Posted on: January 8, 2014
Posted by: Charles Doyle
Categories:
Copywriting,
Digital Culture,
SEO Content Strategy and tagged
blogging,
copywriting,
seo
While there are several fundamentals of successful blogging that are unlikely to change anytime soon (consistency in posting, casual writer’s voice, readable length etc.), the breakneck pace of changing technology and sheer number of new blogs that pop up daily make it all the more difficult to effectively promote your forum in 2014. The ever-growing diversity of voices on the web is a positive thing, but also means that you must consistently adapt to keep up with the trends and best practices most likely to help you achieve more pageviews. Here are some tips for keeping your blog fresh in 2014:
Personalize Your Writer’s Voice
Some of the most successful blogs on the web are akin to a cult of personality: People will keep coming back because the author writes in a way that connects with them personally through consistent use of ethos and/or pathos as literary devices. Depending on the blog topic at hand, different tones of voice may be called for, but the concept of personalization remains the same. For example, if you’re writing about something “light” in tone (eg. pop culture, food, comedy), it might behoove you to inject some humour into your posts to keep things interesting. On the other hand, if the topic in question is more sombre (eg. philanthropy, health, activism), you’d perhaps do better to write with genuine passion and call upon personal anecdotes that can provoke emotion if possible. Whichever route you choose, the point is that it’s important to stand out out from generically-written cookie-cutter blogs.
Genuinely Engage Your Audience
In 2014, think of each blog post as an interactive discussion forum as opposed to an article. Its no longer acceptable for up-and-coming bloggers to write a post, make it live, then simply leave it to the commenters to address and dissect: YOU, the author, should respond directly to peoples’ comments, queries and criticisms to show that you’re genuinely committed to your work. Not only does this help foster trust with your reading audience, but ultimately helps your blog’s search rankings by ensuring that the post in question is fresh and constantly updated for reindexing. Don’t feign interest just for the sake of engaging, either: People will know.
Promote & Engage With Fellow Bloggers
Traffic to the blogosphere thrives on the promotion of content between fellow bloggers, amongst other things (social shares, google searches etc.). Due to the sheer amount of new blogs that pop up daily, its more important than ever to prominently and consistently promote other blogs to show both readers and search crawlers that yours is already part of a strong, established online community. Such cross-promotion acts as an indicator of credibility to potential readers, thus giving them a pretty convincing reason to share it with their friends.
Image Credit: Sheknows
While there are several fundamentals of successful blogging that are unlikely to change anytime soon (consistency in posting, casual writer’s voice, readable length etc.), the breakneck pace of changing technology and sheer number of new blogs that pop up daily make it all the more difficult to effectively promote your forum in 2014. The ever-growing diversity of voices on the web is a positive thing, but also means that you must consistently adapt to keep up with the trends and best practices most likely to help you achieve more pageviews. Here are some tips for keeping your blog fresh in 2014:
Personalize Your Writer’s Voice
Some of the most successful blogs on the web are akin to a cult of personality: People will keep coming back because the author writes in a way that connects with them personally through consistent use of ethos and/or pathos as literary devices. Depending on the blog topic at hand, different tones of voice may be called for, but the concept of personalization remains the same. For example, if you’re writing about something “light” in tone (eg. pop culture, food, comedy), it might behoove you to inject some humour into your posts to keep things interesting. On the other hand, if the topic in question is more sombre (eg. philanthropy, health, activism), you’d perhaps do better to write with genuine passion and call upon personal anecdotes that can provoke emotion if possible. Whichever route you choose, the point is that it’s important to stand out out from generically-written cookie-cutter blogs.
Genuinely Engage Your Audience
In 2014, think of each blog post as an interactive discussion forum as opposed to an article. Its no longer acceptable for up-and-coming bloggers to write a post, make it live, then simply leave it to the commenters to address and dissect: YOU, the author, should respond directly to peoples’ comments, queries and criticisms to show that you’re genuinely committed to your work. Not only does this help foster trust with your reading audience, but ultimately helps your blog’s search rankings by ensuring that the post in question is fresh and constantly updated for reindexing. Don’t feign interest just for the sake of engaging, either: People will know.
Promote & Engage With Fellow Bloggers
Traffic to the blogosphere thrives on the promotion of content between fellow bloggers, amongst other things (social shares, google searches etc.). Due to the sheer amount of new blogs that pop up daily, its more important than ever to prominently and consistently promote other blogs to show both readers and search crawlers that yours is already part of a strong, established online community. Such cross-promotion acts as an indicator of credibility to potential readers, thus giving them a pretty convincing reason to share it with their friends.
Image Credit: Sheknows
