blog posts

10 Tips To Make Your Blog Posts More Interesting

“I learned that by being entertaining you make a connection with another person.” – Robin Williams

There are several reasons why someone would start a blog. Maybe they wish to build an audience or an email list. Or maybe they wish to have an authoritative site and make money online with affiliate marketing.

Whatever your reason for building a blog, ultimately, you’ll want people to see it. To attract people to your blog, the content needs to be excellent and your blog has to look great.

In this article, you’ll discover 10 ways to ‘spice up’ your blog posts and your blog overall. Apply these tips and you’ll definitely make your blog more interesting and attractive!

By the way, if you are serious and want to take your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.

Are you ready to get started? Let’s go…

Use Attractive Images

A picture says a thousand words. If you want your blog to be interesting, you absolutely MUST break up the text with images – and ideally, all your images must have a caption between them.

When was the last time you came across an image and didn’t read the caption?

Almost never. People like making sense of the image and the caption reinforces their perception of what they’re seeing.

There are 2 types of images you can use on your blog:

Creative commons images (free)
Royalty-free stock photos (paid)

You can get creative commons images from sites like Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, etc. You won’t need to pay a cent for them and can use them in your blog posts.

Some of these sites will allow you to use their images for free, but you’ll need to credit the image creator. You can do this in the caption.

Royalty-free stock photos can be purchased from sites such as IstockPhoto. Generally, these photos tend to look much better than what you’d find in the free sites.

Furthermore, the sheer variety of images in the paid image sites will mean that you can find photos that very closely match your content.

Use photos in all your blog posts. They’re one of the best ways to make your blog posts ‘pop’ and capture the readers’ attention.

Use Quote Images

People love quotes. Social media is replete with motivational quotes. Even the latest trending, “Let’s go, Brandon!” is a quote. Ingenious marketers are using that quote on mugs, t-shirts, etc. and making tons of sales.

You can always do a quick Google Image Search for quotes related to your blog post. For example, if you’re writing a blog post on productivity, a quick search for ‘productivity quotes’ will bring back these results.

Now all you need to do is compile a few quotes and verify that the quotes and the attribution is correct.

You’ll then need to create your own quote images for your blog. Do NOT use the images you find via Google Image Search. Most of these will be copyrighted images. You need to make your own… and it’s easy.

There are 2 excellent solutions for creating quotes:

Canva is free to use. Stencil and Snappa are paid options.

There are also other websites that you can use such as Quotefancy, Quozio and MediaModifier.

Quote images have the same purpose as stock photos – to break up the monotony of the text and add a dash of color and ‘punch’ to your blog posts.

Memes And Gifs!

Memes have been all the rage for the past 7 years or so. They show no signs of waning in popularity. Because memes are shared all over social media and they’re usually humorous, people automatically look at memes hoping to be entertained.

You can make free memes with a meme generator such as Imgflip or Kapwing. It’s best to have a good sense of humor when creating memes. If you lack ideas, you can visit Me.Me for inspiration.

An important point to note is that not every niche lends itself well to memes. If you’re in a serious niche such as ‘coping with grief’, you’ll want to be very careful using memes. You might be able to get away with one or two memes just to lighten the mood, but you don’t want to appear flippant.

There’s a fine line to walk here. You’ll have to exercise common sense when using memes. The same applies to using gifs that you can find on Giphy, which you can embed in your blog posts.

Remember to use memes and gifs in moderation. They work wonderfully well for grabbing attention, but too many of them can be distracting.

Break Up The Text

Reading text on a screen is a lot more stressful on the eyes than reading a paperback. This is why it’s imperative that you break up the text in your blog posts.

For starters, keep your paragraphs 3-5 lines long. Forget what you were taught in school about paragraphing rules.

When you’re online, readability is everything – and if the reader gets tired reading your content, they’re just one click away from Facebook or Kim Kardashian’s Instagram account.

And they’ll leave your blog and you’d have lost them. So you definitely want to break up the text on your blog post into smaller bite-sized chunks.

As mentioned earlier, you can use images, quotes or even have sub-headings (H2, H3,etc.)

The sub-headings will make the content easier to read for skim readers and you can have an extra line break before every sub-heading so that there’s more white space in your blog post.

You’ll want to maintain the same format of headings and sub-headings throughout your blog so that there’s uniformity and consistency throughout your blog.

Use Videos

Nothing grabs more attention than a video. These days, most people prefer watching videos over reading. So, you’ll definitely want to embed a video in your blog post.

There are two ways you can do this:

Create your own video (RECOMMENDED)
Use someone else’s video

Creating your own video is the recommended option because it puts a face and a voice behind the blog. People like watching other people.

Even if you’re shy and prefer to do a screen recording using a tool like Camtasia, your voice will still engage your readers. Just make sure the video is interesting.

One of the benefits of creating your own videos and having your own channel on YouTube is that your videos will attract traffic. You can then have links in your video description that points viewers to an opt in page to build your list. Or you can point them to your blog posts.

If you decide to use someone else’s video on your blog, you’ll probably be embedding a video from YouTube. This is legal and nothing to worry about.

Just click on the share button…

Then click on ‘Embed’ and you’ll be given the code to copy and paste in your blog.

The video will show up in your post with the play button. You can use a video to break up the text on your blog.

Quality And ‘Flow’ Of Content

No matter how many attractive images and engaging videos you use, at the end of the day, the quality of your written content will decide how interesting your blog post will be.

