Should you post every day, though?

Probably not.

Why?

Because:

• If you write two posts each week instead of five (or seven), those posts will be much better written.
• If you only post once or twice a week, you’ll usually find that you get more comments on each post.
• If you don’t post too frequently, readers may actually read every post, instead of one in five.
• If you don’t use up all your ideas in the first few weeks of blogging, you’re more likely to be successful in the long-term.

I normally recommend that bloggers aim for somewhere between three posts a week and one post every two weeks. Any fewer, and it’s hard to build engagement; any more, and you may find it difficult to keep up the quality.

Reducing Your Posting

What can you do if you’re currently producing five posts a week, Monday to Friday, and you want to cut back?

I’d suggest you simply change your blogging schedule, without even announcing it. Post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or on Mondays and Thursdays. If you’re really concerned about reader reaction, then let people know your reasons: you want to provide higher-quality content, and the best way for you to do that is by focusing on just 2-3 posts per week.

Chances are, your readers will accept the change without any objections at all.

Increasing Your Posting

If you currently post once a month or less, you need to increase the number of posts you write.

Don’t make a sudden resolution to write three times a week, or you’ll quickly burn out (and you may well overwhelm your readers). Instead, work up gradually. Plan to post once every two weeks, then once every week, and so on.

Over the long term, quality trumps quantity. Sure, publishing loads of blog posts in a hurry may get you some quick attention and traffic – but it’s not going to help you build up a solid business.

When you’re reading blogs, do you prefer ones that update every day or just once or twice a month? Share your thoughts in the comments…

Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach, and has a weekly DailyBlogTips column on content creation. If you’re struggling to get enough writing done, check out her free ebook How to Find Time for Your Writing.

I’m going to give you ten straightforward ways to make sure the whole world knows you’re not going to pander to your readers. (Oh, and if you would like to have a few more readers – try doing the opposite of everything on this list.)

1. Give Your Post the First Title You Come Up With

You’re in a hurry, right? So your post will do just fine with the first title that pops into your head. Sure, that title might not be descriptive or engaging – but hey, you’re not worried about enticing people to click through and read your post.

2. Write Whatever Comes Into Your Head

Instead of sifting through some great ideas or coming up with a plan, just write whatever comes into your head. What you had for breakfast, that cute thing your cat did, your favorite rant about the goverment … put it all in.

3. Write Long, Dense Paragraphs

Subheadings, lists and bold text are for the weak. If someone really wants your content, they’ll manage to get through those long blocks of grey text that you’ve written.

4. Use Formal Language

You were probably taught about writing in school: why not simply apply all those rules to blogging? Write in a dry, academic way, with plenty of long words, and you’ll be certain that your posts are worth an A (even though no-one’s reading).

5. Make Your Blog All About You

It’s your blog, so make it about you. Every example you give should be drawn from your own experience. Don’t bother phrasing talking to the reader as “you” – instead, use “I” as often as you can. [link to my post on you & I]

6. Don’t Edit or Proof-Read

No-one cares about good writing online, do they? Don’t bother re-reading what you’ve written: those typos won’t matter. And if your general point is a bit vague and unclear, perhaps that’s for the best…

7. Never Link to Old Posts

All your (three) readers have been with you from day one, so don’t link back to old posts: they’ll already have read them. New readers can just use that handy “Archives” page that’s definitely on your blog somewhere.

8. Don’t Promote Your Post

If you build it, they will come. Don’t bother tweeting your post or mentioning it on Facebook: you need that space to moan about the long line at the grocery store and that weird guy on the bus.

9. Post Erratically

Sometimes you’re filled with the desire to create – and sometimes not. Post whever the muse descends, even if that means twenty posts in a week followed by nothing for two months. Your real fans will stick with you … won’t they?

10. Plaster Your Blog With Ads

You don’t actually care about the readers: you’re into blogging for the money. And you’re pretty sure that the best way to monetize is to shove as many ads onto your site as possible, so that the actual content almost vanishes.

Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach, and has a weekly DailyBlogTips column on content creation. If you’re struggling to get enough writing done, check out her free ebook How to Find Time for Your Writing.

A “call to action” is a copywriting term. It simply means asking or telling the reader to take a specific action. That might be:

• Subscribing to your blog or newsletter
• Buying your ebook
• Sharing the post on Twitter or Facebook
• Downloading a free report
• Trying out a particular technique or idea

… or almost anything that will benefit you and/or the reader.

Your call to action should be clear and specific. Don’t simply link to a post and assume that readers will get the message: tell them “click here to read…” or “find out more by clicking this link” or similar. If you’re asking for comments, give them a specific question to think about.

