The way to write a good blog that gets real traffic is quite simple really. Make it interesting, entertaining and informative with everything in its 'right' place. You don't need to write a PhD thesis unless your subject matter is for other Academics and some of the same rules for writing a good blog post will still apply.
Write your blog for your audience:
First and foremost has to be content for real people. If you are writing for academics, then that is the way to present your material. If you are writing for children, then that is the way to present your story. Academics usually ignore childish presentation and children simply walk away from big words. Most of us readers fall somewhere in between and need to be entertained to keep on reading and learning things better.
Writing needs to suit the search engines (S.E) Too:
Then the "right" information for the search engines has to be where it is supposed to be so the search engines can find it and know where to place your blog in their indexing system; and where to place your blog in their ranking hierarchy, so real people can have it presented to them when their search query matches your subject matter.
Most people though don't read blogs to read a PhD thesis so you need to write to inform people in an entertaining way. People have a short attention span and don't like having to decipher big words or long sentences, so they will very soon click away if they find your writing style to be hard work. We are all guilty of doing that! I have come across some blogs that have been written in such a way that I feel as if I am being slowly buried in quicksand with each word making me yawn wider.
Write Conversationally:
Then I come across the same information presented in another blog that I can visualise what they are saying. Reading their blog makes me feel as if the person is standing in front of me and talking to me. And I have found that when I read something that has informed and entertained me all at the same time, I tend to remember the information better and I bookmark that site to either come back to or I subscribe to the RSS feed so I don't miss anything.
Once I have subscribed to the blog feed, unless they lose their way and start burying me alive, I rarely unsubscribe. I'm just like everybody else, I love being entertained and informed. Over time, I now have a lot of RSS feeds and even when I don't get to read all of them through, I do at least still skim the subject matter.
Writing conversationally for real people gives words energy and makes the words come alive. This is definitely best achieved by entertaining our readers while making them feel part of the conversation.
Write your blog for your audience:
First and foremost has to be content for real people. If you are writing for academics, then that is the way to present your material. If you are writing for children, then that is the way to present your story. Academics usually ignore childish presentation and children simply walk away from big words. Most of us readers fall somewhere in between and need to be entertained to keep on reading and learning things better.
Writing needs to suit the search engines (S.E) Too:
Then the "right" information for the search engines has to be where it is supposed to be so the search engines can find it and know where to place your blog in their indexing system; and where to place your blog in their ranking hierarchy, so real people can have it presented to them when their search query matches your subject matter.
Most people though don't read blogs to read a PhD thesis so you need to write to inform people in an entertaining way. People have a short attention span and don't like having to decipher big words or long sentences, so they will very soon click away if they find your writing style to be hard work. We are all guilty of doing that! I have come across some blogs that have been written in such a way that I feel as if I am being slowly buried in quicksand with each word making me yawn wider.
Write Conversationally:
Then I come across the same information presented in another blog that I can visualise what they are saying. Reading their blog makes me feel as if the person is standing in front of me and talking to me. And I have found that when I read something that has informed and entertained me all at the same time, I tend to remember the information better and I bookmark that site to either come back to or I subscribe to the RSS feed so I don't miss anything.
Once I have subscribed to the blog feed, unless they lose their way and start burying me alive, I rarely unsubscribe. I'm just like everybody else, I love being entertained and informed. Over time, I now have a lot of RSS feeds and even when I don't get to read all of them through, I do at least still skim the subject matter.
Writing conversationally for real people gives words energy and makes the words come alive. This is definitely best achieved by entertaining our readers while making them feel part of the conversation.
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