Blogging is a great way to build your personal brand and improve your social media presence. However, it can be daunting to get started. Then, once you’ve plucked up the courage to get a blog going, how do you attract readers? And more importantly, how do you keep them coming back for more?
But it feels like everyone and their dog has a blog nowadays. So, standing out from the crowd is crucial to being heard online. You should have the basics nailed down if you’ve had a blog going for a while. So, now you can use these 6 top tips to take your blog to the next level and become a blogging wizard.
- Create a Voice
One way to make your blog stand out is by adding in your personality. Create a unique voice for your blog so that it feels more personal to your readers. For example, share your thoughts on the news, your competitors, and relevant topics to your blog so they feel like they’re getting a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in your life.
Do you want to write about a specific topic? Maybe you have expertise in a particular field or are passionate about a hobby. Whatever your niche is, make sure it comes through in your posts. Your blog should reflect who you are and what you stand for.
It may sound cliché, but quality content is the key to building an audience. The more time and effort you put into your posts, the better they will be — and the bigger your following will grow too! On the other hand, people won’t take notice for long if you put out lackluster blog posts with little or no thought behind them.
Try starting with topics that interest you and see where they lead you. Then, once you’re comfortable with writing and blogging, try branching out and exploring new ideas—especially ones that require research and discovery on your end.
- Be Interesting
The most important thing you need to do when blogging is to be interesting. And that can feel overwhelming. So often, when we try to be interesting, it comes off as pretentious. But you want your blog posts to stand out and get people coming back for more. This means that you need to come up with unique or different topics from your competitors. Your blog post should give readers new information, tell a story, or teach something about your topic of choice.
If you’re not sure how to find interesting topics, look at what the competition is doing. What are they writing about? What don’t they cover? Then, use these ideas as inspiration for your own interesting content!
There are many ways to create depth in your posts without having a lot of knowledge about the subject matter. These include providing personal anecdotes or examples of past experiences related to the topic at hand, including citations from relevant sources, or asking readers questions so they can respond with their own thoughts.
- Write About What Matters To You
Another essential thing to remember about blogging is that it’s personal. You’re building your blog by sharing your thoughts, experiences, and knowledge with the world. So when you write about what you know, you’ll be more confident in what you’re saying. And you’d be surprised by how much people actually want to hear your point of view. Particularly if it’s new and different.
Blogging about topics that are personally relevant to you helps people feel connected to what you say. From your blog, readers will find out more about who you are and how they can relate to your values and experience.
- Stay Consistent
You want to make sure that you blog at a set frequency so that your followers don’t forget about you. Blogging has been shown to positively affect search engine optimization, but this will happen only if you keep publishing content consistently. And the quality of that content has to be consistent too.
Set a schedule that works best for your personal or business needs. You can start with just one post per week and work up from there. Consistent posting also helps you build up an audience base. People will keep coming back for more if they know your posts are consistent in the topic and when they’re posted.
- Update Often
One of the best ways to attract readers is to update your blog often. Bloggers who post something new every day have the highest reader retention rates. In fact, according to a study by BuzzSumo, posts with over 120 words and more than two images see an average engagement rate of 2.8 percent. That’s compared to posts with fewer than 50 words and no photos, which only see an average engagement rate of 0.6 percent.
The numbers don’t lie: it pays off to stay consistently posting on your blog if you want to improve your social media presence.
- Keep It Unique.
Bloggers in today’s world are competing with each other for readership. Unfortunately, this means they have to find new and exciting ways to keep their readers engaged. Luckily, there are several ways you can do this.
The internet is a big place, and you don’t want your blog to be lost in the mix. Your content must stand out from the rest of the content on the internet by providing a unique perspective. Don’t be afraid to focus on a topic that interests you and has fewer competitors. This will make it easier for people to find you and identify with what you have to say.
Another way you can make your blog stand out is by making it interactive. Include polls, games, puzzles, or surveys for readers to participate in and interact with one another within the post’s comment section. This will help generate discussion, which will make them want to come back and participate again! You could even learn how to record a webinar to offer something unique to your blog. Think outside the box, and you’ll easily stand out from the crowd.
I live in a small Georgia town that you most likely have never heard of and I LOVE it! My house is more than full as I am a single mother of four & caregiver to my aging mother and uncle. Lover of all things Outlander. Goes to the beat of her own drum woman.