Creating good, unique and creative content might be one of the toughest challenges for online marketers or bloggers. At least it is for me. In this article, I am trying to provide some priceless tips and the essentials for developing high quality content and blogs. I really want to share it with you by summarizing the key points.
Content Strategy for Your Website / Blog
If you want to create an outstanding blog, content is key. That’s why you need to establish an effective content strategy. There are 5 aspects of the strategy you want to consider.
Content types – There are lots of different types of content you can create. You can use a mix of different types and experiment with them to find out what works best for your audience. The content types include:
how-tos
expert interviews
in-depth guides
link round-ups
list posts
infographics
interviews
Challenges, etc.
Posting frequency – There is no right posting schedule. You can post once per week or 5 times per week. Some successful bloggers, do not post frequently but offer exceptional, viral content on their blogs. But it definitely helps if you post more frequently and set yourself a schedule to keep yourself accountable.
Topics – This is one of the most challenging aspects of any blog. But in general you want to choose topics that you’re really interested in or you’re an expert in. You can also start a topic that addresses a problem that needs to be solved. No matter what topic you choose, the point is to provide value to your targeted audience and make a difference in their lives.
Curation of content – Sooner or later, most of us will have problems creating original content from scratch constantly and frequently. That’s why content curation is an effective content creation approach. You can use this strategy to complement your regular content. What you need to do is find great content relevant to your topic and then include your commentary and links to it.
Social media – Maintaining social media accounts for your blog is an essential part of the content strategy. You can do this by posting lots of links to other relevant, valuable content daily on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. You This helps you gain followers and connect with your community.
So those are the things you want to consider for your content creation approach. The following are the tips you can use to create outstanding content.
11 Tips for Creating Exceptional Content for Your Site / Blog
Experiment with content types, formats, lengths and more – This is considered the most important tips to crank out outstanding content for your blog. Try writing different types of content: really short posts, really long posts, list posts, essay style posts, infographics, etc. The key is not sticking with the same kind of content. Keep trying until one of your posts gets a strong reaction in the form of comments, shares, or likes. Then write more posts in similar themes.
Actively work to find your voice – Every blogger should find their voice. This may be a long process for some people, but we all have our own voice. Having your voice helps you write more effectively, powerfully, and connect more easily with your readers. Try experimenting by writing in different personalities, funny, serious, authoritative, ranting…
Pick one person and write for him – This tip helps you write in a conversational and relevant way. You can think of a friend and write as if you’re talking to him in person.
Curate content – It’s hard to create content from scratch all the time. So the next time you feel you run out of idea, try creating a post that pulls other useful, relevant resources together. Alternatively, create a post that provides commentary on existing, great posts. Include links to those resources and you may also get trackbacks and the attention of other bloggers.
Double the time you’re spending on headlines right now – Headlines are an essential part of content. A killer headline makes your content more noticeable. It also increases the chance of a post being shared on social media sites. It can make a difference between a viral post and one that gets no attention at all.
Get people to write for you – A lot of bloggers love to write guest posts on other popular blogs to get traffic and gain exposure to new audience. If you want, you can ask other bloggers to guest post on your blog to help relieve the pressure of content creation. For bloggers just starting out, you can still ask other bloggers who are in the same stage to guest post.
Posting more frequently is better – With all else being equal, posting more frequently increases your chances of connecting with your audience, and hence the more chances your content goes viral. The key here is though; you want to create high quality content instead of just writing lots of posts that lack substance.
Follow proven formulas – Learn from other bloggers and use the same content creation formulas that help them create viral content.
Listen to your audience – If a post gets a lot of comments, shares or likes, or keeps your visitors longer on your site, you know your audience likes it. So you should do more of that.
Write about things you care deeply about – This helps make your writing more powerful and your readers are more likely to connect with you.
Make your content easy to read – Use short paragraphs (3 to 4 lines max), key-points, and headings to help your readers digest your content.
That’s it, the 11 tips to creating great content for your blog. You can try one each day and see how it works.
I’d love to hear from you. What is your favorite tip for creating exceptional blog content? Please share in the comments below.
Note: related key phrases: how to right a blog, content and seo, content for my website, content my blog, how to start a great blog, how to get content for your blog, content creation tips.
