I’ve been enjoying reading everyone’s blog posts as part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  I am really impressed about the wide range of subjects you guys are covering.  I’m learning so much from you.  Today, I thought I would quickly cover the six steps to a blog that people want to share with others.  Just blogging every day is not enough.  Creating quality content will entice people to share your posts and bring more traffic (and potential customers) to your site.

Step 1: Make sure that your blog content is targeted to your ideal client.  I don’t know how many times I’ve read blogs that are aimed at beginners — yet the blog material is advanced.  You need to meet people where they are so they’ll understand and find value in what you are offering them.

Step 2: Use your keywords.  Spend some time doing some research to find what people are typing into the search engines to find you.  Use those words in your post titles and in your blog to make your content easier to find.  Don’t over do this.  Having easy to read posts trumps lots of keywords any day.

Step 3: Use an attention grabbing headline.  In this era of social media sharing – the headline will be the only thing most people see of your blog post… make it enticing.  A great place to look for headlines is in the magazine section of your local bookstore.

Step 4: Make most of your content  evergreen.  By evergreen, I mean not tied to a specific date.  People may find your information months or years later.  You still want it to be relevant to them. The exception to this is if you are announcing a new event or milestone for your business.

Step 5:  Add Value. Make sure that what you write has value and people will keep coming back.  Don’t be afraid to give away a lot of knowledge  for free.  People still need hand-holding and guidance and they will come to you because you were generous in the beginning.

Step 6: Don’t be afraid to test the waters with your blog.  You blog is an excellent place for market research.  Ask your audience questions about what they want and need.  Ask them to comment on your posts and ask you questions.

If you follow these six tips, you’ll have more comments and traffic to your blog.  What are your favorite tips and tricks for increasing involvement (and sharing) on your blog?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 at 10:30 am and is filed under Copywriting/Writing, Marketing Essentials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.