8 Tips to Create a Great Blog Post

Blogging is the best way to get your message out to your audience. Here are 8 tips to create a great blog post.

There are several important things that make a good blog post:

1. Plan Your Posts: A great way to maintain your blog is to create an editorial calendar to plan your upcoming topics. This not only gives you a well organized list, but allows you to create themes around your posts so you keep your readers interested and the information rich. And remember to be flexible with your editorial calendar topics because you never know when a hot topic might need to be your next blog post.
2. Use Compelling Titles: The title is the first thing to grab the reader’s interest and it should also highlight the main story of your post so make sure to be creative and informative with your titles.
3. Find Your Voice: Be creative and showcase your personality in your writing. The key to a good blog post is to find your own unique voice and don’t be afraid to speak (write). A trick a friend told me about is to use a voice recorder to first record your blog post verbally and then transcribe it. This allows you to find your voice while avoiding the ‘formal’ nature of writing.
4. Spelling and Grammar Check: Make sure you proofread your work before publishing. We all make mistakes and this one can be easily avoided by simply proofreading your post for spelling or grammatical errors.
5. Link To Other Resources: A blog is a great resource of information and one of the best ways to provide great information is to link to other blogs for useful information. This creates an information-rich post and will help you build up your network connections with like-minded folks.
6. Foster a Discussion: A great way for readers to continue to read your blog post is to ask questions to your readers and foster a discussion through the comments section. Remember, comments result in a number of benefits to both the reader and the blogger.
7. Use Images: One of the best ways to grab a reader’s attention is to use great images and best of all…it’s easy to do. You can either use your own images, get permission from another owner to use their images or use Flickr to search for images with a Creative Commons license for “free use, sharing, re-purposing and even remixing depending on the owner’s choice.” To understand the proper rules for image use, see the post Etiquette: Dos and Don’ts of the Arts and Craft Community, written by Dionne Christiansen.
8. Remember The Rules: Be creative and make it your own, but remember to follow a couple rules. First, don’t plagiarize (copy) somebody else’s work or make other’s work available for download if you don’t own it and second, don’t give out too much personal information as that is always a risk.

A good blog post is one that you make your own and the list above is to provide guidance…not limits. Some blog for fun, some for money, and some for both. Make your blog unique and unlike anything else out there…and of course share your blog with us as we’d love to connect to you!

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Guest author: Jason Dirks 

You might also enjoy reading:
How to Find Your Own Artistic Voice
Visual Artist’s Challenge: Balancing Self Promotion & Gallery Representation
What is a Blog & How to Become an Art Blogger