Show of hands. How many of you are tired of writing blog posts that no one reads?
I get it. We’ve all been there.
We’ve all spent hours upon hours researching and writing a blog post that never gets shared nor rank in Google search engine.
But that doesn’t mean you should give up.
While no blog formula guarantees your piece will succeed, there are actionable steps you can take to increase your chances of success–by a lot!
And the good news? We’ll go over those steps in this post.
If you’re looking for ways on how to write successful blog posts, keep reading.
1. Empathize
Have you ever listened to a song with lyrics that feel like they were written just for you?
If you have, chances are you’ve connected with that song deeply.
That’s the feeling you want to evoke from your audience when they read your blog post.
You want them to resonate with your post so profoundly that they cannot break away from it.
The secret to doing this?
Empathy.
Empathy allows you to make your audience feel understood, valued, and validated.
While empathy is easily mistaken for sympathy, they are not the same.
Sympathy is feeling sorry for your reader; empathy is feeling alongside them.
When you write with empathy, you’re putting yourself in your audience’s shoes.
You can easily describe their worries and struggles because they are familiar to you.
Empathy allows you to predict what your readers want, and skillfully respond to their needs.
It helps you provide them with the support and motivation they need to pursue their goals and dreams.
But more importantly, empathy helps to make your audience feel closer to you.
This bonding is vital if you want your audience to like and trust you.
Write with empathy, and your readers will not be able to resist wanting to read and know more about what you have to say.
2. Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is what makes the difference between writing a successful post and a mediocre one.
Why?
Because to get your reader’s attention, you first need to identify what they care about the most.
What are their dreams, fears and frustrations? What keeps them up at night?
Being able to answer these questions is key to connecting with your audience.
To do this, bloggers create a customer persona, also known as a customer avatar.
An avatar is a representation of your ideal customer.
It focuses on one customer and identifies everything about that person.
A well-crafted avatar has a name and traits such as gender, race, hair color, and age.
Besides demographics, avatars also have personality, beliefs, and values.
The idea is to dedicate every blog post to your avatar.
Now you may be wondering: why would I want to write to one specific reader if I have more than one?
You see, although your readers are unique individuals, they have a lot in common.
They share the same dreams, aspirations, and frustrations concerning your blog’s topic.
As such, you can consider them as one audience.
By writing specifically to your avatar, you’ll be able to speak as if you’re communicating to your audience individually.
The result?
You’ll be able to forge a bond with your audience and write articles they won’t be able to stop reading.
3. Keyword Research
Keywords are words or terms your readers type in search engines for their queries.
Keyword research does three things two help you write a successful blog post:
- It tells you which topics your audience are interested in.
- It tells you how many are interested in that topic.
- It tells you how difficult it will be to rank for that topic.
With these three pieces of information, you can make better decisions on which blog topics will give you the best ROI.
Instead of choosing topics blindly, you can strategically select the ones that will reach the most audience with the least resistance.
While it’s true that some successful blog posts came purely from intuition, they are an exception, not the rule.
In most cases, selecting your blog topics based on intuition is a tremendous waste of time.
You’ll find success much faster and easier by using keyword tools.
That said, how do you go about doing keyword research?
The first thing you need to consider is whether you want to invest money in a tool or not.
Paid keyword tools can get expensive, so I suggest using free tools until you’re ready to invest.
Here’s a list of the free tools I use for my blogs:
- Keywords everywhere
- Google Console
- Answerthepublic.com
- Ubersuggest
And here’s a list of the paid tools I use:
Each of these tools has its strengths and weaknesses.
But all of them can help you make informed decisions on which topics will lead you closest to success.
4. Write an Irresistible Headline
Out of everything on this list, your headline has the biggest influence on your blog posts’ success or failure.
Why? Because it is your ticket into your readers’ minds.
Write a weak one, and your readers will not notice and read your post, no matter how good.
In other words, your headline can make or break your post.
To create strong headlines, you need to do two things:
- Trigger Emotions
- Show a Clear Specific Benefit
1. Trigger Emotions
Design your titles to trigger an emotional or psychological response, whether positive or negative.
Why?
Because emotions, not logic, is what motivates people to take action.
