Blogging is a way to engage the audience, to teach others, to inspire people, and even drive traffic to your site. Blogging alone is enough to give individual brands an accessible way to get involved with the global voice.
But this means that the field is tough then you have ever thought, and hence, it is difficult to stand out.
With more than 2.57 million blog posts written every day, there is a clear idea that blog post is still alive. And above I said that it is difficult, but not impossible to write an engaging blog post.
The fact that you are reading this one is proof that writing a blog post is still a viable and possible option to get success online.
The only thing you need to check is that you are not just writing, but framing a quality piece of content.
So, is this really possible?
Yes, it is possible to write a blog post that is engaging and rewarding. But before we dig into those details, let me first discuss with you the precise meaning of blog writing.
Blog Writing Meaning:
When you are posting content on a blog or posting comments on anyone else’s blog then this is known as blog writing.
It simply means that writing content to be published on the blog. The content can be anything, your idea, thoughts, information, passion, or any other thing. With blog writing, bloggers are able to reach to uncountable people each and every day and that too at one point of time.
So, in order to understand blog writing better, you need to understand about blog or blog post.
What is a Blog Post?
Blog, also known as Weblog is a personal online journal or diary that allows a blogger to share their thoughts, ideas, and passions with people, companies, and everyone out there on the internet.
The blog is a medium of communication through which you can share games, content, music, videos, pictures, and other rich information with others. Besides posting, you can even allow visitors to comment on your blog and reply to the comments. The best thing about a blog is that you can do this without having any programming knowledge.
With the development of the online market, blogs have captured a vital position and have become an important aspect of SEO. With help of blogs, companies are announcing about their services and products. Blogs can also bring SEO benefits, and hence, almost every company online holds a special column for its ‘blogs.’
Blog writing styles:
Blog writing might seem simple to you, but actually, it is not. There are different ways in which you can frame a blog. Hence, to begin with, blog writing it is essential to know about the various types of blog writing styles.
1. Personal Narrative:
This is one of the easiest ways to frame a blog. It is the personal narrative style that mainly accounts writing a true story or something that has happened to you.
A large number of bloggers called this as the creative non-fiction strategy. In this style, the blog infuses elements of humor or drama to punch the story up. The essence of writing this style of blog is to ensure that the precise and true essence of the piece is not destroyed.
It is seen that blogs sharing a personal piece of information are most read and have higher rankings.
2. Confessional Blogs:
Another blog writing style is confessional style. This is considered as the trendiest style and conveniently generated a highly salacious or dramatic element in a confession manner. This tone intends to please the readers.
This style is distinct from the personal narrative style as it may not always show the truth and incidences from the real life. But it is more focused on highlighting the shock value.
3. List Style Blogs:
Another style of a blog post is the list style post. It is a simple post that may contain bullets or numbers to define a list, idea, product, statement or any other piece of information that is closely associated with the heading.
Such blogs are based on one theme and intend to offer readers with engaging and quick information that can be understood even in less than a minute time.
4. Investigative Blogs:
Investigative blogging is another type of blogging that seeks to answer mysteries, questions, and solutions that are of the best interest to the readers.
This type of blog writing style is adopted by investigators and journalists in order to unravel the truth behind a story or happening. This form of blog writing uses a specific style so that the reader has defined clues and facts towards resolving the problem. If it is written in an interesting manner then this is one of the most engaging types of blog writing styles to go with.
5. Open Letter Style:
Another way of blog writing is the open letter style. This type of style is practiced when the authors post a letter designed for one person but available to the public.
The main audience to be targeted with this writing style is the general public and hence it offers a particular style of blogging, a sense of either appreciating or congratulating or shaming. No matter what is the actual reason to write it, this style calls out for a group or an individual to highlight any aspect in the public!
This type of blog writing may involve personal statements about a person or a group.
6. Rebuttal:
This type of blog post is practiced when the author takes up an issue and discusses it with another published post. The main intention of the author is to respond to an issue in a public way.
This form of blog writing is similar to a debate practiced in the group. The author sticks to conventional issues and avoids engaging in personal insults.
7. Round-Up Writing:
Writing a round-up blog is simplest to most, but for some, this can be the toughest task. It is because this blog is general and involves describing a series of places, products, or events.
