9 tips on writing better blog posts

If you're serious about writing a blog, and you want to attract more people to contribute with comments and be regular visitors, then you're going to want to know how to write better, and how to inspire people to write comments. Read this article if you want to learn more tips on how to write better blog posts.

1. The bait

The bait is your title. It needs to be attractive, to inspire the reader to find out more. Make sure it's informative about the content, but also very short.

The title is what people are going to see in search engine listings, so make sure it includes those key words that are relevent to the content.

2. The hook

Once you've got the reader to take the bait, you need to have a good hook. Your hook is going to be the first paragraph of your post. Remember that most people will find your site via a search engine, so they're going to quickly see if it has the content they're looking for. If it doesn't, they're going to go look somewhere else. If you can grab them right there with the hook, you'll keep them reading.

Of course, the hook needs to be provocative and controversial. It has to grab the reader's attention and make a point, all in one go. If they don't read anything more of your post, that first paragraph is the only chance you've got to tell them what your thoughts and opinions are.

3. The reward

If the reader has been hooked by your first paragraph then they're going to want to know why you've written what you have. Giving them the 'why' is your way of rewarding them for staying.

Use a couple of paragraphs to to tell them why you made the statements in the hook. Keep it short and informative, no more than two paragraphs. Include humour if you can. People love to laugh, and if you can help them do that, they'll be encouraged to stay and keep reading. Since you've managed to keep them past the first paragraph, you don't want to lose them now!

4. The inspiration

For people to be inspired to leave their own comments, there often needs to be something controversial for them to comment on. Sure, you can write the posts that don't offend anyone, or that inspire people to be or feel better, but if you really want to get people discussing your posts, you need to make them more controversial.

Some of the controversial things you can write about include: politics (war on terror, oil, elections), abortion (right-to-life issues), human rights, religion, political correctness (racism, freedom of speech, welfare), etc etc. Anything that can inflame the emotions are good topics to write about.

5. Make your point

If you can keep your post about a single point rather than several points, then you're going to make it more attractive for people to stay and read. The less for them to read, the better.

If you really want to make a number of points, then write a different post for each point you want to make.

6. The KISS principle - 'Keep it simple, stupid!'

The more detail you put into expressing your thoughts, the more people are going to swtich off. They just want it to be short and easy to read. They want to know your thoughts using as few words as possible. Keep the complexities of your thoughts to yourself.

Before you press that publish button, read your post as if you're a random reader who's completely clueless about whatever it is you're talking about. Be honest with yourselff and ask yourself if the reader is likely to hang around and keep reading. If not, then keep editing it.

If a sentence can afford to have words removed and still keep the same meaning, then do so. When the meaning is lost, put back the word you last removed and leave it at that.

7. Let the reader form the conclusions

Don't just insult someone or something. Provide all the reasons why you don't like them, and let the reader insult them for you!

If the reader is given information with which to form their own opinion, that will mean more to them than just reading what your opinion is.

8. Be passionate

If you're not passionate about something, then don't write it. If you don't have the belief in your own opinion, then why should the reader listen to you?

When you write what you're passionate about, that's going to be obvious to your readers, and they're going to feel it. Writing with passion will inspire your readers to feel almost as passionate about it as you!

9. Have a moral to the story

If the reader has gotten to the end, they want there to be a point to it, so they can justify the time spent reading it. Give them a moral, a one-line statement that they can take away with them which will summarise the post and stick in their memory.

For example, the moral to this post could be:

Get serious with your writing, and you'll get a serious increase in the readers who respond to what you write!


(Thanks to Not PC and his article (Polemic writing: Use a sniper's rifle, not a shotgun) for the inspiration.)