You’ve been blogging for awhile now and are starting to build up a following – but how can you engage your readers and keep them coming back? If you want to stand out from the crowd and transform so-so material into content people actually want to read, these tips will help you do just that.
1. Inject Personality into your Posts
No one wants to read dry, textbook-variety content. In order to keep readers coming back – and attract new readers – don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.
The easiest way to determine whether your blog posts have enough personality is to think about whether you’d want to read what you’ve written on someone else’s blog. Does it sound dry, stilted or boring?
If you can’t even read your own blog posts without being bored to tears, you can bet that no one else wants to read them either. As long as you are consistent with your personality, your readers will learn to expect it and enjoy it.
2. Be Passionate
It’s obvious when bloggers are passionate about their subject. Not only does that passion come through in their writing, but it gets people excited to read what they have to say. (Which is one of the primary reasons why people blog.)
Being passionate about your subject matter is the quickest way to differentiate yourself from boring content found on other blogs in your niche, and will allow people to share that passion with you through your writing.
Think of the best bloggers you know, and their passion for the subject. Take a cue from them and inject that passion into your own writing, and you’ll be able to turn boring blog posts into content that’s fresh and exciting.
3. Build Relationships
Many bloggers are too narrowly focused on numbers – that is, the number of people following them. However, it’s important to realize that those numbers represent real people, and if you want to be successful, you need to work on cultivating relationships with your readers to get them coming back.
Instead of focusing on growing those numbers, make sure you’re actually putting work into building relationships with those “numbers.” This means writing blog posts that you know your readers will enjoy, as well as interacting with them via comments and enticing them to interact with each other, as well.
By building up a community around your blog, you can help ensure they won’t be going elsewhere.
4. Quality Over Quantity
You already know that successful bloggers stick to a regular posting schedule, but it’s equally important that the quality of your posts is top notch each and every time you write. If you’re churning out two posts a day but the quality is lacking, you won’t have readers coming back.
Instead, focus on crafting well-written blog posts. Cut down on your posting frequency if you need to in order to write the quality posts your readers deserve. They’ll be much more forgiving of a varied posting schedule if every post is top notch than they will if you’re simply phoning it in in order to hit an arbitrary post count.
5. Write with Authority
If you’ve chosen a subject you know well, you’ll have no trouble writing with authority – you know the ins and outs of your topic thoroughly, and can blog in a knowledgeable way that keeps your posts from being dull.
Even if you aren’t an expert, however, but enjoy the subject matter you can still write with authority. When you write a blog post, write with confidence and back up your words with facts that lend credibility to your words.
Soon enough, your readers will recognize you as an authority on that subject and begin to enjoy reading what you have to say.
Take Control and Make it Happen
Turning blog posts into content people want to read doesn’t have to be difficult, especially if you work on injecting your posts with personality, authority and passion.
The goal here is to be as original as you can while crafting high quality posts that people will love reading. How’s that going for you?
That’s so true about personality. You can be writing about the exact same topic as someone else but if you add your own experience, knowledge and illustrations you make it unique. It’s also great to read posts that have an opinion, where the writer doesn’t just sit on the fence but shares what they really believe.
Thanks Brian, as usual a very inspiring post!
While I enjoy writing the “how to’s” and “5 ways” kinds of posts, I also really enjoy going much deeper and more personal. A great example of that is this post I wrote on my blog Nomad Theory. Which, ironically is causing me to consider writing something here about business and pleasure – can they coexist in the same place?
Just read the post on your Nomad Theory blog, awesome. Not just full of personality but genuinely personal – you don’t read many posts that are as open and honest, respect to you Brian.
Interesting question about whether both can coexist. I think in some ways they can because I’m sure people reading here will be interested in you and your thoughts outside of the “how to” posts but equally I can totally see why it’s also nice for you to have your Nomad Theory blog to be at “home” and relax and just write what you feel.
Personally I’ll be keen to read both
I literally have a post queued up to write in regards to business and pleasure. Will be anxious to see how folks respond to that one when I get a chance to write it up.
Great, will look forward to it. I’m sure it will get some conversation going.
I agree with you, Robert. You can tell when a writer has a passion for the topic. Their enthusiasm leaps through the screen. The content comes alive and I find myself not merely scanning the headings…but actually reading the article.
Funny how that works.
Brian — I don’t think people are interested in re-hashed information. They want MY take on what I am writing about. If my posts are not coming out of my own personal experience then I really don’t think I will connect with my readers and vice-versa. Thanks for keeping this in front of me.
I agree – and sometimes I lose focus on that and make my posts more matter of fact.
It’s a good reminder for myself, believe it or not!
That’s right, Greg. Most people can spot a poser and, given enough time, people will stop following someone who writes about what they either don’t know much about or don’t care enough about. The true champions persist, publish, and never perish.
Keep it up.
Brian, I like this phrase “work on injecting your posts with personality, authority and passion.” This is what I try to do each time I write a post. Although, it gets difficult to do all three all the time. But I do try to apply all them on as many as possible.
Hey James, even one of the three is better than none, right?
