I'm sure you've encountered lots of them: articles that don't have anything special. I mean, they are okay, but they don't prompt you to share them with your friends or family. So how do you write engaging blog posts that will put your readers into a social media sharing frenzy?
Everything begins with having a powerful title. Most successful copywriters spend 10 to 20 hours crafting a great article. But then, they spend 10 more hours to create a compelling title. In fact, they create about a dozen of different titles, and then they test them using the A/B methodology. There are several plug-ins that can help with that, if your site uses WordPress. Fortunately, there are also several service providers that can plug their code into pretty much any CMS out there.
So now that you've got a fantastic title, what comes next? Well, the goal of the title is to have people read your first article sentence. The goal of your first sentence is to get people to read your second sentence, and so on. Don't trust me on this, it was a system invented by one of world's greatest copywriters.
But how should you start the article? Well, you could give your readers something to think about. Maybe ask them a question. Start with a joke! Use a quote! Grab a few ideas from a movie review site! Use IMDB and get inspired by a movie script, for example.
It's important to ensure that each and every word and sentence has its place, meaning and value. People have plenty of information at their disposal, and if they are willing to give you a few minutes of their precious time, you should be very thankful for that.
Keep your sentences as short as possible. Don't make your article hard to read by using huge phrases. Use simple words; write articles that are easy to read and understand by anyone! I know, you've learned all those fancy words in college, and you've never got the chance to use them until now. But trust me, it's best to keep them for that fancy party that you are supposed to attend to next week.
Always format your articles in a way that makes them super easy to read. This means that you should use a lot of space, separating ideas into small, easy to digest paragraphs. If you are writing a long article, use several subtitles that act as chapters in your long-form content pieces.
You are probably aware of this, but your content has to be unique. And this is a daunting task - trust me! As you can probably guess, there are thousands and thousands of blog articles that discuss exactly what you want to say to your audience. The secret is to approach the problem from a different angle.
Let me give you a real-life example: your competitor has written an article titled "Top 10 Most Beautiful Cities in the World". Everyone knows about New York, Paris, and so on. So how could you write about the same cities, without repeating your competitor's information?
Well, you could write an article titled "Top 10 Safest Cities in the World", for example. And if you really want to mention one of the cities in your competitor's list, even though it's not on your safest cities list, you could add it as a bonus tip.
Of course, your content has to be useful. Nobody wants to read useless stuff online. Finally, be sure to end your article with a thunder. Most bloggers summarize the main article points, and that is okay. But if you really want to stand out, you should always end your articles with a call to action. In other words, ask your readers to take action and do what you are expecting them to do.
Of course, some of these rules can be ignored, depending on the type of article that you are writing. What matters is to write engaging, useful posts, that are guaranteed to make your website visitors return for more.
Want to find out even more? This site can help! Actually, I have learned a lot of useful stuff by reading their articles.