Create a title that plays into your reader’s dreams, fears, and obsessions.
The more you trigger their emotions, the more they will likely read and share your post.
2. Show a Clear Specific Benefit
To stand out from all the noise, you must offer your audience something worthwhile.
Out of all the content they can consume, why would you choose yours–what’s in it for them?
If your readers think they’ll receive a benefit from your post, they’ll click on it. If they don’t, they’ll ignore it.
Readers are drawn to articles that help them accomplish something.
This is why how-to articles are so popular.
How-to articles offer readers an irresistible promise: read me, and I’ll give you something of practical value.
It promises to bring readers closer to their desires, whether that’s learning how to take better photos or having a healthier body.
The clearer and more specific the benefit, the more compelling your headline would be.
If you want to learn more about writing a compelling headline, read our article “11 Tips for High Converting Blog Titles.”
5. Write a Compelling Introduction
A strong introduction hooks your audience in and makes them want to read the rest of your post.
If your introduction is weak, it’ll discourage your reader from reading further.
No matter how good your content is, your readers are likely to click away.
There are many ways to write an introduction.
But, there’s one ingredient that makes them effective every time:
Empathy.
We’ve talked about the power of empathy earlier in this article.
Writing with empathy draws your readers in by mirroring their thoughts back to them.
When you open your post by describing your reader’s worries and concerns, you’ll forge an instant connection.
They will immediately feel supported and understood.
You can do this by using phrases like:
- Have you ever…?
- Are you going through…?
- Has this ever happened to you…?
- Sounds familiar?
- Frustrating, isn’t it?
- Do you feel like…?
- I get it.
- It’s hard.
By writing with empathy in your opening, you show your readers that your post is relevant to them.
You convince them that you can provide them insight and solutions to their problems.
An empathic opening makes it clear that reading further is worth their while.
6. Use Examples
Many bloggers fail to provide examples to support their ideas in their posts.
But including examples is one of the best ways you can improve your writing.
How?
For one, examples are usually easier to understand than generalized explanations.
They help make abstract concepts more concrete, allowing your readers to understand your ideas better.
Examples also help make your writing more engaging.
They are interesting and easy to follow, especially if you use anecdotes.
People are naturally drawn to stories. They capture our attention because it allows us to imagine ourselves in similar situations.
When writing, make sure to include examples in your post, especially if you think your readers will be skeptical about your ideas.
Examples can include images, graphs, short stories, screenshots, research, and links.
I recommend giving at least one example for every point you make in your post.
7. Write a Powerful Conclusion
I used to slack off when I write my conclusions.
After all, I’ve already spent a lot of energy writing the headline, introduction, and body of my post.
It only makes sense that I get lazy by the time I wrap things up.
But after blogging for a while, I’ve learned that writing strong conclusions are not just essential but significant.
Why?
Because as bloggers, our job doesn’t stop at providing our readers with solutions to their problems.
It’s also part of our job to give them the courage and motivation to implement those solutions.
And there’s no better place to do this than your conclusion.
Your conclusion is not meant to be just a summary of the points you’ve made throughout your blog post.
Instead, it is a place where you tell your readers what they’ve been dying to hear the minute clicked on your post: They can do it.
They have all the tools they need to get what they desire; all they need to do is to use them.
In short, conclusions are an opportunity to inspire your audience to take action.
Here’s an example from an article I wrote on 21 Tips For Amazing Forest Photography:
Conclusions should not be a mere variation of “tell me what I’ve missed,” or “do you agree?” or “leave a comment below.”
A strong conclusion galvanizes your readers.
It makes them feel rejuvenated and powerful.
That’s the kind of conclusion that will make your audience remember you.
More importantly, that’s the kind of conclusion that will impact your readers’ lives.
And what’s the point of blogging if not to do just that.
So don’t stumble near the finish line.
Empower your readers to change their lives one conclusion at a time.
8. Make It Scannable
Most people that land on your blog are looking for information.
But they are busy and impatient.
Chances are they won’t spend more than a minute on your article.
And if getting the information they are looking for takes too much effort, they’ll likely click away.
So you need to make sure that they can digest your content as effortlessly and quickly as possible.
