how to become a better writer

One Simple Tip To Come Up With More Things To Write About

February 4, 2014 by Marc Guberti 8 Comments

One of the problems many bloggers face is writer’s block. I have talked about combatting writer’s block before, but I recently stumbled across a simple way to come up with more things to write about.

A big mistake a lot of bloggers make is to simply think of an idea, and start writing about that idea as soon as they think about it. For the first time ever, I was able to write and schedule 10 blog posts on the same day. I did not do this by thinking of an idea and writing about it as soon as possible.

What I did instead was think of an idea, write the title for that blog post, and then tried to think of another idea. I ended up thinking of 10 different ideas for blog posts. Instead of rushing into writing one of my blog posts, I thought of 10 different ideas first. Then, I wrote all 10 of those blog posts in 1 day.

In order to think of more things to write about, you can’t simply think of one idea and write about it. You need to think of multiple ideas first and then write about those ideas one at a time. By following this method, you will be able to find more things to write about so you have less encounters with writer’s block.

The Secret Formula To Creating Quality How-To Blog Posts

January 29, 2014 by Marc Guberti 3 Comments

golden egg

What is a quality blog post? There are a lot of definitions of the term. Regardless of the definition you have of writing a quality blog post, it has become more known than ever that writing quality content helps in the process of standing out from the crowd. There is a secret formula that some bloggers use to create quality blog posts, and I am going to share that formula with you. Here’s the secret formula:

Tell people what you are writing about in a clear manner. What is your blog post about? The headline of your blog post tells people exactly what you are going to be talking about. If the headline’s topic is clear, then people will already know the topic of your blog post as they read it.
Have a strong intro. There are millions of blogs to choose from, but your visitors chose your blog. Once they know what your blog post is going to be about, you need a strong introduction. A list of different tactics is not as good as a paragraph or two making the visitor want to continue reading your blog post. Don’t rush into the tactics and the how-to part of your blog post. Give your visitors a quick intro that encourages them to read on.
The first sentence is critical. The first sentence is the difference between having someone read your entire blog post or having someone read another blog. The first sentence needs to grab the visitor’s attention. Common ways to do this are to ask a question, offer a really cool statistic, talk about a big change, or use a testimonial. There are other ways to create a really good first sentence, but it is important to know that the first sentence sets the tone for the entire blog post.
Have good tactics that are organized well. The better your tactics are, the better your blog post can become. Choose your two favorite tactics. Put one of those tactics as the first tactic and put the other tactic as the last one. This is just like the concept of having a dynamic opening sentence and a dynamic closing sentence.
Support your tactics. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. Some people only support their tactics with a short sentence while other people add every word possible to support their tactic so the blog post looks better. A longer blog post does not necessarily equate to a better blog post, but a blog post in which the tactics are poorly supported is not a good one either. I usually support my tactics with a paragraph at most. It is better to support your tactic well with a paragraph than it is to support a tactic well with three paragraphs.
It’s not about the length of the blog post. Seth Godin’s blog post, Polishing Junk, is less than 50 words. Despite that, his blog post was shared over 1,500 times on different social networks. I’m sure there are people reading this blog post saying, “You’re talking about Seth Godin. His blog posts always get shared that many times.” The reason his short blog post got shared many times is because he was able to make his point quickly. He could have added a bunch of statistics and testimonials to his blog post, but he didn’t need to. He already made his point. I’m sure the people who visited that blog post read every word of it. That does not always happen with longer blog posts.
Have a strong conclusion that sums up why the visitors needs to implement the tactics. End your blog post on a good note by telling your visitors what they will be able to accomplish by implementing the tactics you talked about. The conclusion needs to grab their attention just as much as the introduction so you leave the visitor wanting more.

By implementing these tactics, you will be able to write how-to blog posts that grab the attention of more people. When you grab more attention for your blog posts, more people will share your blog posts. Sooner or later, you may end up like Seth Godin and get over a thousand people sharing all of your blog posts. That only becomes possible when you write quality blog posts. After you master writing quality blog posts, the only thing left to do is get more traffic. As you share your blog posts on your social networks, and your traffic numbers go up, people will read as many of your blog posts and sharing as many of them as they can.

How To Write Top-Notch Blog Posts

December 11, 2013 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

There are millions of blogs out there, but few of them are getting hundreds of visitors every day. Even fewer blogs get thousands of visitors a day. It is entirely possible that 10% of the blogs get 90% of the traffic. The reason the top blogs are getting a lot of traffic is because of quality content. There may be some marketing strategies as well, but visitors will only keep on coming because the blog posts are really good.

Writing a blog post is easy. Writing a top-notch blog post proves to be more of a challenge. The entire blog post has to flow from start to finish, but there need to be other components as well.

Before you start writing your next blog post, ask yourself these questions:

“What kind of people are visiting my blog?”

“What knowledge do these people need that I have?”

The top-notch blogs are usually one of the following:

A blog by a famous person (as long as that person was famous before the blog caught on).
A blog offering advice, tips, and expertise.
A blog with the latest news stories.

Most people are represented by Example #2 although it is possible for your blog to be Example #3. Example #1’s are not as abundant as the other two.

Now that you have asked yourself those questions and identified which kind of blog you are, it’s time to create those top-notch blog posts. Here’s the breakdown:

Have a strong title. The title controls the entire direction of the blog post’s content.
Address certain problems in your niche that too many people face. Too many people face the problem of not being able to write top-notch blog posts. This blog post addresses the problem.
Have bit size paragraphs of text. A big wall of text will scare off the reader. Turn your blog posts into bit size paragraphs so they are easier to read. This will also allow you to stay clear in thought as you write your blog posts.
Have some things in bold. By putting words or sentences in bold, you are able to highlight important takeaways from your blog. Certain words and sentences need to “pop-out.”
Proofread your blog posts. You may find a certain area of your blog post that you want to elaborate on. You may not like the wordiness of one of your sentences. You may only end up finding a period in the wrong place or a spelling error. It’s better to be safe than sorry.