If you do a web search for “how to write a good blog post” you’ll land at somewhere around 141,000,000 hits, which might be a little bit much to take in. With that in mind, I thought I’d share my tips, as well as tips from other bloggers, on how to write better blog posts.

If you think this is just another “top ten tips for becoming a pro blogger” post, think again. Here’s the really cool part. If you have any tips yourself, or if you have read something great about writing better blog posts - please share it. Link to it or just leave a comment with your contribution and I will come back and add your submission to my post, along with a link either to the site where you found it, or to your website or blog.

How’s that for being innovative?

Without further ado, I present to you, the Ultimate Collaborative Guide to Writing Great Blog Posts!

All the items in the list are presented without any particular order.

1. Have a well defined structure

Sticking to a set format gives your readers a sense of familiarity, and also makes it easier for you to write your posts. Usually I have a short introduction, some kind of graphic, a hook, the “read more” tag and then the content. How you decide to format your posts is entirely up to you, but having a base format that you can base your posts around is a great way to avoid getting writer’s block.

2. The post should be easy to read

Nothing scares away readers as fast as a wall of text. Make sure that you have enough white space and a big enough font to make reading your post easy. Including large section headers is a great way to let your reader easily scan through your post to see if it’s something they’re interested in reading. Lists (like this one) are great for this.

3. Don’t be afraid to use images

People are inherently lazy, and that includes us bloggers. If you can use an image to tell the reader something that would otherwise take 100 words - use one! Not only do they make the post more readable, but it also saves you some time.

4. Develop a personal style

This may seem kind of ironic being on this list, but your readers aren’t just interested in getting information. They also want to know who you are. By developing a personal writing style you, again, give the readers a sense of familiarity. If you can get them to feel like they’ve gotten to know you, you have most likely gotten yourself a loyal reader that will come back time and time again.

5. Spell check everything

English is not my native language, so naturally my posts will have the occasional spelling error. Bloggers aren’t all perfect copywriters, but there is this neat little tool that will find and fix most of your spelling mistakes. It’s right up there in the toolbar, and looks something like this:

If you’re blogging on some other platform it might look different, but most likely it also has a spell checking feature. Use it! Personally I just can’t stand posts that are completely riddled with spelling errors.

6. Blog about something that you’re passionate about

I’m sure the blog scene for dog food is rather empty, and thus it should be relatively easy to rank high on searches for dog food, but could you really produce two (or more) posts per week on dog food? Maybe for a little while, but for a year or two? Not likely.

Blog about something that you find interesting and that you want to share your opinion on. If you have a genuine interest in something, it will show in the post.

7. Blog for your readers, not search engine crawlers

Every SEO nut out there will tell you to pack your posts full of keywords that you think your readers will search for. I’m certainly not saying that carefully picking your keywords won’t bring you more traffic, but I will say that writing good and interesting content will keep your readers coming back for more. Make sure that every post you write is directed at people first of all, once you’ve finished writing it, you can edit it a little bit to make it more search engine friendly.

8. Write short

Do you know why people love Seth Godin’s blog so much? Because he writes short. But watch out: you have nowhere to hide if you’re writing short. If something is short, it must be good. And even if Seth doesn’t soar every time, it’s fun to know he’s aiming so high - fun to be a part of that.

The hardest thing about being short is that it’s scary. You have to risk that your one idea will really resonate. (You can see this playing out in a resume as well, by the way. A two-page shows less confidence. The resume says, “I don’t trust that the first page is good enough, so here’s one more page.” A one-page resume says, “I have such good stuff here that you don’t need to see any more of my history to want to interview me.”)

From Penelope Trunk.

9. The first paragraph is the most important one

Remember how I said that people are lazy? Most people will just read the first paragraph (and the title) and decide whether or not the post is worth reading. There are two different approaches that I think are fairly easy yet still effective.

1. Sum up what the post is about. Be honest with your readers. If the rest of the post is really boring, but you have a catchy first paragraph, they will just be disappointed when they read the rest.
2. Make it shocking and exiting! Make your readers feel like “OMFG I HAVE TO READ THIS!”. If the rest of your post really is as interesting as you say, the readers will start going through your archive looking for more.

10. Make the ending reactive/responsive

Make the ending of your post reactive that is end your post writing in such a way so that the reader responds - there is large scope to be creative here. You can write a reactive ending posts in your blog by:

• asking a question like you can ask - if they liked your post?
• asking to give suggestions to improve the post or your blog
• asking to comment on the post
• asking to subscribe to your blog
• asking to consider giving a link-back if they liked your post
• asking if they would like to add some more points to this post
• asking them to contact you if they have any questions and etc.

From Mithu.

Open mic

That’s all I have for you right now. If you have some more ideas on how to write better blog posts, please leave a comment, send me an email or hit me up on twitter. Whichever way you choose to go, I will include your idea in this post as well as link to your blog, your website or whatever it is you want me to link to.