I’m sure you’ve heard this little adage of the online world before – “content is king”.

Well, that’s great, but what the hell does that mean?

That means in the hypercompetitive world of blogging, you need to bring your A-game when it comes to your blog posts.

Here are 10 blog post essentials you need to remember in order to boost the value of the content you provide to your loyal followers.

They deserve it, ya know.

1. Use Stories

I was at my daughter’s cross country regional championship today and saw something that inspired me in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. One of the runners was furiously fighting toward the finish line when her gait started to wobble.

Her arms broke rhythm and her legs shifted erratically. She was losing it as she closed within 50 feet of the finish.

Everyone’s eyes latched onto her as she dropped to the ground, only to rise again to stagger forward a few more steps before falling again. Her mind yearned for her feet to simply move one step in front of the other, while her body fought back with all of its might.

Slowly, she staggered toward the finish, ultimately dropping to her knees a mere 10 feet from the line. She took a moment to gather herself and then fought forward with everything left in her frail body to reach the goal she had chased for the last 3 months. As soon as the first part of her body broke the line, she let go and fell across the line. She laid, body straddling the finish line, triumphant regardless of place.

At that moment, I felt an unbelievable rush of emotion and inspiration. For some strange reason I believed I could do anything…..

See what I did there? I told a story.

Stories can be very powerful, and they don’t always have to be emotional and inspirational. Start to look at ways you can include stories in your blog posts. It’s incredibly important for drawing the reader into your world.

What if You Don’t Have Any Stories?

You may be saying to yourself, “but I don’t have any stories.” Don’t worry. Many of us struggle with conjuring up stories out of the blue, including yours truly.

You need to at least try.

People are more drawn into stories and are quicker to become emotionally engaged if there is something they can picture in their mind.

Even if you can’t come up with a killer story, at least try to relate the content to something other than the exact topic you are talking about.

A simple analogy can go a long way in keeping your reader’s attention.

2. Start with an Enticing Headline

Let’s face it, people determine whether they want what you are offering based on your headline.

Sometimes, if the headline is solid, they may simply make the decision and share your content without reading it.

How to Construct That Killer Headline (This is NOT One)

As a blogger trying to grow an audience and provide stellar content, you need to make your headlines pop. I offered a ninja technique on creating outstanding headlines in a recent post. Use it.

One other important point to make about your headline – don’t be overly clever.

Use the KISS principle when crafting quality headlines. Readers don’t want to dig deep into your pyschological angles or literary mastery. Keep it simple and let them know what you are offering.

Oh, and for God’s sakes, never mislead your reader or use clickbait tactics. People will curse you and wish horrible things upon you.

3. Utilize Stunning Graphics

I have a whole section of this website dedicated to the design elements of a successful blog.

There’s no question that you need to implement beautiful graphics on your blog.

Your content deserves that cherry on top, so make sure you pick something that raises your blog above all others when people see your blog post image.

How You Should Apply Images in Your Blog Post

I have covered a number of tools you can use (many of them free). Pick a few and play around until you become proficient in creating images that complement the awesome content you are crafting.

Feel free to sprinkle a few images throughout your blog post as well. You don’t have to limit it to just the feature image.

One of the major trends of blogging today is having very large images on your site. These images basically take up the full viewing area of the blog page.

Check out unsplash.com for phenomenal photos you can use on your site – for free. Pixabay is another great choice that provides an awesome search capability and multiple image download sizes.

4. Keep it Organized and Structured

Don’t give your readers sensory overload when they land on your website. Keep your blog clean and your visitors will adore you.

Beyond the window dressing in your sidebar, take a hard look at how your actual blog post content looks.

Do this quick exercise

Pull up one of your blog posts. Scroll down to the meat of the article and then stand up from your chair. Step back a few feet from your computer so you can barely read the content.

Then take a good look at how it looks from afar.

Are there clean separations between paragraphs?

Are there a number of smaller sized paragraphs?

Are there strong section headers?

Does the content look as if it is organized and positioned in an easy to consume manner?

Don’t make your visitor have to wade through a sea of text to try and find the nugget of information they are seeking. Format your text in a way that they can skip easily through the body of the content, browsing and finding what they need.

