Friday, May 28, 2010

Writing A Blog Post – Part 2


Suggestions for bloggers
Originally uploaded by kentbrew
I have already talked about how often you should write a blog post. But for my last post of this week, I would like to re hash the issue in a different way. I would like to talk about different ways you can write your blog posts. I would like to cover some options that will help in breaking up the monotony of writing a blog post every single day that looks basically the same as the post from the day before.

Take it from me, it gets BORING! I maintain several blogs, all of which need daily attention, and the thought of keeping up this pace for 6 months, a year, even more is rather daunting to say the least. So, lets cover some of the options in writing a blog post, some of which I am sure you have thought of, but others may be a refreshing change.


The key here is, breaking off from your normal routine is OK to do occasionally, but don’t break your focus. It is extremely important to stay on target and to follow certain principals when maintaining a blog. Adding fun things here and there are nice, but it doesn’t pay the bills… So to speak.

So, what are your options?


1.) First and foremost you have your basic, every day blog posts. They are important, they are the vehicles that bring people in and bring people back. But how can you write daily blog posts about the same keywords? What I try to do is, stick with my primary keywords. In general, for most blogs, that will consist of 1-5 primary keywords. For this blog I concentrate on two. “Blogging for Beginners”, and “Beginner lessons for Bloggers”. But from those two keywords is where everything I do is rooted. You do not have to rewrite the same basic blog post over and over again 100 different ways. It just won’t work, people will lose interest, and you will lose interest. But what keywords can you pull from your primary niche. In more cases, there are hundreds of branching keywords that you can use that will all relate back to your primary keywords. Writing a blog post is a perfect example of a topic that is directly related to blogging for beginners.


2.) Second type of blog post would be a pillar post. To most of you this may be a new term. So, what is a pillar post? A pillar post is a big daddy of a post that is aimed at offering lots of information all surrounding your primary keyword. In many ways this post will wind up being a pillar post for me. It is going to be long, it is going to be informative, it is going to carry my primary keywords, and it is bullet pointed. Which is a whole different topic within itself, but just for general information, readers’ LOVE bullet points, they love numbered out reasoning, they love top ten lists, top five, whatever you can come up with. They are always drawn to that form of blog post, and chances are, if you provide your readers with great pillar blog posts, you will get links to those posts. That is always a positive sign that what you are saying is useful, and impressive. It is important to sprinkle in large and informative pillar posts occasionally. It is also important to spend sometime generating backlinks to your pillar posts. Do not just focus on backlinking to your root URL.


3.) Random, off topic posts is something that can be added from time to time. In general, I would not recommend you have more than one off topic post for every five targeted posts. Your readers are coming to your blog for a specific reason and if they are inundated by a bunch of off topic blog posts, they will leave before they take the time to dig for useful reading. Writing a blog post that is off topic is more for your own mental well being. It can become tiring to constantly write about the same basic premise, sprinkling in something fun and whimsical can be refreshing, mostly for you, but your readers may appreciate it also, it offers a window into you, and gives them a chance to relate on a different level.


4.) Picture posts are something some people will do from time to time. There are certain bloggers out there who have made it a career to post random pictures from around the internet and commenting on those pictures. Adding the occasional picture post that can be related to your keyword topic can be another way to break up the monotony of daily posting. And readers LOVE pictures. And as a side note, ADD PICTURES TO ALL YOUR BLOG POSTS! Don’t go overboard with it, but there are not a whole lot of individuals who are not more receptive to the visual stimulation you get from pictures. In fact, a wall of typing can be intimidating, some people may not even spend the time to read your post if it is 1000 words long and has no pictures. I personally do not spend much time making picture posts. I am trying to cram as much information into my posts as I can, and quite honestly, decorating my blog with pictures is not a strong trait of mine. I am Just am more of a meat and potatoes kinda guy. Also, same as the off topic posts, do not make this a habit unless you are going for that type of blog. Too many pictures and not enough content are not always search engine friendly. Make sure that you write a blog post or two, or 5, or 10 between your picture posts.


5.) Quiz or game style posts are something I am new to. Blogthings.com offers all kinds of little quizzes that you can add to a post in order to add some reader interaction. Don’t get carried away with these either, using blogthings will drive your readers away from your site through a link. That is not really what we are going for, but reader interaction is a good thing.


6.) Writing a post about other bloggers within your market seems counter productive in many ways, you are sending them to your competition in many ways. And while this is true, This type of blog falls in the same category as a bullet point style blog. And since your readers are looking for a specific type of information, sending them to other sites that will provide that information will be endearing to them. They will look at you as an authority in finding the information they need, and that will drive them back to you in the long run.


7.) And finally, contest posts. Offering contests are a sure-fire way to help your blog traffic. People love competition. And they love the opportunity to win something. These posts can be tricky, because not all topics lend themselves to this style post of offering. But if you can squeeze one in, you will most likely reap rewards. That is of course if your blog is already generating regular traffic, if nobody sees you, they will not be looking for something like this. It will become a lost posting.


So, there you go, some options for writing blog posts. There are many other variations of these forms of blog posts but those are something we will cove on another day. Today, as beginner bloggers, we will cover the basics, because at blogging for beginners, we are all about the basics. And in many instances, I question whether or not my content is basic enough. In fact, if you are looking for specific information, please feel free to comment I will work on posts that may revolve around what my readers are looking for. I am here to please and inform as best as possible.


Thank you for reading this beginner lesson for bloggers, and I hope to see you back again at blogging for beginners…. See how I got those keywords in one last time. Keep up the good work and DON’T GIVE UP!

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