3 Secrets of Winning Blog Content

Successful blogs did not achieve that success overnight. While some blog entries have attained that coveted status of "viral" content and spread like wildfire across the globe through different Internet channels such as social media, there is no magic formula to follow that will guarantee viral success with your own blog content. What you can do, however, is make sure your content is crafted to be as engaging, popular, and shareworthy as possible.

Great blog content is comprised of several different elements, least of which is that you are writing something that people want to read. Naturally, your blog content should be informative and useful, but winning blogs are the sum of their parts and do not just hinge on the greatness of one single part alone.

Appeal to Emotions

Great blog content appeals to human emotions in some way. Whether your content evokes a gale of laughter or a burning anger, as long as you are writing content that moves the reader out of their emotional "comfort zone" and compels them to feel strongly, you have to appeal to their emotions to be successful.

When blog readers find content that makes them feel, they come back for more. In addition to returning for further reading, they also share the content on their social pages and even their own blogs. Today's audiences have been desensitized by a barrage of environmental factors and have basically tuned out most of the world, content to communicate electronically and avoid the social interactions that make them feel. Blog content that forces them to feel also brings them back to one of the most primitive and essential parts of humanity - our emotions.

Let Your Content Tell Your Story

Instead of touting your accomplishments and bragging about your successes in your blog content, let it come through naturally and over time. When you put your personality into your blogs and let your readers learn more about you in a way that flows, rather than shoving who you are in their face, you make yourself more likable and appealing to your audience. Blogs are rather informal, so unleash your creativity, wit, and intelligence, but do so in a subtle way. If your audience feels overwhelmed by how important you think you are, their interest will wane quickly.

Always Leave Salesmanship at the Door

Your blog may be a marketing tool, but it is one in which you should avoid sales pitches and overt calls to action. You can reference your landing pages or websites where applicable if the blog content provides proper context, but don't toss in an in-your-face marketing scheme. The purpose of your blog is to educate, enlighten, inform, evoke...not sell, sell, sell. When you capture the interest of your readers with fantastic content, they will naturally gravitate toward the other marketing avenues you have available.

There are plenty of other tips you can use to write a great blog, such as creating engaging headlines, keeping your content fresh and original, and making sure you add new entries regularly to prevent your blog from going stale. You will find those tips on a variety of lists, and while they do help you write a good blog, they don't necessarily give you advice on creating a winning blog. When you apply the three tips contained here, your blog will become more than just another piece of online content in a virtual sea of blogs; you will be tailoring your blog for your audience and giving them something they didn't even know they were looking for until they found it.

Steve Lazuka is the co-founder and President of Zerys/InteractMedia. Zerys for Agencies is the only white labeled, fully scalable content creation and marketing platform designed specifically for agencies.