Top 10 Ways to Write Attention-Getting Headlines & Content for Your Blog Posts

Many online entrepreneurs typically blog about their niche. They write about the industry, trends affecting their audience, make new announcements and generally, provide informative content for their web site visitors. Having a blog elevates the user experience, showing your audience that you have something to offer them beyond what you’re selling. You have advice, opinions and all kinds of information that speaks to their needs.

However, sometimes the hard part is creating content that your audience will want to read in the first place. Your online business stands out, so too should your blogs, right?

From the right headline to providing them with engaging material, here are 10 ways to keep your visitors scrolling down your entire blog page and coming back for more.

Write Attention-Getting Headlines

1. Top 10 Headlines

People often gravitate towards top 10 lists. It makes sense, since so much of our lives have involved couching topics in terms of numbers. From bestsellers and music charts to doctors asking us to describe our pain on a “level of 1 to 10,” there are terms like “top 10,” “bottom three” and “giving 100 percent.”

Numbers tell readers up front what they’re in for: a succinct read that will give them key takeaways. Besides, succinct is what readers want. Tosin Adeoti, a young entrepreneur and founder of Home-Based Business Coach, says, “Studies show that internet readers scan, skim and skip around blog contents more than they read.” Keeping your audience in mind is essential and “top” lists help. Adeoti says it’s important to give them a “visual break” which can be done by proper use of white space, bulleting points or outlining comments with a top 10 (or 5 or 25) list.

2. The “What you’re Not Doing But Should Be” Headline

Let’s use the example of “Five Things You Probably Aren’t Doing on Your iPhone but Should.” This headline lets your audience know they are in for a short read (“five things”) while also enticing them to read more (suggested by the “what could I be doing differently, or more effective?” headline). In other words, it seems to suggest that is has something for those who don’t want to be left out. It’s a teaser that gets them wondering what they can learn something that’ll make their experience easier, better or faster.

3. The Unusual Headline

Headlines that make people do a mental double take like, “How Discovering Your Online Niche is a lot like Dating” or “The Barry Manilow/Metallica Concert: What Your IPod Says About your Music Style,” can engage your readers. While more serious cut and dry headlines about your web site blog can also make a point, it’s often not a bad idea to mix it up with some attention-getting levity.

4. The “Did You Know” Headline

The “did you know” headline evokes curiosity. “Did you Know that the Cashew is Not Really a Nut?” may be a blog idea for someone with a health-related online business. It imparts a sense of intrigue, telling others that there’s more to a story they likely thought they knew everything about. Similar to the “lesser known facts about . . .” or the “what you thought you knew but didn’t . . .” concept, this headline draws people in to hopefully satisfy their yearning for more knowledge about your business.

Write Attention-Getting Content

5. Check the Calendar

You’d be surprised at how many unique days exist dedicated to a hobby, cause or even certain foods, colors and pet peeves. Be creative.

For example, Jennifer Lilley, a blogger, columnist and copywriting professional who has worked with such clients as Johnson & Johnson andFrito-Lay, wrote a blog called, “How Pumpkins can help your Brand: Trying new Approaches to Generate Awareness.” In it, she says, “These days, there’s a date with a designation for just about anything. From International Cookie Dough Day to Lost Dryer Sock Day, there’s bound to be one that’s an ideal match, and therefore a prime opportunity, to tout your brand. Check out the United Nations’ list of world observances by day for ideas.”

For example, if it’s National Cookie Day (which was December 4, by the way) and you sell eBooks, why not consider a blog that discusses a particular eBook being a “sweet” read or as a way to boost sales of new recipe book? Even if you sell health products, use the day as an opportunity to blog about your own top 10 list of favorite gluten-free cookies. Then, find all things cookie or cookie day related on Twitter, and post your blog. Make it known to the masses!