Here are some things you can do to make sure your content is easy to read:
1. Use Plenty of White Space
Reading on a screen is different from reading on a physical paper.
Unlike textbooks, blog posts need plenty of white space to be effective.
Here’s an illustration of text with plenty of white space and text without white space:
White space makes posts less intimidating and easier to follow along.
I recommend using single-sentence paragraphs.
Single-sentence paragraphs may seem strange on your desktop screen, but it’s necessary for mobile.
So much so that it can dramatically increase the number of people who finish reading your post, according to this study.
2. Use Subheadings
Subheadings make it easier for your readers to find what they are looking for.
They act as little summaries of a section, making it easy for your readers to extract relevant information without reading the entire article.
3. Use Numbers and Bullet Points
Numbers and Bullet points do an awesome job of breaking up big blocks of text.
4. Bold Important Points in Your Paragraphs
Bolding key points in your paragraphs allows your readers to find what they are looking for faster.
9. Use Images
Humans can process information up to 600 times faster with images than text.
This makes adding images to your post one of the fastest ways you can provide value to your readers.
Images also help make your content more engaging to read.
According to a study, articles that include visual content get 94% more views than a post without them.
When using images, make sure to optimize for quality and speed.
Using large size images can significantly slow down your site and increase bounce rate.
53% of users exit a mobile website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load, so make sure you keep your image file size small.
To optimize your images, I recommend you use a compression plugin. For this, I use ShortPixel and WP Smush.
One final note on images: only upload the ones you are legally allowed to use.
Don’t just take any image from the internet and use them in your post.
There are many quality images, both paid and free, that you could use legally.
My favorite sites for stock images are Canva, Haute Stock, and Adobe Photostock.
These paid memberships sites provide a vast selection of high-quality stock images on almost every topic.
If you are looking for free stock images, Pixebay and Pexles are great options.
You will have less selection than paid membership sites, but you can still find quality images if you take the time to look.
10. Keep Your URLs Short and Concise
Your blog’s URL works as it’s address on the web. It’s that thing that begins with either www or HTTP.
Good URLs are concise. While Google prefers in-depth content, shorter URLs are more valued in terms of SEO.
A study conducted using data from Ahrefs, and Accuranker found that, on average, pages on the first pages of Google have a URL length of under 60 characters.
Do not fill your URLs with unnecessary words. Avoid stop words such as the, so, and, or, but, among others.
You’ll also want to make sure that your URL is readable and isn’t filled with strange characters like this:
The cleaner your URL reads, the more trustworthy and authoritative your website will be.
Make sure your keyword is on the URL. But avoid keyword stuffing. Repeating keywords in your URL will make it longer but carry no weight for SEO.
11. Master Word Economy
Word economy is the art of writing succinctly.
It means getting your point across with as few words as possible.
When you only include necessary words, you make your message clearer and more impactful.
Here are some tips to implement word economy:
1. Eliminate redundant words and phrases.
Beginner bloggers tend to repeat the same thing multiple times in different ways.
In the blogosphere, they call this type of writing “fluff.”
Fluff is when you write a 2000 word post that can be written in 500 words.
It’s when you add more words to your post without adding more value.
Remove any fluff in your post before publishing.
2. Don’t Digress.
It’s just as easy to digress when writing as it is when talking.
Digressing is especially common when using personal stories as examples in your post.
While going off tangent can sometimes give your writing personality, it can easily backfire.
Remember to stay on topic.
If you must digress, keep it short and relevant to your reader’s interest and obsessions.
3. Use stronger adverbs and adjectives.
Cut down on your words by using stronger adverbs and adjectives.
For example, instead of saying “very bright light,” you can say “blinding light.”
Or instead of saying “extremely angry,” you can use “livid.”
Using adjectives and adverbs that describe your ideas more precisely helps you cut down on modifying words and improve word economy.
Conclusion
While no formula guarantees your blog post will succeed, you certainly can increase your chances of success by checking the boxes mentioned above.
These tweaks may be small, but implementing them can significantly impact how your blog post will be fair in the online world.
Go ahead, take a crack at it, and watch your blog post rise to the top!