6 Ways to Improve Your Blog3 min read

Starting a blog is easy. Creating a good blog is hard.

I think my blog, at the moment, is bad. I have been looking into various articles, and books, on how to make a better blog (website). Here is what I have learned in the past 2 months on making a good blog.

1. Write Lists

Look at this blog post! It’s a list.

Lists are easier for readers to digest and makes skipping around easy. They don’t have to be numbered, they can be bulleted as well. However, if you number it you can title your posts things like, “6 Ways to Improve your Blog.”

2. Make Your Main Points Clear

Most people don’t read this paragraph text. In fact, if you are reading this, you are probably one of the 10% who is actually reading this.

Most people just read the titles. They clicked on this blog post to learn about the 14 ways to improve a blog. They looked at the list items and quickly went on to the next thing.

When you make your points clear you satisfy the immediate desires of whoever is viewing your website. A fancy website designer told me this is,

honoring the user’s intent.

Make your points clear, and deliver what you promised in the title. People will be happy, people will begin to trust you, people will come back to your website.

3. Have One Topic Per Post

Always think like the user, why are they clicking on your blog post? What do they desire? How can you best fulfill that desire?

If during this post, I included how to rank better for SEO, or 7 productivity techniques, you may be confused and annoyed. You clicked on this post to learn about improving your blog.

If, when you are writing a post, you find yourself branching off-topic too much. Don’t stop writing about it, instead keep writing, and save what you wrote into a separate post.

Having separate posts makes content easier to consume and more targeted, which helps your users do well.

4. Be Humble

Don’t try to come across as an expert if you are not. Readers know you better than you think. Especially when everyone on the internet is an expert. You will be that much more relatable, that much more real, if you are honest.

Tell people you are unsure. Tell people you are confused. Tell people you are a beginner.

Be honest with your shortcomings and the internet will reward you.

5. Be You, Be Opinionated

Cliche yes, but true. Readers are reading your blog for your opinion, for your insights. Don’t hold back. Be opinionated. Say what you mean.

You will lose some readers, but gain true fans.

6. Be Useful

Most people are on the internet trying to learn something. They do not care about your lunch. They do not care about what a nice jog you just had (unless you are a runner and teaching people how to exercise better).

When readers visit a website they want to learn something. They want to gain some knowledge.

This does not apply just to content. Being useful applies to the entirety of your blog. It should be easy to navigate and user friendly. Whenever you can go back to your blog and pretend you are trying to learn something as a new user, is it easy to navigate? Can you find what you are looking for easily?

What do you dislike about others people’s websites? What do you like about other people’s websites? Remember these facets, write them down, and apply them to your website.

Bonus: Be Remarkable

Screaming fire inside of a movie theatre will cause everyone to look at you. You will be noticed, you would get attention, but you are providing nothing valuable. When you yell fire in a movie theatre, for no reason, you are arrested, for a good reason.

Be remarkable. Provide good content that is compelling. Forget attention-seeking and add value.