I’ve written quite a few blog posts.  On my blog alone, it’s over 250.  And though that doesn’t make me an expert, I can say that I now know quite a bit more about the art of blogging than when I started.

So how do you write a successful blog post? While I could delve into SEO, social media marketing, and strategic timing of information, and while those things are important, I’ll talk more in this post about the actual nuts and bolts of writing a successful post.

What goes into writing a successful blog post?

1. Get creative with your title. If your title is lame, you’ll lose most readers.

2. Grab people with the first paragraph, at the very latest. If possible, grab them with your first sentence.  If you don’t, people will never read your content.

3. Be provocative. Your momma (and Thumper from Bambi) may have told you, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all,” but I’m telling you, “If you don’t have something interesting to say, don’t say anything at all.”

4.  Leave people thinking about what you wrote all day long. Try ending with a memorable, original statement.  Think, “How can I say this in a catchy, repeatable way?”  If your ideas are provocative and easy to remember, you give people the chance to marinate on them.

5.  Don’t be afraid to offer your opinion. That’s why people are reading…they want to hear what you think.

6. Reread and reword any extraneous material. I don’t mean for you to take out illustrations.  But think how you could word them more succinctly.

7. Provide lots of links. Go crazy with the links.  Making your posts interactive allows your readers to crawl from your posts to other related info.

8. If your post has to be more than 250 words long, make sure it’s scannable. In other words, make use of bullet points and numbered lists.  Bold and italicize words so that somebody could quickly scan and get what you’re talking about.  If they want more info, they’ll read more carefully and click the links that you provide.  If there’s no way to get your idea across in less words, and no real way to make it scannable, you’ll need to offer the info in multiple posts.

9. Invite conversation. If you always end with a conclusion that’s definitive, and leave no room for discussion, readers will check out.  Make sure you give the freedom for differences of opinion.

10.  Consistently post quality information.