Creating the Best Effective & Captivating Blog Posts – Part One

 

INTRODUCTION

Let me ask you a question…Do your blog posts suck? I ask this for a reason, and you likely are not totally unbiased, since they are your own posts and content you are evaluating!

Would you know if they were less than up to par? Do you know some of the basic guidelines when it comes to blogging that will assure you of more success? These and other such questions are what we are here for today…

We all know that blogs and posts can be a good base and helpful as you attempt to establish your business, but it can be hard to determine if your posts are actually helping your business, or if they may be potentially hurting your business…

Perhaps they are not hurting you per se, but they could be costing you subscribers, conversions, and profits & sales if they aren’t written with conversions in mind as you frame them up and build each post.

Today we are going to have a look at what comprises an effective post with conversions in mind, why you should examine your own blogging techniques, and provide some tips to improve your results.

This is a two-part series on blogging, and will show you how to create more effective, converting, and focused posts that will captivate your readers and have them begging for more.

Let’s get started! Grab some paper and a pencil, you need to take some notes for your personal use later!

SETTING GOALS

If you do not have a destination in mind as you prepare posts, you really cannot measure where you are or where you may be going. You do not have a path to get somewhere because you are not sure yourself where you are going.

So the first thing to do is to determine what your primary goal is. Are you looking for immediate sales, or perhaps you are trying to establish and build a segmented email list that you can develop into more long-term business?

Maybe you’re looking for additional leads for an offline business that you run? Blogs will certainly help with this if set up properly. It pays to see what others having success may be doing at the moment, so it means that a little research is in order.

It could be that you want to build traffic to your blog? Starting out traffic is king. You can have the best blogs on the planet, but if no one sees them, they are not doing you any good at all when it comes to your business.

Bottom line is that it really does not matter, do some work to see what the goal or goals are as you’re blogging, then keep them in mind as you create content for your posts. It will definitely change your approach and the slant of the content.

INTERESTING, ENGAGING CONTENT IS NOT ENOUGH

Likely you are very interested in your niche and write with a passion and dedication. You make sure that your content is interesting, informative, and engaging.

From an educational or informative standpoint, it may be perfect. It could be entertaining as well and still not be effective.

If you are not writing your posts with your goals in mind, you are wasting your time…

Ok, that brings up a question, I know…Let’s address that question right now!

HOW WILL I KNOW MY BLOGS SUPPORT MY GOALS

Likely you are asking yourself how exactly you can be sure that your content you work on so diligently really supports your goals. You are thinking that after all, just about anything can do that in one way or another, right?

Well, not really…

Let me provide you an example. Suppose your niche is making money online, as this site is all about. I am pretty sure that people are looking for tips, tools, and software that will help them make money online.

I am pretty sure they will respond to just about anything in the field, which is massive, by the way. That may be true, but unless you write your content with the goal of tying the content to the niche, you may confuse the readers and also the search engines!

For the purposes of this exercise, you will notice that I have a section on professional development here for readers. The tie-in is that every marketer needs to continuously develop their skills that shoulder the skills they need specifically to conduct online marketing successfully.

If I fail to make sure that there is a tie-in, it may cause the readers to move on to another site for professional development or one that covers online marketing tools and tips only. They need to be made aware through clear calls to action how it applies to their marketing efforts.

So although some of your site visitors might enjoy these articles on professional development, they will not buy whatever you are offering on the subject unless it is clear how it will help their online marketing business.

Regarding SEO, it is imperative that it is clear what the tie-in might be as well. Google has been known to penalize sites that are all over the map and when content does not match the stated intent of the website.

In my case for this site, you will not in the content that making money online is a central theme, and everything posted can help or warn or systemize, etc. online marketing programs. You do not want to dilute the overall theme if you use shoulder niche subjects as I am doing.

So what I do is I think about how to write my posts for professional development in a way that is educational, interesting, and entertaining, and ensure the content will also help the reader looking for online marketing tips reach their goals. That is my goal!

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OK I UNDERSTAND, SO WHAT’S NEXT

My gift to you for today: This short two-part tutorial will help you understand learn exactly how to create content that supports your goals, whatever those goals might be for your program.

I’ll cover some tips on tailoring your content with specific goals in mind as you build your posts and pages, and how you can maximize the usefulness of every tutorial, article, or blog that you write and publish.

LET’S SEE WHY YOUR CONTENT DOESN’T SELL

Before we get into what will sell for you regarding content, it is wise to see what does not sell.

Only by learning to recognize content that will not perform can you learn to create good and interesting content that does perform!

There are five main reasons content fails to perform properly, and we’re going to take a look at each one.

• Call To Action Is Weak or Missing

If there is no strong and clear call to action, readers will not know what action to take. Many bloggers suffer from this malady when it comes to their posts. They write something and add it to their site without thinking through what the purpose is and how it fits into their overall intent.

When people read what they have published, they take no action because none is requested or stated. People want to receive guidance, that’s why they are reading your blog!

