Grow Your Blog By Capitalizing On Search Trends: Part 2 of 3
Now that you know what to write by following the trends, let’s talk about how to write. I don’t mean where to sit, what software to use, etc.. This is about how to research, how to pick your topic and how to make sure the search engines see it.
Making Your Topic Unique
Once you have your topic in mind, ask yourself if it’s a unique and valuable topic. The best things to write about are not your opinions (unless you are John C. Dvorak, lol) but How things work, productivity helpers, tutorials and reviews.
Your best readers are going to be someone who needs to know how to do something or someone who is interested in something that you can provide valuable insight about.
Problogger.net says "For a blog to be successful, your content needs to be useful and unique to your readers."
Running a blog is in many ways just like a business. If your writing is your product, and your product sucks, nobody is going to buy it and you will go out of business. The old mantra in business is "Start with the customer - find out what they want and give it to them." It’s simple, but it’s totally accurate.
We have already used the previous article to decide what content is popular, so let’s move on to making sure it’s unique and valuable.
Stand Out
The first place to start is by doing some research. We have already looked at where we are showing up in the search results. Look at some of those same keywords, check out the other blogs and websites that are popular, and unless you think you can make a significant improvement or addition to the topic, go ahead and write it down on a notepad and cross it out.
Philoking’s Tip: Even if you write with a computer, keep a notepad in front of you to jot down ideas and thoughts. You might want to come back to them later.
Organizing Your Article
When I write, I begin by getting my thoughts out, taking little notice of it’s organization. Once I have my main bits sorted, I start to settle how it’s going to be most useful to read. I like to keep two sets of readers in mind and make sure the article is going to benefit both:
- Skimmers: These readers are rushed to find information on a topic and they don’t want to have to dig for it.
- Researchers: These readers want depth. They don’t want your long winded version of some PR company’s press blurb.
Skimmers are looking for a specific piece of information. I would bet that the majority of my readers on the World of Warcraft topics are skimmers. They just upgraded to Windows Vista, they installed World of Warcraft and it’s running like crap. All they want to know is what they can do to make it run better. Odds are they are not going to read a long winded article in it’s entirety, they just want the facts.
Researchers want depth. I would guess that the majority of my readers on the iPod Touch topics are Researchers. They are people who have either just got an iPod Touch and want to know what they can do with it, or someone who is considering purchasing an iPod Touch and want to find out all they can before they take the plunge.
Philoking’s Tip: Segment your article with Titles and make sure they allow easy, organized navigation of your topics.
Research, Research, Research!
With both sets of readers we are looking at, they want the truth. They want lots of detail and they want it to be accurate.
Taking your topic and separating it into organized chunks will help your readers but it will also help you break your research down into bite sized pieces.
Be sure to help your readers by citing any sources you use with hyperlinks so they can easily drill into more detail by following your research steps yourself. This will also build credibility with the community by showing respect to other writers.
Philoking’s Tip: Create a folder in your bookmarks and mark anything interesting you find on the web related to the article you are trying to write.
Never Forget SEO
Search engines are how they got here, let’s keep that train rolling by making sure this awesome article gets fair treatment in the search engine world.
- Place your keyword in your post’s title.
- Make sure your post slug has the keyword in it.
- Make sure your blog is using friendly URLs.
- Use your keyword in your very first sentence.
- Bold or Italicize the keyword for the benefit of search engines and your readers.
- Don’t overuse your keywords, bots consider this a factor in rating what is spam.
- Use your keyword a few times in the first paragraph.
- End strong by making sure your keyword is in the end of your last paragraph as well.
- Use Tags, always and use them properly.
- Use your keyword when hyperlinking to other sources.
- keyword tag your images.
These are just a few tips to help write great articles. There are many more. Check the following great websites for more information on writing great articles:
Continue to part 3, making your readers "read deep."
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