Also, this post may be a little different from what you are expecting. Normally articles with similar titles to this one are all about SEO. You know, the perfect title to make people click. Subheadings, also with perfect titles, to keep people reading. That sort of thing. But that's not what I'm writing about today. Why? Two reasons. 1.) If you're a blogger you've probably read about SEO until you're absolutely sick of it, and 2.) I must admit I haven't fully mastered the art of SEO yet. So this is something a little different. But hopefully "different" is what you're looking for. So here are my tips for writing a successful blog post.
Know Your Audience
I am an indie author and am therefore followed by a lot of indie authors on social media. So whenever I share juicy information about writing (not my writing, but writing in general) I tend to get a lot of page views. And sometimes a few comments as well. Here are a few posts about writing and indie publishing that have been successful:
Share In The Right Places
This is related to knowing your audience, but takes it a step further. I'm talking about actively seeking out your audience, then sharing a blog post that is pertinent to their interests. Here are some articles that got views from people who wouldn't normally have been reading my blog if I hadn't shared them in the appropriate Facebook groups.
Shared with my Spanish learners group:
Shared with my indie authors group:
Shared with my weight loss group:
The key to sharing in groups like that is to do it infrequently and to only share information you think may be of interest to the other members. Don't share as a form of shameless self-promo. That doesn't go over well.
Write While You're Emotional
This may do nothing for you in terms of SEO. After all, when people read your title they don't know how passionate you were about your topic, unless you've filled your title up with f-bombs or something. So there's no added incentive to click, but once they do they are more likely to share, retweet, or comment because what you had to say made an impact. Here are some of my more emotional posts:
Network With Others
This one's obvious. If you write a blog post that helps someone else out, they'll help you share your post with the world. I've done little networking on my blog so far, but I plan to do a lot more in the new year, so hopefully this list will be getting a good bit longer. Here is my measly collection of posts designed to help my fellow indie authors:
And a Little SEO
I've said I'm not an expert in SEO, but I do seem to have pulled off a few successes here and there. How do I know? Because I have a few blog posts that continue to get views long after I've stopped sharing them, which means they must be turning up on web browsers when people search certain topics. Here are some of my posts which have had the best staying power, and which must therefore be good examples of SEO
These are the things that have worked for me. I'd love to hear your own experiences, so please leave a comment.
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