You’ve been working hard on your blog: you put thought and effort into your About page, your site title and tagline, and you’ve even picked a great blog name. You sweat your photography. You read and re-read your drafts to make sure they’re just perfect.
With millions of posts published every day, how do you make sure your work stands out in the crowd? Crafting strong post headlines is one way to snag reader attention, pique interest, attract followers, and earn repeat visits.
Here are a few ideas to think about as you write titles for your posts:
At one point or another, all bloggers have to sit down and decide whether they’re going to focus exclusively on a single topic or write about several related subjects in an attempt to have a broader target audience.
Now, this can be a difficult decision to make: after all, you can choose to write about a more specific niche in a single topic (say, specialize in fitness workouts for women over 40) or you can expand to more than one topic (fitness, health, nutrition).
Ultimately, your decision will likely reflect:
how much information there is to be written about, which also influences how often you can release new content
how much time you have to devote to your blog, researching topics, etc.
I’ve been blogging daily since April 2012. Since then, I published more than 2000 articles on art, inspiration, writing, motivation, and, yes, blogging.. And if I look back on what pieces got the highest exposure, follower growth, and made the most money — 80% of them are about blogging:
And this makes me think that people who spend too much time reading everything there’s to be read about blogging will probably never become successful bloggers.
Do you know why?
Because reading these posts is a form of procrastination.
You tell yourself that you need to know the “secret” that will make you a better blogger and help you turn a hobby into a full-time income.
And I get that. I used to look for secrets too. I used to search for a “hack,” and I used to think that people who “made it” knew something I didn’t.
The truth is, there is no secret.
You achieve success as a blogger the same way you achieve success in almost anything in life: by doing something regularly for a long time and becoming better at it.
But most articles about blogging success aren’t about that, because it would disappoint the aspiring blogger who thinks there must be a way to grow fast without much work. The aspiring blogger wants tactics, details, tips and tricks.
But the truth is that if you don’t have it in you to put in the work in a consistent manner, none of those tricks will do you any good.
Almost every “blogging blog” out there and about 97% of all blogging guides ever written state that one should always choose quality over quantity; one should write great content.
How does one do that though? What does it mean to write a great blog post? Hmm?
“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”
Steven Pressfield
When you’re just starting out, you probably aren’t going to be that good. Okay, let’s face it: you’re going to suck. Big time.
I’m not telling you this to put you down in any way. But you’ve got to be aware of the fact that when you’re a beginner blogger, you are going to publish a lot of lackluster content.
What’s the second most important part of your blog post after the headline?
The introduction, of course.
Imagine just how disappointed you’d be after spending an insane amount of time to come up with a killer title for your post, only to lose readers within the first paragraph or two. A great headline mixed with a lame opening is like getting stuck on a roller-coaster ride seconds after it starting.
So, here are five easy ways to open your post that will capture the reader’s imagination and make them want to read more.
There’s usually a right way and a wrong way to do something. That’s just in case you want to keep it simple, because there’s a wrong way, slightly less wrong, slightly better, and so on…
Some ways lead nowhere at all. They only exist in order to provoke anger.
The truth is that if you want to know how to become an effective blogger, then it’s important to read the following words carefully. Your future as a blogger depends on it.
What I love most about blogging is how confusing the process seems to be. Beyond having to consistently produce quality content, you also have to network with other bloggers, take care of various social media accounts, guest blog, interview, connect with your readers, and feed your brain with as much information as possible.
And this got me thinking…
What exactly matters most when it comes to building an audience? Should you prioritize content creation over networking, or is it the other way around? Should you try to balance them both, feeling like you’re walking on tightrope on a daily basis?
Well, the truth is that this is an impossible question to answer. Sorry.
What I do know is that how you treat your readers matters an awful lot. So much so that the way you answer to the following questions can make even the most brilliant content you share not receive even a single like:
Do you reply to your readers?
How do you reply to your readers?
Do you talk down to your readers?
If I emailed you right now, would you respond?
Before we get too far into the topic, let me be clear: I don’t always reply to comments or e-mails. Some days I can’t respond, some messages are not worthy of a response, some messages don’t make much sense.
So I’m not perfect. Far from it.
But I’ve got to tell you that even though I always give 100% when it comes to creating content, if I don’t interact with my readers for any period of time, my views and comments tend to drop significantly.
Sometimes I like to pretend I’m a photographer. Mostly with other people’s cameras. And the results are oftentimes… not as bad as you’d expect.
I do not research the subject, I do not take classes, I do not read about photography, I do not actively aim to become better.
