We’re all creatives here so we’ll have no problem writing a blog, will we? Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Blogs are an essential tool in our arsenal for putting our words, images, and ideas out into the world. They get us noticed, give us a distinctive voice, and stamp our creative identity in a crowded market.
Like all good marketing, blogs take time and technique to produce. They’re easier when you remember a few basic things:
• Grab your audience with the title: the title should say exactly what you’re going to talk about and then you need to talk about it. If you’ve said you’re talking about clowns, don’t talk about sparrows.
• Write in clear, concise, plain English.
• Write about things that interest your audience and are relevant to your brand.
• Maximise opportunities for your audience to find you: use key words that attract the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation – you don’t need to understand it just know it’s there). This means using key words that Google and other search engines will hunt for and then reward by directing traffic to your website. Key words are ones that encapsulate what your blog is about, and you should repeat them without breaking the flow of your writing.
– try to find 10 key words that will attract the algorithms to your content.
– If you need help to find keywords, try ahrefs – https://ahrefs.com/keyword-generator This is a free Keyword Generator (pick the country you’re working in) – put your search (e.g., poems about clowns)
• Keep your content original. Don’t cut and paste, even from your own website – the search engines will penalise this as they don’t like repeated content! Quotes are fine but…
– Avoid long quotes as the search engines will penalise you.
– If you use AI to write your blog you need to check it very, very carefully. It’s likely to be fairly general (at the moment…) so you must edit it to make it your own.
– The search engines will penalise you if they can spot that you’ve just used AI and not bothered to personalise it. If you want to make sure, try these checkers:
AI Detectors – https://www.aiwritingcheck.org
ZeroGPT www.zerogpt.com
Writer www.writer.com/ai-content-detector
– You’ll be heavily penalised for any form of plagiarism. If you’ve got any worries, try these plagiarism checkers:
Check Plagiarism – www.check-plagiarism.com
Grammarly – www.Grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker
• Post at least once a month and update you content regularly. Google rewards you for new content by moving you up the ratings so that your audience can find you more easily.
• Use hyperlinks to link to trusted external websites. This improves your credibility and increases traffic to your site.
• You can link to sales pages but don’t go for the hard sell as that just puts off readers who have come for the content.
• But… do include a call to action at the end. When your reader stops reading you want them to do something next. Maybe have a look at your latest work, write a review, share their own thoughts – whatever it is, don’t miss the opportunity to engage with the people who have taken the time to find you.
• Title ideas – 5 Top Tips for… is always a good subject and title for a blog (and, for some reason, it’s better to have an odd number than an even one!). Alternatively, ask a question (e.g., What do you need to know about clowns before you join the circus?).
• Word count is always a hot topic among writers. For blogs, you need a minimum of 500 words to be effective for the SEO. There’s no maximum length but remember that you need frequent content so chop it up and make two if you’ve got over 1,000 words!
• Proofread your blogs carefully. Better still, ask someone else to proofread it. I have the great good fortune to have a wonderful PA who will check all my blogs for typos (hello, Kayleigh!). So, find a friend with a good eye for errors who doesn’t mind reading your brilliant work.
• Share links to your blogs with other creatives and enjoy learning about new things!
Happy blogging and let me know how you get on via Twitter @MarvellousMinds and Instagram @MarvellousMindsCreatives. Share your links to blogs and websites and use hashtags like #WritingTips and #Creativity to help people find you!