The content needs to flow well and should not feel like a mishmash of clunky paragraphs virtually stapled together to form a post.

Each point needs to lead to the next and so on. That will make the reading process smooth and seamless. Being a proficient writer will definitely help here.

If you dislike writing, you can always hire expert writers on sites like Freelancer. Always make sure that the content reads well, and is interesting and engaging.

Many marketers try to optimize their blog posts for SEO (search engine optimization), and they end up adding keywords in parts of their content just to rank well. Very often, these keyword-rich sentences don’t fit in well with the content and can sound awkward.

So, if you’re trying to rank your blog posts for specific keywords, make sure the keywords are woven seamlessly into the content so that the reader experience is good.

Use Infographics

This tip is especially useful for content that needs to be simplified. Any listicle can have an infographic created on it.

When creating an infographic, you’ll want to distil the blog post and use the most important points as your infographic’s data points. Keep your points short and succinct.

An infographic doesn’t require too much text because the icons and symbols in the image will convey the message effectively.

What matters is that the infographic is a derivative of your content. This will make the it congruent to the entire blog post.

Once the infographic is completed, you’ll insert it in your blog post (somewhere in the middle or at the end. This will help to break up the text or sum up your content in one neat image.

If you have no idea how to make an infographic, you can easily hire a freelancer on Fiverr to create an infographic for you. It’s very affordable.

Typography And Readability

The font you use on your blog needs to be legible and easy on the eyes too. There are countless articles written about fonts and font pairing. You may wish to use 2 different fonts – one for your paragraphs and one for your headings.

The most popular and effective fonts for a blog are:

Tahoma
Arial
Verdana

Avoid using cursive fonts or other fonts that look stylish but when used in large blocks of text becomes difficult to read (e.g. monotype corsiva).

When it comes to readability, the font size matters too.

Avoid making your font size too small. Many older people will find it difficult to read your content. 14pt is the new 12pt!

When your font is legible, reading the content becomes less taxing on the eyes – which means your readers will not get tired easily. Your blog’s bounce rate will be lower and this will give your blog posts an SEO advantage.

The color of your font makes a difference too. Avoid using light grey font on a white background. Some websites will mention that having lighter text is easier on the eye. That may be true, but if it’s too light, it’ll strain the readers’ eyes instead. So exercise common sense here.

Your WordPress Theme

If you’re using WordPress for your blog (and most people do), the theme you use will play a huge role in your blog’s appearance. Avoid using free themes. The paid ones have more features and usually look much better.

There are thousands of themes on the market. You’ll need to decide what theme you want, depending on the type of blog you’re creating.

Many of the most popular themes have a lot of flexibility so that you can toggle between the different options and make your blog look exactly the way you want it to.

Some of the most popular themes are:

A good theme will not only give your blog a clean appearance and make it look professional… but it will also load fast. We live in a day and age where people want everything fast.

If your blog takes ages to load, you can bet you’ll be losing visitors by the boatload. They’ll just close the page (while it is still loading) and will never see your blog. So, use a WordPress theme that has a fast load speed.

You can check the speed of your blog here: https://gtmetrix.com/

Your Opinions And Stories Matter

People love watching and listening to others. It’s why Oprah is a billionaire with her talk show. It’s why Joe Rogan’s podcast gets downloaded millions of times… and it’s also why reality shows still remain as popular as ever.

As a species, we’re curious to hear and watch what other people say and do. Why else do you think social media is so addictive?

When you’re writing a blog post, even if it’s a serious topic, you’ll want to inject your opinions and stories within the post. If you have no stories of your own, tell other people’s stories.

There are many movies based on other people’s life stories. Rocky, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Blind Side, and many other poignant movies are stories about people’s trials and tribulations… and how they overcame all odds.

There are always opportunities to add your own stories and opinions. It’s better to be opinionated than to have no opinions. Even if your opinions are polarizing, you’ll still benefit by building a tighter audience who agrees with what you’re saying.

They’ll feel that you’re authentic and are on the same page as them. This is the type of ‘loyalty’ you want. You don’t want your blog to be sterile and bland like vanilla. You must let your personality shine… and your readers will enjoy reading it.

In Conclusion…

These are just some of the many ways you can make your blog posts interesting. Always remember, you’re writing for other people. You want their experience on your blog to be an enjoyable one.

If you can do that, your blog will always have a loyal following, and if you monetize your content, you’ll see sales and profit.

It all starts with giving the people what they want.

“The currency of blogging is authenticity and trust.”

– Jason Calacanis

If you really want to know more about the power of blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free blogging report; download, read it and take action 🙂

The Easiest Blog Post You Will Ever Write

Writing your own original articles and blog posts is mandatory if you own a list or run an internet business. Blogging is risk free and should be part of any online business.

Mandatory. Part of your standard operating procedures. A basic staple. Something you can’t do without. You get the picture.

Blog articles can be used in so many ways that I’d need to write an article just to explain all the ways you can profit from articles. 🙂

1. Determine Your Title

Most people don’t spend much time on their title and that’s a no-no. It’s a flagrant foul in basketball. A bounced check. A driver cutting you off in traffic. Things that are mindless.

As with everything I ever say about writing articles, your title is important. Very important. Imagine this scenario…

You’re searching the internet for blogs or sifting through articles at your favorite directory in hopes of finding some useful tips for selecting curriculum for your upcoming homeschooling year.

