- What makes a blog post ‘effective’ in the age of content overload?
- Why it doesn’t matter that gazillions of blog posts have already been written about virtually every topic
- The long and the short of it: Does size matter?
- How to figure out what to write about and overcome “blank page syndrome”
- The 5 essential elements of an engaging, reader-friendly blog post, and how to nail each one



Online attention has essentially become a commodity more precious to marketers than gold. The better you are at mastering “day-trading attention”, the more effective you are as a content marketer.
Then, if you’ve successfully convinced people to check out your blog post, you need to do a stellar job at delivering that ‘promised value’ in a reader-friendly way, because a blog post that people click on which isn’t interesting enough to read beyond the first couple of lines – or in other words, where the dwell time is very low and bounce rate high – is NOT effective.
In fact, it’s actually better if people who are NOT likely to be interested in your blog post DON’T click on it, because if they click on it and realize within seconds they’re not interested, they’ll bounce right off your website, and that’s not ideal for SEO. So the more precisely you can appeal to your target audience using your blog post’s title and feature image, the better the odds that the ‘right’ people will click through to read it.
The gist is this: Since there are already too many blog posts in the world, the ONLY type of post to write is a 'must-read' post, or it simply won't get read. So if you're going to bother writing at all, you need to arm yourself with the essential bag of tricks that will set your post apart and compell your desired audience to read it. Or you can just stay mediocre and pin all your hopes on the Online Traffic Fairy...
And the same goes for length: Not all posts need to be epic essays, sometimes they can be 600 words that really pack a punch. If you’re ever inspired to write one of those – good for you! But the purpose of THIS post, is to help with all the other times you want to write a post and don’t know what to write about or how to write it in a way that’s going to draw readers in and make it a worthwhile read.

You’d think so. But here’s the thing:
- Although some posts are updated from time to time – many are not, which means that a huge chunk of those millions of posts are most likely old and out-dated.
- With search and social media algorithms constantly evolving, as well as cultural preferences and habits regarding how we consume content – in many cases people prefer new, up-to-date content to posts that are several years old. So in fact, it’s still worthwhile to be among those creating new, up-to-date pieces of content, or at the very least updating old content so that it stays fresh – which is a super-important blogging best practice. That’s why I made sure the title for THIS blog post includes the current year (current = relevant).
Also, there’s always a fresh crop of people looking for a post precisely on that topic who haven’t read any of the gazillions of other posts that were written a while ago, and would prefer to read one that’s current rather than one that’s old.
Conversely, the main argument for short posts is that people don’t have the patience to read long posts these days, so the shorter the post, the more likely it is that it will be read.
I get it. I don’t always have the patience to read long posts either (and yes, I get the irony of that statement given the length of this post). But sometimes, once I start reading a long post that I can sense will be “good for me” (because it feels like I’m going to learn something useful) and the writing draws me in, I don’t even notice how far down I’m scrolling because I’m totally absorbed in what I’m reading.
BUT – even though THIS is a sizeable blog post – note that rather than presenting it using boring chunks of just text, I’m also using sub-headings, bold font, images, highlighted quotes and interesting “side notes” to keep you engaged.
It’s important to remember that when you’re publishing online, the way your blog post looks on screen can significantly impact the readers’ willingness to read it in the first place.
As I mentioned earlier, Google seems to favor long-form posts, so it ranks them higher in SERPs and they inevitably enjoy more traffic as a result (which boosts their rank even more). But if you consider people’s ever-decreasing attention spans, and the fact that the majority of online readers skim blog posts (especially long ones), perhaps length may be a factor in boosting a post’s rank in SERPs, but it isn’t necessarily an accurate measure of how effective a blog post actually is or how much value it contained for the readers.
A blog post shouldn’t be deemed “effective” because it is either long or short (regardless of where it ranks on Google), but rather because readers consider it to be a highly relevant and worthwhile read.
I have run corporate blogs in the past where it was my job to encourage team members to write, but they would often come back with “but I don’t have anything ‘special’ to say” or “what could I possibly write about that hasn’t already been said a million times before?” To which I’d usually respond with something along the lines of:
“Your current role, you background, expertise and opinions, make you unique. So even if a subject has been written about a million times before, none of the people who wrote about it, did so from YOUR point of view, or with your particular flair, and that’s the ‘twist’ that you (and no one else) can bring to any blog post YOU write.”
Obviously plagiarizing other blog posts is never a good idea. Not only is it totally lame, but in the age of content overload, it’s also what I (don’t) like to think of as “content pollution”.
To make a blog post worth reading, you have to bring your own twist to it, or a different, fresh way of saying the thing that has already been said before ad nauseum.

