Blogging Tips for More Effective Writing

“How do I get better at blogging?”

If you have been wanting to take your blog to the next level or feel like your current website blogs have just been so-so, this is probably a question you’ve asked yourself. Blogging can be a challenge, but the reward makes it worth it. Great blog posts help you become easier to find on Google. They can help lead to better engagement on social media. They can even help close a sale.

So how do you turn a blog from just words on a page into a powerful tool and representation of your brand? It’ll take some time and practice, but you can do it. Here are some better blogging tips.

Read what others are writing

Whether you are just starting out as a writer and blogger and looking for guidance or you want to sharpen your skills, one of your greatest resources are your peers and competitors. Do some research, find reputable and popular bloggers and do a little reading. While you are reading, do some analysis of their work. Consider what they write about and how they structure their blogs. Listen to their voice and identify their style of writing. What tactics make the quality of their blogs so good?

Don’t restrict your research to bloggers within your industry either. There is a lot to be learned from bloggers in other circles. What you learn from others can benefit you as you solidify your own style and voice and figure out what makes sense and what doesn’t work for you.

Now, am I telling you to copy other people’s blogs like school homework? Heck no! Simply identify things you believe could be applied to your blog that would improve your work and make sense for you.

Decide who you are

One of the keys to writing better blog posts is consistency. Blog posts aren’t just words on a page, they are an extension you, your business and your brand. And, just like you want you logo, company truck and business cards to have consistent branding, your blog posts need to be consistent too.

Establish a cohesive voice and style for your blog and stay within those boundaries as you write. That way, all your blog posts sound like they are coming from the same source. If you pluck three blog posts from your website and they all sound like they come from three different sources, your content lacks consistency.

There are three major considerations when determining your voice:

1. What is your company?
2. What are you blogging about?
3. Who is your audience?

Once you’ve identified the answers to these questions, you can make better choices on the words, phrases, and tone you use in blogs. If you are a family-run HVAC company, catering to middle class families, your blogs should be more casual and less technical. If you are a software company writing for a more knowledgeable audience, you may be more able to pull off a more technical and matter-of-fact approach.

Share your work with others

Creativity rarely exists in a vacuum. Without outside perspective, feedback, criticism, and opinion it is hard to grow as a writer and blogger. You’ll continue to make the same mistakes time and time again if you are wearing blinders and no one is there to point them out to you. If you want to be a better blogger, let others look at and check your work before you send it out.

Not only does a second or third set of eyes help you clean up small things like grammar and spelling, its an opportunity to get some open and honest feedback about your work.

Nobody likes to be criticized and it can be a tough thing to swallow at times. But, thick skin is a necessity of any creative endeavor. Accepting constructive criticism from others about structure, word choice, flow and style is the best way to learn from mistakes, tighten up your content and grow as a writer, blogger, and creator. Trust me, you and your work will be all the better.

Don’t stop writing

Remember the first time you got behind the wheel of a car when you were a teenager? It went great, right?! You got to and from your destination with ease, lickety-split, right? Or, snapping back to reality, was it a total disaster? Stomping on the brakes, ticking off the drivers around you, and stressing out your parents. But over time, driving got easier and easier.

Blogging is the same way, and no one is great at it in the beginning. Perhaps one of the biggest biggest blogging tips  I can give is to simply not give up. I’ll be honest, blogging isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s awkward and sometimes you may have trouble articulating your thoughts and simply structuring it. Don’t let bumps in the road dissuade you from keeping at it.

You’ll never become a better blogger if you stop. Take your growing pains and mistakes as a rite of passage and learn from them. I don’t know if there is a more tired cliche out there than “practice makes perfect,” but when it comes to blogging it really does.

Get Help

If you are serious about having better blogging for your website but you don’t have the time or energy, you can always call in backup. Let’s have a conversation about improving your blogging skills or how I can start blogging for you.