3 Ways to Bring Your Blogging to the Next Level

The blogging market these days is extremely competitive; there are thousands of blogs out there, and it’s up to you to get readers to pick yours over all the others. Running a blog means a lot more than writing blog posts and publishing them. If you want traffic and engagement, you need to rise above the competition. This means actively taking steps to make your content more attractive to your target audience and marketing effectively.

The ultimate goal is getting readers to not only click on your blog, but stay on your blog and come back to your blog in the future. In order to get more blog traffic, you need to do two things: reach your target audience and offer content that is enticing. Readers will only come to your blog if it is put in front of them, and you will get readers to come back by offering content that captures their attention quickly and is easily digestible. Here are 3 insider tips to get your blog in front of fresh eyes and boost the quality and readability of your content:

1. Use social media to engage with the community

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools we have today, so if you’re not using it, you’re missing out. You can use social media platforms to find your target audience and communicate with them directly. So, make sure you have accounts for your blog or your identity as a blogger and you use them regularly. Here are some of the best ways to optimize your social media use as a marketing tool:

• Post regularly. Always post on your social media accounts every time you publish a blog and use as many relevant hashtags as you can think of. This offers a new way for readers to find your articles and lets your dedicated readers know when you make a publication.
• Engage with the community. Find your niche and be active online. Spend a few hours each week engaging with other posts and users — getting tagged in posts and having your content shared is valuable. This helps to build a community of people who take notice of you.
• Listen to your readers. Ask your followers questions about new blog topics they want to see or suggestions they have.
• Reel readers in. Post sneak peeks of your content or behind-the-scenes information and offer direct links to your blog to encourage followers to visit your site regularly.

2. Use a brainstorming software like Braincat

It’s important for all writers to use tools to organize thoughts and brainstorm efficiently. As a general rule, you always want to be working to make your blog better. Even if you are a strong writer and you can write an article without extensive planning and outlining, your writing and ideas can only become higher quality if you take the time to fully flesh out your blog posts. In order to improve your content, you need to have a system for working out ideas. One of the best tools to help you do that is Braincat.

Braincat is an online tool that is designed to streamline the brainstorming process to help you see projects clearly and reach new conclusions. The app not only organizes information, but it guides you through a specific way of thinking.

Jon Ward, a writer and brand consultant, created Braincat to help him handle massive amounts of information from clients, and soon realized that it could be useful to others as well. The basic idea is starting with the small details rather than the big picture, so you can record all of your thoughts and ideas first and then realize how they all fit together. They also have question sets specifically tailored to different project types, including a set just for writers. These are designed to get you thinking about new angles before you organize your project. Here’s more information on why Braincat works so well for writers.

3. Optimize your content for readers

Running a successful blog doesn’t just mean writing content that the best to you — it means writing content that is versatile and is optimized for your audience. You have to get and keep readers’ attention and keep them coming back for more. Here are some tips to ensure your content is enticing to the masses:

• Readability: From a writer’s perspective, you may be tempted to use the most sophisticated language you can to produce a piece of writing that is impressive. However, it’s important to consider the reading level of your audience. Use a readability testing tool to measure the comprehension level of your content. It will tell you the average grade level of your content and give you a breakdown of sentence and word complexity to help you reach a readability level that is optimized for your audience. In general, using simple, casual language makes your writing easy to understand.
• Formatting: In addition to the language you use, how you format a blog post impacts its ability to hold readers’ attention. Always use short, digestible paragraphs and separate sections with subheadings. If you are listing items or actionable bits of information, use a numbered list or bullet points.
• Scannability: While you probably feel that your entire blog post is full of important information and should be read in its entirety, the average attention span is about 7 seconds. Many people simply don’t have time to read your entire post, and you still want to offer something to those readers. So, make your blog posts easily scannable. Create a separate line and use bold text for important points. You want a reader to be able to quickly pull out the most important information in your post.
• Images: Find a cover image that draws attention, because this, along with your title, is what pulls readers to your post in the first place. If images are useful within your post, use them! Giving visuals to go along with the ideas you’re presenting makes your content memorable and easy to digest.
• Make an infographic: Instead of a blog post, try making an infographic to get your point across. Infographics are extremely popular and easily shareable, so they are a great way to reach a large audience and drive traffic to your site.