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How to make a blog stand out with brilliant blog posts

Guest post by: Andrew Rondeau

Article Overview: One of the hardest parts of blogging is creating great content that gets picked up by fellow bloggers, social networks, and aggregation services. The blogging world is overflowing with bloggers, but despite this concentration there’s still a massive shortage of quality blog content. Making a blog isn’t just about churning out post after post, and while there are thousands of people that can tell you how to make a blog, very few can guide you through creating brilliant posts and high quality content.

How to make a blog stand out with brilliant blog posts

One of the hardest parts of blogging is creating great content that gets picked up by fellow bloggers, social networks, and aggregation services. The blogging world is overflowing with bloggers, but despite this concentration there’s still a massive shortage of quality blog content.

Making a blog isn’t just about churning out post after post, and while there are thousands of people that can tell you how to make a blog, very few can guide you through creating brilliant posts and high quality content.

That’s why you’ve got to look for inspiration outside the typical blogging circles.

There’s a problem that pops up when you only ever use the same places for inspiration; blogs are relatively insular, especially when they’re ultra-focused, and after a while the content that they generate becomes relatively stale. Looking to these blogs for inspiration isn’t the best way to create great posts.

To create great blog content, you’ve got to look to less obvious, more creative sources.

Start by turning the events of your own life into blog stories.

If there’s one thing that the blogging world is missing, it’s personality and real connections. There are thousands of blogs out there, packed with people posturing and pretending they’re something that they’re not.

By focusing intently on what your life is really about, you can create ‘evergreen’ content that draws links, comments, and discussion, no matter how old it is or when people end up finding it.

Here’s a good way to test whether or not your blog posts are brilliant.

Publish a post, and bookmark it to reference later. Six months later, go back and read it. Is it still relevant? Is it interesting? Does it inspire you to get up, get out, and go and change things?

There’s a feeling that writers dread, and that’s when you look back on your previous work, and just wonder “what?”. We’ve all seen work that we’ve created in the past and wondered what we were thinking, and if your blog content doesn’t inspire that feeling, it’s definitely a good sign.

Of course, when you’ve got a small audience it’s easy to trick yourself into thinking that your content is better than it really is. Small groups can be remarkably insular, especially when they discovered you for something other than your writing.

As much as it hurts, you’ve got to discard what your friends and family think of your blog, and focus on the picture that it presents to the wider blogging community. If you find yourself drawing praise and approval from the blogosphere, take it as a compliment and keep on writing what works.

Of course, generating great blog content isn’t easy. When you work out how to make a blog stand out, you’re already there. The journey starts with a dedicated approach to creating great content, and non-stop work until you arrive there.

Work hard, keep on writing, and don’t lose inspiration.

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Article Tags: blog income, blogging guide, make a blog



Related Forum Posts
Re: Tactics for Blog Traffic - One really easy way to get yourself blogging more often is to repurpose your blog posts...republish them on article sites (or put a couple of short blog posts together into one article), put them in your newsletters, put a quantity of blog posts together into an ebook or even a full-fledged book. Also turn your blog posts into audios, for blog "readers" to listen to rather than read; or a video, for "readers" to watch. Again, group several into a teleclass, etc. And vice versa. Look at your existing articles, ebooks, teleclasses -- can you break them down into several or a dozen blog posts? This also has the advantage of having an ongoing theme for a period of time on your blog, which brings readers back to read the next installment. Plus the added bonus that you can sit down with one article and write 3 blog posts in one sitting, then schedule them out...and go on vacation! Lots more that can be done in this manner, let your creativity be your guide!
Re: how do I get started with Wordpress blog? - Hi Andy, I am glad you bumped this post. Last week Ken (from the PPG) helped me and installed a new WP blog on my website. I already have a blogger blog, but as you all mentioned before it is limitted. Bloggeris very good for begginers, but when you want to go to the next level you feel stuck, and here WP blog can help. The problem is you cannot import blog posts from blooger if it hosted on your site, only if it hosted on blogger. So I played with the blog, new template, installing plugins. WP is new to me and I need to learn before we go public. Changes are hard to make, but I know this change is for the best.
Re: Blogging for Entrepreneurs - One of the good things about blog posts is that they don't have to be very long. I tend to vary the length of my posts... Nowadays, if I have more to say about something I first make an article for my website and then post a teaser on my blog with a link through to the article.
my way - THere is NO nofollow tag on my blog but ALL posts have to be approved by me so I can control spam. It's pretty easy because I dont get much comments on my blog but it could become a full time job on a high traffic blog...
Re: Twitter Woes.... Whats slowing you down? - [quote="JackieGold":16j42pq9]My problem is getting legitimate followers. I feel like I write meaningful blog posts but people don't really click on them. The followers I do have are people I followed who were nice enough to follow me back. I don't want to use spammy software to acquire more followers either - I want people to read my blogs!![/quote:16j42pq9] Hi Jackie, Writing meaningful blog posts is a good start, but if you want people to read your blog posts you really have to give them something else: * put your personality into them - avoid impersonal pseudo-professionalism. * show that you are passionate about your topic. * make them fun and entertaining to read. * look out for unique/unusual/crazy/intriguing ways to write about stuff. * discuss problems people face in your niche and offer solutions, demonstrating your expertise. * liven up your posts with photos, videos, diagrams, infographics. * make each blog post different in style: tell a story/Q&A/product review/problem solving/interview people in your field etc. etc. * invite/encourage visitors to get involved - develop "involvement strategies" Hope that helps, David


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