Of course, make sure the day is aligned with your brand’s message. Lilley says that an event can also be an opportunity to offer a differing opinion, one that’s against the celebration of a designated day. In other words, building messaging around a topic can also be done by taking a stance against something, too. For example, writing all about why there should be more National Kale Days instead of cookie ones, is an idea for the health-minded blogger running a nutritional product web site.

6. Get a Leg up on Hollywood

While some people roll their eyes over the latest Hollywood gossip, there’s something to be said about the fact that it makes for popular conversation. Striking while the iron is hot is key, often allowing you to blog in a way that resonates with your audience in a timely manner.

With some creativity, it’s possible to make the most of the world of entertainment and weave it into your blog. Move outside the online business world, but not entirely. From amazing new movie roles and well-known phrases of celebrities gone wild (i.e. “winning”) to award show memories, it can be worked into your blog as an entire theme. “Think outside the box. Rather than relying on high-profile examples that everyone is writing about, such as Steve Jobs,” says Jane Porter, associate editor at Entrepreneur.com, “consider case studies of other successful people . . .”

7. Turn to Social Media

Social media gives you no excuse for writer’s block because it exposes us to blog ideas galore. Furthermore, if you hone in on the moment, your blog becomes timely, resonating moreso with your audience while establishing yourself as someone truly “in the know.”

Between all the trends, discussions, specialized pages and forums, there’s a writing opportunity in everything. Even if it initially seems like a stretch, keep thinking about a specific topic and consider ways you can turn it into a post. For example, on Twitter, #snowday was recently trending in the United States. What’s that have to do with you?

If you’re selling eBooks on your web site, why not write about how a #snowday is the perfect time to catch up on reading? Talk about books you remember during no school snow days. Reminisce about newsworthy blizzards of days gone by. Throughout all of this, discuss the books that have been part of your #snowday experiences through the years and suggest some favorites you’re now selling.

If you’re selling health products, why not blog about top foods that can naturally raise your temperature and keep you warm during this #snowday?

8. Know Your Current Events

If you sit for hours happily blogging about the joys of music and your online music store, touting it as ear candy for the ages and post it, that’s a good thing, right? Of course. But what if you neglected to take a few minutes beforehand to scan top headlines and breaking news related to your online business?

So . . . you post your blog about the joys of the music industry and then turn on your TV to see an unfortunate turn of events regarding that very topic? Suddenly, that happy-go-lucky post becomes an ill-timed piece of writing.

Porter urges online bloggers to ask themselves these questions: Is there anything relevant happening in your industry — policy changes, tech developments or recent reports — that could affect your customers? Can you distill some valuable lessons from companies or industry leaders who’ve made headlines? What could your customers learn from these victories or disasters?

9. Take off Your Geographic Blinders

Maybe it snows a lot where you live, making it seem logical to weave in references about how nice it would be for visitors to enjoy your products with a steaming cup of hot cocoa. But too many cozy casserole and roaring fire references can be a turn off to folks living in Puerto Rico. Some local “about me and my area” talk is good, even necessary, to get your audience to understand you more and showcase the personality behind you and your brand, but too much local talk can make others feel as if your blog is leaving them out, even if they live in the same county. Not everyone shops where you do or even likes the same coffee house as you (if they even like coffee at all), so go easy on constant mention about your favorite place for a cup of joe. Consider being more generic at times or offer a range of geographic-friendly topics like, “Whether you’re enjoying a fireplace or lying on the beach . . .”

10. Don’t be Afraid to Show Your Personality

Do your readers know who you are? Truly? Beyond the fact that you’re a marketing guru with a passion for providing must-have products via the internet?

Don’t be afraid to inject some personality in your blogs, allowing your audience to know some details that make you more engaging, more relatable, more . . . human. You never know when a chuckle or story that makes someone feel they aren’t alone over a funny thought, habit or pet peeve can translate to buying power.

