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Soon after one starts blogging, the fact that just posting the entries and waiting for an indefinite “them” to come is not really working well hits you. Posts need exposure, especially for new blogs that don’t have an established readership. Even when we’re talking about a well known blog, the audience has its preferences when it comes to where they like to receive the latest updates. And Facebook is one of those places where you can reach a lot of new or returning visitors.

As it happens with any other social media channel, the blog author’s connections are limited. But their readers come with their own friends that might be interested in what the blogger has to say. So making it easy for them to share your fresh stories on Facebook is important. You’re faced with two options – going for the Facebook Share button or choosing the Facebook Like or Recommend button that’s so popular right now.

Most times, Share buttons are placed at the beginning of the post. They’re easy to spot and a visitor shares the story with a few clicks. Recommend or Like buttons are usually smaller and harder to spot, especially when there are no prior recommendations. Yet when a few people have already clicked the like button, you’ll see how many of them have done so and if they are people in your network, their photos will also appear.

The names of those who have already recommended the story add credibility. If your friends, the people whose updates you follow, think this story is worth reading and sharing, it probably is. The one seeing the recommendations will more likely read and share it.

It’s also important to note that a single click on the Facebook Like button is a lot easier than a Share. People find it fast and painless and don’t think of it as a big effort. They just push the button and continue to read the story or its comments.

If you’re inclined to choose the Like button, you now need to consider Facebook visibility! A simple like comes with a quick update on the Facebook feeds saying X likes the Z story. A share comes with a link to the story, an excerpt and eventually a photo. If the person sharing it adds their comments, they will also show up on their wall and in their friends news streams.

The trick is the Facebook Like button also allows visitors to add their comments and share the story. But people sometimes overlook this feature. The option to add your comments and post them to your Facebook page shows up after liking the story. So a second action is required, which some would choose to say no to.

Best solution to decide which to use? Trial and error! Add each button to your website and see how people react. Add them both for further testing and see what the outcome is. Then decide which button suits you better!

Have you added Facebook Like and/or Facebook Share buttons to your blog? Which worked better in your case?

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There are a lot of bloggers out there that write great content and even if they get a decent amount of traffic, some of them don’t seem to have a lot of interaction with their readers. On top of that, some of them might discover your site from the search engines and never come back again, even if they liked it. Seriously, they could have forgotten your URL or website name.

Your goal is to grow as much as possible with your current traffic. There are many different ways to get more traffic to your blog or website, but why not establish a better connection with your current readers from the start. Master this and then you can work on getting more unique visitors later on. So listed below are some ways to accomplish this and brand your website or blog:

1. Email Optin Newsletter Form

One of my favorite suggestions is to display an email opt in newsletter form on your site. If you’re using a WordPress blog platform, then you can place it in a widget on the side. In order to get an opt in form, you will need to sign up for a email service such as Aweber, Constant Contact, along with multiple others out there.

Another tip is to choose a newsletter form that is eye popping and has a good call to action. Then once you got a large list of email subscribers, you can easily email them about a new post that you made. This is more direct than having them subscribe to an RSS feed because the message is sent straight to their email address. RSS feed subscriptions can also be powerful and should be used along with email newsletters. Also, RSS is free so don’t forget to display a RSS feed on the site as well.

2. Subscribe to Comments Plugin

Another favorite tip is to use a free plugin called “Subscribe to Comments” for WordPress. Quick Online Tips uses this itself as shown on the bottom of the comments section and all they have to do is check the box. This allows readers to get email notifications after they submit a comment. That way they don’t have to keep checking up on the blog to see if someone answered their question.They just get an email that shows any comments placed after them and it gets more exposure to your blog so they are more likely to reply to the conversation. It gets them coming back to your blog.

