Blog writing seems easy enough; think of an idea, dump it on the page, hit publish. And if it were really that easy, well, we’d all be shining examples of how to blow up your business with blogging.
In fact, blog writing has become a competitive, non-stop example of how the internet has changed marketing forever. Since anyone can do it, you have to stand out from the crowd.
The key, of course, is asking yourself why you write your blog. What’s your blog writing goal?
For many of us, it’s to attract new business – hence a well-written opt-in. Case in point, no matter how many times you write a blog, you can always follow the formula of:
<Introduction>
<Explanation of problem>
<Solution to problem>
<Closing>
Intersperse this formula with a call to action, social media share buttons, SEO keywords, and an author bio, and you have a recipe for a lead generation tool for your business.
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But what if you don’t really care about generating sales leads?
If the purpose of your blog is to simply get your content up on the internet, well, then, you can skip most of those steps. Perhaps you just do SEO and call it a day.
And what if you don’t care how many sales leads you attract?
Similarly, publish whatever you think will resonate with the small niche of people that you want to work with. However, you need to recognize that certain aspects of your writing style will alienate a broader audience:
If your voice is too corporate
The passive voice is not designed to entertain a reader. This voice will give information without explanation. Those who write in this style will not receive as many likes, shares, or retweets.
You do not provide useful solutions
Blog writing is also designed to position you as the expert and showcase your knowledge of a subject. People will hire you because you educate them on something they don’t want to do themselves and/or provide solutions to their problems.
Ideas are not expounded on as the expert
This can take a bit of getting used to. However, you need to dig in to any ideas you present and explain them to the fullest extent. It looks like:
- Many people <who?>
- The facts remain <which facts>
- Sugar <explain>is a poor dietary choice
The format of your blog is too dense
Quick, easily digestible tidbits of content define how internet writing is different than journal articles, brochures, and/or books. Instead of writing in long-hand, your content needs to be scannable with bullets, headers, and short paragraphs.
While these points are not true of every blogger (prolific publishers may have high traffic despite boring content) before you write a single word, you need to ask yourself the purpose of your blog writing – and make sure every action you take follows through with that intention.
Elspeth Misiaszek uses her writing and online marketing skills to help vegan businesses, coaches and entrepreneurs increase sales on their websites and blogs. Is it SEO? Get our FREE blogging resource today.