Here are a few quick-hitting tips you can immediately implement.

Use well formed and informational headers
Break up paragraphs to no more than 3 sentences. Some sites like QuickSprout have blog posts where every sentence is isolated to its own line. Check this post out.
Keep topical sections consistent throughout the post and make sure they don’t get too long.

5. Add Links

Links are beneficial for not only providing information to your readers but also for your SEO efforts. As good as Google is, they still like to have pointers to information to help them organize and map your site.

Make sure you include external links for articles, sources, and supplemental information for your readers.

Don’t forget to also include links to your own content. The more links you provide within your own blog, the easier it is for Google to learn about it.

Important Things to Consider with Links in Your Blog Post

When you do add links, make sure you pick the right words to include as the link. Don’t link an entire paragraph or even a long sentence.

With all links that you implement, make sure you select the “Open in new window/tab” option. You never want to enable a reader to leave your site for good. Help them out and provide the link in a new window so your site stays in their consciousness and in their browser.

And finally, stay on top of the links you put on your blog. Never send your visitors to a dead link. Not good.

Check out tool number 4 on this list to learn about a great plugin for WordPress that helps manage all of your links.

6. Edit to Make it Clean and Error Free

Readers of blogs do not like typos and grammar issues.

You are proclaiming to the world that you not only know how to write but that you actually enjoy it enough to construct an entire website based on your skills (aka a BLOG!)

You are a blogger. Act like one.

Take pride in the quality of the content you put out.

If you rush through your post and neglect to edit or re-read it, your visitors immediately think less of you.

If you don’t have the time to care about crafting the content, why should they have any time to care to consume it?

Sure a typo here or there is ok, and actually adds some personality and realness to your blog, but make sure you stamp out most (if not all) of the problems before hitting publish.

7. Give Your Readers a Takeaway

Notice I didn’t say “value”.

Value is great and something we all want, but at the end of the day, you want your reader to say, “Damn, I need to remember that!”

You want them to click away from your blog with something to remember. Something they can take with them and apply in their life.

It could be instructional step-by-step instructions or something more inspirational.

Just make sure that you aren’t simply blogging to put down a bunch of words.

Think about what you want to provide to your reader so they can take it with them and use it.

8. Tap Your Personal Flair

You are not the only blogger in your niche.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of other bloggers saying the same damn thing you are saying.

Your content is not necessarily special just because.

What makes it special is you. Your voice, your experience, your way of explaining, your personality, your (lame) jokes. All of that adds up to a personal side you want to include in your blog posts.

People want to connect with bloggers for who they are and what they are about, not simply based on the raw content of a post.

Embrace your personality and let it shine for your audience.

9. Use Natural Language

See if you can tell the difference in the two statements below.

In order to unequivocally garner the adulation of those that are inclined to consume your musings and pertinent industry experience, one must solicit underlying positions of emotion to constitute consistent quality.
To create raving fans of your blog, use your heart to knock their socks off

In the first statement, I come off as a smug know-it-all that believes I’m smarter than you and I like to use big words to boost my ego.

In the second statement, I’m just a regular guy talking to another regular person.

Go for number 2.

Readers of your blog don’t want to read a dissertation. They don’t want to run to a dictionary to decipher what you are trying to say.

Find your voice when writing and don’t try to overinflate the words you use.

Keep it simple and your message will carry much more weight.

10. Get to the Point

I’m sure you know someone that likes to hear themselves talk. You deal with them at company functions or gatherings with friends, and they tend to dominate the conversation.

Or maybe it’s someone at work that loves to keep the meeting running even though everyone else wants to get on with their day.

Don’t be that person with your blog.

Don’t post long-form content just because you can.

If you can wrap up your point in fewer words…DO IT.

Given the short attention span of people online, you need to get to your point quick and stay concise with your messaging.

There you have it, 10 blog post essentials you need to remember. Keep these items in mind as you start to draft your next online masterpiece and your readers will forever love you.

Ok, that may be a little strong, but they’ll at least appreciate you.

10 Blog Post Essentials You Don’t Want to Forget