Blogging is no longer just a medium to get your views across to the world; it is an essential marketing tool that is used by businesses to create an indelible impression on their readers and influence their opinions from their position as an industry expert. To create this impression and build the right brand image in the minds of the reader, it is crucial to not only come up with great content but also present it in a captivating way on the blog.
To create an outstanding blog post, you need to focus on two main aspects: the visuals and the content. Fortunately, there are ways to crack both and make your blog post instantly stand out in the eyes of a busy internet user.
Visuals That Captivate
Unfortunately or fortunately, people certainly do judge a book by its cover. This applies to your blog as well – before a reader delves into the rich and informative content you have to offer, they will take a brief look at what your blog looks like and make a snap judgment about what they can expect from you. The more effort you visibly put into making your blog look aesthetically pleasant, the more likely people are to consider you a professional and someone whose information they can trust.
But don’t worry, this can work in your favor. While most other bloggers would consider it too much effort to invest time, energy, and money in professional graphics for their blog, you can get there by taking a simple shortcut, and by doing so, your blog can stand out from the virtual crowd. What’s the shortcut? Online DIY graphic design tools!
One such tool is a free online editor, PosterMyWall, which offers a drag and drop interface that is super easy to use, even for design amateurs. With over 145,000+ ready-made templates spanning over 125+ themes, you can use PosterMyWall to make your blog come to life!
Also read: How to Make Money Blogging (Free Guide for Beginners)
Adding Blog Graphics
Here are some blog graphics you should consider adding:
Blog Post Headers
Your blog post header is the first shot you get at capturing and keeping the attention of your blog visitors. Not only does it set the tone for the blog post itself, but it also convinces the reader of the expertise and credibility of the writer. They’re much more likely to scroll down after seeing a customized header that fits the blog’s theme rather than a simple stock photo. Make your life easy with customizable blog header templates that let you play around with the text, fonts, colors, and more until you achieve the perfect design for your blog.
Infographics
Internet users don’t want to read long, dense paragraphs packed with information anymore – they want information that is snappy, bite-sized, and easy to consume. Summarize your points nicely in one of these eye-catching infographic templates to make sure the reader misses nothing important.
Videos
Video is the undisputed future of all marketing, including content marketing. According to Oberlo.com, 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands and businesses they support. So while your long-form articles are not going anywhere, supplementing them with relevant video content is the best way to engage your audience in the way they want to be engaged.
So hop on this trend and start using videos on your blog. You can embed existing Youtube videos in your post or create your own bite-sized video content. With PosterMyWall, it is surprisingly easy. Create personalized videos by customizing the many video templates that are available for a massive variety of themes.
Screenshots
Use annotated screenshots to convey your message very clearly to the reader. You can do that easily by using clipart in PosterMyWall’s editor, as shown in the image.
These tips are just about all you need to make your blog look good and catch your readers’ interest. But to retain that interest, your content needs to be top-notch.
Making Content Extraordinary
Come up with a great title
Hook the reader with a sharp title before they even start reading the article by sparking their curiosity and make them want to see what the blog post has to offer. This does not mean writing clickbait titles – that is a death sentence for your blog, especially if you don’t have sensational content to back them up. It means writing direct and concise titles that sum up the essence of the article in an exciting way, letting the reader know exactly what they are getting into without feeling like they have been tricked for clicks.
Create Useful Content
Content is king – it rules your marketing and the direction your business will take. Make it interesting, unique, and valuable and your business will be primed for success.
Make sure to add value for your readers and give them a reason to invest time in reading your content. If you’re writing about the same boring topics as every other blogger, your blog becomes replaceable. So don’t be boring – find an interesting and niche category that no one else is writing about, or find a new way to write about old topics. It is vital to keep your approach fresh.
Make your Content Credible
There’s a lot of information on the internet, and not all of it is trustworthy. Use statistics and quotations from trusted authorities on the topic at hand to back up your claims to build credibility. Don’t forget to cite your sources properly! An easy way to do this is to add a hyperlink to your text and make it clickable.
Make Your Content Visible
If you want the top spot on the search engine results page, you need to get serious about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Optimize your content to rank for all the right high volume keywords. You can use a tool like Moz Pro’s Keyword Explorer to make it easier for you to discover and prioritize the best keywords that are most searched for by Internet users.
By incorporating these keywords into your content where suitable, you are making it easy for search engines to index and rank your content – and making it easy for your readers to find you.
Make Your Content Error-free
This is self-explanatory and quite obvious – your content has to be clean, concise, and grammatically correct to a fault. If you make careless mistakes, people are likely to doubt your professionalism. Constantly review and re-review all your content before publishing to ensure there are no mistakes.
Sounds tough? Grammarly makes it easier. It is one of the most efficient proofing and spellcheck tools available. You can sign up for its free account to enjoy some of its features like grammar checking, contextual spell checking, and vocabulary enhancement.
Summing Up
Armed with these blogging tips, tricks, and tools, you can now put your skills to test! If you hit a slump, remember that learning this skill is a rocky road, one that all great bloggers have traveled, but if you make these tips essentials in your blogging toolkit, you will soon take the blogging world by storm.