What makes a blog post brilliant? A brilliant blog post is accurate, original, authoritative, and is written in a way that makes the reader want to come back for more. It’s even better if the content you’ve written motivates people to comment, share, or answer your CTA. If you want your blog posts to be truly brilliant, check out these 7 tips:

1. BE OPINIONATED AND SAY SOMETHING ORIGINAL

There’s nothing wrong with writing about trending topics – what is wrong is simply regurgitating what everybody else is saying on the matter. Don’t be afraid to put forward a strong, even controversial opinion. If you have something to say that goes against popular sentiment, people will click into your blog to see what you have to say. You’ll also find that your willingness to be controversial and opinionated might help you to generate comments and shares. Just keep the following in mind:

• ‘Controversial’ and ‘Offensive’ Are Not Synonyms
• Never Say Anything That You Are Not Absolutely Sincere About
• Make Your Opinions Credible With Facts Statistics And Examples

2. DON’T PRIORITIZE OPTIMIZATION OVER QUALITY AND AUTHORITY

Yes, optimization is important. There are hundreds of brilliant articles on the topic of optimization with lots of great advice on improving your SERP positioning. You should follow that advice – however, when you sit down to write your blog posts, you’ll be doing yourself and your readers a disservice if every thought you have needs to go through some sort of optimization filter before you put it down on the page. Focus on writing that’s credible, informative, engaging, and that reflects your expertise. Then tweak your writing for optimization. Using an optimization-first strategy might get you better search engine results at first, but it’s the quality of content that will result in the shares, engagement, and external, inbound links that really get your content the attention it deserves.

3. DON’T FORGET ABOUT QUALITY CONTROL

Before you release any blog post to the public, you should perform three different checks. First, is it factually accurate? Ask yourself if every source you have used is up to date and reliable – have you double checked statistics that you are using? Are you getting your information from personal experience or as close to the original source as possible? Second, is your spelling and grammar on point? Don’t simply rely on your word processor to tell you, read and re-read your content so that you avoid writing fails, awkward phrasing, and embarrassing technical mistakes. The third and final check to perform is branding and sincerity. Does the topic you have selected, your writing style, your target audience, and position complement your personal or company branding? Will your readers find your writing consistent and sincere? There’s nothing inherently wrong with tackling a topic that you don’t normally address, nor is there anything wrong with taking a position that contradicts an earlier one – just be aware that your readers will notice, and will want to know why. Fail to answer that question, and you risk appearing disingenuous or hypocritical.

4. VARY CONTENT TYPE AND LENGTH

On any given day, your blog posts will be accessed by different people, at different times, for different reasons, using a variety of devices. Some will want relatively short posts that are broken up with lots of space that they can skim while using their mobile devices. Others will be interested in long posts that contain lots of detailed information. Some of your readers will be drawn to content that’s heavy on visuals, while others prefer mostly text. Remember that you may also be writing for readers with varying levels of expertise. Make sure you know who your readers are and what they want – then, make an effort to provide a little something for everybody in terms of length, format, and content.

5. CREATE CONTENT THAT YOUR READERS CAN USE

Many of your readers are going to come to you because they have a problem that needs to be solved, or they need to gain knowledge about a particular subject. The more useful your content is to them, the more likely they are to share your posts and answer your call to action. If your writing enables readers to do something that they couldn’t do before, solves a problem they’ve been struggling with, or helps them gain knowledge that they can use in the future, then you’ve written a great blog post. This is why ‘how to’ posts are some of the most popular and engaging blog posts that you can create.

6. WRITE IN A STYLE THAT IS ENGAGING AND RELATABLE

Remember that you’re writing a blog post and not academic text. Write in a way that draws the reader in and makes them feel as if you’re addressing them directly in as sincere a manner as possible. Don’t use big words, jargon, and overblown terminology in an attempt to sell your expertise. On the other hand, don’t dumb things down to the point that your readers feel as if you are patronizing them. Instead, take the time to get to know your audience and communicate with them in a way that they find relatable. One useful technique is to use words such as ‘you’, ‘we’, and ‘our’ in your posts – this makes your readers feel as if they are being addressed directly, which helps you to establish a positive relationship with them.

7. MAKE USE OF ALL THE GREAT TECHNOLOGY THAT IS AVAILABLE TO YOU

There are so many great tools and apps that you can use to really make your blog content amazing. If you want to catch your reader’s attention with great visual content such as embedded videos, GIFs, and infographics, there’s a wealth of tools that can help you accomplish that. If you want to write about trending topics, try one of the many headline aggregators that’ll connect you with the top stories in a variety of niches. If you’re unsure about the quality of your writing, there are tools that can help you improve in ways that go well beyond simple spelling and grammar checks. There are even tools that can help you automate the process of publishing and promoting your blogs.

BONUS INFOGRAPHIC-CHECKLIST

How to Write the Perfect Blog Post: A Complete Guide to Copy

[Source:- Socialmediatoday]