Is timing all that important in the world of online marketing where information flows freely twenty four hours a day, seven days a week?

Some bloggers and users of social media are satisfied to hammer out a post or send a tweet whenever they can. Others stay up late editing the next day’s blog post and setting it to auto-post at 4 AM. Is there really any advantage?

In a word, yes. In two words: definitely maybe.

Online marketers and community managers want to know one simple thing: when can they put their information, products, and special offers in front of the greatest number of people at one time. By learning about the timing of blog posts and social media updates, they’ll be able to maximize their exposure relative to the time they invest and even capture audiences that online marketers have neglected.

When to Use Social Media

Many businesses focus their blog posts and social media efforts on the work week, assuming that their audiences are most attentive during week days. However, consider this statistic from a 2009 Wired Magazine survey: 54% of companies block Facebook and Twitter. That means a ton of readers will be looking for something to read in the evenings and on the weekend. With that in mind, let’s look at some advice on when to use social media and to post blog content.

Two years of research by Dan Zarella of the marketing firm Hubspot found that the morning isn’t necessarily the best time to use social media.

• All Social Media: Interaction levels remain fairly steady on the weekends in comparison to the week.
• Twitter: Click-through rates for links shared are highest between 11 am and 5 pm EST.
• Twitter: The most retweets occur between 2 pm and 5 pm. In order to monitor the effectiveness of your retweets, check out the website Tweet When.
• Facebook: Linking to your blog or website more than once a day will not bring significant benefits. In fact, posting too frequently on Facebook will back-fire.
• Facebook: Weekends and off-peak times are also effective for click-throughs since there are fewer links shared and many readers are still looking for good content in their off hours.
• E-mail Campaigns:  The highest open and click-through rates happen on Saturday mornings. If you send an e-mail newsletter or a digest of your blog posts, schedule it for 4 or 5 am on Saturday. Publishing professionals Jane Friedman and Michael Hyatt send their newsletters at that time and offer many tips valuable tips to her readers.

Whatever you do, you need to test the response of readers to your blog posts and social media updates. Different industries and users may respond in their own ways. For example, if you’re blogging in order to receive links from experts, Zarella recommends aiming for early in the morning.

One of the most important things to keep in mind for blogs targeting readers in the United States, the majority of the population is located on the East Coast.

If you want to dramatically increase your page views, you need to also focus on your post frequency. However, if you can’t keep up with one, two, or three posts a day, post timing will become far more important. In addition, entrepreneur and blogger Tim Ferris suggests that a lousy blog post can be far more harmful to your influence than no blog post.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger wrote back in 2008 that his weekend posts are typically lost in the shuffle compared to weekday posts.  When he hosted Daniel Zarella to share his findings about blog viewing trends, his findings continued to hold true.  Weekday mornings EST are when blogs have the most readers.

This means that marketers can still reach a lot of readers on social networks on the weekends and in the afternoons. However, when it comes to attracting links and more blog readers, the majority of readers are looking for content on week day mornings. Though the audience on weekends may be smaller for a blog post, social media tools and a lack of competition and a companion e-mail campaign may make weekends a highly effective time to find readers and customers.

About the Author

This guest post is written by Lior Levine, a marketing consultant for a web hosting company that lists the best web hosting companies online. Lior also consults for the MA in political science international program at the Tel Aviv University.

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When it comes to reader engagement, crafting an attention-grabbing headline is not the only thing you should consider. You might even write a great introductory paragraph that will make your readers click the little “read more” link on your blog, but the hard part is drawing their eyes down the page, and keeping them hooked until the final message.

Great content is essential, but it only goes so far. What your readers are looking for is a summary of the main points, in an easy-to-find-and-follow format. Just like reading a magazine, readers want to be able to skim your content and still pick up the essential points.

For this purpose, we have HTML heading tags such as H1, H2, H3, H4, and so on and so fourth. While H1 and/or H2 will be used for your catchy post titles (check out the guide on SEO-friendly headlines), H3 and H4 should be used throughout your post to draw the reader down the page and summarize portions of your content. Either tag has a slightly different purpose, and we’ll discuss how to use them in your posts.

When to include H3 tags

So when should you include these tags? There are a few instances when you might use an H3 tag in your content. The first is when you shift in the focus of your blog post – like moving from the introduction to the first main point. In addition, you should use h3 tags in the following situations:

1. When changing the main subject of your post (examples to definitions);
2. When separating quoted sources;
3. When separating unrelated information (such as in showcase posts).