Work towards all three as a goal. Sometimes it’s harder to get something done if you stack all obstacles in your way at once.
I agree with Brian. Try to get all three, but even having one solidly conquered will win you many readers.
It’s interesting how the more I write, the more authority I put into my writing. I had an issue with being a passive writer for a while (and perhaps still do), so that’s definitely something I’m constantly working on.
I asked Christopher Neiger for some advice on becoming a better writer. His advice: write a lot and read even more. As simple as that may be, it opened a whole new door!
Great post, Brian. Definitely a recipe for superb blog posts.
Tony, I’ve read some of your recent stuff and, believe me, it’s good. Keep it up and stay passionate.
Thanks for the feedback Charles, I really appreciate it!
You bet!
Thanks Tony, and thanks for sharing some nuggets of wisdom.
Definitely, you’ve got a great community here. Happy to share
A great post, Brian, on an important topic as well.
It is interesting that reader engagement spikes dramatically on my posts that have either pricked a would, sparked an interest, started a controversy, etc. I know when I’ve written a solid post because the readers are engaged in the comments. And I also know when I’ve written a dud, because my blog is a ghost town when I do.
Content is king!
Hi Brian,
I definitely noticed when I write dry and boring post – no one will comment and the engagement with the readers is so weak. It’s the nightmare for any blogger. But when you ‘spice’ it with some personal experience it already make difference. Since I’m in phase of building the audience this post is a great reminder.
Thanks again
Glad to hear this helped. Always happy to know that my writing is making a difference.
Now I need to do a little more “personal experience” sharing here, and all will be good!
Hey Brian,
I’m glad to hear you mention that it’s important to stick to a schedule but that posting every day isn’t all that important. For a long time folks really got caught up in that.
If you’re posting every day but compromising the quality, there’s no real value in that.
Liz
Complete agree with you Liz. The begets the whole “quality vs. quantity” thing.
I think it’s possible (Chris Brogan has done this quite successfully) to publish fresh, quality content on a daily basis.
But it’s painfully obvious that some folks just “post” to post.
Great article! Your advice is very helpful, especially for a new blogger like me.
Off-topic: I love the structure of your articles. A numbered list of a few important points makes reading your posts very easy and interesting. That’s another thing we can learn from your blog.
Sounds like you can use a similar format on your design blog.
Adding your personality to your blog only lets people know you love what you do,
I have no problem doing this because I love blogging and connecting with people like your self who shares the same thing.
When you put effort into your work people can see it and respect you for what you do. Not every blog post will go viral but! we learn as our blogs age that we can only do our best to become good at what we love
great post Brian..
Thanks Rob, appreciate it. I don’t share nearly as much personal stuff as I should here, which is something I struggle with.
Perhaps I can come out of my shell a bit more.
I think these blog writing tips can work for facebook page posts too! Something I struggle with.
Thanks for the help Brian.
Good thinking, Chris. In my opinion, there’s too much information passing and not enough experience sharing.
Brian ~
This post is full of great information; thank you for sharing it, and reminding us of the basics that can tend to be overlooked. I agree with everything that you stated, but the number of followers vs. relationship segment really struck a chord. I’ve seen a lot of “follow you, follow me” lately, and I don’t know how folks keep up with everyone they follow. Thanks for the reminder…. always enjoy your posts!
Hey Carol, thanks for taking the time to comment.
There is a lot of follow you, follow me stuff going around – and you can see that especially on Twitter when folks follow everyone that follows them. I guess that’s where Twitter Lists can help, but I do think that deliberately engaging on those within your “true” audience is the way to go.
Even if that means less people.
Brian,
I definitely love the numbered list format you use in your posts. For me, it makes it so much easier to read and it seems easier for an audience to follow. I try to keep that in mind when writing posts as readers seem to engage with those posts a lot more. Great stuff as usual!
Josh
Thanks Josh, I try to vary up the ways my posts are published here. Some tutorials, some “how-to’s” and some “5 ways”.
Really a great tips and certainly thinking in a way that how you like the post to be read on someone else blog will really helps you creating an interesting post and also if you have passionate enough than you will get the interesting post written and creating relationship with the other blogger’s that helps you increase your knowledge and share their experience certainly change your personality.
Thanks for sharing great post!
Brian,
As an IT professional, I try to keep up with technology and over the years, that resulted in a very broad knowledge which became the subjects of my blogs.
After reading some of your blogs, I realized that although I know my subjects, it seems like my broad knowledge is what’s actually huting me. I find myself switching topics and blog about different topics which I think could very well confuse my target audiences.
Besides building an audience through blogging, I’d also like to share what I’ve learned over the years. Do you have any advice on how I could do that without causing confusion to the readers? Or should I just focus on one subject only?
Helo Brian
Well some good points described here. It is really true with blogging, interesting posts are really important to make. No one wants to read boring articles. You need to make interaction with the readers, you also need to understand what they want to read. Writing such helpful posts will definitely develop good relation between you and the readers. Another point you mentioned that one should write like an authority. You are right and i completely agree, you may not be an expert in that particular field but you should write like an expert so readers backed up by facts and stats. i am sure the readers will surely love that.
Sanjib