- Who are your customers / followers? What are their interests and what information would they appreciate you sharing with them that might benefit or entertain them? Also, how can you deliver this information in a way that will appeal specifically to them?
- What aspects of your industry or of your products/services – or even of complementary products/services – can you write about, where the aim is to simply offer them value with no strings attached in order to build trust and position yourself as an expert in your field?
- If there are strings attached, meaning that you’re using content as part of a sales funnel where the end goal is to establish enough interest for the user to make a purchase – what topic can you write about that might inspire them to further engage with you on their way to the bottom of the funnel (and hopefully to a purchase)?
Think of approaching the task of ‘finding something to write about’ in the same way you might make conversation with your potential customers or followers at a social or networking event. If you’re passionate about what you do and what you’re offering, conversation ideas should flow very naturally to you. But if you can’t think of anything at all to say, then I hate to say it, but maybe you’re in the wrong line of work, or running a business that might be a waste of your time.
Make a list of topics to write about, keep it somewhere handy (I keep mine in the “Notes” app on my iPhone) and add to it whenever you think of a new topic: Whether you’re on the bus, in the shower, at your desk, out with friends, exercising, cooking, browsing the web, etc. In short – whenever and wherever you think of a potential topic, write it down, until you end up with a big fat inventory of blog post ideas.
Do a Google search for your niche, product or related topics, and see what phrases come up in the ‘auto complete’ search suggestions. These phrases are an indication of related popular topics that your potential customers or followers in your niche are interested in, so they’re a great source of ideas for what you could potentially write about.
Obviously I don’t really mean that you should stalk your competitors “for real”, but it could be well worth your while to visit their websites and even subscribe to their newsletters and follow them on social media, to get an idea of what kind of content they’re producing. The idea here isn’t to copy exactly what they’re doing (because again, plagiarism is way lame) – but to get inspiration for topics you could also create content around, only with your own ‘twist’, and ideally with added value that your competitors hadn’t thought to include in their versions.
You can always reach out to your customers or followers and ask them straight out – what would they like you to talk about in upcoming posts? Whether you reach out in a video, your newsletter, or your Facebook business or group page – it’s not only a perfectly legitimate way of getting ideas for future blog posts, it’s actually a fool proof way of choosing topics your audience is already predisposed to read, because they’ve told you they want to read about them. It’s such a simple but genius hack, but my guess is that not enough of us are using it as often as we probably could.
- Title (a.k.a. headline)
- Feature image
- Intro paragraph
- Content paragraphs
- Conclusion

The title needs to be so instantly interesting to your target audience – either because it’s funny, shocking or clever, but most importantly because it suggests that there is some sort of relevant value in the post itself which makes it potentially “unmissable”. A great headline should inspire a level of FOMO that makes it irresistible for people to click on.
Before you write ANY blog post, you need to have a purpose for writing it, and “I set myself a goal to write a blog post this week” isn’t good enough. That might be YOUR purpose for writing the post, but that’s not the main takeaway you want to convey to your readers with as a result of reading your post, and that’s the purpose I’m referring to.
It’s a sort of a betrayal, and when readers realize they’ve been tricked into clicking through to a post that fails to deliver on that promise, not only can their disappointment lead to a swift bounce off the page, but it can seriously damage your credibility should they ever come across any of your posts again.

These days, images are more than just visually pleasing diversions dispersed nonchalantly within copy-heavy blog posts. The feature image that you choose for your post – which is the one that’s also visible when you share the post on social media – is essentially part of an ad for your post, which is why sometimes it’s worth investing both time and a little money to source the perfect image to “sell” your post (because that’s basically what the feature image is doing).
Together with a killer headline, the appeal of the feature image (or lack of it) can be the difference between someone clicking through to read your post, or scrolling right past it and on to something that looks more inviting.
The main advantage of the free sites is – well, they’re free. But although they have a huge selection (and I have personally spent literally hours at a time just browsing through them like a kid in a candy store) – the fact that their search functionality is a little lacking is also what makes them somewhat less efficient than the paid sites, which have amazing search functionality.
So I hopped on to Adobe Stock and searched for “computer + woman + amazing” and “business + woman + laptop + excited”. The aim here is to get super-precise search results by using keywords that are as specific as possible. I then filtered by “file type” (I chose “photo” to eliminate all the illustrated options) and “horizontal” orientation (because that’s the layout I need for my horizontal blog headers) to eliminate all the vertical and square options in the filtered results – and I found a bunch of suitable images. In the end I went for a series of images featuring a variety of facial expressions by the same woman, so that I could turn it into an animated GIF (like the one below) depicting her interest in the post over the time it took her to read it.

- Credit the source of the image, especially if the image license requires it (always make sure you understand the type of license associated with the images you choose). If the licence doesn’t require crediting the source, you can omit the credit, or add it anyway just to be nice.
- Try to choose images that are not ‘obvious’, but which convey the emotion you’re hoping to inspire or the benefit you’re hoping to deliver. Thinking outside the box when it comes to image selection may take more time, and it’s not always easy, but it will make your post stand out from other similar posts whose feature images are rather ‘blah’, simply because their authors couldn’t be bothered going the extra mile, settling in the end for a predictable and forgettable option.