H3 tags are slightly smaller than H2 tags, and will provide an obvious contrast to the surrounding content. In addition, search engines will treat them on differently than the H1 or H2 tags, making your pages more relevant.

When to use H4 tags

The even smaller h4 tag should be used within related content areas to divide content even further. You could use H4 tags when:

1. Pointing out a particular situation;
2. Separating source from content;
3. Asserting calls-to-action (“download now”);
4. Asking for feedback;
5. Separating your feed and other auto-content from the post.

H4 tags are fantastic for organizing information within different areas of you posts, such as when you present a download with specifics or a showcase with a similar layout per entry. In addition, h4 tags carry the same SEO effects as h3 tags, incurring a different kind of indexing by bots.

Conclusion

By using sub-headings in your posts, you can help the reader distinguish the main ideas in your content more easily, and improve the layout of your content overall. Sub-headings are especially essential for longer posts, such as pillar articles or reviews. Consider them not only for their SEO value, but also for their blog post sculpting usefulness.

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One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make – but still expect reactions and feedback – is to ignore the basic fact that in order to engage their readers, they need to sell their blog posts. No, I’m not talking about literally selling your content on article market websites. I’m talking about selling ideas through your blog posts to your most favorite customers, your readers. Are you ready to close this sale?

It’s not a big stretch of imagination thinking of your ideas as if they were products you need to sell through you blog posts. Looking back at a past article on Blogsessive, we can link the proper blog post structure to one of the most basic, yet highly effective selling technique: The AIDA Model.

What is AIDA?

AIDA is an acronym that stands for: Attention, Interest, Desire & Action, and is a selling model developed back in 1925 by psychologist E.K. Strong Jr. Don’t be fooled by the date. The AIDA model still holds strong and is still being considered by many as the copywriter’s best friend.

How does this model apply to writing blog posts? Simple! It is enough to link each of this acronym’s letter to one of the four main elements of your blog post:

• Come up with an attention grabbing title;
• Write an interest startling introduction;
• Proceed to creating desire and motivation in the body part;
• Close with a call to action.

Now, let us get down and dirty with each of these four steps.

The Title – Grabbing Attention (A)

You know that it’s a fast world we’re living in and time has become more and more valuable. With this increased value, people have reduced the time they spent scanning blogs to scanning blog posts, and nowadays to mostly scanning titles. So, you should consider your post’s title as your first idea pitch. Make sure it’s a winning pitch, otherwise, the “sale” will most probably fail before it even begins.

In order to write a good title you need to be concise, focused and why not, intriguing. Address a real problem, a real interest. A good title generates a spontaneous question or dilemma within your reader’s mind instantly.

Let’s take this post’s title as an example. It uses a direct approach through “you” and it creates a dilemma: Why the heck do I need to sell my blog posts? Or maybe there’s something else the author is trying to tell me?

Now, let’s twist the title a bit (more) and take a look at a less fortunate format: “Wondering if writing is anything like selling”. A title like this shows uncertainty. People don’t have really have time to waste with your insecurity. People need facts and they need them quick. The most probable reaction a title like this would get is: “OK dude, keep wondering! Let me know when you find out.”

The topic of writing attention grabbing titles is itself a very big one and I will not develop it here any further. Instead, I’m going to guide you to some of my favorite posts on this matter, the “How to Write Magnetic Headlines” series on Copyblogger.com.

The Introduction – Generating Interest (I)

So, you’ve managed to write a pitch-winning headline, what’s next? Now, it’s time to sustain your readers’ attention by writing an introductory paragraph that gets in touch with their interests.

State the problem right from the start. Let readers find themselves in your little “case-study”. Let them know that you have come up with a solution to their problem. Also, know that interest wear off pretty quick and in order to further engage your readers, ending the introduction with a formula that actively involves them is a good idea. Take this article’s introductory paragraph for example and see how it ends:

Are you ready to close this sale?

If you have managed to generate enough interest, your readers will definitely continue reading the post body.

The Blog Post Body – Creating Desire (D)

Now, it’s time to build on the readers’ interest. You have convinced them that what you’re about tho share sounds good, in theory, but how will they be affected?

Writing the body is an action-benefit game. Simply listing the actions they need to take, or an item’s features in a review is not enough. You need to motivate readers and this is done by explaining how each of the actions or features will influence them and solve their problems. Come up with real examples, testimonials if necessary. Strengthen your theory with solid facts.

