Marc's Blog

The web is filled with countless blog posts. While many exist, only a select few stand out from the crowd. These are the killer blog posts, the ones we simply cannot ignore. We have to read them from start to finish and then read some more.

Creating these types of blog posts will increase the amount of time people spend on your blog, and that helps with getting more leads and sales. As you write your next blog post, make sure you incorporate these 5 elements that result in killer blog posts.

#1: You Did Your Research

People love research. They love when you can provide a statistic demonstrating your concept in action. Buffer goes into incredible detail about their researching process, but it all comes down to reading as much as you can.

The next time you read a blog post you enjoyed, save the link and categorize it in a document. The more of these types of links you categorize, the easier it is for you to find relevant articles that support your next blog post idea.

Keeping a document with all of those links will boost your productivity and make it easier for you to write a killer blog post. You should keep a document containing your blog posts and other people’s blog posts. That way, you have a solid mix of inbound and outbound links.

Inbound links keep people on your site longer and results in a lower bounce rate. Outbound links result in a better SEO ranking since Google sees you’re promoting high profile websites.

Get into the habit of saving every article you read on the web. You can link them in a blog post later.

#2: You Provide Anecdotes And/Or Examples

People love stories. Our entire culture is built around them. Anecdotes and stories make your concepts seem more real. Talking about your journey or showing someone else’s journey gives your audience someone to relate to.

Personal stories are especially powerful as they allow your audience to know more about you. The more personal stories you tell, the more likable you become. Don’t confuse this type of person story with the fellows who can only talk about themselves and their glory days.

The personal stories and anecdotes are rarely the focus of the blog post (unless you state that from the beginning, i.e. titling the blog post “My Blogging Journey” or something similar). They are usually meant to support concepts instead of becoming the center pieces.

#3: You Go Deep Into What You Talk About

This blog post can be half the length. Some people can squeeze all of their knowledge into a concise format. However, as you lengthen your blog posts, you can expand on more concepts and provide more value with each blog post you write.

If I only wrote one paragraph for each tactic I discussed, this blog post wouldn’t provide nearly as much value as it’s currently providing.

In addition, writing blog posts like these isn’t just about identifying tactics and concepts. The other essential is to prove the concepts. When I mention that you should do more research for your blog posts, I demonstrated the power of research by including a variety of links in that portion of the blog post.

Many of the top bloggers go deep into each blog post. In fact, these bloggers spend several hours to finish a single blog post.

Kevin Lee from Buffer even broke down where he efforts go towards writing a blog post. Notice how about 33% of his time goes towards writing the blog post.

If you only write content for your blog post but do nothing else, you’re missing out on all of the extra things that make a blog post so great.

#4: Craft An Epic Headline

Blog headlines are critical for your success as a blogger. Many readers use the headline alone to determine whether they should read your content or not. If you wrote a complete masterpiece, but you used a bad headline, few people will read that post.

HubSpot recommends some tactics for coming up with attention-grabbing headlines, but it comes down to practice. The most important tactic is to write multiple headlines for a single blog post. I write 5-10 headlines before I choose the headline that works best for me.

The headline doesn’t determine the value of your content, but it is the primary indicator of perceived value. Once you get people’s attention with a headline, all you have to do is ensure your blog post lives up to the hype.

#5: Make Your Content Skimmable

We are afraid of the 5-line paragraph, and we appreciate the 1-liners. The shorter you make your paragraphs, the easier it is for people to skim through your content.

You can also change the font (bold, italicize, or underline) to make certain tactics, words, and sentences stand out. Most people who read a blog post have their hand on the scroller.

Chances are you scrolled right down to this part in a hurry. If you didn’t do it this time, you’ll do it very soon (probably next time).

One way to prevent your audience from skimming through your content from start to finish is to include pictures throughout your content. The pictures give your visitors a break from a series of small walls of text.

To get into the flow of writing skimmable content, start by reading all of the blog posts you write, word for word. If you find it difficult to read a certain part of your blog post, that means you either need a picture or a shorter paragraph.

In Conclusion

Killer blog posts provide an intense amount of value to your audience and give your visitors multiple reference points. These reference points keep people on your blog for a longer period of time while bringing attention to other people’s content on the web.

You’ll get better as you keep practicing. I recommend writing a blog post every day to turn content creation into a consistent habit.

What are your thoughts on writing a killer blog post? Do you have any tips for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.