The advantage of a well-crafted intro is that it introduces the subject of your post right at the outset, and sets some context for the readers as to what they can expect to read about in the next minute or two (or 20, if it’s a long-form post).
Here are a few suggestions for creating an effective intro (and remember, it’s only effective if people continue reading past it):
- As I mentioned in the intro to THIS post – get straight to the point and give readers some context by telling them what they can expect to get out of the rest of the post if they read on.
- Use humor or wit, add a personal insight or experience (storytelling-style), or mention a super interesting statistic or fact that hints of what’s to come in the body of the post. If you can draw the readers in at the intro stage, the better the odds they’ll want to stick around for more.
- Keep it as short as you can without compromising on substance.
- Generally, each paragraph in your post should deal with a single talking point in order to keep the paragraphs nice and short. If possible, highlight certain keywords or key phrases in bold text so that they stand out.
When we read blog posts online, the reality is that even if you’re a Pulitzer caliber writer, most people scan posts rather than read every single word, so by highlighting certain key sentences, you actually help get your point across even if the paragraph is only scanned.
- Paragraphs should have a logical flow to help get your point across, so make sure that each paragraph actually has a purpose. If you find yourself rambling on for a whole paragraph without actually saying anything of value, it’s a sign you could probably do without it.
- Use formatting elements to help ‘break down’ the post visually. Using things like sub-headlines, numbered or bulleted lists and breakout quotes – helps to make posts more reader-friendly and a lot less daunting than big, monotonous chunks of text. These little elements may seem trivial but they can make all the difference between a person deciding to go ahead and read your post, or not.
- Speaking of visual engagement boosters – use images throughout your post. Obviously they have to be relevant, but they needn’t necessarily include just ‘visual aids’ like graphs and screenshots. They can also be images that help to reinforce certain talking points, provide comic relief, or present an opportunity to share a post ‘highlight’ on social media (for example via a custom-made meme or quote), which helps to boost awareness and hopefully draw traffic to your post.
*** ADVANCED TIP ***
For example, I touched on certain subjects throughout this post that I know I have expanded on in some of my other posts, so when I mentioned those subjects, I linked to those other posts. I also added little ‘side notes’ or what looks like little ‘promotions’ for other content that may interest you between paragraphs as well. None of this was to ‘trick’ you into clicking through to other areas of my website. Rather, when I came up with my talking points for this post, I thought about what other topics I have already written about that would be relevant as ‘companion’ posts should you want to dig deeper into any of them, and made sure that I linked to them so that you could access them easily.
If you do the same in your posts, it’s actually a win-win for both you and your readers: They get to read more of your wonderful content about topics that interest them, and you achieve the objective of generating more than a single pageview per session for each of those readers. Happy days!
I’ll start by listing the seven steps, and then expand on each step below. Follow the formula, and you’ll be churning out loads of well-crafted, must-read blog posts in no time!
But if you need to work a little harder to come up with a good idea, put your audience first: If they’re looking to YOU as an expert in your field, or to learn something about whatever it is you’re already passionate about, what could you write about that would interest them? Start there, and use the tips I mentioned earlier in this post to get your creative juices flowing. Jot down a bunch of ideas and settle on the one that ‘speaks to you’ most so you can focus on it fully (and save the others for another potential blog post).
Whether you want to argue a point, or teach something, or tell a story – think about:
- what you could say to give some context to your topic,
- explain why it’s important or demonstrate why it’s interesting
- back it up with research (e.g. facts and statistics, if relevant) or anecdotes of your own, add your own thoughts about it, and
- think about something you could share that might be interesting or valuable to your readers.
So if you already know all of this – don’t stare at your screen/notebook like a deer in headlights, start writing! Use your list of talking points as the outline of your blog post and expand each taking point into a paragraph that explains it properly.
REMEMBER:
- Don’t ramble unnecessarily, keep it concise.
- Use language and a style you’re comfortable with, and if you feel inspired to use humor, or source an existing reference to help make your point – go for it!
- When referencing someone else, make sure you link the relevant phrase/sentence to the original article, or mention the original writer/publication by name (both methods work, use your judgement to decide what’s best in context).
- If there’s an important sentence you want to highlight in a paragraph, make it bold.
- If you’re making a series of points, consider listing them as a numbered or bulleted list (it’s more reader-friendly).
- If you can see that the post is getting long, consider breaking it up into sections and adding sub-headlines for each one. That way the reader can see in advance (by scanning the ‘scarily-long’ post before reading it) the flow you intended for the different things you want to talk about, and the ‘subconscious comfort’ of realizing there’s a logical structure to the post will make it less daunting for the reader to commit to (even if it’s long).
An interesting concluding paragraph also hints to readers who merely scanned or skimmed your post and skipped to the end, the gist of what the post is all about. If it’s written well, it may even interest them enough to go back and read the post itself, just as the intro was designed to do. In other words, if they managed to slip past your intro, at least you’ll hook and lure them into reading the post before they leave the page completely and move on.
But don’t get ahead of yourself: Just as a delectable piece of recently-cooked meat must be rested before it’s carved up (for maximum deliciousness), so must a blog post be reviewed, tweaked and optimized before hitting the ‘Publish’ button (including the title and intro, which need to be nothing short of kick-ass).
Learn to ‘show yourself some tough love’ when it comes to editing your own work. The idea is to end up with the best possible version of what you want to say, and this might mean ditching something you thought was super witty when you first wrote it, but which upon a second read sounds like a total fail. Make sure that every talking point is expressed clearly and that you’ve backed up everything you need to with relevant anecdotes, stats and references.