Do not make the mistake of keeping your best for later. Hit your readers with the best you’ve got, right from the start. Make an impression. If not, you risk loosing their interest before they even get to read your “best section”.

Remember to always keep the writing at a conversational level in order maintain the reader engagement. I’ve talked about engaging writing before if you need to refresh your knowledge.

The Closing – Call to Action (A)

With enough desire built, it’s time to seal the deal. A successful idea sale is confirmed by the feedback you receive through comments, emails, backlinks and so on. Summarize in a small phrase the best of your post for those who scanned through the body part, then jump to the “call to action“.

The time for pleasantries is gone. When closing your article, you don’t need to give options. There’s no need for questions that might encourage readers not to deliver feedback.

Stay away from questions that might return a negative answer ( “Have you used ‘product X’ before?” ). They are bound to keep readers away from that comment form. Who wants to waste even more time discussing the negative impact or lack of experience with an action or product?

Instead, be decisive. Encourage readers to interact through subtle persuasive lines like “Share your experience with me / the community!”

Sometimes, a post scriptum (PS) empowers the call to action by delivering an amazing feature that deliberately left out.

PS: Have I mentioned that this technique improved my comments rate with over 200%?

And That’s How You Sell a Blog Post

You capture attention. You build interest. You create desire and then hit your readers with the most powerful call to action you’ve got! The AIDA model is indeed your best friend.

And since titles are decisive to win the first pitch, pitch me with your best title so far and a link to the blog post you’ve “sold” best!

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How many times did you come across a blog post that seamed to deliver the right information, but the post itself was just too hard to follow? Countless times, I bet.

And so, what seamed like the perfect solution for your searches, easily turns into a nightmare.

Quality content is NOT enough

Writing a good article is obviously not enough to make people read it. There are many things that can be done to attract readers and back links to it. In the past, I wrote a few blog writing tips on how to make your blog post more readable and the proper structure of a blog post. Now, it’s time to take a look at some of the things that you should not do when writing a post.

The traps of WYSIWYG editors

For most people, the WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get) built in the blogging platform is a great tool, one that easily allows us to style our content in just about any way we want, but this “power” is tricky. Here are a few things you need to take in consideration whenever publishing a new article:

1. Publishing and editing content

Don’t simply copy-paste content in the blog’s editor from any other source that allows styling (MS Word, websites etc). The styling will also be imported and will break your blogs’ overall look and feel. Try passing the text through a basic editor, like notepad first, and apply styling in the blog’s editor after. Another alternative would be writing the article directly in your blog’s editor or using a publishing software like the Windows Live Writer.

Take a quick look at Windows Live Writer in this introductory video:

2. Misusing fonts

If your blog’s theme is using one font-family, you should stick to it when creating or importing content. If you’re not satisfied with it, you should edit the overall style of the theme instead of just using different fonts in blog posts. Adds a lot to a blog’s clean, friendly look. Also, keep in mind to always use web safe fonts. Never mix up fonts, too many colors or font sizes. A proper, easy to read font size is about 11 to 13 points/pixels.

This is not a good thing to do:

3. Acting all emotional

Blogging requires passion. If you don’t have it, you might as well quit. But, when too much passion gets expressed in your blog posts by using smiling faces and all sorts of emoticons, you might just manage to drive a few readers away. I don’t use them, but if you insist on using them, don’t overdo it.

4. Excessive linking

While linking to other blogs is a sign of appreciation, filling your blog post with links is not. It will make your post hard to follow, will probably get skipped by readers (links will not be clicked) and from a SEO point of view, you’ll probably get penalized by search engines for being considered a spammer or content scraper.

5. Embedding different types of media

It’s nice to see a relevant image here and there or a video embedded, but again, overdoing it is simply madness. Of course, if your blog post would be a gallery of photographies from an event, or a tutorial that requires videos and images it’s ok, but even so, you need to place the media in a clean, proper order to make it easier on your readers’ sight.

6. Advertisments

If you’re looking to monetize your blog, having ads showing up in hot areas it’s a must, just don’t place an ad at the end of every paragraph of your post. It’s simply annoying!

Over to you

From a visual point of view, that about covers all the things that drive me away from reading a blog post.
How about you? What similar situations have you encountered while browsing the blogosphere?

