Next week the challenge is going to be around publishing content on your blog, so I thought I’d give you a few of my favorite tips around how to write a blog post.
1. Use keywords in your post titles.
Yeah I know I said we weren’t going to do all this keyword research stuff for this, but the point is search traffic is awesome, so you might as well do a little.
With that said ~ I’m NOT saying go out and build a list of keywords to write your posts about. I am saying go to the editorial calendar you’ve created for your site. Take the topic you’re going to write about to the Google search tool and see how people are searching for that topic.
Example: Today I wanted to write about writing blog posts. I knew that because it was written on my editorial calendar 
I went to the google tool and here’s what I came up with.
I went with how to write a blog post because it will include both the ones that have some search volume. I am NOT looking for KILLER keywords here, I am again (just like when we were talking about choosing your domain name) looking for how people are searching for what I want to write about.
This site is going to be long term, so even small search volume counts.
2. Write conversationally.
When writing your blog posts write them as though you were answering an email question from your friend. These are much easier to read, and you’ll be more like yourself than if you try to be “above” the reader. Engage with them, be friendly, be conversational.
3. Use Tags.
Tag your posts using the main keyword you chose from the google tool, as well as any other relevant/similar ones and anything else interesting you talk about in the post. 5 to 10 tags is more than enough per post. If tags are showing up on your theme and you don’t want them to let me know and I’ll point you in a direction to take them off. I don’t usually show tags ~ I just let them work in the background.
4.Don’t try so hard.
You can’t get it wrong. This is your space. Loosen up. Have fun and enjoy it.
5. Read it once then hit publish.
When you’re finished writing your post click the preview button which will open it in a new window. Read the post over looking only for mispellings, places you’ve left out words because your brain went faster than your hands and any flagrant punctuation errors and then hit publish.
This is not high school English class. Mrs. Jones is not going to give you an F. Hit the publish button. NOW.
Those are 5 of my tips on how to write a blog post. I recently read a fantastic article on Remarkablogger with 33 more tips on writing blog posts. I HIGHLY suggest you read it as well, then print it and read it every day for a month. (well that may be a slight exaggeration, but not really).
I’m heading out of town this afternoon. I’ll be checking in over the weekend but not as much as normal. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section and be patient with me if it takes longer than usual for me to answer ~ or else talk amongst yourselves.
No related posts.
I’d just make a note in the post that the savings are only good for a limited time. Like through mother’s day or something like that.
If I want to promote a site that has a different sale every month or so what happens when my “free shipping” benefit turns into a 20% off benefit?
I’ve edited this one but wondering how to best promote short term sales like the Amazon Mother’s day sale. Just change it after? Is Google happy about that? I remember you saying somewhere not to mess with it once published & if you want to add then make a new post but things do change & one does want to give up to date relevant advice & tips. What do you do?
Thanks,
Lakshmi.
.-= Lakshmi´s last blog ..Benefits of Strength Training – Get Fit and Feel Great! =-.
Hi Jackie!
Ooops! Should have checked the comment one more time before hitting Submit; meant to say that we recommend using both KeyWords and Tags, to give your post even more visibility.
Take care.
.-= Ken@Jax SEO Works´s last blog ..Endorsement Disclosure Statement =-.
Hi Jackie!
Enjoyed reading this post; your steps share a pleasant way to turn a concept into a good blog post.
You are always so positive and encouraging for your readers.
This site is good, helpful reading for small business bloggers.
Take care.
.-= Ken@Jax SEO Works´s last blog ..Endorsement Disclosure Statement =-.
Excellent tips! (Not one mistake, haha)
2 is my favorite and 5 is my least, lol. Seriously though, I swear i spend more time on proof-reading then actually writing the post! Of course, that’s when I do the majority of the SEO too.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position? =-.
Really for an authority blog the only SEO you need to do is have the keyword in the title (if you want) and once or twice in the body, and in the tags. There’s no need to go crazy with the seo, it really shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes per post.
Dang! I really shoulda come to you first with my SEO wails. lol KW research just drives me bananas; I just don’t get it…period.
The per post SEO really doesn’t take me long. I add/delete a word here and there, bold a few, etc and so forth. I do it during the proofreading because I make sure not to mess with the reader experience for SEO purposes.
It’s the proof-reading itself that I’m a bit anal about. I always end up with multiple “i” instead of “I”, and things like that. I’ll read and re-read every time I fix something.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position? =-.
Thanks for the information on keeping tags from showing. This has annoyed me ever since I started the blog!
.-= Debbie´s last blog ..Beginning Running =-.