5 Ways to Make Your Blog Post Interactive

Static marketing content is as outdated as print-only newspapers. Just as day-old newspapers become litter in the streets, static digital content is useless to the average reader. With such an inundation of static marketing content, one piece hardly stands out from others, meaning brands blend and ideas fade.

Readers crave the dynamic nature of interactive digital content. An ion Interactive study measured the success and general feeling from marketers regarding interactive content. In terms of effectiveness, 93% of marketers say interactive media is great at educating buyers; 88% say it’s effective at differentiating brands, whereas static was found to be only 55% effective. Not convinced yet? Did you know that interactive content also drives 2X more conversions than static content?

Despite these numbers, many marketers shy away from interactive content. It might be because it has a reputation for being expensive and labor-intensive. But that is an unfair reputation. Creating interactive elements is, in fact, easy, fast and even free.

These five tools allow you to start immediately interacting with customers, which draws them in, converts at higher rates and gives feedback to improve your business.

1) PlayBuzz

The original PlayBuzz site is for the average Internet user interested in which Hogwarts house she belongs to or wants to test her knowledge about 1990s TV shows, but PlayBuzz’s business site is tailored to empowering companies to generate an interactive feature, embed it in their marketing content and watch user engagement rise and their network grow.

With PlayBuzz you can create free countdowns, polls, personality quizzes, flip cards, trivia, rankable lists, general lists, gallery quizzes and a swipe voting feature made popular by dating apps. Each element has an appealing quality that catches readers’ attention and can communicate information quickly in a visual manner. It also keeps visitors on your page longer and is designed for social sharing.

When choosing from so many options, remember highly interactive features like quizzes and swiping are good for social platforms and visually driven posts, while flip cards and polls are good for text-heavy content.

When you are designing these embeddable features, keep in mind your company’s brand and voice, this will ensure consistency while adding that added bonus customers appreciate. The best way to track the success of PlayBuzz content is to monitor its social performance in shares, engagement and views.

PlayBuzz is so user-friendly, you will forget you are marketing while playing with the design tools and fun features. Check out these flip cards we made with it.

2) SlideShare

Slide presentations are something nearly every professional has seen or used, whether it’s from business trainings, college lectures or group projects. Putting information in a condensed, easily-digestible format is one of the most popular marketing, sales and proposal tactics because of its familiarity and logic.

SlideShare can be embedded into any blog post and breaks down a topic for readers in a much more visual and attractive manner than static paragraphs of text. Try it with an existing post that needs more visits but provides valuable content.

Take text from the blog, simplify it for each slide, keeping word count at a minimum, include a CTA on the last slide, and embed the feature somewhere in the post. If you put the slides near the top, you can include a friendly disclaimer such as, “Don’t have time to read the rest? We summed it up for you here.”

Readers appreciate options for taking in information and really appreciate when you understand their limits. SlideShare transforms already written content into powerful snippets of data.

Don’t think of SlideShare as a place to put all the information in bullet points; think of it as a place to present an idea in a visual and condensed manner. It might be a good challenge to fit a hefty amount of information into a slide show. This exercise will help you write succinctly and think about content in an out-of-the-box way.

Give the most important points priority instead of cramming an entire blog post into a slide show. Graphs, statistics and quick thoughts are especially effective on SlideShare.

3) Make a GIF

Regardless of how you pronounce it (“JIF” or “GIF”), these little graphics excel at entertaining and inserting some fun into your digital content. It shows you have a sense of humor and don’t take yourself too seriously. That said, make sure to use GIFs sparingly and only for appropriate topics.

Many websites have tools for creating your own animated GIF or have a domain of popular ones for every emotion and situation. This imagery also warrants the use of BuzzFeed-worthy titles and descriptions to accompany your chosen GIFs.

This type of interactive content performs excellently on social platforms because of the flashy element and viral qualities. These qualities lend themselves well to tracking social success easily by monitoring shares, likes and engagement.