Yet, somehow, I am becoming better with each photograph I take.
And I wondered why.
Wouldn’t you?
Here’s an odd fact about me: I am an artist. I have been writing for fourteen years now. I love art. I love artists. And beautiful art has made me cry far more often than real life ever did.
This belief of mine works for me in all artistic fields. I don’t feel much pressure, just the desire to have fun, to enjoy myself, to take part in the ritual of creation.
I see beauty and I want to capture it, recreate it, change it, share it with the world.
It’s not the knowledge, you see, but rather the skill. And I believe that it’s not what we acquire but who we become that influences our results.
It’s all about mindset.
“It is your attitude, more than your aptitude, that will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar
Yeah, knowing the techniques and being a great storyteller matters, but it all comes down to self-confidence.
If you honestly believe that you’re a great blogger, you’re going to write a killer blog post on a napkin, or if you think of yourself as a great photographer, you’ll make do with a three year old smartphone. The same way folks who are into fitness find a way to exercise, even if they’re stranded on a tropical island with only two coconuts and a volleyball.
I am pretty sure you’re thinking something along the lines of, “It’s easy for you to say this, but I do not have any followers.”
Let me ask you a question: how do you define success as a blogger? Who told you that you have to have a certain number of followers or that you have to earn a living out of it in order to call yourself successful?
What if there was a new consensus regarding success as a blogger: you must punch the damn keys and do your very best to produce great work, even if you have 0 followers. Especially if you have 0.
If you have 50, you’re already a blogging god.
Gary Vee talks a lot about Macro and Micro levels. He’s stated that he did a lot of interviews that got 50-60 views long before being on CNN and becoming a big social media star.
And I believe this is the kind of attitude most bloggers simply lack.
In other words, some people get excited to write their best content even when no one is reading them, while others are secretly waiting for some day when they’ll be Internet famous to write their best ideas into existence.
That’s about it.
There was this post on Tumblr about a woman who had lost a lot of weight. She then noticed her husband was more affectionate towards her, and this made her sad, because she thought it was all about her looks. Then she noticed how people acted differently around her: joked more, were kinder…
It took her a while to figure things out: it was her who had changed. From the moment she first looked herself in the mirror to when she went to sleep, she felt different. She was happier, more alive, more confident. Smiled more. Wore different clothes. Her attitude towards herself was different, and thus the attitude of others.
People were simply reacting to the way she perceived herself.
If you believe nothing else of my posts, if you take just one thing, let it be this:
Mindset is everything.
If you have the right mindset, if you are self-confident, self-reliant, fueled from within, clear in your intentions and purpose, free from outcome, social pressure, or setbacks, then you will turn those 20-30 followers into thousands, even more, in no time.
That’s why the advice is to write for yourself. Write the kind of content that you’d love to read, because you must enjoy yourself while doing it, and not because someone else likes to read it (or needs to or would pay good money to).
Do you know why we make jokes? Say or do stuff we find funny?
Most people would assume it’s because you want to make others laugh. It’s not. You make jokes because you find them funny, because saying that one-liner out loud makes you feel good. It elevates your own mood, and that’s the only goal.
The same goes for blogging. Develop the kind of mindset that enjoys the art of blogging:
Looking for inspiration anywhere you can find it
Siting at the desk to write.
Having a schedule
Interacting with fellow bloggers
Reading other blogs
The numbers game is going to mess with your head
When I first started blogging in April 2012, I was unstoppable. I’d blog every single day, even though I got 2-3 likes per post, some twenty odd views a day.
It didn’t matter.
I knew success was just a matter of time. Luck, also, but I knew that the harder I worked, the luckier I’d get.
But the thing is that the more followers I got, the more I lost track of the importance of just one reader.
My words became diluted somehow. I lost a great deal of clarity.
What do a hundred thousand people want to read? What do they care about? They come from some 200 countries, they speak vastly different languages, have different customs…
Blogging is all about two people: me and you.
That’s it. I write what I want, because I enjoy writing, because this is my passion, and because I want to do this until they throw dirt on top of me, and you, the one reader, the person who is reading these blog posts, who comments, who takes the time to like the content, or share it, or print it out…
If you can get excited about the act of writing a blog post, and then get even more excited with every single like, comment, or follow, then you’ll be successful as a blogger.
If not, there’s no knowledge, technique, trick or tip that will help you become successful.
Hey,
Tomorrow an e-mail will be sent out to almost a thousand people.
It will contain the following:
an exclusive blog post
tips and tricks about blogging
the best content shared on The Art of Blogging in March 2020
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