For example, you may describe the ten best places in Switzerland or the ten qualities of your product, and more. Even a blogger could write a great round of local music festivals. The main aim of this type of blog writing is to offer readers something interesting and fun to read.
8. Pictorial Writing:
This blog post is a simple post with various pictures in it. This post could be structured in form of a tutorial that gives readers detailed information through graphics. It could also be a photo album or information about a recent trip. There are endless possibilities for the pictorial blog post. The only limit is your imagination.
9. Interview Blog Writing:
This is one of the most interesting and amazing styles of writing blogs. Such blogs are written when an author interviews a person in order to share some specific expertise and story. Like, you must have read various interviews in a writing matter.
10. Instructional:
With the help of an instructional blog writing style, it is possible to tell the readers how to perform something. This can be done through a series of steps. The main aim of this type of blog writing is to offer readers with specific instructions and information on a topic, recipe, or preparation method to anything.
With so many different blog writing styles, it is possible to smash readers with really interesting and effective writing. Also, you can re-engage your readers and excite them with new offerings. But along with this, you also need to keep check of the blog post checklist so that you write an interesting and killer piece always!
Blog Post Checklist:
With this 10-point blog post checklist, you would not just able to write an interesting post always, but would also be able to streamline your blog writing process.
1. Know Your Audience:
Understanding the reader’s personas will help you identify exactly what you are writing for. This will help you address all the interests, desires, and needs of your readers. Also, it will offer you an in-depth knowledge of your audience’s interest. With a clear understanding of this, it is possible to write a post that is precise and not complicated.
2. Doing Basic Keyword Research Always Helps:
Keyword research is related to not just finding the highest volume words, but uses it as a tool for getting the insights of your reader’s perspectives. With keywords, you are able to know what your customers are searching online, what words they are looking for, and more. Hence, perform basic keyword research before you begin writing.
3. Generate a Basic Outline Of Your Post:
With the help of keyword research, phrases you have collected, and selecting a theme for the post, you would be able to draft a basic outline for your blog. The outline would include one main topic and other sub-topics that can help your audience have a fair idea about the entire blog.
4. Plan an Engaging and Attractive Title:
There is a different strategy for everyone to come up with a title. It is always best to finalize the title before you begin writing the content. This will help you stick to one theme throughout.
For example, you can stick to the How to style or solving any query or providing information on something impactful. Just make sure that whatever you are writing would offer your audience with clear information about the post.
5. The First Two Lines can Create a Huge Difference:
Make sure you frame the first two lines of your blog in a way that your readers would think that yes this is the one they have been looking for. They should agree with your statements and must be convinced that the post has really got rich information to help them out and bring the best solution to their issues or questions.
6. Write Down the Post:
You have already framed what you are writing and for whom you are writing. Hence, you need to keep these things at the forefront and chose topics that would fulfill your reader’s needs at every step. Throughout the process, just make sure you are offering a clear picture to the reader, offering information they are looking for, and delineating the content in an appreciable way.
7. Add Images in the Correct Proportion:
With a header image, you can truly impress the audience. In most cases, visual content is really helpful to get the best results. According to some studies, with an image every 100 words, it is possible to get your blog hit on social media shares.
8. Optimize the Blog for Search Results:
Eventually, your goal through the blog is bringing in maximum traffic and to engage the maximum audience. Using keywords is important and more vital is to optimize them. You must use keywords throughout the content and include tags, URL, and alt image tags to optimize the content for SEO.
9. Have a Call to Action:
Definitely, you would want to accomplish something from your post. Decide what you want from it and have a call to action accordingly. Make it clear in your post. Make sure that you offer your readers with some benefits so that they have a reason to read your post.
10. Revisit the Headline:
Once you are done with the post then you are likely to identify the need to alter the headline. Or might be there are some changes that you would find better. Hence, it is always wise to give your blog post a revisit so that you post online only the best piece.
How to come up with blog post ideas:
Some of the best ways to come with good blog post ideas are:
- To search Google and find topics that are performing well.
- To see blog posts with higher rankings and more numbers of reads.
- To search for things that you have written before and identify how they performed online.
- To paste appropriate URLs in the AdWords Keyword Planner.
- Read comments and feedback on your social channel or your blog post comments to get an idea of what
- readers feel about your posts.
Efficient bloggers are those who allow ideas to come directly. So, be an intellectual blogger and think of great ideas to create the next big blog post.