Some bloggers believe the best way to create a post is by quickly spurting out content generated on other sites and republishing it. The amount of websites doing so is astounding and disgusting.
Original, never-to-be-found-elsewhere posts is the best way and only way to have your readers coming back for more. By creating constant thorough posts audiences come back for more; while expecting only the best. This will result in not only returning visitors, but also RSS subscribers and trustworthiness that can result in more sales and click-throughs. If you saw the same post on ten other blogs, would you come back?
Photo by jurek_d
The downside of creating great content is how much work is involved. Fifteen-minute posts are just not the answer to creating great content and expanding your blog. Blog posts can take several hours to prepare before any initial marketing, especially if knowledge of the subject isn’t present or in-depth research is needed.
As a result, bloggers go through several steps to prepare a post:
- Brain Storming
- Research
- Finding related posts (can be part of research)
- The actual writing
- Visualization (finding/creating images for the post)
- Editing
- Publishing
1. Brain Storming
When brain storming go to your thinking area and spend some down-time. I work best in the bathroom or in unrelated activities. I also carry a voice recorder with me at all times in case an idea happens to pop up while I’m in the middle of something. A notepad or the ever popular desktop publisher (if you can find one) works just as well.
2. Research
Initial research is gathered by using Google and followed up by visits to related articles. If the post is about a new product or service I sign up and look around, taking screenshots of anything remotely important. Depending on the post, research can last as little as an hour to a week or more. In articles on my expertise, you can say the research was over a course of several years.
3. Finding Related Posts
Although this is usually part of #2, it isn’t always. When writing a post it is important to find related articles for more information and as a place to link. Pingbacks are an important part of blogging and is a great way to market posts and gain readership.
4. The Actual Writing
This is the hard part, at least for me. You could say writing doesn’t come natural for me, even though I have read many resources and have written many papers throughout my lifetime. The great part about writing on the web is the ability to substitute essays with lists and short paragraphs. Not only does it make us look better, it helps our readers too.
5. Visualization
Generally speaking blogs do better with visualization. This doesn’t necessarily have to be related to the article at hand, although it helps. Images are quite popular on social media sites, especially StumbleUpon. A nice image can lead to tens-of-thousands of visitors alone. Add great content and bam! Digg front-page.
A great place to look for images is Flickr–just be sure to use the creative commons, commercial and editable versions, and link back. If you are using WordPress a plugin called PhotoDropper work wonders and cut down time dramatically.
6. Editing
Editing is perhaps the most important step of an article. You can write the perfect post, but if it has too many grammar mistakes or spelling mishaps it will turn a would-be linkbait into another cellar-dweller. Edit the post, read it out loud, and edit it again.
7. Publishing
This seems easy right? It isn’t always. Finding the perfect time to publish an article can be crucial. Post a great post on a day with few visitors and it will be forgotten and lost into the tunnel of never-reads. Publish the same post on an active day and watch the comments roll-in.
Each step plays an important role in writing. If done correctly and enough time is spent on preparing, you will no longer ask ‘How to write great content’, but instead ‘What do I do with all the visitors?’
Written: Mar 2, 2008
Tags: copyblogging, copywriting, creating content, howto
brian
March 2, 2008 @ 8:21 pm | Reply
great article Gary. Its unbelievable how much work goes into every post. That’s the main reason so many blogs can’t get past the three month mark.
Canucklehead
March 3, 2008 @ 8:28 pm | Reply
Clearly my current strategy of just sitting down and typing whatver rolls out of the old pea-brain needs a rethinking. Great post — I’m assuming you don’t want me to make this tomorrows post over at my place then?
I kid - cheers.
ThinkBlogger
March 4, 2008 @ 11:25 pm | Reply
Heya. Just dropping in. This is a great article and a lot of bloggers who start out should definitely read this (or articles with the same idea).
I agree with all of your points.
I, however, sometimes forget to read over my blog posts and find spelling mistakes. tsk tsk. It is a bad habit, indeed.
TzuVelli
March 5, 2008 @ 7:40 am | Reply
Writing a post is definitely a time consuming process. especially for new bloggers. some really great points. Bloggers that consistently produce great articles also put a lot of time and effort into preplanning their content.
Hugo Santos
March 9, 2008 @ 10:22 am | Reply
Usually bloggers that spend some time creating articles are rewarded even if it takes some time…
one thing i have found a lot, is from some bloggers, that have a nice reputation and lots of traffic, that constantly “recycle” articles.
What i mean by recycling is that he blogger takes an article from another blogger and will write about it using different words, but in the end you will think: wait a minute, i already read something like this somewhere….”
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March 5, 2008 @ 2:16 pm | Reply
[...] How to Write Great Content and Keep Visitors Interested - impNerd - I love this article. Definitely makes me rethink some of my writing strategies for this blog. Every writer should read. Not just bloggers. [...]
Jonathon
March 5, 2008 @ 3:09 pm | Reply
You are absolutely right with this post. I don’t know how many times I have seen sites take the post I worked hard to produce and copy/paste it to their blog. The only reason I don’t usually say anything is because they give me a backlink, plus they have bad ranks and no visitors, so I really don’t have to worry about them taking my readers.
Gary R. Hess
March 5, 2008 @ 3:36 pm | Reply
Yeah, that is the case sometimes. That is one of the reasons why some web developers advocate using whole URLs in links within posts. That way if they does happen to strip your content through an RSS feed or just by copy/paste they will take the link as well, sending you link juice and visitors if they happen to get traffic from it.
Graham Smith
March 5, 2008 @ 4:06 pm | Reply
Really useful post Gary. Read it several times already, then came back and read it after you just left a comment for you.
For me, writing is not so hard. What is hard is interpreting what I I think when I write, as I have somewhat of a ‘i write litterally what is flowing through my head, thoughts, ideas, feelings’. So rather than just keeping on topic, I end up with a mish mash of styles. Often works to be frank, but sometimes I just write too much… and that’s a bigger problem for me.
I do waffle, makes up for being verbally quite quiet. What I lack in conversation from the mouth, I make up for in writing. I have so much to say, that keeping it sweet is quite hard. So this is somthing I always have to be aware of.
Even leaving comments. Frankly, I could just go on and on with no real end in site. Yet when I finish, I do wonder where it all came from.
Also odly, being so creative myself, I also find it time consuming to add images to break up my marathon paragraphs. Which I know is important. But when I have spend ages on a post, then trying to source ‘decent’ quality and meaningful images can be somewhat daunting. I do use FLickr for this more and more. But I often rush to get the post out before adding images, which is ‘bad’.
Mr G
Gary R. Hess
March 5, 2008 @ 5:02 pm | Reply
Thanks for your comment, Graham. I seem to think/write the way you do. If you ever saw my notes or heard my voice recordings, you could easily tell how off-topic I sometimes get and ramble on.
The problem then, is that sometimes I get way off topic, so when I am writing, I often have to go back and re-think a few things. This probably makes my posts take a bit longer, but it also helps me re-look at my writings and perhaps catch some errors. On good days, it often leads to a second post.
As to breaking up posts with images, it isn’t always needed. However, often times it helps with social media. It can also be a type of ‘eye-stopper’ I mentioned in previous articles, the same way bolds, italics, and headers work.
Sheen
March 9, 2008 @ 4:14 am | Reply
This is a great article. Thanks for sharing these info and thank you for visiting my humble site. Happy day!
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