3. Social Media

This has been discussed before, but you sometimes need to do more than the average person does. Instead of posting to social media sites and expect people to start following you, go out and read other peoples information and leave comments. You should look for targeted and similar subject areas. For an example, in Facebook you can do a search for your topic and register on a fan or group page. Sometimes there are thousands of people registered on one fan page. By interacting with a large fan page and leaving a link to your site in the signature can help get people to notice you.

4. Conversations with Readers

My third tip is to actually interact with your readers on the blog. Write a sentence or two at the end of your blog post telling them how much you would appreciate a comment or tell them to ask a question. Then come and reply to their questions or think of some to ask them. Usually having them ask questions will help lead you to more blog post ideas because some people start to become stuck with new ideas to write about. So this can be a big helper to keep your blog fresh with ideas and the readers will be more eager to come back for the whole post.

I hope this has helped and if you implement these tips you will see your blog grow. With that said, please share your own experiences, or thoughts or any question that you might have. I appreciate any feedback or if you have a tip, leave it in the comments section. Thank you!

About the Author

This is a guest post by writer Eric Woolf from the Pixels and Dots web design team. Please leave him your comments below or on the Pixels and Dots blog.

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A year ago, I wrote about creating reader-engaging posts. In that article, I discussed the benefits of creating posts that got your readers involved. Now I want to point out some techniques and formulas content that will keep your readers talking, on and off your blog.

For your content to truly be great, you don’t want people just reading it. You want people discussing it. However, many bloggers struggle to create “conversation-worthy” content. What is the magical formula to sparking discussion?

As it turns out, all you really need to spark imagination is a little imagination. While there are many ways for you to draw in readers, it is the creation of discussion that will keep them here. Here are some formulas for creating comment-worthy content every time.

1. Be Entertaining

Half of the readers of blogs on the internet do not actually focus on educational value – they focus on entertainment. If you can get people to have some fun while still learning your lessons and understanding your primary message, then people will start talking about your content. Here are some example entertaining headlines:

• 23 Reasons Your Content Reminds me of my Moldy Sweater
• An Open Letter to the Makers of My Horrible Couch
• Blogging: Better than Freshly-Baked Sliced Bread

2. Create a New Perspective

This works especially well if you happen to be up-to-date on the issues in your niche. Putting an new perspective on popular assumptions, news-worthy events, or old-time sayings will get people talking about your ideas. Readers are always looking for more and more information on a subject, and if you can offer them something never before read, they will start talking about it. Here are some examples of New Perspective posts:

• Is Content Really King?
• Can Scammers Market Better Than You?
• Who Care’s About the First Lady’s Wardrobe?

3. Be Personal

When someone tells a story about themselves and you find it interesting, you pass it on, don’t you? Readers love hearing more about the bloggers behind the content, and if you can provide them with some insight into your mind, they will end up discussing your writings and your authority even more. Some fantastic personal posts might be:

• How I Started My First Profitable Website
• 34 Life Lessons I Learned from the Marines
• Why I Will Never Go Back to Ohio

If you can make readers discuss your content, your blog will grow simply by word-of-mouth and so will your authority. Learning to create not simply posts, but ideas and discussions will help you to develop a thriving community. Discussion is the foundation of any great society, so make sure your content gets people talking!

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Your introductions are not that great. Sorry to be rude, but you could be getting ten times the readers if you only wrote better opening paragraphs. If you’re wondering how this is possible, consider the opening to this post. How did I grab your attention?

Your blog could have the most informative content on the internet with a design that blows others out of the water and still not get a lot of readers. The reason for this is that your introductions just aren’t sucking readers into your content. You need to get them hooked on your posts, right from the start. To do this, you’ll need to pull a few tricks out of your sleeve.

Five Sure-Fire Introduction Formulas

The Hypothetical Situation

Imagine this: you come across a blog post that assumes you have $5,000 to spend on a start-up website, and asks if you think you’d blow it on the wrong things. Sounds like you’re interested in your budgeting now, huh?

The hypothetical situation is great for drawing attention from specific types of readers. It takes some imagination to put yourself in the shoes of readers, but once you’re there, they’ll follow you wherever you take them.

