To write good blog content you need to know a few basic rules which, once learned, will make writing easier, your content more interesting and your blog more popular.

Start your content with a paragraph (the hook) that makes people want to read on.  If you find this hard, start with a question – for example, I could have begun: ‘What do you have to know to write good blog content?’  As it is, I began with a statement designed to make you want to read on and find out more (at least that was the idea).

Don’t, however, use newspaper style where you give away all your facts in the first paragraph and then just fill in the detail below, think about what you are going to say and let the content slowly unfold, like you would unwrap a parcel.  Then, at the end, make sure you have an ending paragraph to wrap the posting up nicely and impress in the reader’s mind what they have been reading.

Now, begin writing and once you have written the words, go back and rewrite them.  Try to reduce the content by at least half.  Yes, I mean that!  Most writers rewrite pieces several times before they are satisfied, few writers can write perfectly first time.  For example, the sentence in paragraph two originally read: ‘Start your piece with a hook that makes people want to read what it’s all about.  If you find that hard to do then start it with a question…’

Don’t waffle, write short, punchy sentences and if you find this hard to do then you are not alone, everyone does and this is where rewriting and practice comes in.  The idea is to try for a direct writing style that tells readers what they want to know and does so clearly and concisely.  Oh, and make sure you spellcheck what you write – if necessary get the free OpenOffice program with its excellent word processor and spellchecker. 

It pays, too, to look at the way your blog looks to the reader. Notice that all my articles have a picture on the right, with the first paragraph in bold type.  This is to try to capture the reader’s eye and, since bold is normally read first, lead the reader into reading on down and into the body text.  About half way down there are often a few words from the text in large print (a ‘pullquote’) designed, again, to lead the reader’s eye down into the article and keep them reading.

If you don’t use pullquotes, or similar graphics, then add a sentence that is similar to the hook used at the start and which makes the reader want to continue reading.  It is between a third and half-way that readers start to get fed up and leave.

Finally, never ever assume that what anyone tells you (especially me!) is the right or best way to do things.  Experiment, break the rules and find your own way of writing and of presenting your writing in a way that is unique to you.  You want people to know you wrote it even if your name’s not there.

There is so much good written material on the web (and elsewhere) that potential readers will scan the first few words of your piece and, unless the writing appeals, soon go elsewhere.  Remember the rule -  good, clear, not clever, writing pays its dividend in readers.