When choosing or creating a GIF, make sure it is a reference your audience will understand. You wouldn’t want to use a GIF from a popular TV show if it’s not likely your customers are familiar with it. However, if pop culture references are common in your content, feel free to use GIFs as freely as you'd like.

Websites such as GIPHY make the art of finding the right GIF quick and entertaining, while at the same time providing you with everythin you need to share with your audience. Take the GIF below - I typed "content marketing' into the search box, found this gem from Mad Men, and simply copied the embed code into the blog. Easy!

4) Qzzr

If the products or services you are marketing lend well to quizzing your prospects, Qzzr is the right tool for engaging them further. This free quiz-making platform allows you to create a quiz in minutes, embed it into any post and track the results. It also comes with a WordPress plugin for easy integration.

Customers love to test their knowledge, if only to prove how much they know. They also love to reveal pieces of their personality and discover new sides of themselves. Giving your customers these opportunities through quizzes is the perfect gateway for interaction and connection.

Keep quizzes as short as possible so as not to fatigue your readers. Make sure the answers are pointed and don’t allow quiz takers to avoid questions. There is nothing worse than a vague answer and worthless results. And there is nothing better than seeing interactions with customers and the fruitful rewards of getting specific.

You might use a quiz if you are trying to target specific products or services to your customers as they begin their buying journey. The fashion-delivery company Stitch Fix requires all first-time users to take a fashion quiz to determine which products will please them most.

You can emulate this model or use a quiz for testing your customer’s knowledge about your industry, current events or other relevant topics. Readers especially love quizzes that tell them which [car, building, time period, scientist, politician, 1980s pop star, etc. they are most like.

The great thing about Qzzr is the ability to integrate with CRM systems. This feature allows you to track the success of each quiz, pull data from the results and target customers more accurately and personally.

5) Podcasts

Podcasts aren’t just for Serial fans or listeners of public radio. The audio format is a gold mine for the busy professional. It gives multi-taskers a chance to consume your content on their terms. There might not be enough time in the day to read all the content circulating within certain industries or interact with specific companies.

But if marketers give professionals a way to gain all the benefits of static content during their daily commute without burying their faces in a screen, they might see a rise in interest and customer conversation. It’s also great for audio learners and is a much more casual and open environment for bringing guests and commentators to foster a fruitful discussion.

Before creating a podcast, study up. Listen to all different kinds of podcasts to figure out what works. It’s also good to pay attention to which length is appropriate. If you are getting more downloads and listens for shorter episodes, your customers might want quick conversation. But if you see a demand for longer form podcasts, your customers probably appreciate deep dives into certain topics.

Bring in guests for fresh perspective. Try implementing different segments to break up the monotony of a single episode. But make sure to get into the groove of podcasting before you give up or count your early success.

As you develop your podcast and find what works, you will find you can adjust and evolve episode to episode based on listener feedback or performance statistics. The key is keeping your eyes and ears open. Podcasting is just as much about listening as it is about talking.

3 Ways to Find Blog Post Ideas That Generate Backlinks

Finding ideas to blog about is a tough job, even for an experienced blogger.

No matter, how good are you at brainstorming ideas, you run out of ideas some of the times.

There are dozens of posts that explain to you how to find blog topic ideas. The majority of those posts fail to explain how to find ideas that drive real backlinks to your blog.

The best way to build natural backlinks is to produce great content and properly promote it. For that, brainstorming ideas for blogging that have the potential to drive high-quality backlinks is essential.

The specialty of this post is that in this post, I will explain you to find ideas that drive you high traffic and backlinks.

Let’s get started.

1. Quora:

It’s a goldmine to find ideas for blogging about. Leveraging it for building your blog and finding inspirations, can do wonders.

Let me unveil you the dirty little secret of finding post ideas that drive backlinks to your site.

Head over to Quora.

There, search for the topic of your interest.

In the above example, I searched for the topic ‘content marketing’.

There, I searched for the questions that have quite a decent number of followers.