The “no offense” Introduction

This is where you start your blog post with an “honest truth.” The same technique is used in the intro paragraph above. Explain to your readers (kindly) what they’re doing wrong, and why. Then proceed to the solution. This should be used with some light humor.

The Overwhelming Factoid

The overwhelming factoid technique involves digging up a seemingly startling fact, such as “50% of twitter users are spam bots!” or “40% of Blogsessive readers are actually non-bloggers.”

When using the overwhelming factoid, it’s best to use either percentages or a seemingly large number, such as “Google makes 1.2million selling T-shirts!” Since Google makes billions, this really isn’t that startling. Still, it brings in some readers.

The Startling Rhetorical Question

You like making money, right? Well if you take advantage of the Startling Rhetorical Question, you’ll be making lots of it from visitors who desperately answer “yes!” to your question. Try starting a blog post with a question about your readers’ desired outcome. Would they like to gain 200% more traffic? Of course they would.

The Personal Admission

I have to be honest – these tips really work. The Personal Admission will have readers interested in your content because they connect with you. Personal admissions range from “to be honest – I don’t think this works” to “to tell you the truth – this changed my life.” A personal endorsement is the most powerful form of marketing, and you can use your own authority to your advantage when crafting great posts.

Introductions can often be overlooked by even the best blogger. However, writing a great introduction can just about double your reader engagement. These techniques can even be combined and mismatched in the body of the post to keep your reader’s attention. Sounds awesome, right?

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I have a secret – this post is going to be loaded with grab words. You might be wondering what exactly a “grab word” is. That’s perfectly okay, because you’re going to learn not only what a grab word is, but also what it does for your content and your blog.

But wait, there’s more! I’m also going to give you a list of grab words you can use to generate interest on your blog, to engage your readers!

What is a “Grab Word”?

A “grab word” is a word that grabs the reader’s attention. Words such as “attention, free, money, sex, radical, new.” There are tons and tons of grab words that you can use to enhance your content. The best part? Your readers won’t even know or care that you’re using specific words to make them listen! If you use them correctly, your content will have more personality and your readers will love you for it.

Grab words work because they change the dynamic of the content. Instead of phrasing your articles around yourself and your knowledge, you’re phrasing the article around the reader and what he or she wants to hear, learn, or experience. Grab words form a strong connection with the reader, and in turn, suck them into your content so you can deliver the primary message.

7 Examples of Grab Words

Are you ready? Let me give you some examples of grab words you can start working into your blog posts. I’m going to share something with you – there are hundreds of grab words and, yes, grab “phrases” that you can use on your blog to raise interest. However, let’s start with a few basics:

• Listen Up!
• Free!
• New
• Coming Soon!
• That’s not all…
• I have a secret…
• Transform

How to Use Grab Words

The premise is simple. Go about writing your blog post as usual, and every here or there, insert a phrase specifically for attention. Instead of saying “I’d like to talk about…” say “let me tell you about” or “you might be wondering“. This will draw your readers in more, because you’re making the sentence about them!

Quite frankly, you could throw a grab word in every sentence if you wanted. Ultimately it’s up to you where you place these words, but simply trying to work them into your sentences will improve your familiarity with them, and transform your content into must-read material for your blog’s readership. One little suggestion is to use grab words to create suspense.

It’s easy to take your content from mundane to awe-inspiring with just the usage of a few simple words! Imagine the possibilities creating customer grabbing content will deliver you. By utilizing some of these phrases, you can make your content flow, draw readers’ eyes down the page, and ultimately sell them on your idea. It’s that easy!

Photo credits to propter

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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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Dear folks, I’ve been thinking of a way to give back some of the appreciation you’ve shown me since day one, a way to compensate for the time you spend reading these blog posts and commenting upon them.

Initially, the famous “Top Commentators” plugin crossed my mind, but since it will be hard to keep out those who (unfortunately) try to “beat the system”, I’ve decided to choose another method.