Which of these would you take a closer look at…

The Easiest Way To Choose Your Curriculum
Making Your Curriculum Choice
5 Questions To Ask When Choosing Curriculum
Homeschool Book Decisions
Choosing Your Homeschool Resources

While all of these are related to choosing your homeschool curriculum, “The Easiest Way…” and “5 Questions To Ask…” probably have more appeal. If you’re pressed for time, you probably aren’t going to read all five … you might read two.

And the title is going to determine which two gets your attention.

So, first things first, it’s important that you create an appealing title. We’ll talk more about this in another lesson, but three simple “rules” that I go by in crafting titles that I’d like to pass on to you are…

Be specific. It’s not “Questions To Ask”, it’s “5 Questions To Ask”. It’s not, “Lose Pounds”, it’s “Lose 3 Pounds in 7 Days”.
Make It Simple. Who would ever read an article, “7 Extremely Hard Ways To Lose Weight”? Or, “Top 10 Most Difficult Ways To Find A Date For Valentine’s Day”? Offer SIMPLE solutions. EASY ways to accomplish a desired result.
Speak To A Group. If your article is intended for a specific group (I.E. Beginners, WAHMs, Christians, Senior Citizens, College Students, etc.) then say so in your title. Rather than “How To Write An Ebook”, go with “The Beginners’ Guide to Writing An eBook” or “How To Write a Christian eBook”.

So, determine your title and then begin the writing process.

Hint: Go to good old EzineArticles.com and review the titles of other articles (paying particular attention to which articles are viewed the most – indicating their popularity) and then use those titles to model your own after. I.E. If you see the popular title, “The Easiest Way To Lose 10 Pounds And Get In Shape Fast!” you could easily entitle your own article, “The Easiest Way To Learn Guitar And Play Songs Fast!”

And don’t forget Amazon.com. Go and find the bestselling books in your niche and take a look at the Table Of Contents for more inspiration for articles.

2. Write Your Opening

You’ve got about 30 seconds to get your reader’s attention if you’re going to get them to consume your entire article. That’s not much. It’s important that you get them interested quickly. I’m going to share three to get you started…

“There must be some reason why some _________ outperform others.” . This opening is all about informing the reader that some people have an advantage over others. And, in order to level the playing field, they need to follow the advice in your article. Example: “There must be some reason why certain tennis players win more matches than others. Said another way, if two equally skilled tennis player compete … why does one get to go home a winner and the other a loser?”
“I’ve always been impressed with those who could __________.” . This opening allows you to mention a specific result that is desired to, not only you, but the reader as well. Your article teaches the person how they too can experience the desired result. Example: “I’ve always been impressed with those who could hit a backhand winner on the run. It never came easy to me and I have marveled many times when others seem to hit that shot so effortlessly. Then, I figured out their secret…”
“Do you find yourself _________?” This opening is a good one because it allows the reader to identify with what you’re writing about. When they say “yes” to your question, then they know the article is for them … and they’ll read on to discover what they can do about the problem they face. Example: “Do you find yourself double-faulting a lot? For years I gave away point after point – usually in critical times during my matches – by hitting into the net or just beyond the service box. Finally, I paid for a lesson from the local pro and this is what he taught me…”

Choose one of these openings (or one from the related article coming tomorrow) and write approximately 125 words as your introduction to the article. Be sure to transition from your opening into your first question.

You can do this in one of two ways: (a) Specifically mention that you’ll be answering the three most asked questions from beginners, or (b) Simply answer the questions without ever actually posing the questions in the text of your article.

3. Answer Question #1

If you’ll recall from earlier, question number one is…

“What is _________ ?”

Simply plug in the topic of your article into that question … and then answer it in approximately 250 words.

What is tennis strategy?
What is podcasting?
What is virtual real estate?
What is forex trading?
What is retinopathy?
What is a VoIP phone?
What is Tai Chi?

Give a brief explanation of the topic in your own words and then move on to the next question which builds upon the first question.

4. Answer Question #2

That question again is…

“Can you show me an example of ________?”

Now the article is taking shape. We go from an introduction to an explanation and now we have an illustration. You’ve explained what it is and now you’ll explain what it looks like. Provide an example. A case study. An illustration. A method. Something the reader can identify with to better understand what you’re saying.

You’ve explained what tennis strategy is … now give a scenario in which tennis strategy is at work.
You’ve explained what virtual real estate is … now give an example piece of VRE property.
You’ve explained what Tai Chi is … now share one of the key moves of the discipline.

After providing some sort of example, move on to question number three…

5. Answer Question #3

From earlier in our lesson, the final question is…

“How can I get started with __________? “

It all climaxes with 1-3 simple steps the reader can follow in order to begin practicing your teaching.

By this point the reader knows WHAT the topic is about, and they know a basic use or function of the topic. Now, they need a simple explanation of how they can get started with application. How can they use the information?

You can either give the reader ONE action step to take in order to get started (I.E. The first thing you’ll want to do is enroll in a class.) or you can provide them with a simple set of THREE steps to put into practice as a sort of mini-system (I.E. Step

One is… Step Two is… Step Three is…).

6. Decide Upon A Close

To complete your article, you’ll want to use your final 125 words (approximately) to close out your content. There are two components of the article close that I think are necessities if you want to see any results from your efforts.

