Many online businesses and individuals are rightfully curious about how to blog better.
It's a common question that pops up on forums and, ironically, blogs throughout the web.
Many new online business owners start blogs simply because that's the "hip and happening" thing to do.
But like any other action you take to build your business, you need a clearly defined purpose in mind before investing time or money into this online marketing strategy.
Here's a clearly defined purpose: engage readers to the point where they want to bookmark your blog and buy stuff from you.
Sound good? If you want your blog postings to matter to your target readers, you must engage them.
It is not enough to simply string together words for the sake of writing.
The words have to touch the reader in some way if your goal is to convert sales and increase your customer base.
Where Did Blogs Come From Anyway? Nowadays it seems as if everyone is blogging.
But unfortunately not everyone is doing it right.
Let's take a one-paragraph journey back in Internet history to the 1990s and get to the root of why blogging became popular in the first place: Blogs (web logs) first came on the Internet scene in 1994 when Justin Hall, a Swarthmore College student, started posting his thoughts online.
If you look at his website, which is still going strong, he's posting about personal stuff.
The original blogs were like short diaries only they were written online and made available for public viewing.
Blogging became a hit because it gave nosy people something enjoyable to read.
Nosy as in "I want to read about what's going on in someone else's personal life" or nosy as in "I want inside information about something I'm very interested in.
" Like making money...
Write Engaging Blogs Now that you have an idea of what made blogs popular in the first place, you can use that information to write more effective ones for your own website.
The key is engagement.
You want to touch, inspire, excite, inform, entertain, educate or shock your target customers with your blog posts.
What interests your target audience? How do they talk? What are they looking for when they're browsing online? These are details you should have written down in your marketing plan already.
Write blog posts that would specifically appeal to your target customer.
Speak to them in their language and make sure that they come away with something.
Each blog post you write should have a takeaway, even if it's just pure entertainment value.
Make readers laugh if possible.
Don't be afraid to use the first-person in your blog posts.
Talk to targeted readers like you're chatting with a friend.
Engage readers further by asking for their opinions in the comments or by adding a poll to your post.
Ask them to participate.
People like to feel as if they belong to something.
TVT - Topic, Voice, Timeliness There are three key concepts to keep in the back of your mind whenever you're writing a new blog post.
TVT - Topic, Voice and Timeliness.
Pick a topic that is pressing on the mind of your targeted readers.
Speak to them in a voice that they can relate to when reading.
Finally, make sure that the information is as timely and relevant to current events as possible.
Don't just blog about things you're interested in -- who's to say that you're your own target reader? When blogging, focus on the interests and motivations of the people you want to reach instead.
Start Today, Why Not? Test these ideas out with a brand spanking new post today.
Then monitor your stats to see how long people stay on your blog and if they click other links after reading your new, engaging post.
If you do a good job you might find yourself saying to said self, "hey wait a minute...
I might have something here!" If you learn how to blog better to the point where people actually look forward to your posts, that's major online mojo that can open a number of doors for your online operation.
It's a common question that pops up on forums and, ironically, blogs throughout the web.
Many new online business owners start blogs simply because that's the "hip and happening" thing to do.
But like any other action you take to build your business, you need a clearly defined purpose in mind before investing time or money into this online marketing strategy.
Here's a clearly defined purpose: engage readers to the point where they want to bookmark your blog and buy stuff from you.
Sound good? If you want your blog postings to matter to your target readers, you must engage them.
It is not enough to simply string together words for the sake of writing.
The words have to touch the reader in some way if your goal is to convert sales and increase your customer base.
Where Did Blogs Come From Anyway? Nowadays it seems as if everyone is blogging.
But unfortunately not everyone is doing it right.
Let's take a one-paragraph journey back in Internet history to the 1990s and get to the root of why blogging became popular in the first place: Blogs (web logs) first came on the Internet scene in 1994 when Justin Hall, a Swarthmore College student, started posting his thoughts online.
If you look at his website, which is still going strong, he's posting about personal stuff.
The original blogs were like short diaries only they were written online and made available for public viewing.
Blogging became a hit because it gave nosy people something enjoyable to read.
Nosy as in "I want to read about what's going on in someone else's personal life" or nosy as in "I want inside information about something I'm very interested in.
" Like making money...
Write Engaging Blogs Now that you have an idea of what made blogs popular in the first place, you can use that information to write more effective ones for your own website.
The key is engagement.
You want to touch, inspire, excite, inform, entertain, educate or shock your target customers with your blog posts.
What interests your target audience? How do they talk? What are they looking for when they're browsing online? These are details you should have written down in your marketing plan already.
Write blog posts that would specifically appeal to your target customer.
Speak to them in their language and make sure that they come away with something.
Each blog post you write should have a takeaway, even if it's just pure entertainment value.
Make readers laugh if possible.
Don't be afraid to use the first-person in your blog posts.
Talk to targeted readers like you're chatting with a friend.
Engage readers further by asking for their opinions in the comments or by adding a poll to your post.
Ask them to participate.
People like to feel as if they belong to something.
TVT - Topic, Voice, Timeliness There are three key concepts to keep in the back of your mind whenever you're writing a new blog post.
TVT - Topic, Voice and Timeliness.
Pick a topic that is pressing on the mind of your targeted readers.
Speak to them in a voice that they can relate to when reading.
Finally, make sure that the information is as timely and relevant to current events as possible.
Don't just blog about things you're interested in -- who's to say that you're your own target reader? When blogging, focus on the interests and motivations of the people you want to reach instead.
Start Today, Why Not? Test these ideas out with a brand spanking new post today.
Then monitor your stats to see how long people stay on your blog and if they click other links after reading your new, engaging post.
If you do a good job you might find yourself saying to said self, "hey wait a minute...
I might have something here!" If you learn how to blog better to the point where people actually look forward to your posts, that's major online mojo that can open a number of doors for your online operation.
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