10 Tips to Better Blog Writing

Blog writing does not have to be difficult.  Here are 10 tips to better blog writing for corporate blogs.

1. Write clear, good headlines that either grab attention or might be exactly what someone searches on.
2. Repeat your keyword targets for the article 3 times.
3. Vary your keywords slightly or use synonyms.
4. Write for people first and search engines second.
5. Reread your post in the preview option.  It is easier to catch mistakes outside of the editor.
6. Use some formulas for better blog writing, like 10 tips to….
7. Keep a list of blog writing ideas so you can always have something to write about.
8. Don’t feel like you always need to write something completely new and brilliant.  Rewriting articles on the same topic but written in a fresh voice is fine.
9. A short blog post is better than no blog post.
10. Who is your target audience and why are they reading your blog – if they found your article via search, this could be your only chance to make an impression on them.  Take advantage of it.

What’s Your Blogging ROI?

Your Blogging ROI (Return on Investment) depends on several factors.

1:  What are your Blog Goals?

First, you cannot measure a blogging ROI unless you have clear blog goals and place a dollar value on the goals.  Then you have to track the leads or sales clearly to know how much revenue your blog is generating.  If you are using your blog for customer acquisition, what is the lifetime value of the customer?

2: What is your Blog cost in time and money?

Even a professional blog system like Employee Ambassador is reletively low cost on a month to month basis.  But you have to factor in your time as well.  What is the cost of your employees and you blogging?  If you are using the blog writing as something to do in down time, do not place the same rate on the time as you would on billable time.  That is only valid if you have the billable work to do.

Obviously, your blogging ROI depends on what you are selling and the time you are putting into it.  It is definitely worth monitoring and it nearly always gets better over time if you keep working at it.

Blog Post Ideas

Blog post ideas come much quicker after you have been blogging for a while.  A blog usually has a certain feel to it on length and the business blogging goals.  Once you have gotten into the habit of blog writing, you will see a pattern emerge.

For example, here are some blog post ideas where you can just fill in the blanks.

1. The 7 best ____________ on the web.
2. How I did___________.
3. _________ Review
4. 8.5 Reasons to do _________.
5. Top Industry News
6. Did you know that ________________.
7. 100 websites where you can find out about ____________.
8. Top software to manage __________________.
9. Interview with ___________.

You get the idea.  As I mentioned, the more you do the more comfortable you will get with blog writing strategies.

Keep in mind, if you are blogging for SEO results more than for creating a regular audience, it does not matter if you write about the same topic (but complete rewrite of content) frequently.  For example, we frequently write on these blogs about business blogging, and I do not worry about someone reading the same articles twice because it is not set up to be read every day anyway.

Small Business Blog

The purpose of blogging, especially for a small business blog, is to create either sales or leads.

Customer Acquisition is possible with a small business blog, but you have to be building a tool for customer acquisition, not a fun blog.  That means you set up your blog to focus on the fundamentals.

1. Your Blog Generates Search Engine Traffic
2. Your Business Blog has a clear purpose and call to action.
3. Your blog is updated regularly so it ranks higher and generates more traffic.
4. Your business blogging purpose is focused on customer acquisition, not having a blog because you heard it is cool.

A successful small business blog is primarily about knowing why you are blogging before you start blogging.

Working with Employee Ambassador can help with this because we only focus on business blogs and employee blog writing to generate qualified leads that want what you have to sell.