Far too many people think that blogging is as easy as opening a document and starting to type. So long as you have a topic in mind and a strategy for promoting your blog, you can't go wrong. If only it were that simple. Blogging can be tiring, frustrating, and unrewarding if the purpose of your blog is to make money when it isn't doing so. We push ourselves to create better content, but we don't seem to be able to make a difference. Often, though, the problem isn't with the quality of our writing. The problem is that we've forgotten the basics.
It's possible to become so experienced as a blogger that you forget the very principles that you stuck to when you started. You become more expansive and specialized, taking advice from so many places and trying so many new techniques that you drift away from your original purpose. Is any of this starting to sound familiar? If so, take a moment to refamiliarize yourself with the basics we're about to outline below. They're only little things - but they could make all the difference to getting your blog back on track.
Don’t Assume Knowledge
A common piece of advice given to teachers is that they shouldn’t assume their students know anything at all about the topic they’re teaching. If they haven’t included a piece of knowledge in their lesson, they shouldn’t expect their students to know it. This is known as the curse of knowledge - a common failing of educators. By assuming that your audience knows something when they actually don’t, you’re unintentionally excluding them from the content of your lesson or essay. The same is true of blogs. No matter how long you’ve been writing about a topic before, at least some of your audience will be new to you and your writing. Always write as if you’re communicating with people for the very first time. Explain everything. Include everyone.
Include Calls To Action
Very few people write blogs purely for the sake of writing something. Those who do are diarists, not bloggers. In 99% of cases, a blog is online to persuade people to take a specific course of action. That might be to buy a product or a service or to change their mind about a topic. In every case, a "call to action" is necessitated. You'll see this time and time again in blogs connected to online slots websites. The blogs are there to provide audiences with information about the online slots they might be interested in playing.
No matter how well written they might be, they're no use unless they end with a link taking the reader directly to the online slots game being reviewed or discussed. There's a particularly good example of this at Rose Slots Canada, where the blog acts as a perfect “sales companion” to the collection of online slots. What do you want your reader to do when they’ve finished reading your piece? Have you given them a way of taking that action immediately? If not, you’re doing it wrong.
Find A Pattern
Television shows lose audiences if their host networks move them around the schedules a lot. If your favorite show was usually on Monday at 8pm and then suddenly moved to Wednesday at 6pm, then Sunday at 7pm, you'd be irritated by it. You'd probably also miss at least one of those episodes because the broadcast dates no longer fit with your schedule. We're not saying your blog should be predictable, but there should at least be a pattern for regular readers.
Whether that's posting at a specific time of day or posting on a specific day of the week, keep to it. A well-run blog will develop regular readers, and regular readers will come to expect content on specific days. You might be forced to abandon your schedule because of real-world issues occasionally, but don't leave it lifeless for too long. If your blog looks quiet, people will assume your business is quiet too.
Keep It Brief
Consider this article the exception rather than the rule when it comes to blogging. We’ve gone with longer-form content here because we have advice to impart. In the majority of cases, shorter is better for blogs. The average attention span for reading a single webpage is something like fifteen minutes, but can be a lot shorter depending on the content in question. The best blogs deal with a single topic, and impart a single piece of information. If you have more to say, write another blog.
This is especially important when you’re blogging for business reasons. You’ll have heard the term “elevator pitch” used in business before. It refers to a short, sharp pitch that you could use on a customer during the time it takes an elevator to get from one floor to another. If it takes longer than two or three minutes to read your blog post, you’ve probably gone too far. Strip it back to its bare bones.
Check Your Tone
Your blog is an extension of your personality. In business, people buy from individuals or companies that they feel like they “know.” There are two ways you can get that impression of familiarity across on a business website. The first is through video content, which not everybody will take the time to watch. The second is through your blog. That’s why dry business content doesn’t work. It’s important to cover things like product specifications and functions, but not in a blog. All that detail can go on the product sales page. Write your blog like you’re explaining things to a friend. Don’t be afraid to use the occasional colloquialism. Use your name rather than your business name when you’re signing off.
The personal touch still goes a long way in business - and probably always will.
Just like we said at the start of this article, all of these pieces of advice are basic. You knew them once. It’s time you got to know them again. Keep them in mind the next time you’re writing a business blog and you should find that engagement increases.
Word Count: 1,161