You may have some success, but it will be haphazard and you are leaving a lot of potential business on the table if you do not make sure that calls to action are included in your posts.

• Off Topic Content

This is something I have seen on many blog sites I have visited, The subject was close to the niche, but there was no direct connection made to make it clear to the reader how the content will help their main interest, which is the niche.

You may get some additional traffic when you add unrelated posts, but most will simply move on to another page or site, because their real interest may lie with that particular subject only, and your site’s focus is something else…

• Run-On Content

This is a subject I am dearly interested in, because you will notice that I normally have some quite long posts here. Certainly the total word count is longer than average. I have a reason for that however, I believe that if you are to cover a subject sufficiently, you need to use as many words as required to do so…

There is a case to be made that content going on too long is counterproductive.  I am a member of an online educational site called Wealthy Affiliate and another one called BakkersBoard, and in both, there is always discussion on this subject.

Quality, interesting, and engaging content is imperative these days, and many say you should always create longer content posts for search engine purposes.

The problem is that if have too much, it’s more likely to become boring, and readers will leave before you have a chance to present your call to action.

• Content That Does Nothing For Your Goals

If you add in content just to have more posts or fresh posts, without keeping your goals in mind, you are wasting your time and the space on your site that should progress your overall goals for the site.

Also, the style of the writing will not match the rest of your content, so it will likely perform poorly. I have learned this the hard way, seeing my traffic drop off a short while after posting something that had a short attention span with readers and no follow on interest…

• Delete Distractions From Your Content

As you write your posts, make sure to focus on the subject at hand, and address the goals and include a strong call to action. If you add in a lot of ancillary information that adds nothing to the main intent of your post, you risk losing the reader either through boredom or them pursuing the distraction.

Things that will affect the attention include ads or banners that will pull the reader away from the article, maybe for some great deal or offer.

This kind of things could possibly cause the reader to move over to the banner and click on it to see what the value is of that offer, and away from your post.

Ok, these are just a few things to consider as you put together your content for blog posts, now let’s look at some things that will help you…

WHAT WILL MAKE YOUR CONTENT EFFECTIVE & SELL FOR YOU

• Segment Your Blog Content

When you plan for blog posts, look at the categories of information you want to include. Using my site here as an example, you will see that I have various main subjects and sub-categories that I write about.

There is a mix of product reviews, tips, free training, and training series you can easily navigate through using the tabs and sub-menu items. It certainly will help keep your visitors and reduce your bounce rate.

I would say that most niches are as this one, where there are different aspects of the niche that you can expand on as you plan for and create your content.

Note that done correctly, you can easily include SEO steps, plus provide the site visitor a way to easily get around your site.

• Organized Calls to Actions

The other thing this does for you is it allows you to organize your calls to actions. You may have products or services that vary depending on the subject and you can keep the calls to action related to the subject category.

This means that your audience that takes actions based on your calls to action will be already somewhat targeted even though it is organic.

By organic I mean that this is traffic that you get from search engines that will send you traffic based on the keywords that you use and focus on when you write.

• Subscriber Lists and Lead Magnets

Yet another way segmenting your content can help you is when growing your subscriber list. For each category you are covering in your niche, you can develop a related lead magnet.

This helps because what the reader is looking at has a related giveaway that goes with it…

There is a higher chance that what you are offering will interest them and as long as it has value and may be something they would be willing to pay for to get access to, so this is a great tip.

I know it is more work for you, but the hard work is done at the front end, and thereafter you can benefit with little additional effort.

EFFECTIVE BLOG POST OPTIONS

Now we move on to the next consideration for your blog posts. Some posts are more effective than others, and unless you plan carefully, not all of your content is going effectively convince people to take action.

So far we have covered the following in this short tutorial:

• Create content that is on-topic – it will help keep a tight focus for your website.

• Create matching lead magnets for each category or topic that you write about.

• As you plan content, segment the subjects and also your subscriber or lead lists.

In part two and the final part of this series that I will post tomorrow, we’ll cover the options or styles for posts that you can use. Each one we will discuss is effective in its own way and can be considered for use.

CONCLUSION

Bottom line:

You want to create posts that will most likely be effective and captivating when it comes to getting people to pay attention and act on your calls-to-action.

This means better results for each piece of content you write.  That is what we are after for you with this tutorial, and I hope that you evaluate your current blog plan or establish one if you have none, so that you can increase traffic, subscribers, and sales…

Today we got a good start on the subject of effective blog posts.

• We added what does not work and what does.
• We provided some tips for you to think about, as in planning goals for your blogging efforts,
• Lastly, we spoke of segmenting your posts, your lead magnets, and your subscriber lists.

Return tomorrow for the second part of the series and be ready to take notes!

 

FINAL POINT

As with almost every post I add, the final point is where I ask for feedback from you, the reader. Although this subject may seem simplistic for some, there are a number of people that can benefit from reading it and reviewing their own program to see how it may be improved. Please add your thoughts and experiences so we can all learn. That is what this site is all about! Thanks in advance!

Cheers!