis is difficult.
However, there’s already a ton of great content out there.
If you just Google some of the content you’re specifically looking for and create an informative list or cool infographic from this, this can be tremendous content. People appreciate bloggers who serve as gatherers of information that’s already out there. Being a gatherer & presenting something in a way it hasn’t been showcased before is a huge service.
Places like Mashable & Buzzfeed have created HUGE content sites simply by serving as aggregators of content.
The top sites in the world right now are aggregators. Few of the top sites still create original content. They aggregate.
#TCS2015— Juan V Lopez (@JuanVLopez) February 17, 2015
4) Focus on content sharing rather than content producing
A bad tip new bloggers often get is to simply create more & more content.
“If I keep writing, eventually they’ll have to read!”
Well, no.
Yes, writing is great, but you should be more focused on sharing this content & getting it in people’s eyes. You can do this by using very specific keywords in your blog tags, as well as tagging experts in your field when you post a blog link.
Many bloggers will link back to their blog just once or twice after posting, it, but instead of doing this, do it consistently for the span of a few weeks & months – just use different phrasing every time you do it.
You don’t always have to link back to new content – just use new phrasing every time you do it.
5) Write better headlines
Use specific keywords in content headlines for max performance & to create organic virality.
After all, you can write the best blog in the world, but if your headline sucks, your blog is worthless.
Use specific keywords in content headlines for max performance & create organic vitality. #TCS2015 #onlinemarketing pic.twitter.com/HXfGssCMLz
— Juan V Lopez (@JuanVLopez) February 17, 2015
PS: Headlines that are worded negatively get much more reads than positive reinforcing words. For example, “What a blogger should NEVER do” would get much more traffic than “What a blogger should ALWAYS do.” People always want to find out if what they’re doing is wrong first.
6) Link out to other people’s blogs – then tell them about it
If you’re writing a blog about software engineering and you link to a prominent blog, tell the person of that blog you linked to them.
This can be as simple as sending them a tweet that says, “Hey, @_________, I included you in my blog about software engineering, would love to hear your opinion! [Insert blog link here.]”
By tweeting them directly & telling them you linked to them, you’re appealing to their vanity. They’ll want to read what you said about them, just because they’re vain & like to see their name published.
& adding something like, “I’d love to hear your opinion,” is an awesome trick, because who doesn’t want to give you their opinion?
This little tip has worked wonders for me. I’ve linked to & directly tweeted users with hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers & been retweeted and had them respond.
@JuanVLopez You’ve been quoted in my #Storify story “Traffic & Conversions Summit 2015 [RECAP]” http://t.co/8u17kzzxVN
— Sebastian Rusk (@sebrusk) February 23, 2015
7) Use images in your blog – oh, and use images with text
Images serve a multitude of purposes. They can convey the overall feeling or emotion of your post, they can illustrate a metaphor or analogy that is part of your main idea, and they can make your reader smile.
Plus, they serve well to break up long paragraphs of text.
And if you really want to get next level with this stuff, include text in your images. Images with text get much higher engagement and interaction.
Awesome example from SocialMediaExaminer.com.
8) Create infographics
Infographics are the No. 1 piece of content that gets shared. Yup, No. 1!
If you’re not a designer & can’t create infographics, go to www.envato.com & check out some of the templates they have there.
Trust me, a well done infographic is worth 25 well-written blogs.
People share: Quizzes, lists, videos, infographics, cute/funny stuff, nostalgia, things they want their friends to think they like. #TCS2015
— Juan V Lopez (@JuanVLopez) February 17, 2015
9) Use specific, sales copy-type meta descriptions
Did you know you can customize the message on every single headline & description for the blogs you write?
Most search engines will use a maximum of 160 characters for your post description on their results pages. If you don’t create a meta-description, a search engine will often take the first 160 characters it finds on your page instead.
A tool I use is a free plugin called Yoast. Once you install it, a new box will appear under your blog posts where you can edit the meta descriptions of your pages and blogs.
Use this space wisely and use specific keywords to maximize the SEO potential of your post.
10) Write shorter paragraphs & write simpler
This one is simple, but it’s so important.
I know we’re taught in English class to write full paragraphs with a handful of sentences and a central theme and big words…blah, blah, blah.
People don’t like to read big blocks of text. They like reading quickly, they like words they understand & they like punctual statements.
So, give them what they want.
Add more paragraph breaks to take it easy on the eyes of your readers & to keep them flowing through your content.
"How to get people to share your content" > absolutely AWESOME tips from @RolandFrasier #TCS2015 #onlinemarketing pic.twitter.com/KLBj7qVy06
— Juan V Lopez (@JuanVLopez) February 17, 2015
Plus, the more paragraph breaks you have, the longer your content will be, the longer the time on the page will be for a reader, the better your SEO rankings will be.
See, it all works out!
What do you think? How do you keep your blog posts consistent and dynamic? What tips would you add? Leave your questions & comments in the box below.
