In my previous blog post, I ranted how crucial it is to blog for your business. That may have convinced you to write one, but out of millions of bloggers out there, it’s extremely hard for yours to stand out in the crowd. But don’t panic! There are ways to make your blog attractive and compelling that readers can’t resist but read through. Here’s 3 easy ways you can do right now to attract readers to your blog.

Accurate title

People underestimate the title. A lot. Most bloggers focus on the content too much, and leave the title with minimal effort. However, people seem to forget that titles are what sell the content. It’s the first thing everyone sees on emails, social media, and search engines. No one would care to open your blog, no matter how great the content is if the title isn’t compelling enough.

Come up with an accurate, crafty title, thats very specific. For example, say you write a post called “Sports and Health Benefits.” This gives a sense of what the blog is about, but it’s not very specific. Instead, you can modify it and say “X Benefits Your Body Will Gain by Playing Sports.” In addition, being accurate and clarifying your blog will greatly increase your viewers, as it sets clear expectations for your readers. A study conducted by HubSpot concluded that headlines with clarification, such as [Infographic] and [Interview] at the end of the title performed 38% better than headlines without clarification. That’s an substantial amount considering how easy it is to implement. Also, keep the title short. Get to the point from the first word. According to HubSpot Analysis, headlines between 8-12 words got the most Twitter shares. For Facebook, lengths between 12-14 got the most likes.

Hook your readers

The first few sentences after the headline determines if your viewer is going to keep reading through the blog or simply close the tab. No one wants to read tedious blog posts that doesn’t address the problem and the solution until the very last. Introduction is the part which require the best writing. However, the good news is, it doesn’t have to be very long. It’s about 3-4 sentences long, and straightforward. Before you talk about the actual problem, start off by writing the general idea and the frustration the potential viewer is going through with the problem. Sympathizing with your viewer is crucial. Then, hint a solution. For example, you can say “But wait! Here’s X ways you can change that.” The sudden reveal that you have a solution to that specific frustrating experience will hook your readers to read on for sure.

Scannable content

In reality, its a rare case that a viewer reads the blog word for word. This is especially true in a very long blog post. Nobody got time for that. With millions of content produced every minute, we have been accustomed to separating the “noise” that has little to no advantage in reading and actual useful content. So what do most people do? They scan. You can’t expect your viewers to read your blog word for word. I will guarantee you that people will miss that crucial data of yours in the middle of a 1000 word blog. According to Site Meter, an average reader spends about 96 seconds reading the average blog. Thats a very short amount of time, especially if you have a lot to say in your blog. So what can you do? The solution is fairly simple, plan out your formatting. Format your blog so that crucial points in your blog is instantly found without focused reading. Take your time in creating clear headings and subsections, so your user can instantly access the details they want to know about.

Those were the 3 ways you can make your blog differentiate from standard blogs out on the internet. What about you? Do you have any tips on creating compelling content? Please leave a comment below!

Sources:

An, S. (2013, August 26). 5 Little known Secrets of Writing Compelling Blog Posts. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://www.shoutmeloud.com/secrets-writing-copelling-blog-posts.html

Iny, D. (2012, March 27). A Fool-Proof Formula for Easily Creating Compelling Content – Copyblogger. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://www.copyblogger.com/content-creation-formula/

Rowse, D. (2005, March 17). How Long Do Your Readers Stay at Your Blog – Length of Stay Statistics. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/03/17/how-long-do-your-readers-stay-at-your-blog-length-of-stay-statistics/

Wainwright, C. (2016, February 23). How to Write Catchy Headlines and Blog Titles Your Readers Can’t Resist. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/a-simple-formula-for-writing-kick-ass-titles-ht