Since I already go through every comment I receive and appreciate those comments that contribute to the amount of quality information of this blog, every month, I will pick one of my commentators to be awarded as “Reader of the Month”.

I will not base my decision on the number of comments you leave, but rather on how useful and on-topic they are. There will also be other factors that will affect my decision, but since I’m not trying to guide you on how you should react on and toward Blogsessive, I will not disclose them.

So, what does the “Reader of the Month” get, besides the title? Public recognition manifested in listing his/her name along with a do-follow link to their blog/website on the homepage of Blogsessive, between the promo boxes and the content.

Please note that reader blogs and websites used as pure product promotion tools or containing adult/illegal materials will never get nominated.

So, starting with February 1st, I’ll be watching the activity here a bit closer and on March we’ll have our first “Reader of the Month” nominee.

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As many of you know, when submitting a story to social news or bookmarking site, you risk having a lot of traffic to that page alone and having people leave your site immediately after reading the post in questions. There are several things you can do to keep readers engaged and direct them to different articles: really great content, related posts, links in your sidebar and many more.

But the purpose of this article is not to teach you how to go about getting legitimate traffic; it is to show you how not to act to get the same, yet temporary result. There’s a new practice: something mixing the multiple page posts with the well know “read full post link” used on blog homepages. It translates into going to the post page, reading one or two paragraphs and seeing a “read more” link.

It’s annoying! And it will work once, twice, three times, but after having the nice reader click and see the entire article, you are back to square one: how do you keep them from moving to a different site?

Besides, readers, like a lot of other people, are lazy sometimes. They like to get what they were promised and what they expect when following a link. All of us social media users expect a full article when we hit that link, so it’d better be there! Let’s say the content is OK and we move past our urge to close the tab and we actually read. What do you think will happen at your next submission? Will we click again or simply click away?

Is your content worth “spending” an extra-click?

And here comes the ugly part. After the initial page intro, when actually clicking the artificial “more” link, the content is crappy. This is the worst scenario. It might increase the number of page views and add an extra second to the time spent on site, but it still would make readers run away at speed of light afterward.

Are multiple pages any different? I for one prefer having the content placed in a few pages to endlessly scrolling down to reach the end of a post. But if you add a new page after every two paragraphs, it’s not better than what I’ve described above. So when deciding how to present your content to social media readers, leave the petty metric goals for later, and think of how to better welcome your guests.

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The last time I did this was back in May, when Blogsessive had ten times less subscribers and definitely less awareness. All this time, I’ve tried to write quality posts and give back to my community resources like the Simple Balance theme and the Feedsessive free RSS Icon set.

With each post, I put a small piece of me out to the world. Every reader can find out more about Blogsessive and me and I really love reading your emails, even it they are simply “Hello” emails or in need of advice.

The downside of it is that while concentrating on delivering quality through my actions and posts, I did not get to know more about you, the readers of Blogsessive. And I mean YOU. Who are you, are you a blogger? What do you blog about? What do you do for a living? Even personal stuff that you want to share. Feel free to ask questions, I’ll be happy to answer.

As I’ve said about a million times: my full respect and attention goes to my community, and a community is made out of real people, people just like you, the one reading this lines. So, give me 2 minutes of your life and let’s sit back to a friendly talk.

PS: First time commentator? Don’t be shy, join in! That’s how we become friends!

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I’m sure that those of you who have been following my posts for a while, know that I’m a pretty passionate blogger, enthusiastic and always looking to try new things and experiment.

I take pride in what I do since it’s what I love to do and wouldn’t want to do anything else, even more whenever my experiments and efforts are successful.

Today, Blogsessive hit another milestone in its journey in the blogosphere. This happened:

According to Technorati, Blogsessive has become one of the top 10.000 blogs in their system, and considering the millions of blogs they watch, that’s a huge achievement!

My friends, thank you! It would have not been possible without your loyalty and friendship!

