7 Tips for Good Blog Content

In today’s post, I’m going to talk about the foundation of any good blog: content.

Content is definitely king in any good blog. You can make a blog look as pretty as you like, but without good content, people will quickly grow bored and move on. You need to generate good, consistent, engaging content to keep people coming back for more.

But what makes for good content?

Content is good when it is:

1. Written with authority;
2. Written with passion;
3. Written with a purpose;
4. Written with supporting material;
5. Written well;
6. Written regularly;
7. Written originally;

Let’s look at these one at a time.

1. Written with authority

When I’m sick, I won’t go to just anyone to help me get better. I’ll go to a medical professional who has had years of training. Similarly, I take my car to a licensed mechanic. And, I don’t trust anyone else to do my computer repairs. Similarly, I only want to read content that comes from a qualified source. I read a lot, and one of the things I ask myself when I’m reading is, “what makes this person qualified to give such an opinion?” If you want to offer your opinion about something, do your best to position yourself as an expert or an informed source on the subject you are speaking about.

2. Written with passion

I remember Mr Wilson, my 11th grade english teacher, for his monotone voice and his consistently boring lectures. As much as I remember the lectures, I don’t remember any of the content of those lectures. Similarly, I will quickly turn off if I’m reading dry, boring content. Dress up your content! Make it alive! Don’t let it sit there waiting to be ripped off the page. Make the text jump out at the reader through passionate and invigorating writing!

3. Written with a purpose

Before you start blogging, outline your blog’s mission statement. Give your blog a purpose, or you’ll continually run around in circles, posting content that appears to be disjointed and with no clear, common direction. Just look at my early posts on this site. Once I sat down and defined the scope of this blog, writing content was easy. I hope that you’ll agree!

4. Written with supporting material

Don’t take my word for it – I should offer up advice from others, by linking to them directly. The internet is such a community-based medium. We can quickly and easily tie in advice from others to help support our arguments and to provide additional reference material to the topic at hand.

5. Written well

Nothing is more distracting than speling mistaks or bad grammar (yes, those spelling mistakes were intentional!). Take the time to proof read and to write clear, concise and linguistically accurate posts. Nothing will hurt your credibility more than poorly written content. Since content is king, the quality of that content will make or break your content’s reputation.

6. Written regularly

Like birds, loyal blog readers must be fed on a regular basis. So be sure to post regularly. Sporadic blog posts will not only provide you with sporadic blog readers, but it will also give readers time to forget about your blog. If someone finds a blog post engaging, they’ll likely come back soon to see if there’s more of the same content out there. Be sure to give them more content on a regular basis. That’ll keep them coming back for more.

7. Written originally

Which company has some of the most exciting product launches? Apple, of course. Why? Because they’re constantly pushing the envelope on creativity and fresh thinking. Apple knows how to keep them coming back for more, as they regularly deliver new and exciting products. We can’t all be like Apple, but we can strive to make new and exciting posts that make us stand out from the rest of the blog crowd. With so many blogs out there, you have to identify what makes you stand out from the others and maximize your effectiveness with your advantages.

Taking advantage of these 7 points should help you to focus your writing and to make it more effective. With all of these items, the importance of practice cannot be stressed enough. Practice, practice, practice. There is no other way to get good at what you want to do than to keep doing it.

And, for those that don’t want to take my word for it, here are some links to some other writing tips by other bloggers:
Writing Content Tips by Problogger.net
How to Write When You Can’t
Where to start?
12 First Rules Of Writing
First Impressions Lead To a Lasting Loyal Readership

Talk soon!

Todd