The Spark. You want to leave the reader with a desire to get started. You want them excited. You want them motivated. You want them to take action. I’m not necessarily talking about giving them a rah-rah pep talk (although that might not hurt either!). I’m speaking of getting them to realize that they can get the desired results they want if they’ll get busy doing something. Your job at the close of the article is to encourage them (gently or blatantly) and challenge them to achieve.
The Segway. The other thing you must do during your close is to lead into your resource box. Your article is for the reader. Your resource box is for you. Your content is to provide useful information for the reader. Your resource box is to get the reader to a point where you present an offer. And the closing of your article is the place where the two roads meet. Lead the reader to a decision to make a positive change in their life – to take action. And then use your resource box to provide a means to do just that.

7. Create A Featured Resource Box

Most people use the same generic resource box with each of their articles. In other words, it’s the same resource box regardless of what the article is about.

That’s a big mistake in my opinion.

With an ever-changing audience reading articles about ever-changing topics why would you want to use a never-changing resource box?

Your resource box – in order to be truly effective – must be a continuation of the article itself. It must offer something more that is directly related to the content of the article.

I mean, think about it: the reader has warmed up to you at this point. You’ve shared something useful. They like your style. They are pumped up and ready to take action. Why blow that moment with a resource box that does nothing to really enhance or continue or build upon where they are at this moment in time?

Let me give you an example:

If I’ve just explained what tennis strategy is about, pointed them to an example of tennis strategy and briefly outlined how they can create their own tennis strategy – which is more effective at this point…

Jason Daly is the publisher of Tennis Tips, a free weekly newsletter full of informative helps for tennis players of all skill levels. For your free subscription, drop by http://www.JasonsTennisTips.com today.
Jason Daly is the author of How To Outplay Your Opponents By Outsmarting Them, a free strategy report for tennis players of all skill levels. Grab your complimentary copy at http://www.JasonsStrategyReport.com today.

Obviously, having just read the article on tennis strategy, you’d be more likely to take action if resource box #2 was in place … because it’s a continuation of the article. It’s part 2. The sequel. The rest of the story.

Note: And, upon visiting my site and registering for the free report, you’re automatically going to receive my free newsletter as well anyway.

The point is this: a carefully crafted resource box — one that is specifically relevant to the article itself — will outperform a generic resource box. You’ll get more results by using a resource box that builds upon what’s been shared in the article it is attached to.

So, that’s an incredibly easy way to write a good blog article.

You can crank out an entire series of these articles for beginners. All you need to do is answer three simple questions.

What is _________?
Can you show me an example of _________?
How can I get started with _________?

It works for any niche. Any topic. Any person. So what are you waiting for?

17 Ways To Create Blog Posts That Get Attention

You can put a lot of content up on your blog, but your blog isn’t going to be successful if no one is reading the content.

That’s why one of the biggest keys to your success is to create engaging content that attracts readers and keeps them coming back to your blog again and again.

Here’s how to do it…

1. Give Your Audience What They Want

The first thing you need to do is understand what your audience wants. In other words, what sort of content are they already consuming? Here’s how to figure this out:

Find out what sort of infoproducts they’re buying. Check bestsellers on marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Udemy.com. ClickBank.com and JVZoo.com.
See what topics get a lot of traction on social media.
Check question and answer sites to see what’s popular, including Quora.com, Yahoo! Answers, and JustAnswer.com.
Browse niche groups (on Facebook) and forums to see what topics keep popping up again and again.
Read your competitors’ blogs to see which topics get a lot of discussion and social media shares.
Ask your audience what they’d like to learn more about.Check your own blog to see what topics you’ve posted about in the past that have generated a lot of interest.

Next…

2. Write For Your Audience

In order to write for your audience, you need to understand exactly who they are. You’ll need to do some research to uncover their demographics, and then spend some time reading niche discussions and talking to your audience to learn more about them.

Here’s what you want to know:

Age
Gender
Where they live.
Marital status.
Kids or not.
Rent or own.
Income level.
Education level.
Biggest niche challenges/obstacles/pain points.
Solutions they’ve tried.
Why those solutions haven’t worked.
What they want.
What motivates them.
Where they get their niche information.
Their niche level (beginner, intermediate, expert).

Next…

3. Catch Attention With Titles

Engagement starts with your blog titles, which is why you need to invest time creating benefit-driven titles with a little razzle dazzle to catch attention.

For example, “How to Lose Weight” shares a benefit. It’s descriptive, but it’s also a little boring.

In order to catch attention, you need to add a little razzle dazzle. E.G., “The Weird Weight Loss Trick That Shook Hollywood (Psst, It Will Work for You Too!)”

Next…

4. Open With A Bang

You need to capture attention right away, which is why your opener should work hard to get and keep your audience’s attention. You can do this by:

Building anticipation by adding a “key points” section in your opener.
Telling a story right away.
Providing a startling fact or statistic.
Busting a myth, or sharing other unexpected information.
Sharing a really good tip right away to build interest.
Posting an interesting quote (from a famous person).
Showing that you understand the reader and their problem, such as by empathizing with the reader.

Next…

5. Create “You”-Centered Content

Your content needs to be all about your readers, specifically with regards to their problems and how to solve them. Unfortunately, some bloggers tend to make their content more about themselves, such as how they discovered a particular tip or trick.

Yes, you do need to talk about yourself from time to time, such as when you share your credentials or you tell an engaging story. However, you want to be sure to pivot immediately back to your readers to keep the focus on them.