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Blogging, before being a tool of expression and communication is a tool of desire, especially these days when thousands of people start a new blog each day, hoping to become successful.

It doesn’t matter how each and every one of them defines success. It can be a big readership, new relationships, business leads, money making or whatever, in the end, it starts out from the desire of doing better for yourself.

Unfortunately, that’s the point where most bloggers get stuck. Success is a two-way street, a give and receive relationship between the blogger and its community, and a blogger that cannot see his work from the readers’ perspective is bound to fail.

Have a clear and easy to digest message

As bloggers, you are the experts, your ideas make sense to you and probably a lot of your readers too, but don’t expect everyone to be able to understand and follow your thoughts as easy as if they were of your level.

In order to attract and maintain a good readership you need to appeal to the novice and the expert both. You need to be able to explain things in such way that novices could understand, but interesting enough so that you engage the advanced ones too.

A good way to reach that is to avoid a vocabulary consisting mostly in technical or complex words. Rather than using such a vocabulary, add references to each of your articles, encouraging the novice to find out more about the topic. The experts can still be engaged by leaving enough room for conversation or second opinions, but don’t expect them to come by their own. Ask for opinions. Different people handle the same situation in different ways and those people might be willing, if encouraged, to share their experiences and results.

Let readers build the story

No matter how good an article is to you, it’s the readers who decide if it’s appealing or not. Use an engaging writing style to attract readers and give them the tools to build the story upon.

Without your readers’ engagement, your article is nothing more than a series of materials and words put together in a logical sentence, and that proves nothing about you. The second you publish that story, everyone reading it will have the chance to appreciate it, comment it or criticize it. Once it goes live, it’s not about how you wrote it anymore, but rather about how it’s read.

Accept feedback, but don’t let it drive your actions

No matter how good the quality, critics will come. It’s the human nature and the internet has its share of trolls, so don’t worry about them. Instead, focus on the real reactions to your work.

Satisfied readers will most likely go unnoticed or simply leave an appreciative comment. It is up to you to determine how many of these appreciative comments come from people that are really captivated by your work, and how many simply go with the positive flow.

To best determine the reaction to your work, look closely at those leaving truly meaningful comments. If their comments are mostly dissecting your theories, then you need to reconsider your views. That doesn’t mean you need to change them, just try and look through another perspective too.

If most of the comments take your theories further, complementing them with new ideas and experiences, then you article had a positive impact, turned out valuable and managed to engage the community. This is the case you need to find yourself in.

You and I both

We are both the ones deciding my fate, it’s up to me to give you my best, and it’s up to you to react naturally to what I give you. No matter how I choose to define success, I can only take the first step alone, because writing it’s a song to dance to in couples. One gets to lead as long as someone else follows.

And since it all starts out with your action, here’s a nice quote from Beth Mende Conny, recognized and appreciated writer, speaker andd trainer, the mastermind behind the “Art of Schmooze” series of books:

No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice – your choice.

Photo credits to Vinícius Sgarbe

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From where I stand, the greatest advantage of blog writing is, without doubt, the instant feedback. Unlike classic media, like newspapers or magazines, our blogs give us the possibility of getting valuable opinions on every post that we publish. Of course, not all feedback should be considered valid, but this is a matter of personal choice and analytic skills.

Writing reader engaging posts is definitely one of the biggest challenges of every blogger, since these posts are usually excellent ways to create and grow a community around your blog. At a short glance, among the advantages of writing reader engaging posts we find:

• Community growth – Obviously, writing quality posts has the power to turn casual visitors into loyal readers, as long as you maintain a good flow;
• Social media exposure – The more interesting and better written the post, the more people will want to share and recommend it across services like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx and so on;
• Conversations – A good post is more likely to entice readers to engage in commenting. This is a great way to further develop the topic or even generate new content ideas;
• Networking - Engaging posts are great ways to network with other bloggers in your niche. Write something appealing and you’ll surely make their link-round-ups;
• Quality traffic – Of course, all of the above are great ways to generate either a great deal of traffic or quality traffic.

