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A familiar phrase in the blogging community is “content is king”, and it’s very hard to disagree with that. You can have a beautiful looking blog – but what good is it without the right type of content? Without unique content, you’re not going to have traffic, and without traffic, you will find yourself struggling as a blogger. So, how do you start? How do you know what good and unique content is?

Well, first off, through research, it’s been found that readers usually spend around 96 seconds per blog – which is very little. Much like a song, if you don’t like the start of the song, chances are – you wont be listening to the remaining three minutes, and blog readers are no different. I’ve heard from a variety of musical artists and acts that the first 9 seconds of a song is the most important, because it captures the listener…and writing blog posts is no different. It’s very important to capture the reader, but, at the same time, you don’t want to overwhelm them with excessive content. So, because of this, you don’t want to have extremely large articles that readers will simply skip over – but rather, try to keep postings between 100-300 words in general (there are always exceptions to the rule, you don’t want a blog full of 1,000 word posts though). If you do have a topic that deals with an extremely large post, try to break it up, and span that topic out over for a couple of days. For example, post 1/3 of the article one day…another 1/3 of the article the next, and the final third of the article on the third day. That method does a few things for you, as it not only avoids overwhelming the reader, but, makes them come back for more if they’re interested in the topic.

Another key element to keep in mind, are the titles of your blog postings. Try your best to keep the titles on topic, and very straight forward. Yes, I know it’s our nature to come up with creative and fun titles for our blog postings, but we must, remember that search engines are looking at our blog posting titles and attempting to properly categorize them. You want to make sure that your blog post titles are crisp, clean, and easy to understand. While you might understand a “funny” or “ironic” post title, many others might not, and it could easily get skipped over because of a poor title.

As to what you as a blogger can write about, that’s up to you – as there is always a niche ready to be explored and uncovered. You’d be shocked how many people have the same interests as you, but now, it’s your job to find them….bring them to your blog…and make them come back for more. Following these above steps will help not only impress your reader, but, will keep them coming back for more…and hopefully have them stick around longer on your blog than the 96 second average.

Let’s face it - most of us aren’t professional authors, and we could all use a few quick pointers on how to improve our writings from time to time. Thankfully, with a little help from ProBlogger.net we can get that needed assistance. Check out their very helpful tips on how to improve your writing.

I love blogs. Before I started blogging seriously, I read a lot of other blogs and was very engaged as a reader. I commented a lot and began honing my ability to craft a statement quickly in response the ideas presented in the post. I’m still very engaged with other blogs in this way. However, if I’m being totally honest, most blogs I encounter are downright unreadable.

Now, I’m not going to run down the usual list of rules and grammar, but rather a list of things I think make me a decent writer.

1. Stop Trying to Sound Intelligent

You already are smart so stop trying to sound smart. So many people craft elaborate sentences with bigger words than they would ever use in conversation. If you have to use a lot of flower language, jargon or adjectives, you’re trying too hard. Choose your big words wisely. Blogs are not publications, they are conversations. Good writing is simple, but it’s hardly simple to write simply. Unlike speech and other forms of non-verbal communication, writing is a wholly unnatural activity unnecessary to human development or evolution. Give yourself a break and know that good writing is a process that must be practiced to be mastered.

To see the rest of the article click the link below:

Resource: ProBlogger.net

How easy is it to write an article? How much time do you need? Well, according to CopyBlogger - only 20 minutes. Check out their article on how to write great content in only 20 minutes.

Believe it or not, it only takes me 20 minutes to write a 400-500 word article. This article (which I wrote in 20 minutes) explains some of the tricks I use to accomplish this.

Blogging gives me a daily deadline, and I don’t really want to spend more than 20 minutes each day on blogging. Many of my blog entries are actually less than 500 words so take me less time.

Taking up blogging got me to start thinking seriously about writing quickly, and you may be facing a blogging time-crunch as well. So here are my 8 tips for writing an article in 20 minutes or less.

1. I start with a list of ideas and concepts I want to cover. Usually I write this list in point form. For me, I do this the old fashioned way, with a pen and paper.
2. I often “incubate” an article for a few days (this does not count in the 20 minutes). What I do is start roughing out some topic ideas then leave it. Because I have thought about it, ideas tend to come to me that I frequently add to my points. Of course I always carry a notebook for ideas.
3. I often need to reduce the number of ideas that I cover. Sometimes they do not fit with the angle of the article or do not flow with the other ideas. Sometimes I have to give up a point to write a good article.

To see the rest of the article click the link below:

Resource: http://www.copyblogger.com/write-article-fast/

This is another great article by DoshDosh explaining how to write a blog posting…by saying nothing. It’s quite a read - check it out:

The ability to write well is very useful for our personal and professional lives. It helps students, business people, politicians, writers,  bloggers, marketers and everyone who has ever needed to arrange words together to convey ideas or opinions. The written word has become an essential means of social communication: mastery of it helps you to enthrall and  persuade an audience that would look upon you favorably in return.

It goes without saying that learning how to create compelling content is a part of one’s success as an online publisher. Reading widely and deeply while consistently honing your writing skills helps a great deal in bettering your prose. Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to read a few stylebooks/essays on writing by professional teachers or authors.

One of these essays on writing is Paul McHenry Roberts’s How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words, a brilliantly humorous introduction on writing college compositions. I discovered this essay today and read though easily in one sitting, possibly because it was so well-written and entertaining. It’s a perfect example of the writing techniques listed within.

Here’s a quick summary of the 9 main points mentioned. I’ve extracted some of the key paragraphs from the text but be sure to read the full essay because these points are elaborated in much greater detail with some excellent examples.

1. Avoid the obvious content.“Say the assignment is college football. Say that you’ve decided to be against it. Begin by putting down the arguments that come to your mind. Now when you write your paper, make sure that you don’ t use any of the material on this list. If these are the points that leap to your mind, they will leap to everyone else’s too. Be against college football for some reason or reasons of your own. If they are keen and perceptive ones, that’s splendid. But even if they are trivial or foolish or indefensible, you are still ahead so long as they are not everybody else’s reasons too.”
2. Take the less usual side. “One rather simple way of getting into your paper is to take the side of the argument that most of the citizens will want to avoid. They are intellectual exercises, and it is legitimate to argue now one way and now another, as debaters do in similar circumstances. Always take the that looks to you hardest, least defensible. It will almost always turn out to be easier to write interestingly on that side.”

To see the rest of the article click the link below:

Resource: http://www.doshdosh.com/how-to-say-nothing-in-500-words/