Here’s a quick way to check if you’re focused on your readers: see how many times you use words like “you” and “your,” versus words centered on yourself (such as I, me, and mine). Rewrite author-oriented content to make it more about the reader.

For example, “I’ll share my favorite weight-loss trick” is author-oriented. You can rewrite it to change the focus like this: “You’ll discover a proven weight-loss trick.”

6. Avoid Passive Language

Passive language is where you craft sentences so that the subject receives an action, rather than the subject performing an action. Readers tend to find it tedious and boring to read this sort of content.

Here’s an example of a passive sentence: The dog must be walked five times per day.

You’d rewrite it to make it active, like this: You must walk the dog five times per day.

7. Engage Readers With Stories

One really good way to engage readers on an emotional level is to draw them in with a story.

For example, you can write a story about how you or someone else in the niche overcame the same problem as your readers.

Another example: You might share a heartwarming story, or even a story about an embarrassing moment. These stories build rapport.

Still one more example: if you’re trying to share a lesson, share it in the form of a story. It makes it both more engaging and memorable.

8. Ask Questions To Engage Readers

You can ask questions in the beginning, middle or end of your content to engage readers and encourage them to interact. For example:

Have you ever _______?
Do you ever feel ________?
How would you feel?
What is your favorite tip?
What is the hardest part of _______?
What do you think?
What would you do?

Next…

9. Build Anticipation And Curiosity

Starting in the beginning and sprinkled throughout your content, you’ll want to build anticipation and curiosity for what’s coming.

For example: “In just a moment, you’ll discover the #1 way to get 1000 visitors in the next 24 hours. But first…”

Likewise, if you have a blog series, then be sure to build anticipation for the other articles in the series.

E.G., “Tomorrow you’ll find out which food you should NEVER eat if you want to lose weight – and chances are, you’ve already eaten it this week!”

10. Make Your Audience Smile

If you can make your audience feel something (especially a positive emotion), you’re going to have their full attention. One way to do this is to inject some humor (sparingly) into your content to make your audience smile and chuckle.

Before you start cracking jokes in your content, be sure that you’ve researched your audience, and you understand them.

What people find humorous is subjective, and it also differs across cultures. Indeed, what you find funny may be outright offensive to others, so keep your humor G-related and appropriate.

11. Serve Up Unique Content

One really good way to keep readers engaged is to give them content they’ve never seen before. Elsewhere in these guides, we’ve talked about how to create unique content, such as by sharing unique case studies, stories, and even creating formulas to teach step-by-step content.

Here’s another idea: use fresh comparisons to explain concepts and even step-by-step processes.

In some cases, the actual how-to information you’re sharing isn’t unique. However, the way you position and present the information can be unique – and that’s exactly what will keep readers engaged.

Let’s suppose you’re writing about customer retention. Most of your competitors are going to list and explain all the components of creating satisfied customers. You can make your content unique by comparing customer retention to the Hollywood red-carpet VIP treatment. It’s a simple thing, but it makes your content more interesting, and it stands out from other similar content.

12. Be Concise

If you want to keep readers engaged, then cut out all the fluff and filler. If a page, a paragraph, or even a sentence isn’t necessary to getting your point across, then delete it. You want to keep your content concise and “meaty,” which will keep readers engaged.

One good way to keep your content focused is to create an outline before you write. The key here is to make this outline as detailed as possible.

Not only should you list the major steps and points you want to cover, but you can also list substeps, tips, examples and so on. Then once you start writing, stick to your outline, and delete anything that veers from this outline.

13. Use A Friendly Tone

If you remember reading a few textbooks during your school days, you might also remember some pretty yawn-inducing passages. The problem? These textbook writers shared information, but they didn’t seem all that interested in connecting with readers. While their writing may be technically correct, it’s boring.

Naturally, you’ll want to avoid this sort of stilted, textbook-style writing.

One way to connect with your readers is to write with a friendly, conversational tone.

Think of how you’d write to a friend, and share your content in a similar manner. (This guide is an example of writing with a friendly tone – note how this content isn’t speaking above anyone, it’s not pretentious, and it doesn’t try to impress with big words and complex sentence structure.)

14. Offer Quick Wins

A quick win is a tip or other bit of information that someone can apply fairly quickly, and then get fairly quick results too. Your readers should be able to instantly recognize the value of the information and how quickly they’ll get good results if they apply it.

For example, if you’re sharing information to beginning marketers about how to find a niche, you might teach them to use a keyword tool to find niches they never knew existed (e.g., enter partial searches such as “how to ____” and “get rid of” and “secrets of”).

Your audience can literally apply that information instantly, and in minutes have a list of potential niches to explore.

Quick wins keep your readers engaged on the current blog post they’re reading, as they’ll be eagerly searching for other gold nuggets of information. However, making a habit of providing quick wins in your posts also keeps readers engaged with your blog as a whole and coming back for more.

15. Insert Awesome Visuals

Another way to engage readers is by inserting useful, polished graphics. This includes:

Infographics.
Tables.
Charts.
Illustrations.
Screenshots.
Photos.
GIFs.

And similar images.

For example, you might include an infographic to make data-heavy information easier to understand.

Another example: you might include a photo or illustration that shows someone how to do something (such as the proper way to stand when doing a weight-lifting exercise such as a squat).

