The power of a blog is a wonderful thing.

It gives you the opportunity to get your personal view of things out there in the open where others can read them.

You can share tips and advice. Engage your worldwide audience and share your knowledge to position yourself as an expert in your field.

You can create a buzz and a following that gets your name and your business noticed by potentially thousands of people.

Of course there is one downside that puts many people off:

A blog is for life, not just for Christmas

If you want to make an impact with your blog you have to be dedicated, blog regularly and come up with an endless stream of content.

Dedication

A good blogger is a dedicated blogger.

They live to engage with their readers and provide them with an endless stream of quality content.

Their posts generate debate and a following. Sounds impossible but you too can achieve this through regular blogging. Posts that are relevant and interesting to your audience will get you noticed. People will come back to your blog time and time again and share it with others through social media.

Adding value

Regular blogging is all well and good but only if it adds value which means you must generate great ideas.

Inspiration for topics can strike anytime so make sure you always have pen and paper close by so you can write down your ideas when they strike.

Be useful

Long posts, short posts. Each topic and your own preference/writing style will dictate here. But if you keep your posts relatively brief, the information is more likely to be easily absorbed and will get them to come back for more.

Mix it up

People absorb information in different ways.

Some like to read, others prefer to listen and some like to watch videos. Offering a range of posts that use all these methods will widen the appeal of your blog.

What it comes down to is this – if you want to build a blog that draws in readers you have to write regularly, well, with variety but always it has to have interesting content.

Blogging really can help your business – it doesn’t matter if you’re a copywriter, a plumber, a solicitor or an accountant – a well written blog can help you by positioning yourself as an expert in your field.

Why do you want to blog?

That’s the first question you need to ask yourself. You’ve probably read quite a few, seen people become established experts and gather loads of loyal readers. In fact it’s probably the content of your favourite blogs that has inspired you to become a blogger.

So how can you replicate the success of your heroes?

First off, you can’t. If you’re going to blog you have to be yourself and offer people something new. What’s the point in producing a copy-cat blog? No one will read it.

So how can you become a better blogger? These 5 tips should help.

1. Don’t compare yourself to others

If you try to replicate your blogging hero’s style, you’ll produce something that’s sub standard because it doesn’t reflect you.

You are unique because there’s only one of you so use your posts to highlight your individuality, Use your own personal style and flare to carve out your own niche.

Will you please everyone? No – but you never will. Just be yourself and those who do enjoy your writing will become dedicated followers.

2. It’s not a closed club

The blogosphere appears to be controlled by a few big names. Forget about trying to be as good as them – just be you.

The internet and your potential audience is huge so there’s nothing stopping you from becoming a ‘name’ too.

3. Be unique

You have an advantage – no one else thinks like you, writes like you, or conveys a message like you.

Through your experiences, personality and ideas you’ll be able to write in a way no one else can emulate. By making your work your own you will attract readers.

4. Fresh ideas

Topics are constantly recycled in blogs. The secret to making yours stand out is to find a new angle to look at. It is this constant re-shaping of information that feeds the internet and helps generate new ideas and concepts.

5. Look at me!

Stand out from the crowd by incorporate your own personality. People love being entertained so if you write naturally in a humorous way use that to your advantage. 

Above all be true to yourself and don’t try and force yourself to write like someone else. It is tough coming with with new material but it’s a great way to get your ideas and opinions ‘out there’.

Give it a try—you’ve got nothing to lose.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter and blogger

People blog to get readers. Those readers then (hopefully) see them as an expert in their field, grow to trust their opinion and consider doing business with them.

Producing great blogs will facilitate this trust process, but your blogging platform and look will also have an impact.

Prolific blogger will write numerous posts. A few will grab people’s interest and be linked to, tweeted and referenced by other bloggers. Many however will be posted and then instantly forgotten about. So how to the big hitters manage to hit gold with their blog posts time and again?

Why are their posts so readable?

It all has to do with the whole package.

Focus

A lot of people write in  the first person – “I think the only way to generate great quality traffic to my site is through professional SEO copywriting”.

So what? That’s your opinion and right now it means nothing.

Changing the focus to the second person means you’ll address your reader directly – “Your website needs traffic to feed your sales. You can either pay through the nose with PPC or you can make the smart move and invest in professional SEO copywriting.”

It’s a small change but one that makes your post more relevant to the reader.

May I help?

Why do people read blogs? Mainly because they are looking for the answer to a question. So you have to ensure that no matter what you’re writing about it relates to a common problem that you then solve.

It could be about how to reduce your marketing budget, how to whiten your clothes first time every time, or how to reduce wrinkles. Giving your readers a solution is vital if you want your post to resonate with them.

Don’t over stuff

Keep you post focused on one main theme. Trying to incorporate several ideas your post will lose its focus and leave the reader somewhat bewildered.

Look nice

A solid wall of text is not attractive. If you want people to read your posts keep your paragraphs short so the page doesn’t look ‘stuffed’ with text. Headings and sub headings will break things up and show your reader what you’re covering within your post.

Write for your reader

You must write about subjects your reader cares about. Researching your market is if you are going to provide what they want. Just because you find a particular subject really interesting doesn’t mean your audience will.

Be natural

Many people think if they are writing about a subject in a blog they have to be very business-like and stiff.

Nope - the best blogs are written in a natural, conversation style that resonates with the reader.

That’s all there is to it, other than coming up with a great list of subjects of course. Just remember to write naturally, write to your reader and make it attractive on the eye.