If a question has good followers, that means it is a common question.


There’s the thing.

If you create content on the same topic, you’ll get great readership. Moreover, you may get potential backlinks if you present the topic in a unique way.

When you create content on the topic you find in Quora, I advise you to answer the original question along with a link back to your site.

By this, you’ll get additional targeted traffic from visitors and as well as the followers of the questions.

When targeted traffic comes to your blog, you’ll boost your social shares, and you may attract good backlinks.

2. Use the power of Google search:

Google is the best friend of yours to help you find the best topic ideas.

You may ask me – “What should I search for? I am dry”.

Here’s the trick.

Research after research it is found that following are the types of content that are shared and linked to most of the times.
Infographics
Ultimate guides
List posts
Case studies

Now you know what.

Before implementing this strategy, I advise you to install Ahrefs Toolbar for your browser. Ahrefs has the largest database of backlinks. The toolbar displays the number of backlinks the search results have.

I’ll get you clear. Keep reading.

2.1. Find infographics ideas:

Search Google for,

Your keyword + “Infographic”

It returns you all the top infographics in your niche. Most of the top results have a good amount of backlinks.

As I said earlier, for accurate results, as you can see in the above screenshot, you need to activate the Ahrefs toolbar. It displays the number of backlinks beneath the search results.

You can also combine multiple keywords for more results.

Like, if you are in blogging and SEO niche you may need to search for the term,

Blogging OR SEO + “Infographic”

It returns all the pages that have infographics either related to blogging or SEO.

Like this, by adding keywords, you can expand the number of potential post ideas you get.

3. Scan the headlines:

There are plenty of RSS readers, blog aggregators, and content curation sites, which collects the best resources and articles in a niche.

You need to just scan the headlines of the content curated on those ideas to spark up some new blog post content ideas in your brain. The content you are scanning should be popular to get backlinks.

Below are some of the best places to find content ideas like this:

• Alltop
• Flipboard
• Scoop.it
• Pinterest boards
• Feedly
• Blog communities
• Twitter hashtags

Just search for the keyword related to your niche in the search box for these tools, and get content ideas.

For Twitter, just search your keyword.

Now you need to examine the Tweets that got great engagement. You can find tons of ideas for you to blog about.

Wrapping up

These are some the effective ways to find content ideas that generate backlinks to your site.

I suggest you maintain an idea file and update it as you come across the ideas to blog about. It makes sure that your inspiration won’t dry out. Whenever you start writing a blog post, you can refer that file for oiling your machine up.

Make sure the content you create is of high-quality because no one links to your content if it is mediocre and do not deliver value to your readers.


I hope you found this article helpful.

4 Ways to Use Your Blog to Market Your Business on Social Media

These days, a blog isn't optional. It's the core foundation of an effective direct response social media marketing strategy.

To turn marketing into revenue, you must engage your audience with content that's useful before you start to sell. Use your content to build trust, bring attention to a problem, agitate the problem, and then sell your solution. This works much better than agitating first, which more closely describes Thanksgiving dinners with an ex-boyfriend’s family and not how you want to market on social media. Creating a content plan isn't difficult if you first set some goals, stick to a schedule, and commit to it throughout the year.

Let's see how it works.

1. Set goals.

With an integrated content plan, setting goals for what is to be sold requires a specific, detailed approach. It's important to begin with a clear vision of your desired outcome, then create content that supports it.

Do you want to fill a workshop or seminar? Encourage prospects to schedule a sales conversation? Book your catering orders? First decide your overall goal for your content. In this step, also determine the date the sale request will take place and any incentives you'll offer to drive the sale home.

You can use your blog to offer value to your audience, establish yourself as an authority in the marketplace, share case studies to build trust, and get more leads for your business.

After you develop your goals, create a schedule and stick to it. Whether it be once a day or once a week, consistency and commitment are key. Create your schedule based on one you can stick to in order to build your audience and generate those all-important raving fans.