Need a real-life example to view right now? Take a look at the articles on BuzzFeed.com. You’ll see that many of them include memes and GIFs to keep readers interested and hooked until the end.

Point is, a good visual can attract the eye and draw the reader back into the text, and it can also add a lot of value to the content. Either way, good visuals engage readers!

16. Share Tips And Examples

Another way to add value while engaging readers is to generously provide plenty of tips and examples in your content.

As an example, take a look at #15 above. The instruction was to provide visuals in your blog posts.

You then got a list of seven examples of different types of visuals you can create, along with specific examples of some of those seven types.

17. Format For Easy Readability

If people come to your blog and see a wall of text, they’re going to hit the back button without even bothering to begin reading your content. That’s why you need to format your content for easy readability, which is a crucial key to engaging readers.

Check out these tips:

Break up long list paragraphs by using bulleted lists instead (like this one).
Use short sentences and short paragraphs.
Insert graphics to help break up long passages of text.
Utilize headings and subheadings to provide white space and highlight important information.

You should also ensure your blog uses a responsive theme with a column layout. This ensures that when people read your articles on a mobile device, the article text takes up the entire screen (that’s desirable on small screens).

On the other hand, if someone is reading your article on a large desktop monitor, you do NOT want the article to take up the entire screen, as it’s difficult to read content across a large screen.

The content should cover part of the screen, and the sidebar should cover the remaining part. Again, use a responsive theme, which will resize your columns for easy readability, depending on the device.

Now a few parting thoughts…

Conclusion

The people with the biggest, most popular and most profitable blogs are also the folks who know how to craft engaging content.

If you’re looking to find that sort of success with your blog, then I highly recommend you putting these 17 keys for crafting engaging content to work for you.

10 Blog Posts You Can Create In 10 Minutes

No matter what kind of business you run online, there’s a good chance you have a blog. And if you have a blog, then you need a lot of content.

But here’s the problem…

It takes a lot of time to create that content. If you outsource it, then it’s going to take a lot of money. Either way, creating content is a big investment.

Until now…

If you think you can’t create great content fast, think again. That’s because you’re about to discover 10 types of blog posts you can create in 10 minutes or less.

Take a look…

1. Create Articles Out Of PLR

Sometimes you might purchase PLR (private label rights) articles that you can minimally tweak and post right to your blog. In other cases, you might take excerpts out of PLR reports or ebooks, and then post these excerpts on your blog. Either way, it takes just minutes to create something unique and post it for your readers.

Here are some other tips for using PLR to create content:

Use the transcripts from a PLR video to create an article for your blog. These transcripts may be included with the package, or you can create your own.

TIP: This is particularly easy if the video includes slides, as you can simply create your article from the content of the slides.

Compile multiple pieces of PLR content to create something entirely new. For example, you might take excerpts out of three or four PLR articles to create an entirely new article.

And speaking of excerpts…

2. Take Excerpts From Your Products

Obviously, this is a super-quick way to create an article. But the other bonus of this particular strategy is that you can quickly insert a pitch at the end of the article to promote the full product.

Now, there are two ways to use these excerpts:

One way is to simply pull the excerpt directly out of the product, create an introduction and conclusion, and post it on your blog.

For example, let’s suppose you have a report that lists ten strategies for cutting calories. You can excerpt out three to five of these strategies to create your article. Then at the end of the article, you can pitch the paid report as the place to get more of these great strategies.

The second way is to cut some of the meat off the excerpt so that people will want to buy the product to get all the details.

Let’s take the example of the report with ten strategies again. This time you excerpt out all ten strategies, but you edit out some of the details. So readers will get an article that tells them what to do, but they don’t get the exact instructions of how to do it. They’ll need to purchase the product to get those exact instructions.

Next…

3. Make Link Lists

A link list can come in a variety of formats, including:

A gear list. These are tools you use that you’d recommend to others. It saves beginners a lot of time and money, since they don’t have to do as much research.

For example, you might list all the plugins you use on your blog. Or if you’re writing to bodybuilders, you might make a list of all the “must use” supplements.

A list of free resources. Here you might link to blog posts, reports, videos and other free sources of content to help your readers achieve some specific goal.
A list of paid resources. In this case, you’d write a short review for each resource to let people know who can use it and its benefits.
A mix of paid and free resources. For example, “The Top 10 Resources Every Aspiring Copywriter Ought to Read.”

Again, the point is to save your reader time by doing some of the legwork and research for them. It’s much easier to get recommendations and content all in one place from a trusted source, rather than having to find products and sources yourself, and then have to separate the wheat from the chaff besides.

Next…

4. Recap Your Recent Posts

The idea here is to create an “in case you missed it” list of your best posts in the last couple weeks or months. Of course you don’t need to just list blog posts. Instead, you can curate your own content across platforms, including your social media accounts and newsletters.

Another way to do it is by curating your best (recent) content around a very specific topic.

For example:

Five Blog Posts That Will Change the Way You Think About Dieting
The Three Posts Every Beginner Marketer Ought to Read
The Five Keys to Improving Your Golf Score

All you have to do is write an intro to the post, list the resources along with a short explanation of why people should read each resource, and then wrap it up with a quick conclusion.

Next up…

5. Interview Someone

Here’s a great way to create content fast: let someone else create the content for you.

In this case, simply work up a list of questions by email and let your interviewee’s answers become your article. In exchange, your interviewee gets a byline with a link back to their site.

