Lately I have been reading many blogs and I have noticed that a few blogs have figured out the perfect way to interact with their readers through their blog. The kind of post we all want. A post that draws readers, creates subscribers, and gets a massive amount of comments & social media love. I decided to dissect a post and share my findings with my fellow readers and create a list of questions that you should ask yourself before you hit the big ‘Publish’ button.
Simplicity
It seems the pro bloggers have figured out a whole new language that they write in. Its a simple and understandable way of writing that has a nice flow. This means that you should provide the information you are giving your readers in the clearest manner with as few words as possible. There is no need for useless sentences or re-interpretations, they are only truly after your information so give them just that.
Timeless
Is the information you are posting timeless? Will the information or advice you are sharing going to be relevant in 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years? While dissecting the posts it seems that most of them were published months ago, yet there were comments from only a couple days ago. This will help build readers as well as build trust. So when writing a new post give your reader a nice timeless piece of information they can go back to and reference from.
Broken Down Visibly
Did you ever wonder why it was so hard to read your college text books? Seeing that wall of text is intimidating and you can’t easily pull information from it. The world is on a 5 second attention span and if your not careful with your posting you may have some killer content, but it will go unnoticed if not broken down properly. This information is nothing new, you want your post to be scan-able. Do this by breaking down your content with:
- Use lists like this one.
- Headers that define the following paragraphs.
- Graphics relevant to your content.
- Bolding the most important sentence in a paragraph.
Guide & Reward the Reader
This last information is the most important. Does it guide the reader in anyway? You want the reader to physically or mentally make an action based off of your post, not just be done with the information and start randomly clicking in your website, or even worse, hit the X to close the browser.
You want to reward your readers. Reward them with knowledge they can share, with a good feeling they can relate to. You can even give them an actual reward, many websites have e-books that are rewards for becoming a subscriber. Other websites will reward them with links on their main page. There is a stronger bond between a blog and its readers when rewards are used.
5 questions to ask before you post.
So we’ve talked about the anatomy of a great blog post. Here is a list of questions to ask yourself before you hit that publish button:
- Is my post simple and easily understood?
- Can I pick out the major points and information of the article in under 5 seconds?
- Will the information I am sharing be relevant in 3 days? Weeks? Months?
- Does it effectively guide the reader to take action?
- Is there a reward for reading my post?
Did I miss any key components to a great blog post? What do you think makes a great blog post? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Reader Suggestions:
Lis Sowerbutts : “I rarely post now without doing some keyword research – I like to know what my post is trying to rank for.”
Jason : “Put you’re most relevant information in the first sentence of a paragraph.”
Niall Harbison : “I find the key to get lots of “loving” on social media is…1.Really good title | 2.Easy scannable content | 3.Something that is useful to your readers”
Comments
Great post Tyler… Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I believe the most important point is simplicity. I read a lot of blogs and the ones I have the hardest time reading are the long blogs with a lot of paragraphs.
I’m a huge fan of saying what you have to say in as few words as possible. If a blog article is short, I’m more likely to read the entire post rather than when it’s long I just skim through reading the first sentence of a paragraph.
There’s an important add on to this list. Put you’re most relevant information in the first sentence of a paragraph. I think a lot of people will read this first sentence then skip to the first sentence of the next paragraph.
Great post!!!
Lis, Hello & welcome to RB. Your are indeed correct that a little SEO with a blog post is a great addition. What do you use to do your keyword research? Do you use the google keyword tool? to do your research? Thanks for contributing and hope to see you around. Cheers!
Jason, I agree that blogs with a ton on information that is too complex is a real deal killer at times. I feel that readers do not like to decipher what your message is and may detour readers. Good point on the first sentence being the most important, making your content even more scan-able.
Great follow up information friends, I will add an update to the bottom of this post with your ideas. Happy Holidays!
Looks like you have hit on all the main points here. I find the key to get lots of “loving” on social media is…
1.Really good title
2.Easy scannable content
3.Something that is useful to your readers
The 3rd one is the most important as all readers are selfish. They only go to blogs if you are offering something and will stop the second you stop giving them something. You are well on your way anyway 
Niall, thanks for stopping by RB.
I like your thoughts and it has popped a question into my head. Do readers pre-judge an article based on social media buttons with a high number next to it?
Let me explain a little more. I have seen tweet-buttons, socialable links, diggs and a ton of other social media buttons all over websites. I know on your blog post Simply Zesty : Social Media Predictions 2010 you talk about there will no longer be a numbers game involved, but are readers getting to the point where they are only choosing what to read because it ranks high in social media? Will they only read something because it has 200 diggs, or 100 re-tweets?
Sometimes I feel like a sheep with social media, and the biggest number is my shepherd.
Very nice post!
I think one of my biggest challenges with writing (and also making videos) is that I tend to do too much. I want to cram too much information into one post or video and I find it difficult to simplify things.
One thing I try to do, that you listed here, is breaking up my posts visually, so that they are easier to follow and digest. But there’s lots more food for thought here…
Cheers,
Shane
Shane, you may try breaking up posts even more, maybe if your finding your blog posts 3-4 pages long, try making them 2 separate blog posts. I notice that if a page is too long I may not even attempt to read it.
I’m with Shane, my posts are too damn long and I guess that’s a reflection of my personality (could this be a distinction and therefor a plus?). The visual cues is something I’m just now incorporating. I might need to think about breaking things into several posts; however, I look at some of the “big guys” like ProBlogger and Shoemoney and they have equally long posts so I don’t think it’s a “make or break” proposition.
Unfortunately, Ryan, I think you may be right with the whole social media – social proof thing. The internet has been and continues to be expanding at an enormous rate and you can’t read it all so you use the social proof (diggs, tweets, whatever) as a way of economizing and getting the “best of the best” on the internet.
To continue to display my verbose nature, one final point. I think that keeping these clues in mind are essential (and props for the post btw) but what are you blogging for? If it’s to be liked and noticed by everyone then maybe you should play the game 100% but if you’re genuine and passionate and maybe march to your own drum a little I think you will get noticed.
Alright, enough. Cheers!
Reed
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ResidualBacon.com is one man's journey and guide to building a stable and fruit bearing residual income tree. Tyler first started earning a small amount of passive income on a whim and a light turned on in his head. He plans on sharing his insights and reviews along the way.
I rarely post now without doing some keyword research – I like to know what my post is trying to rank for. That said there is no reason why the post can’t be useful to your readers as well – and yes I am a fan of sub-headings and bullets too – as my posts tend to the long side it helps readability