Blog Writing Tips

Blogging can be a casual activity, expressing your thoughts on any topic you like, music, celebrities,
movies, school, anything. Blogging can also be a powerful tool in delivering news and awareness of
critical issues affecting your community to thousands of people online. If you are interested in reaching
out to more people with your blog posts and articles, please read on.

Choosing a Popular Topic

This may seem obvious, but writing about something people are passionate about helps to get your blog
read. Some writers have trouble finding good topics to write about, some call this “writer’s block”.
Fortunately, the Internet is the perfect place to find out what people are thinking about and even what
questions they have. Here are just a few great ways to get ideas for topics people are passionate about.

http://tweetgrid.com On TweetGrid, you can watch up to 9 twitter conversation streams at the same
time. Enter related topics for each window and sit back and watch what people are saying. This is a great
way to get ideas for articles that give people what they want.

http://ezinearticles.com EzineArticles is one of the largest article directories on the Internet, with over
300,000 authors and millions of submitted articles. Search for articles that have thousands of views.
These are articles are about topics that people want to read. Get ideas for topics and also take a close
look at these popular articles for tips on how to write your own articles.

You may also want to submit your articles to this directory (a subject for another workshop).

http://labs.wordtracker.com/keyword-questions With this tool, just enter in a topic and it searches the
web looking for questions that people are asking about that topic. Not as powerful as the first two tools,
this one does return some interesting results that may surprise you.

This is just scratching the surface for getting ideas for your articles. You can apply the same research tips
to almost any popular website that posts feedback and conversations from visitors.

Information Overload

Having a great topic for a blog post is often not enough to get your article read by visitors passing by
your website. You could have extremely valuable, must-have news to share, but if that information is
buried somewhere in long paragraphs or your article has a weak headline, your visitor may move on to
the next site.

On today’s internet, there is so much information available that people have trained themselves to scan
and skim for interesting and valuable news. Many people review dozens of headlines without reading a
single article. Here are some tips to help get your blog posts and articles notices, and to help ensure the
reader understands your points.
Have a Strong Headline

Most people scan headlines looking for important information. Without a good headline your article will
be ignored. “A” list bloggers and professional copywriters spend about 80% of their time writing a new
article on the headline alone.

How do you write a great headline? You copy other great headlines. Check out www.copyblogger.com,
the writers on this blog are experts at writing headlines and they even have articles that can teach you
how to write better headlines. Look at the big news websites such as www.nytimes.com. Also take a
close look at any headlines that convinced you to read an article. Think about what it was about the
headline that got your attention.

When you see a good headline, you can use it by swapping out some words. Here’s an example taken
from the NY Times:

Targeted Killing is New U.S. Focus in Afghanistan

Now, if I were writing an article on military activity in Burma, I might write something like this:

Random Killing is Junta’s Focus in Ethnic Areas of Burma

Different words but the theme and strength from the original headline is maintained. Writing strong
headlines does not have to be hard when you have great headlines handy for inspiration.

Make Your Article Easy on the Eyes

Your article should be easy to read, not have long chunks of text. Here are more tips for avoiding articles
that appear like a chore to read:

 Use short paragraphs, 1 to 3 sentences long.

 Use lists, or bullet points when possible.
 Use quotes from people, e.g., “I can’t believe this is happening!” said one witness.
 Add subtitles to break up areas with too much text.
 Use images when appropriate

How many words should your blog posts be? Depending on your topic at least 250 words and less than
400. If you are explaining how to do something you may need to go over 400 words. If you have a long
article, say 600 words or more, consider breaking the article in 2 blog posts: Part 1, Part 2.

End Your Article with a Call to Action

You’ve researched a great topic, you wrote the perfect headline, your article is has a balance of text with
bullet points, subtitles and short, punchy paragraphs. Why let the reader just walk away from all that
hard work you did? Make your all your writing efforts count by telling the reader what they need to do
next!
You’re not writing just for fun, you have a purpose, a mission, and you need to spell it out to your
readers. At the end of your article, tell them exactly what you want them to do. Here are some sample
calls to action:

 “… make a donation… ”
 “… support us by buying one of our…”
 “… leave a comment…”
 “… share this with someone who cares…”
 “… bookmark this page…”

If you can, help them out with your call to action. Have a donation button on your site? Place it again at
the end of your article or put a link to your donate page if that’s easier for you.

Think of your visitors like children, in that you need to grab their attention and hold their hand along the
way.

Bookmark Your Blog Posts and Article Pages

Sign up to social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com and Reddit.com. Share your work
on Facebook and Twitter. These can sites can bring visitors to your site and help spread your articles to a
larger audience. Start with a few accounts and then add more as time goes on. Use automated services
like Onlywire.com to help automate your bookmarking.

Conclusion

These are just a few tips in helping you blog better. Again, the Internet is wealth of knowledge in not
only researching for your articles, but also learning from others on how be a better blogger. Read other
popular bloggers, but don’t just read their posts, take a deep look into what they are doing and you will
find out what is the secret to their success. Apply what you lean and make your blog a success.