2. Create an effective blog.

To blog in a way that's most effective and will give you the best end result, begin with the end in mind.

First, think of a blog as the editorial in your media channel. This is your owned-media. You control it, and you can use it any way you like no matter how big or small your audience is. This is where you can appropriately express your opinions on a subject as it might affect your target audience. 

Content should focus on your prospects’ interests and pains to zero in on what they find important. 

Be sure to create a blog brand "voice." A blog should have an overall tone or theme, or be presented in one person’s voice. Focus your brand around your Unique Selling Proposition to reinforce why you're different from everyone else and how you can help solve your prospects’ pain.

Don't spend time trying to be everything to everyone -- that won't create raving fans or turn traffic into buyers. Align yourself with a specific message that reaches a specific market.

Create an editorial calendar to plan topics that are complimentary to your overall sales goals and communications strategies. Entice the reader on each blog post with a sneak peak into next week’s blog topic. Make sure to stick to your schedule and post consistently.

After you've established your goal, create a theme related to your sales topic. For example, look at magazines. Each month, many magazines have a certain theme. For example, a sports magazine might have a preview of March Madness in its February issue. And while that February issue has lots of other things in it, it has a whole bunch of material related to college basketball.

In order to achieve your ultimate goal of a sale (or many sales), your role will shift to that of publisher and content provider while your prospect gets to know you.

Your next step is to develop four subtopics that relate back to the overall theme of your monthly topic. Each week will focus on a different aspect of your overall theme, and all will lead toward week four (or day four if you conduct this for four days in a row) when you'll make the offer to your audience with a call to action. This weekly content planning will ensure fresh, relevant content is always being added to keep readers interested and engaged up until the point of sale. Each blog will lead to the finale of the item you're going to sell.

One of the first things to do before writing any content is to make sure you do some research. Take a look at Quora, LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo! Answers, or other similar Q and A networks where you can find lots of people asking questions that relate to your specific industry. Identify their frustrations, objections, and pain points to address in your content creation. Bonus: You get the exact copy that people use when describing their pain points. This is usually quite different than the way those in your industry refer to it. Researching these questions may create some ideas and directions for content Also, take a close look at the links to content within the answers to these questions. Follow these links to see what others in your industry are doing with their content online. (Spying can be fun and profitable! Just keep those dang binoculars hidden.)

You may also want to set up and conduct a survey, or call your existing customers and prospective customers to find out what needs are unmet. When you begin to write your content, keep those unmet needs in mind. Use the information you collect to create a veritable library of remarkable content that's designed to help your customers get what they can’t get anywhere else. Storytelling, testimonials, and providing something of value that meets people’s needs should all be included in your content.

Each post can be anywhere from 350 to 2,000 words. The length should depend on how long it takes to fully get your point across. Test what works best for your specific market, and be very wary of anyone who tries to tell you there's one end-all-be-all for every market.

3. Write social media posts.

Once you have your content written, use this content as the source for your social media posts for the month. Engage your social network in an ongoing conversation focused around your topic theme on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other networks. This way, all your content is created with your sales strategy in mind. All your posts and articles are about walking your prospect towards the sale.

A guideline for content/sales online is that your content should be 85 percent PBS and 15 percent QVC, meaning that you shouldn’t self-promote or sell more than 15 percent of the time. If you post one update per day (recommended), then in each month, you should have no more than four self-promotion posts.

4. Automate publication.

On-time and consistent delivery is an essential part of making this plan work. To ensure this, schedule all content in advance. The last thing you want is to have a blog post or social media deadline sneak up on you with no idea of what content to use. Use a service like TweetDeck or HootSuite to pre-program all your content on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Schedule your blog posts and emails ahead of time in your application as well.

For blogs, you should post new, relevant content at least once or twice a week. Your readers should also know the day you typically post and keep to that schedule. Alert readers via email about any new posts on your blog and promote these posts in your social media network.