ContentRobot

Many bloggers spend a lot of effort into writing engaging and interesting posts, but then just slap any old title onto it.

Take your time with your titles and treat them as “mini advertisements” for your work. Make sure your title is going to do everything it can to maximize the chances that people will engage with what you have to say.

While there is no real right or wrong way to create a “good title,” you might find these five tips for writing titles for your blog posts helpful:
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Do you think about how you title your blog posts? If not, you should.

If you’ve ever picked up a book or magazine, you scan the titles for something interesting to read. Well, it’s the same with your blog post titles.

More than just an attention-grabbing tactic, good titles are important because:

Search Engines Results
Head over to your favorite search engine and you’ll notice among the listings that, more often than not, the title of the web page is very prominent. This gives the users little to go on (even if an excerpt or URL is included). An enticing title, then, will help you and stand out among the rest and get alot of search engine referral clicks.

RSS Feed Links
Similarly, titles can lure those who follow your blog news readers. However they read their feeds (from excerpts to full articles), it’s likely that the users scan the titles first for things of interest. The same is true when readers use other indexes and directories like Technorati, del.icio.us, digg, etc.

Your Loyal Readers
Good titles can impact the way your loyal readers interact with your blog. They’ll not only grab their attention, they’ll make them pause and take the time to read some of the content that you’ve poured your time and energy into.

Search Engine Optimization
One of the most powerful factors for getting good rankings in search engines are the words that you use in the title. This means making sure that the titles of your posts end up being within the “title tags” of your page.

Have you ever been panicked or feel desperate that you have nothing to post on your blog and you think you’ve run out of ideas?

Here comes the guilt or even fear. But should you post just anything so you’ve got something new up there? Don’t do it. Because a bad posting is always there, ready to replace your great blog.

Instead of publishing something meaningless and slipshod, it’s probably better to skip blogging for the day. If you’re lucky, you could end up with a meaningless ramble about nothing; if you’re unlucky, the post could be a black mark that could follow you for years.

As such, your blog’s credibility, as a reliable source of useful and informative ideas, is shattered. While one stray post might not harm your blog, a long series of desperate columns just might. Remember your readers arrive at your blog seeking interesting posts, and that that is the promise of your blog brand.

Don’t let bad posts happen to good people. The blog you save might be your own.

Check out some writing tips for beating writer’s block and more.

Thanks to Wayne Hurlbert from Blog Business World for inspiring this post.

Here are some tips for getting your creative juices going:

1. Take it in Pieces
   Break the job into manageable pieces and do the easy stuff first. By building momentum and confidence, your progress can be a motivation.
2. Take a Break
   Don’t feel compelling to sit their hour after non-productive hour. Talk to someone, get some fresh air, drink some coffee, or do whatever you need to re-energize.

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There are several ways to approach writing your blog posts over the long haul. Here are some ideas to spur you on and add a little “extra” to your blogs.

Instructional
These posts teach people how to do something. For example, posts that feature tips are popular both in the short term (loyal readers love them and will link to them) and the long term (people often search the web to find out how to do things).

Informational
This is one of the more common blog post types where you simply give information and your view on a given topic.

Reviews
‘Review’ is a highly searched term on the web. Give your fair and insightful opinion or ask readers for theirs. These can be be highly powerful posts with a great longevity. With reviews, you can also discuss problems, include your critique, contrast two or more products, or predict upcoming offerings.

Lists
Content that lists ‘The Top Ten ways to….’ is usually very popular with readers and can assist in getting links from other bloggers.

Interviews / Guest Posts
Let someone else do the talking and give your readers a relevant expert’s opinion. You may find you’ll learn something more about the topic you’re writing yourself.

Profiles
Profile posts focus in on a particular person in your niche. You can point out how they’ve reached their position and the characteristics they have that others might like to develop to be successful.

Link Posts
Find a quality post on another site or blog and link to it. Adding your own comments makes these posts more original and useful to your readers.

Rant, Be Inspirational, and Create a Debate
Get passionate, stir it up, say what’s on your mind and tell it like it is. These are great for starting discussion and causing a little controversy - they can also be quite fun if you do it in the right spirit.

Add Some Fun Elements
Start a poll, an award, ask your readers to submit a post/link, or run a survey or quiz.

The Guidewire / iUpload study we recently wrote about indicated that 42% of respondents said “one of the largest barrier to success was maintaining enthusism for the blog project.”

ContentRobot believes that to keep the project going and to properly nurture your business blog, you should create goals for writing posts and responding to comments.

Goals give you something to work towards, keep you on track, motivate, and help you be more disciplined in your task. By being consistent and developing some kind of regular schedule, among all the other tasks that you do in your day, you can keep the project going smoothly and successfully.

What is a good goal for writing posts?
The specific number of posts will vary depending upon many factors, including the topic of the blog (some topics naturally lend themselves to more content than others), the length of your posts, the amount of research required, etc.

At the start, 2-4 quality posts a day is not only realistic, but necessary, goal. Once you get into the rhythm of blogging you can (and should) increase it.

However, don’t shoot too high. Your post quality will degrade and you can burn out quickly. Not only that, you can overwhelm and, perhaps, confuse your readers by bombarding them with content (and not allowing time to digest what you said and then comment).

Remember, it is better to write 3 original, engaging, witty and informative posts per day than 12 subpar ones. Watch for too much repurposing of content or overlinking when possible. But most of all, keep writing!

What is the best way to gain a following of dedicated readers? It’s CONTENT. Here’s some great content techniques we’ve found throughout the blogosphere.

1. Write Original Content
Make sure what you post is at least 25-40% of your own thoughts. Write what about the topics that matters to you and own them without being an “information repeater.”

2. Write Quality Content
Master the art of story-telling while you find your “voice.” Write in a conversational, accessible, friendly style. Have fun and show your emotion along with your knowledge.

3. Write Well
Make sure you are using proper punctuation capitalization and following basic grammar rules - a great way to show respect for your readers.

4. Keep it Simple
Keep your posts and paragraphs short. Strive for succinct posts that pump pertinent new information into the blogosphere and move on. Keep it short and sweet so visitors can pop in, read up, and click on. (Once in a while you can do some long form writing every now and again.

5. Be Unique
Provide first-hand accounts or data, original research, surveys, original ideas, original graphics or photos or artwork, and you’ll establish your uniqueness.

6. Be Valuable
Help your readers by (a) entertaining them, (b) teaching them, (c)informing them, (d) giving them a ‘take-away,’(e) saving them time, or (f) providing deep insight about what something means.

7. Be First
Give first-hand accounts, on-the-spot photos, initial thoughts and reviews can usually attract a lot of attention.

8. Get the Facts
Do your research, using both online and offline sources. Invest time to learn as much as possible about what you’re going to write about. Spend much more time reading and researching than you do writing.

9. Publish Regularly
Simply, the more you blog, the more traffic you’ll get. Go for at least one post a day, better if you can do even more.

10. Share Your Content
Be sure to syndicate your blog and inform other blogs about your posts.