Very intelligent post, your writing skills and knowledge of your subject is fascinating, appreciate your time in providing this super content. Thanks
Hey Jackie Thanks for the great training always appreciate it.
.-= Doug Orchard´s last blog ..What is the best/cheapest adjustable dumbbell updated Tue Mar 16 2010 8:06 pm CDT =-.
Jackie:
I have one question about using tags. I use the All-In-One-SEO plugin and it has a place to enter the keywords. With this is it still necessary or worth it to enter the tags?
- Rick
.-= Rick Byrd @ MarketingWithRick.com´s last blog ..How To Use Twitter – Blogger Tips =-.
When you use tags it actually creates a tag page on your site which is another page of your blog that can be indexed by the search engines, so yes, using tags is important.
Thanks Jackie! I will start using tags on my next post. I will go back and enter some tags on some of my more important posts.
- Rick
.-= Rick Byrd @ MarketingWithRick.com´s last blog ..How To Use Twitter – Blogger Tips =-.
Jackie,
Can you explain a clear difference between Tags and KW’s? So far no one has for me and it’s a little frustrating.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position? =-.
Keywords are the words you look for to get traffic ~ low comp/high search. Tags are another way to use keywords on your site. Each time you use a new tag it creates another page on your site for that tag. The tag pages then get indexed by google which is just another way people can find your site. It also helps your site to have more “pages” indexed, as it builds the authority of the site.
Every post from your site that has that tag associated with it will show up on the tag page.
So tags are really just another use for keywords. I also add random things that are discussed in the post but haven’t necessarily done any research on beforehand. This builds another page and helps me get traffic for the really long tail keywords.
Out of everything, the one thing i was told that even makes a little sense, is that tags and KW’s should not be exactly the same…..tags should be “broader”; that make sense to you?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position? =-.
Thanks for the quick response! I will have to shoot the guy an e-mail who made the theme I am using.
.-= Todd´s last blog ..4 of My Favorite Top Fruits for Beautiful Healthy Skin =-.
Thank you Jackie!
About the tags – how do you remove this from being viewed? I haven’t been using them because of this reason.
Thanks!!!
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Counting my Blessings – TGIF =-.
Ok you have to do two things.
1. to get them off your homepage you have to go to the index.php section in appearance –> editor. Once you’re in there you have to look for this bit of code
< ?php the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', ''); ?>
find that and delete it.
2. To take them off your individual posts you have to go to single.php (in the editor area) and do the same thing.
Uhoh….I did this from the single posts and now whenever I try to click a post it says:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENDWHILE in /home/homeboe0/public_html/everydaylifeandhappiness.com/wp-content/themes/Slightly/single.php on line 44
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Counting my Blessings – TGIF =-.
you probably took an extra character and deleted it. I’ll email you.
Thanks
I knew what you listed was right – I just couldn’t figure out what I did wrong. Thanks Jackie!
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Counting my Blessings – TGIF =-.
Jackie,
Just curious, why don’t you want them on the homepage?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position? =-.
I just don’t like the way they look. I also like to add a bunch of tags to my post and I think it looks bad to have 5 or 10 tags posted on the homepage for each post.
I can understand the home page bit, it would be too cluttered. I never really minded them on the single post page though; assuming they can be separated like that.
I’ve asked the “how many” question a lot. It seems 6 is pretty much the highest anyone goes. Some say Google gets irked if ya make a paragraph out of them. lol
Similar to keyword stuffing I think.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position? =-.
Hey Jackie,
I have not had time to read through this post yet, but will today or tomorrow. Quick question though that has to do with posts and it involves something that many people will find useful.
What is the best way to add white space? I have tried so many ways and they all seem to fail. Do you have any ideas?
I am getting into videos and will be a lot in the coming months. If I write a sentence or 2 above the video it is almost touching the video! It looks ugly and I want some white space. It would also be nice to have some more white space in between each heading.
Thanks!
-Todd
.-= Todd´s last blog ..4 of My Favorite Top Fruits for Beautiful Healthy Skin =-.
I think this is pretty theme dependant. I just hit the enter button a couple times to create space here, but that doesn’t work on all my sites (and they have a different theme than this one). So I’m not sure what the answer is for the themes that don’t let you create hard breaks for white space.
Todd,
I recently had a spacing problem fixed in my CSS files (you might be able to raise it there too).
Aside from that, what I did before being told it was a CSS issue was, hit return once – use ***** as a separator – then hit return again for the next paragraph.
Take a look at my first page or two of posts to see what I mean. Most have it, I only had it fixed a post or two ago.
Hope this helps some.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position? =-.