Video Content to your Blog Posts
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How do you go from writing OK posts, to writing GREAT blog posts?

Writing great content is vitally important for your blog!  It is this content that helps to attract visitors to your site, visitors that can earn you money by clicking on your displayed adverts, affiliate links, product promotions, etc.

It’s easy for your visitors to go elsewhere for better content if you are not delivering what they want.

So, I thought I’d write this 10 step guide to help you write great blog posts.  I hope you find this useful.
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1. Post Title 

Approximately 80% of all people will read your blog post title! That is a huge percentage of people, however only 20% end up actually clicking on and reading the post. That is a big difference!

I hope this helps to show just how important the post title is. Spending time writing a great title can increase the amount of people that go on to read your article.

Thankfully, certain types of title work better than others.  Here are some that I’m sure you will have come across;

• How To… Titles – People are always looking to learn something new, so there is high demand for articles that show them ‘how to…‘ do something, e.g. ‘How To Set Up A Blog!’ or ‘How To Change A Light Bulb!’. Tutorial posts use this type of headline often.
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• Top Lists – This has to be one of my favourites.  People love top lists, whether it’s ‘Top 10 NFL Stadiums’, ’5 Ways To Make Money Online’, ‘70 Tips On How To Be A Better Blogger!‘, etc. People find these lists easy to follow because they are split up into a set number of points.  This very post would fall into this category, so it worked with you!
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• Question Titles – A ‘question’ title asks your readers a question, which you then try to answer within your post. For example, ‘Is Nuclear Energy Worth The Risk?‘, ‘What’s The Best Way To Improve Website Traffic?‘, etc. These questions need to involve the audience, so either they want to read how you have answered it, or they want to see if they agree with what you have written.

2. Introduction 

You need to grab your reader’s attention straight away with a good blog post introduction!

Your introduction can literally be the difference between your article being read or not! You can usually judge how good an article is going to be based on it’s introduction. If it’s dull or written badly, then the article probably won’t get any better. An intro like that will only loose readers.

Again, certain types work better than others.  Here are some of ideas to get you started;

• Start With A Fact – The whole point of the internet is to share information, that’s why people love facts!  Adding a fact at the beginning of your post will instantly grab peoples attention.  e.g. ‘93% of people lost weight on this diet!’
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• Start With A Statement – A bold statement is another great way to grab your readers attention. e.g. ‘Stop Wasting Time & Start Doing!‘ or ‘Wake Up & Start Living!’.  Readers will want to learn how they can ‘Stop Wasting Time’, so they will read your post.
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• Start With A Question – This works in exactly the same principle as a ‘question title’.  It engages the reader and makes them curious to find out how you have answered in in your post.  Though, obviously don’t use both a Question title & Question Intro!

3. Thumbnail Picture 

A lot of bloggers forget about image thumbnails! This is a small picture that appears next to your post title and summary, on your homepage. This helps to draw the attention of your website visitors, making them more likely to click on and read your post. 

Your blog post thumbnail does not always need to relate to your post, it just needs to stand out on your homepage and draw the attention of your readers.
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4. Writing Style & Technique 

I could write quite a bit for this section, but I will try to keep it short.  Your writing style gives your readers a glimpse of what you are like as a person, that’s why you need to spend time developing your own style of writing.

Write about what you know, what you are interested in, your own personal experiences, your own opinions, etc. Not only does this make it easier to write, but it helps readers to understand your viewpoint and gain trust.

People have short attention spans! You should try to keep sentences and paragraphs short and to the point, which helps to keep your readers interested.

Edit your posts!!!  Make sure that you read through what you’ve written before publishing. You’ll be able to see which parts you can improve by re-writing, correcting spelling & grammar, shortening, deleting, etc.  Knowing where to edit your work, makes you go from being a good writer to being an excellent writer!
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5. Images 

Using images within your blog posts is a great way to make them look more interesting to your visitors. The majority of your readers will never read an entire blog post, instead they scan through a post looking for bits of information that they find useful. Breaking up your post with images, helps to illustrate the point that you are making, whilst maintaining the attention of the reader. 

You can find loads of copyright free images online to use within your posts on sites like Flickr & Google Images.
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6. Article Length 

Most people advise that shorter posts (300-750 words) are much better than longer articles because people find them easier to read. Articles that are 2000+ words are read less often than shorter ones, however this does depend on what you are writing about.

This post is a little on the long side at 1,436 words, but I believe that there is enough quality information here to justify it.  If I had crammed it all into a short post of about 500 words, the quality would have suffered.

A good rule to remember is not to make articles longer than they have to be. Editing your articles after writing your initial draft to cut down on excess.
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7. SEO 

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a vitally important part of blogging!  When writing your blog posts, it’s important to make them search engine friendly. You can do this by including certain keywords within your posts, which the search engines use to identify what your article is about.  The higher your pages rank on Google/Bing/Yahoo/etc. results pages (SERPs), the more traffic your site will get!

Include keywords in your post title, meta descriptions, url structure, heading tags (H1, H2, H3,etc.) and make sure that any links that you include work.  I use the ‘Google Keyword Tool‘ to research all of my keywords. You can find this great tool within your own Google AdWords account, under the ‘Reporting & Tools’ tab.
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8. Internal Linking 

Linking to your other blog posts is a great way of improving your site.  Not only does it make it easier for your website visitors to navigate around your site and read all of your great content, but it also allows your site to be properly crawled by search engines and improve your SEO.
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9. Encourage Comments 

You want people to comment at the bottom of your posts as this helps to create a community around your website.  People will be able to see the reaction that your post has on other people (preferably a good reaction!), so they will be more likely to trust what you are saying.

To encourage people to comment, you should end your post with a question.  People can then respond if they want to.  It can be as simple as “Did you find this post useful?”, it just needs to promote a bit of discussion.
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10. Easy To Share 

This technically isn’t anything to do with writing, but I thought it was important to add here.  Getting traffic is one of the most important aspects of blogging, after all you want people to read what you have written.

You can make this easier for people by adding social media sharing buttons at the top or bottom of your posts.  This way, when someone reads your post and likes it, they can share it with their friends/colleagues via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.

Did you find this post useful?
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Thank You to my Guest Author:   Matt Smith, owner of OnlineIncomeTeacher.com.
Matt runs a blog from the UK about starting a website/blog and  making money from it.
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