Here’s an example email to send to land these interviews…

Subject Line: I’d like to feature you on my blog, [name]

Hi [First Name],

My name is [Your Name], and I run the popular [type of] blog over at [domain]. The reason I’m writing today is because I’d like to interview you and feature this interview on the blog.

The interview is just [small number] questions, so it would only take about [small number of minutes] to complete.

In return, you’d get a byline and link back to your site, along with exposure to my [number] of readers and visitors. I’ll also send out the link to my [number] of newsletter subscribers and [number] social media followers.

If you agree that this sounds like a great way to showcase your business to a targeted audience, just reply back and I’ll send over the questions right away.

I look forward to hearing from you!

[sign off]

——-

Remember this: the easier it is for someone to comply with your request, the more likely it is that they’ll say yes. So don’t make your interviewee have to spend hours answering questions. Instead, shoot a couple quick questions their way that they can answer in just minutes. Then if you want more info, send a couple follow up questions.

Here’s why…

Once a person has answered your initial questions, they’ll feel invested and committed to your project. So if you ask for 10 more minutes of their time to answer a couple additional questions, they’re very likely to say yes.

6. Tweak A Previous Article

The next idea is to comb through your existing content, find popular articles, tweak them, and republish the new version.

For example:

If you previously published a list of ten tips, then excerpt out five of those tips, expand on them, and republish the new article.
Update an old article with new information, such as new research that has come on the scene since you originally published it.
Have you changed your mind about a product, idea or other topic? Update an older article with your revised opinion.

Those are just three ways to take your existing content and turn it into something new. Be creative, and you may be able to create dozens of new articles from your old content.

7. Turn Existing Content Into An Infographic

Another good way to quickly create content is to simply change your existing content into a different format. And one way to do this is by turning an article into an infographic.

Here are examples of articles that would make good infographics:

An article discussing multiple ways to boost conversion rates on a website.
An article explaining how metabolism works.
An article that talks about different garden pests and how to get rid of them using organic pest control methods.

Just be sure your infographic includes social media buttons next to it, because this is the kind of content people really like to share.

8. Ask For Content From A Vendor

Are you an affiliate for a product or service? Then one great way to quickly get your hands on some free content is by asking the product vendor to supply it for you.

Your first stop is to check the affiliate center, if one is available. That’s where the vendor has likely supplied affiliates with all sorts of content, including blog posts.

However, you want unique content, right? So don’t go straight to the blog post category, as all the other affiliates are likely copying and pasting those articles to their blogs. Instead, look at other content such as reports, emails and similar. Find something suitable, and then ask the vendor if you can modify it for your blog, such as taking an excerpt out of a report.

If you’re not finding what you like within the affiliate center, then write to the vendor and request an article. The vendor is more likely to give you content – especially exclusive content – if you’ve already proven yourself to be a good affiliate.

TIP: Here’s a powerhouse combo you can use to promote affiliate products while getting unique content for free: ask the vendor for an interview. Most vendors will be happy to get the exposure and extra sales. You can post a text interview, or you might even consider doing a short webinar or podcast.

9. Do Multimedia Posts

So far we’ve been talking about how to quickly create text articles. However, you don’t need to write a single word if you don’t want to.

Instead, pick up a camera to do a quick video on the topic of your choice.

TIP: You can also simply turn on a microphone to do a quick podcast. You don’t even need expensive tools, as a simple tool like Audacity will let you capture and edit audio for free. You can get this tool at http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/files/.

For example:

Turn the camera on and just spend five minutes talking about your top five weight loss tips.
Film yourself trying out and reviewing a new product.
Give a demo on camera, such as how to teach a dog to sit.
If you’d like to demo something on your screen, such as how to set up a blog, then use screen-recording software such as Camtasia.

Then all you have to do is upload the video to YouTube.com (for greater exposure), and then post the embedded video on your blog.

10. Copy And Paste Your Emails

One very good source for articles and other content are your own emails. Here I’m talking about two things:

If you broadcast an announcement, article or other content to your mailing list, then put this content on your blog as well.
TIP: Let your newsletter readers know you’re posting the content on your blog, and then encourage them to click through and discuss the topic.
If you reply to a customer’s question and you realize it would make a good post, then use it. Naturally, you won’t use any of the customer’s identifying information. Instead, you might say something like this at the beginning of the post…

“Just about every week, the same question tends to pop up in my email from people just like you. Take a look and see if you’ve wondered about this topic too…”

Conclusion

As you just discovered, you don’t need to spend a lot of time creating great content. All you need is ten minutes or less, and you can have a blog post ready to go out the door.

In fact, I bet you can create one of these posts right now and get it up on your blog right away. Go ahead and see for yourself just how quick and easy it is to create content using these tactics.

How To Make Money With Your Free Blog Posts And Articles

As a marketer, are you one of those who has a blog or not?

Some marketers don’t use a blog to build their brand or visibility but rather prefer to use more direct response type marketing techniques and have a website to showcase their products with great sales pages and they constantly send paid traffic to those pages.

However, most marketers probably try to incorporate some type of blog into their business to try to gain some visibility using SEO and get some free traffic from the search engines to build the KLT (Know, Like Trust) factor.

Visitors will consume their content, come to think of them as someone they can trust, and will be much more likely to buy from them in future. This takes longer than the direct response marketer but is infinitely cheaper and is a good model for someone just starting out who may have limited capital to put into their business.

