Do you enjoy writing for your blog, or does the thought of opening your laptop to craft yet another article fill you with dread? Like any other aspect of running an online business, your writing needs to be of a great standard to make sure you bring your customers what they need and support them to find the information they are looking for when they visit your site. All that is well and good, but how do you make sure your writing is of a great standard? And if you don’t like writing much, what can you do to ensure that what you actually do right hits the mark when people come to your blog?
Good writing is not as difficult as many people think. By following a few simple rules, you can sharpen up the quality of your writing, and probably begin to be a lot happier with what you produce along the way. Check out these tips for good writing on your blog.
Stick to what you know
The best bloggers out there write with an easy style that makes it obvious they know what they are on about. This is a great trait for good blog writing, as people naturally listen to experts in every field of industry. If you write your articles about things which are naturally interesting to you, that you feel super-confident about, this confidence and interest will shine through in your blog and kindle enthusiasm in your readers. Some of the most interesting posts I have ever read are written from the heart, by people who absolutely love their subject. Stick to what you know on your blog, and this confidence will keep your readers on the page until the very last word.
Keep it professional
Have you ever visited a blog only to find a number of things on it that switch you off? The basics like good grammar, a lack of typos and other errors are much more important than you may think at first. Would you trust someone who had errors on their blog? Or would you think, actually if this guy can’t be bothered to read through what he has written, I wonder what he’s like to do business with? Similarly, your business blog is not meant to showcase any radical personal opinions or draw attention to contentious stuff that you wouldn’t discuss with your customers. Unless you have a deliberately contentious blog, and you publish content which is designed to be inflammatory as your job. In which case, go for it!
Keep it relatively short
No-one wants to read ‘War and Peace’ on your blog unless you are offering a free download of ‘War and Peace’ on your blog. People tend to lose interest if you have page after page of text, no matter how great your writing is. Keep things quite short (under 1,000 words per article) unless you want your readers to drift off and go somewhere else for their information!
Keep it fresh and current
I know you know this. Keep your blog content relevant, lively and current to make your readers happy and give them what they need. Link in to things which they want to know, share your experiences where you can, and publish articles that answer their needs, staying fresh and interesting. Tap in to current affairs, or mention things which are happening in your industry right now to make your blog post as relevant as it can be. That reminds me, have you been following ‘America’s Got The X Factor Idol’ recently?