How to Get People to Pay Attention to Your Blog

It seems that everyone is a blogger and because the market is so saturated it gets harder and harder to stand out as each generation steps onto the blogging scene. The good news is blogging isn’t going anywhere and in fact, I think it’s just getting started/mainstream even though it’s been around for 10+ years. The bad news is you’re going to have to work a little harder each day to get your content out there and start getting paid for your services.

As I’ve mentioned before it’s not necessarily about the number of followers you have, but it’s about how much engagement you have and your overall conversion rate. (Read this article about conversion rates.)

And in order to have any of those two things you need an authentic audience. Your stuff needs to get the attention of whoever in a very short amount of time, we’re talking seconds. And to make that happen you need 5 things:

create a catchy title

I know it sounds so cliche and very “been there done that” but even seasoned pros have a hard time creating a catchy title that hasn’t been done before. In my case, I’ll often write an entire article first before I come up with a title… I’m doing it right now, (tell me how you like this title in the comments!).

Your title needs to include a little something about what your blog post, video, podcast, etc. is about and it also needs to spark curiosity. If you’re having a hard time go through and browse blogs and online publications and see what titles stand out to you and try to recreate it in your own way. I find Inc. and Who What Wear always suck me in because of how good they’re titles are.

So how do you know if your title could use some work? Well, you check your stats or you simply take note of how many comments you get or don’t get. For example, this post is one of my favorites but my title could have used some work because it got no comments, none!

organize your bullet points

Bullet points make your blog posts “skimmable” meaning people get the gist of what you’re saying at just a glance. With our attention spans getting shorter and shorter you want to make your blog posts as easy to read as possible.

So under those bullet points you only want to include the very best stuff. No fluff, no filler words, just pure value. It’s better to have a short biggest of wisdom than a long drawn out bunch of nothing.

Take this “bullet point” for example, there are 6 sentences in it and I made sure that every sentence matters and you should too!

add value

I can’t stress the importance of adding value enough! I still see so many people writing meaningless Instagram captions and empty blog posts. I’m party saying this because adding value is what will make you successful as a blogger and partly because I’m selfish and want to add value to my own life!

Here’s a great example that happened this morning actually…

I was browsing Instagram and came across a Parisian blogger I had never seen before and her latest picture was a street of Paris. But this wasn’t just any street this was a street unknown to many and she explained why. She said the street was created in the 1800’s and was now home to many novelists including one who was nominated for a Nobel prize.

Umm this chick got a 12 out of 10 for value! Not only that but I got some ideas myself for how I can add more value with random pictures of NYC instead of just saying “How cute is this building?”.

create urgency

Creating a sense of urgency kind of goes with creating a catchy title. You want to create urgency in your title to catch the reader’s attention and continue that theme throughout your blog post.

I often do this by “stressing the importance” of something. Who What Wear does a great job at doing this via email by saying something like “5 Denim Trends You Need to Try”, the word need creates a sense of urgency.

The catch here is if you’re going to create a sense of urgency you have to make sure that your message is actually urgent. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been “click baited” into an article just to find out it’s bogus. Like, yeah these beauty products are great but they’re not going to change my life, (ugh, hate that).

You can create a sense of urgency for anything, any topic, as long as it’s really urgent. If it’s not, your readers will lose interest and trust in you real quick.

add a cta

After you get your readers attention (catchy title) and make them want to know more (create urgency) then you need to keep the conversation going with a CTA (call to action).

A CTA can be a question you want answered, a picture you want posted, or a video you want shared. It’s any action you’re asking your readers to take. I do this in the form of a question at the end of every one of my blog posts. (Thank you to those who actually read it and answer accordingly!)

CTA’s give you the answers you’re looking for, they get your readers engaged, and it helps to form meaningful relationships, (even if they are just digital). And having those answers help you mold your blog to your readers’ needs while high engagement looks great to brands and meaningful relationships create customer loyalty. CTAs are a win-win for everyone.

How do you get people to pay attention to YOUR blog? Don’t be shy – share with us in the comments.

xx

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