Your post is either engaging and interesting or it isn’t.
How do you know which one it is?
Your readers will tell.
Or the silence should be a good hint.
My first post was neither.
It was plain. Boring. “A dime a dozen”.
“A dime a dozen” is one of the most common deceases your blog could be infected with right now.
Mine was.
But it isn’t any longer.
Let’s see how I was able to change things around and bring Traffic Generation Café back to life.
This is a continuation of the previous post.
Need to catch up?
Part 1: Conduct Unbecoming a Dull Writer
The Anatomy of a Good Post
For all the reasons mentioned in the first part of this post, I decided to re-write my “What is SEO?” post, making it more interesting, different, and thus, shareable, and linkable.
The result:
What Is SEO? (Laugh. Cry. Rank.)
Just look at the difference in the excerpt itself.
1. Better title: I think I said a lot more with a lot less here.
2. Better image: goes without saying.
3. Better formatting: short sentences, lots of white space, looks very easy to read.
4. It’s simply more interesting and clickable.
The last point is very subjective, of course, but whether it’s a great opening or not, it does make you curious, doesn’t it?
Looks like everything I did to get the visitors to click over to the post worked.
Now let’s see if I can actually get them to read it.
Objective 1: Add Personality
Just because you are talking about a (potentially) boring subject, it doesn’t mean that your writing needs to be boring.
And no, it doesn’t mean that you have to be a comedian – “They’ll be standing in line for that old honky-tonk monkey shine!”.
As Rae Hoffman points out in one of her latest posts:
“You may not be everything to everyone, but by being real, you will be “real” to YOUR audience. And that’s the goal.
If you plan to make money online, it’s not about “numbers” but rather about a following.
And people can see right through “fake” – so be REAL.”
Being real is not anything anyone can teach you.
It simply might take some time to discover your true voice.
Here are just some ideas on how to claim your right to stand out:
(taken from my 202 Bite-Sized Tips To Insanely Increase Your Blog Traffic)
7. Write with “everybody is entitled to my opinion” attitude. (works best if you’ve already proven yourself to your audience)
33. Interview parties with opposing views.
39. Ask a question everyone else is afraid of asking.
87. Tell a story through pictures.
110. Answer very specific questions in deeper, more specific ways than currently exist.
115. Write an interesting analogy.
117. Make a post simplifying a complex problem.
124. Check out your competitors’ archives to see if some of their old posts can be turned into an updated version on your blog.
129. Contrast two or more positions in your post.
135. Don’t make your readers pull out a dictionary to understand your posts.
162. Collect inspirational quotes from other bloggers in your niche; compile them in a post.
193. Do a Twitter search on a particular subject, compile them in photoshop and do a review of the trend.
What I did to stand out in my new “What is SEO?” post:
- I wanted to give it a more fun/funny spin;
- Since my comedian skills definitely need some work, I decided to ask others for help;
- I sent tweets to some of the folks who know a thing or two about SEO, asking them to come up with a funny definition of SEO;
- I never talked to most of them before and they probably didn’t know who I was, but ask and you shall receive;
- And I did receive: got great quotes from Rand Fishkin, Michael Gray, and Ian Lurie.
Adding personality to your writing is a very tough one indeed.
It’s very subjective.
Here a comment from one of my new readers, Brent Carduff from EchelonSEO:
You are absolutely right, Brent – we don’t have to be funny, sarcastic, or rude to be a good writer.
Turning complex subjects into easy reads, providing readers with instructional step-by-step posts are also a form of “personality”.
As long as you provide your readers with a value no one else gives them, they’ll start reading YOUR blog over any other in the industry.
Click to continue reading:
Part 2: How to Add Value, Call to Action, and Format Posts
Part 3: Practical Ways to Become a Better Writer
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