If done well, a blog can be one of the most effective platform pieces of the modern author. It might sound like a large demand of both time and energy, but maintaining a blog isn’t as labor-intensive as you’d think.
Moreover, there are lots of benefits stemming from a blog that make the time investment worthwhile. For one, a well-managed blog will help build out your online presence and give your site more SEO traction. You’ll also be establishing yourself as an expert of the topics you write about, and remember, the more free ideas you give to your readers, the more they’re usually willing to give back.
And if you want to know how to write a great blog, here are four easy tips to get you off to a great start.
Be consistent
If you want your blog to provide traffic to your website, the #1 rule is being consistent about sharing content. Your readers will want to know when they can expect new stories, and Google SEO (search engine optimization) also smiles on consistent content.
This means you need to stick to a strict release schedule. I would recommend a weekly post—perhaps noon on Fridays, for example—but if that seems like too much, then shoot for twice a month. The first and the fifteenth could be your release days.
What you don’t want to do is be the blogger who posts three times during a week when you’re feeling inspired and then nothing else for the next three months. Consistency is key.
Thankfully, most websites with blogging features allow you to schedule posts, so you could work several weeks ahead if that’s your style.
Share Your Work
Your blog post needs views for it to succeed and for search engines to start recognizing it as a go-to source for information.
When you release a blog, share it. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, and any of your preferred platforms. Yes, that might feel like self-promotion, but authors need to self-promote! It’s all part of the industry and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Market your blog posts as enthusiastically as you’d market your book.
Find Topics that Matter
“Authority content” is the new SEO.
In other words, writing about topics that provide useful information to other people scores much better with Google than “keywords stuffing” or any of the tricks of old. If you write content that other people can learn and benefit from, then you’re going to get more traffic—plus you help other people.
Those are the two reasons I’ve begun blogging much more recently, myself: Not only does it expand my internet presence, but it also allows me to share my ideas with awesome, enthusiastic writers who are looking to learn.
Use SEO to your advantage
Finally, there are SEO practices that will help boost your post’s visibility online.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to explain all of how to SEO in this one section, but I will provide a 10,000-foot view to help you get started.
In short, search engines are actively looking for content that is sharing thoughts worth reading, but you can make it much easier on the search engine to find your work if you “optimize” it.
Here are a few good strategies for doing so:
- Use headings and titles that reflect your topic. Even, occasionally, to the point that it feels a bit repetitive (but only in the headings and topics! Beyond that, it’s just keyword-stuffing.)
- Write a meta-description for your post that includes the major keywords you’re writing about. It’s a short sentence or two that summarizes your content in around 150 characters. For example, this post would include the words “author,” “blog,” and “tips.”
- List the “tags” of your post, too. Much like the meta description, these are the words that are the topic of your post, but while the meta description is a sentence, these are a list of words separated by commas.
- If you have no idea where to insert any of these SEO extras, look around on the site that you’re blogging from. Usually, it’s built into that very page. If not, just Google “how to insert a meta description on a WordPress/Wix/etc blog”.
While your instinct might be to share the content ASAP, you need to take this one last extra step to make sure you’re sharing it with as many people as possible.
Harness the power of the blog
If you’re ready to start your own blog, go for it! The sooner you start, the better. Once you share your first post on socials, give me a tag on Twitter at @authorjjhebert and I’ll check it out.