I have been blogging for 7 years and have worked my way into blogging being my full time source of income. Well it's a full time income without the full time investment. I have evolved over the years and have come a long ways in the blogger world. I hope to help some newbies out there with this discussion of what goes into a good blog post. A good blog post that makes money that is! Please chime in if you have something to add! 1. You do your research first. Find out if your topic is searched. Who is it searching it and how are they searching it? This is where your choice of keywords comes in. Go for buyer keywords when possible. 2. To monetize your posts, you find good affiliate products to support your topic. This can be digital products or physical products like on Amazon. The affiliate products must be relevant to your post. 3. Write good original quality content. Put some soul into it. A couple hundred words will not do. I strive for at the least 500, but go for more if possible. 4. Visual Appeal for easier reading. a. Keep paragraphs shorter. Long paragraphs are tough on the eye. b. Break up your content with subtitles. Preferably sub titles with your keywords included c. Break up your content with nice, clean captivating images. 5. Proper placement of affiliate links. A mix of contextual links and display links when applicable. 6. Optimizing your blog posts for the search engines. This is in the placement of your keywords in your content and subtitles. It needs to read naturally and not appear stuffed. You optimize your images as well as your textual content. Use those alt tags for your images, they matter. 7. Calls to action. I see many posts and the call to action is weak. All the traffic in the world does you no good if you don't convert it. What do you include in a good blog post?
That call to action. Is huge. I am editing much of what I have done over the past years, changing the keywords, adding images and alt tags... and adding that call to action. I was hit heavily with Panda and Penguin some years ago and just kinda gave up for awhile, but Robin has helped me IMMENSELY in the past few months, and my blogging future looks bright again! I now have so much stuff to work on that I am dreaming again about all the possibilities... Did you know that when you have a dream and a vision, life is just a whole lot brighter?! Those negative moments are easier to rise up and away from and there is a song in your heart that no one can steal. Oh... and changing the subject, have I told you Robin, that I am gonna be a grandma in the spring?!!! Talk about something to motivate a person to have more residual income flowing so I can travel to play with a grand baby.
Very useful post. Your expertise shows. I particularly like your point about calls to action. It's important to tell the reader, firmly but pleasantly, what action you want them to take next. You ought to prod them along by reinforcing what the next step ought to be. It's not sufficient to assume they will act of their own accord. The one thing I would add is the importance of crafting a compelling title. It's a key component of a good post, and perhaps the one element most readers use to decide whether or not to read more. The best written post in the world will remain a secret, if you can't entice people to check it out in the first place. Hermas
Agreed. Titles that elicit curiosity, get people's attention, etc. are very important as well as the content itself. Lots of great points and information in this thread!