Tips for writing reader engaging posts

With such important advantages and assuming that the topic you have chosen for your post is interesting enough, you should concentrate on making it more conversational and giving it that personal touch. To do so, here are some of the most important things you need to consider when writing.

Write opinion posts

Even if your post is simply a news item, you should always try and take some time to express your own views on that particular topic. Some will agree, others won’t, but it definitely should a boost for the discussion.

Use the 2nd person, singular or plural

“You”, “your”, “yours” are very powerful words, mostly when used to address a single person. They establish a direct connection between you, the writer (see, I’ve just used it), and them, your readers. By using them you’re more likely to make your readers feel like what you wrote is there especially for them, thus feel the need to leave feedback and answers.

Ask questions

No, asking questions does not make you look stupid. It’s all about asking the right questions, in the right place and form. Let’s take a product review for example. Do you think that asking your readers about their personal experience with that particular product would make you look bad? Absolutely not; it will only show your readers that their opinion matters to you.

Leave path for readers to explore

Writing insightful and in depth post is important. The better the quality, the better your reputation as an expert in the field gets. Still, it’s also important to leave “unexplored” paths for readers to develop in the comments section, and why not, on their own blogs as follow-ups (this will probably get you some backlinks too). Also, if you’re trying to sell services that relate to you posts, it would be a good idea to keep some “business secrets” to yourself, or simply for future blog posts.

Focus on delivering to your target audience

It’s very important that you write with your target audience in mind. The people visiting and reading your blog have niche-specific needs. Focus on covering those needs and solving their problems. This will encourage feedback and contribute to your reputation.

Be concise and effective

Don’t strive to write a 1000 words blog post just because a famous blogger does so. Write it because that’s the amount of words required to present the topic without any useless additions. Keep your post long enough to incorporate all your ideas and short enough to encourage visitors to read it in full. Also, use enough spacings and elements that break the natural paragraph flow, like lists, subheadings, images, quotes and so on.

Writings are for readers. Sounds basic, but focus on it!

Indeed, whenever you write, keep the human factor in mind. I’m not saying to ignore search engines or social media potential. Just to write for your readers and spice up the post seamlessly with elements for SEO and social media.

Now, what was your most reader engaging and comments generating post about?

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When it comes to speaking, there are three types of people:

• those who speak so that other people can listen;
• those who speak only to hear their own voice;
• those who speak because they just can’t shut up.

If you want to be a better blogger, you’d definitely want to be in the first group.

But what does it take to be a good orator? You’d probably say it takes good communication skills, ability to adapt from audience to audience and a spontaneous character.

Some people have these skills written in their DNA, others train them. If you’re looking to speak or write better you should first consider listening and reading more and better.

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak”
Epictetus, Greek philosopher

Advantages of being a good listener

Why and how should listening improve our communication skills? First of all, by paying attention to our audience we can observe and analyze the level of interest, which would make it a lot easier to adapt from a situation to another. Therefore, a better blogger is a blogger who listens to his community is more likely to provide real answers and help to real questions. Solutions make people happy.

By taking time to listen you’re more likely to have something interesting to say after. Think about how that could come in handy when trying to write a follow up or an opinion post.

Have you ever listened to people around you; not only to those talking specifically about things that you blog approaches, but purely mundane topics? You’ll be amazed how many interesting ideas can be generated from simple, friendly chats. Satisfying the most basic needs can make most people happy. A good orator knows what masses what to hear.

Listening is also a great way to gather more knowledge. Knowledge gives you more opportunities and also allows you to explore fields where no one has stepped. If you take 2 hours for your daily writing, take at least as much to read. It keeps you fresh, inspired and why not, original.

“Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”
Bernard M. Baruch, American Economist and adviser to US presidents

The emotional factor

Take a real life example: women are especially attracted to men that know how to listen. Also, it’s a know fact that women tend to act more on instinct and emotions. So, for them enjoying a good listener is an emotional factor.

Listening can create an emotional bridge between you and your audience. Showing interest in what other people have to say qualifies you as a caring person, and for a blogger that wants to be helpful that is a big plus.

To summarize

In order to be a better blogger you need to be a good listener and reader. Why? Because you only have to gain from it:

• You’ll learn new things;
• You’ll be more insightful;
• You’ll be more interesting;
• You’ll be more original;
• You’ll be more helpful;
• You’ll adapt and connect easier.

And just for the fun of conversation, share with Blogsessive’s community a situation when being a good listener made your day. That could come in handy for some of us.

Photo credits to Sophie.

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Today I’m starting a little experiment in which I would love to include you, Blogsessive’s readers and subscribers. I’ve always said that experience is the best teacher, so lets share a bit of our experience and try to create useful topics and guides out of our knowledge.

Since this is a community debate, the topic I have in mind is:

Is it the uniqueness of content, the author’s writing style, the design?

I’m looking forward to reading your answers in the comments section, after which, I’ll summarize the whole debate into one post that could make a useful guide for start-up bloggers and why not, even more experience blog owners.

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A question that has been haunting many bloggers is whether to publish short or long blog posts, when to go for one or the other, or just simply stick to one. This is one of those questions that cannot be answered by a simple “Go for short” or “Go for long”.

There are multiple factors that will affect the way your posts will be received by your readers in either one of these situations. What can be said right from the start is that your readers’ time is short and precious and this will determine whether they’ll read the post or not.

Common Reader Habits

No matter how long your post is, a reader will most times scan it first, and only after decide if that post is worth reading. This clearly indicates that topic, structure and quality of writing are essential factors that will affect your reader’s choice.

While most readers don’t have a lot of time on their hands and that time is split across many blogs, they’ll most likely prefer a concise post that does not stray from the topic, while still providing good insight and personal opinions.

When to go for short blog posts

If you’re going to post on topics that are current or in the news, it’s most likely that readers will rather read a shorter post since their interest is more concentrated on the news itself and they are likely to want to read more opinions on that news. Be short but don’t be cheap on your words either, for that we have Twitter.

A short post has the advantage of being quickly and easily read, but won’t contribute very much to your statistics in terms of time spent per page. Also, if you’re considering writing short posts, make sure you keep a higher publishing rate. There’s actually no point in publishing 2 paragraphs every week.

Writing long blog posts

Although people don’t usually spend a lot of time on a blog post, they’ll take the time to read a good article, even if it’s longer or even spread across a few pages. As stated earlier, they’ll first scan the post and if you manage to grab their attention, they’ll go back from the start and read the whole article.

Writing long blog posts is suitable for “opinion blogs”. Reviews, tutorials, editorials and guest posts usually require and tend to be longer and more insightful.

Since longer posts require more attention and more time to read, it’s indicated that you structure your post well by making use of paragraphs and subheadings, lists and images to break large blocks of text. Also, providing a good introductory paragraph describing right from the start what your post is all about is helpful in catching your readers’ attention.

A matter of personal choice and identity

Deciding between short and long blog posts is also a matter or personal choice. While some bloggers prefer updating their blogs a few times a day using shorter posts, others like to take a few days to write a longer post, more resourceful and well documented, such being the case of Maki from DoshDosh. This decision also contributes to establishing an identity and unique voice for you blog.

Conclusions

There’s no golden rule about the perfect blog post length. It’s all about your topic(s) and the best way to present your information without cluttering the content or filling it with unnecessary stuff.

Do what you have to do in order to share as much valuable information. Keep you posts short enough not to be boring and long enough to startle the interest. Find the right balance by studying your statistics and why not, by having a friendly, open discussion with your readers.

And now, tell me what’s your choice when it comes to deciding for one or the other and what are your reading habits.

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