Social Media Today stats demonstrating power blogging wields online, despite increased saturation.

10 Blogging Commandments

  1. Write about what matters to you
  2. Don’t be too formal
  3. Edit it yourself
  4. Avoid clichés
  5. Remember to spell check
  6. Make layout easy to read
  7. Use lists to maximise impact
  8. Keep it visually fresh by varying the mixture of text and image
  9. Use a compelling headline
  10. Practise makes perfect

7 Essential Elements of a Perfect Blog

  1. Headline: the 6 words that count most
  2. Storytelling hook
  3. Fewer characters per line at first
  4. Featured image
  5. Subheads for scanning
  6. Content and the 1,500-word sweet spot
  7. Soundbites for sharing

Blog Topics and Ideas

  • 7 tips for
  • 6 outsider tricks which
  • 7 steps to
  • How the …
  • 9 ways that
  • Step by step approach to better / effective / more productive
  • 2 reasons that
  • 3 killer questions that
  • 4 pitfalls that every
  • ABC’s of
  • Pick a letter of the alphabet and do same for 26 days
  • What’s trending?
  • Who was born this day / event that happened this day?
  • What’s in the news
  • Regulations that all XYZ must consider before XYZ
  • 3 ways that you know that

3 top tips:

  1. Give numbers the bigger the better AND place them at the start of the headline. Use 5 not five for example.
  2. Great headlines: people want to be taught something, get smarter. Ditch How to’s. Be specific eg 5 minute guide to organizing your day for more focus and productivity AND indicate that it is an in depth piece.
  3. Words in headline that help posts go viral: smart, surprising, science, history, hacks, hacking hackers, huge, big, critical