Blogging can be a great way to connect with your audience and develop an exciting and mutually beneficial relationship with your readers. But in a world where there are at least 440 million blogs to choose from, your readers have an increasing number of options to turn to.
That means that your blog content needs to be engaging and exciting to keep your readers coming back for more. If it isn’t, your readers will simply go elsewhere. So how do you make your posts more engaging? There are twelve ways to help make your content more relevant and involving for your audience.
Creating engaging blog content is similar to creating engaging content for any other medium—it’s all about sparking curiosity. A great way to do so is to ask a question. When you start by asking a question, the audience will become curious and want to hear the answer, prompting them to want to read more. One caution: You need to answer the question in your post!
Similarly, when you tell a story or offer an anecdote at the start of your post, you can draw readers in, even if your subject matter is dry. People respond better to stories than they do to data, so telling a story can capture reader attention in a way that numbers and charts won’t.
But not too much! Frame a blog post around a current issue or controversy and take a thoughtful stand on the issue, even if it is unconventional or a little controversial. A hot take on a movie, a TV show, or even a new menu item at your favorite chain restaurant can create engaged discussion, as long as you don’t go too far or be too strident in your views. Because many people are averse to political discussions, try to focus more on pop culture issues than issues of political policy to avoid alienating readers.
Give your readers something to work with that they can use in their daily lives. By giving them practical advice and tips that they can apply today, they’ll see you as an expert and be excited to read more great ideas.
Provide links to outside resources so your audience can learn more about your topic. It also helps the audience to feel like your blog is more than just self-promotion. Be sure that the links go to high-quality resources, however.
Most readers of your blog will be visiting for the first time, so they won’t know everything you’ve written. Give new readers a way to learn about you by linking back to older posts on the same topic or posts on related topics.
A blog isn’t the same as an article, and it can be used as a conversation starter. Instead of treating yourself as the main attraction, ask your readers to share their thoughts about a topic in the comments, and let the audience engage themselves!
Similarly, you can flatter your readers by treating them as a source of collective expertise. Pose a problem or a dilemma and ask the audience to share their solutions. This way, your audience will engage in a conversation with your blog and its other readers.
Blog posts are less formal than articles, so it’s OK to talk about yourself and refer to yourself in the first person. Let your readers know who you are by sharing a bit about yourself throughout your post.
Don’t be afraid to address the reader directly. It’s OK to use you-language (the second person) and speak to your readers as “you,” like this post is doing with you right now. It’s engaging because it involves the reader in the discussion.
Similarly, try to use short, engaging, active-voice sentences. A long, complex sentence written in the passive voice by an author, like this sentence, is less engaging because it is overlong, complicated, and boring. Authors should write in the active voice and keep it short.
Not every blogger will be up for a writing award, but if you think your writing may not have what it takes to get your audience engaged, a professional custom paper writing service can help make your post or create exclusive content from scratch to get your audience excited about your blog and your topic.