20 Tips for Better Blog Posts

Having great content is not enough. With the explosion of blogs, you are just a small fish in a huge pond...why should anyone read your blog. Most of my favorite blogs I read because I like the writer's tone and what they have to say.

So, how should I write my blog posts? I will try and tackle that question today. Below are 20 tips for better blog posts.

1. Be Funny - Let's face it, the reader wants to be entertained just as much as being informed.
2. Be Quirky - It's ok to have short quick little posts. Or rants about things. Not everything has to be gold.
3. Share yourself - Share intimate details about your life. Let your readers get to know who you really are.
4. Don't be condescending - Readers don't like to be talked down to. Write on their level.
5. Don't be dry and boring - This all goes back to the reader needing to be entertained. If your blog is about Mortgages, sure it's a boring topic. Be creative and see what you can do to spice it up with some jokes or references.
6. Be friendly and polite - You don't want to ofend anyone who is reading your articles. If someone asks questions, answer them as quickly as possible.
7. Be generous - If you have information that will help other people, share it. You'd be surprised how it will come back later, ten fold.
8. Give credit - make sure you talk about other bloggers in your niche. Link to their sites and give them credit.
9. Be an expert - You don't have to be the know it all of your niche, but you will gain more readers if you actually know what you are talking about. If your not an expert, at least do your best to sound like you are...pretend.
10. Be helpful - Offer advice, tips and tricks. Give something to the reader that is useful.
11. Keep it Short - Don't post these long 10,0000 word articles. Keep everything short and concise. Break up your article into a series of articles if you need to. 500 words should be the max.
12. Make it easy to read - Use short sentences and paragraphs. Use a lot of bullet lists and bold your keywords. Make it easy for readers to skim your information quickly.
13. Be positive - Don't be negative in your posts. Try and talk about things you like, rather than ranting about negative things.
14. References - Quoting lines from songs, movies or books is always fun as well.
15. Urge for comments - Write in such a way that your readers will want to give their opinion. You want to have lots of interaction and feedback from your readers.
16. Images - Include images in your posts whenever possible. Better yet, include video in your posts to help get your message across.
17. Titles - Use intriguing titles. Lots of times readers will just skim through your titles looking for information. Make your titles descriptive and clear.
18. Spelling and Grammar - Make sure that you don't have any spelling issues and make sure your grammar is correct. Nothing kills your expert status faster than a typo or poor grammar.
19. Use Keywords - Make sure you have a nice keyword ratio in each article. Don't over use keywords, you don't want the reader seeing the same word 100 times. There is a fine line between writing for the search engines and writing for human readers.
20. Do your homework - Keep your eye on other sites in your niche. What are they writing about? What is their writing style? Nothing makes you look like an expert more than breaking news first.

Those are the 20 tips for better blog posts. If you have any others that you'd like to share, please post in the comments.

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