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Have you ever come across a post title that startled your interest, but as soon as you got to the content you couldn’t read it? I did! And why didn’t I read the post if the title was so interesting? Because the content was too cluttered. Because no matter how valuable was the information, I simple could not pull my self to go through a labyrinth of words to find the good ideas.

When you’re offering quality information, are you willing to lose your readers because you did not organize your blog post the right way? It’s extremely important to have a better structure in each blog post, before you hit that “Publish” button, and by doing so, you will dramatically increase your blog’s readability.

What I need to find in a blog post

As I said, I often come across long, cluttered posts that annihilate the initial interest. I bet that most of them offered great insight on different matters, but, to make me read them it would have taken some of these elements to guide me:

• Write a short introductory paragraph and tell me exactly what I’m about to read.
• Make use of paragraphs and line breaks. Huge blocks of text are very hard to scan.
• Make use of lists. I’m a list fanatic. Lists are easy to scan and stand out of all those text blocks. Try to put valuable information in them.
• Whenever you talk about numbers and statistics, use graphics. It’s much easier for me to read and interpret a graph, instead of reading 2 paragraphs about percentages.
• Give me more things to read. In your posts, sometimes you mention things that are related to the topic, but you don’t want to develop more. Link them to a place where I can read more about them, preferably on your blog, but it’s OK if it’s elsewhere too (Wikipedia.com for example).
• Whenever you link to another blog post or website, use strong, descriptive text anchors.
• Ask me questions, smart questions. I love to put my mind at work, and if the question is interesting enough, I’ll answer in your comments, or even blog about it, giving you a free backlink.
• Create blog post sections and use subheadings so that I can jump between paragraphs of interest.
• Use basic text styles to make some ideas or elements more noticeable. Use bold and italics.

Conclusion

To achieve success in life or business, you need to be organized. A post is successful when it gathers more readers and backlinks. Organize it. Keep the important information clean and noticeable, and you will see not only more readers, but also more time spent on your blog and a lower bounce rate.

If you’re looking for more information on how to organize your blog post you should also read this article: The Proper Structure of a Blog Post.

Photo Credits to Jay Simons.

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We’ve all heard the cliché “Content is King”. And it’s true – the more quality content your site has, the more both the readers and the search engines will like you for it. However, good content only means something when it’s presented properly: you could have the best tips on how to make money to be found anywhere, but if the structure of the blog post isn’t right, then it’s just as if those killer tips weren’t even there.

Let’s start at the beginning: the crucial part of any blog post is the introductory paragraph. This should be no more than a couple of lines and should be short and snappy, summarizing the article. The purpose of the first couple of sentences is to inform the reader about the post to come, and entice him or her into reading the whole thing with promises of some juicy content.

Next comes the main content. Different points should always be separated by different paragraphs, possibly with their own sub-heading. Either these sub-headings or the first sentence of each new paragraph should be the “leader” sentence. This is somewhat akin to the introductory paragraph: it should summarize the lines to come and almost force the reader to carry on exploring the post. Like the first paragraph, the leader should be short and snappy, ideally containing a controversial phrase. Controversy sells best on the web, and a unique and intriguing leader sentence will lure your readers into continuing to read the paragraph. Example leader sentences could be: ‘I can make you rich, with little effort on your part, in seven days flat.’ or ‘For years people have wasted their money on expensive blogging platforms without realising there was a free alternative.’ The rest of the paragraph should solely be based around the leader sentence, and should embellish it until a new point needs to be made. Remember: new point, new paragraph.

In addition to all of this, you need to keep your reader interested. Break up paragraphs often to avoid big chunks of text. As the average time spent on a website is purely a matter of seconds, you need all the help you can get into persuading the reader that your blog post is worth reading. If you have lists, then always use numbers or bullet points. Never nestle or embed them, that is to say never put lists in an ordinary sentence using commas in the middle of a paragraph. In fact, always try and turn things into lists where possible. They’re easy to reference, read and find. “Top 20 Blogging Platforms” sounds much better than “An in-depth discussion of the pros and cons of several of the leading blogging platforms”. People always need to be able to easily access and digest information.

Don’t forget your summary paragraph: a short round-up of what you’ve been talking about, and if necessary a conclusion. Ideally, include RSS and further information to aid your readers. A cliff-hanger which subtly promotes your next post is another great idea.Good luck!

A guest post by Heebie.

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