It’s the second type of marketer to whom this article is addressed.

I’m constantly amazed at how marketers seem to think free content and paid content are two entirely different things. The fact is your most successful blog posts and newsletter articles can make you more money than many of the products you’ve promoted or created in the past an it is super quick to do this and costs you nothing, so what are you waiting for?

The key is to pay attention to how your content is received.

Repurposing content is hardly a new strategy, but it mainly focuses on creating a video from an article, and then extracting the audio from the video, plus perhaps creating an infographic covering the main points so you now have 4 pieces of content instead of just one.

This works great for building brand awareness across multiple platforms and can indirectly lead to sales.

But now let’s take that strategy and put it on steroids and make it a much more direct way to make sales; after all, you are in business to make money!

So, this content repurposing strategy is designed to specifically make you money from your previous content!

Look back at your posts from the past year and see which ones gained the most attention. Which ones did people comment on and forward to others the most?

And don’t just look at blog posts but look at your posts on social media too; these are great because you get instant feedback if it resonates with your audience.

For example, a little 200-word FB post that people are engaging with and liking the content is trying to tell you that you’ve struck gold.

If it’s a longer article, maybe a blog post and it gets great feedback, even better.

You might choose to expand that article into a full-blown product and sell it or you could use it as a lead magnet that leads to a high-ticket offer (either yours or an affiliate offer).

And talking of lead magnets…

If you are producing free reports as lead magnets (and you should be using these to grow your email list) these are another potential untapped goldmine.

Take your most successful free reports and turn them into paid coaching programs. If you have 4 or 5 reports covering roughly the same topic, it is really simple to bundle them up and sell as a full-blown product.

Add some video and/or audio and some weekly/monthly webinars and you have your brand-new coaching program which has a much higher perceived value than a solely text-based product so you can now charge a premium price, all from existing free content!!

The other good thing about using these lead magnets is that you probably have links to offers peppered throughout these reports, so not only can you now profit from previously free material, but you can still profit from readers clicking on the links embedded into the reports.

Answer a customer’s question and then send that answer out to your list and see what happens. Do you get a lot of response? Bam! There’s another product waiting to be made.

This is such a simple way to do direct market research and you will know that the demand is there from your existing audience.

The point is to monitor the reception you receive on every piece of content you create, whether they’re posts, recordings, videos, launches, emails, reports or whatever.

If you’re not sure how something is being received, ask your readers what they thought of it.

Take the most popular topics and expand them or repurpose them into something else. You don’t have to continually come up with new ideas. Instead, figure out which ideas are working and then get most out of those.

And you can also purposely float your idea for a new product by creating a mini version of it as a post and then seeing how people respond.

Do you have 10 ideas for products? Create 10 posts, see which one is the most popular and start working on that product right away.

When creating the posts, if they are long, let’s say 1000 words or more, then offer the reader to download them as a convenient pdf. This is a type of content upgrade and they will need to give you their email address to get the report.

This way, you can easily see in your autoresponder which reports people are signing up for and start creating your product around those topics.

This stuff sounds simple and it is, but it also works so please don’t dismiss this strategy.

And because it is mainly using pre-existing content, you can be up and running in a matter of hours.

If you are just starting out and are building out your first blog, bear this in mind for the future.

And if you want to know the best way to get started with blogging you can check out Rapid Blogging Blueprint, a premium training on creating and monetising a blog the right way.

Or you can simply click on the featured resource below for a free Blogging Fundamentals report; download, read it and take action 😊

blog posts

10 Tips To Make Your Blog Posts More Interesting

10 Tips To Make Your Blog Posts More Interesting

Use Attractive Images

Use Quote Images

Memes And Gifs!

Break Up The Text

Use Videos

Quality And ‘Flow’ Of Content

Use Infographics

Typography And Readability

Your WordPress Theme

Your Opinions And Stories Matter

In Conclusion…

The Easiest Blog Post You Will Ever Write

The Easiest Blog Post You Will Ever Write

1. Determine Your Title

2. Write Your Opening

3. Answer Question #1

4. Answer Question #2

5. Answer Question #3

6. Decide Upon A Close

7. Create A Featured Resource Box

17 Ways To Create Blog Posts That Get Attention

17 Ways To Create Blog Posts That Get Attention

1. Give Your Audience What They Want

2. Write For Your Audience

3. Catch Attention With Titles

4. Open With A Bang

5. Create “You”-Centered Content

6. Avoid Passive Language

7. Engage Readers With Stories

8. Ask Questions To Engage Readers

9. Build Anticipation And Curiosity

10. Make Your Audience Smile

11. Serve Up Unique Content

12. Be Concise

13. Use A Friendly Tone

14. Offer Quick Wins

15. Insert Awesome Visuals

16. Share Tips And Examples

17. Format For Easy Readability

Conclusion

10 Blog Posts You Can Create In 10 Minutes

10 Blog Posts You Can Create In 10 Minutes

1. Create Articles Out Of PLR

2. Take Excerpts From Your Products

3. Make Link Lists

4. Recap Your Recent Posts

5. Interview Someone

6. Tweak A Previous Article

7. Turn Existing Content Into An Infographic

8. Ask For Content From A Vendor

9. Do Multimedia Posts

10. Copy And Paste Your Emails

Conclusion

How To Make Money With Your Free Blog Posts And Articles

Get Your Free Blogging Fundamentals Report...