There are two places to put your calls to action:

#1: At the End of Your Post

The final line of your post is a natural and effective place for a call to action: you’re helping the reader decide what to do next. It’s crucial you don’t leave this to chance. After reading a post, the reader has lots of options open — including leaving your site altogether.

Some great closing lines are:

• What do you think about [topic]? Let us know in the comments below.
• If you enjoyed this post, please share it on Twitter by clicking on the “Tweet” button to the right.
• To find out more about this, read [link to another post on your blog]

#2: Throughout Your Post

You don’t just have to put calls to action at the end of your post. By including them earlier, you prime readers to take action, and get them thinking.

For instance:

• To introduce a list post: See what you think of these ten ideas (and add your own in the comments).
• To sell an ebook: I’ve just launched my new ebook, [title of ebook]. I’ll be saying a few words about that at the end of this post, but if you want to find out all about it now, you can click on this link [link to sales page].

Now, it’s your turn. Think about your blogging goals (e.g. growing your subscriber base or your newsletter list) and come up with a call to action for your next post.

Bio: Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach, and has a weekly column on content creation for DailyBlogTips. Her new writing community/teaching site, Writers’ Huddle, is open until January 31st: check it out here.

Fiction Plot Structure

Nearly all fiction, except the occasional experimental types, follows the same basic pattern:

1 – Status Quo

This is how things are, the basic explanation of the current state of things that sets the stage. Whether implied by the narration and dialog or spelled out clearly in an info dump, this part is important because it provides the context for all that will follow.

2 – Conflict!

This is the starting element of the story, the thing that introduces the departure from the status quo. Something has changed, and for whatever reason someone in the story is opposed to this change, and has to fight it.

3 – Complication/Rising Action

A conflict isn’t much entertainment by itself, particularly if the conflict is as simple as: I wanted to go to the movie, but my tire went flat (the conflict), so I changed it (resolved). Much more entertaining would be: I wanted to go to the movie, but my tire went flat and as I was changing it I realized a dust storm was approaching (complication).

Complications that make the conflict more interesting are the spice of a story, and drive what is called the “rising action,” or the gradual increase of tension as the story moves toward resolution.

4 – Climax

Everything has come to a head. The facts are all laid out, the conflict can get no more complicated and a big definitive choice must be made. This is the most satisfying part of the story, and also the part that is easiest to mess up and let everyone down.

5 – Resolution

Wrapping things up, explaining the new status quo. This part is simple enough, and should follow on naturally from the climax.

Now, how can you borrow from this structure in order to make your blog more interesting? After all, a blog isn’t a fictional piece, it’s driven by facts, right?

Well, just because a story is nonfictional doesn’t mean that it cannot have a narrative. Many of the best true stories are just that, STORIES. Take the story of Woodward and Bernstein as they unraveled the mystery surrounding the Watergate break in. You had death threats, attacks, a top-secret source named after a recent pornographic movie — it was practically a thriller film in its own right, and indeed became the basis of one called All the President’s Men.

Each of these elements can be readily worked into a blog post. Virtually every post out there that deals with a narrative of events has to go into a little bit of information about how things have begun, or how they have led up to the events described in the story. Conflict and complication often play out in such posts by going into the details of who said what, and what other people said against the initial quote or in support of it. If a story has ended, you have the resolution option to work with.

Of course, there is nothing that says you have to include all of these elements in a single post, either. Perhaps the best way is to actually follow a particular story for several posts, be it a few days or a months-long odyssey.

This is best done with news-style developing stories, such as following a court case, or an investigation into something dramatic and revealing. Or it might follow a blogger’s personal journey through a difficult struggle such as returning to school or undergoing therapy of a sort following an accident. The point is, with the narrative spread over a number of posts, you can create that sense of rising action, and highlight the individual elements of a good plot much more effectively and easily than if you try to cram the elements into a single post.

So the next time you have a blog post that you think makes a compelling story, treat it like it IS a story. Identify the arc of the rising action, the conflict and complications and present the narrative in a way that makes the readers want to read it — even makes them feel a bit naughty for trying to read ahead to see what happens next.

Dawn Walnoha is the VP of Production at Brandsplat. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. For the free Brandsplat Report go to Brandsplat.com or visit our blog.

Sometimes, there’s a bit of a backlash against list posts. That’s not because they don’t work, but because they’re often poorly executed. Here are six mistakes that are easy to make – and easy to prevent.

Mistake #1: Putting the Wrong Number in the Title

Have you ever read a list post where the title promised 17 items, but the post only had 16? Okay, it was probably still a good post, but it feels sloppy at best.

When you’re crafting your list post, you may well find that you cut out one item – or add in an extra one. Make sure you change your title to match.

Watch out for any other references to the number of items, too (probably in the introduction). This isn’t such a glaringly obvious error, but you can bet that at least some of your readers will notice the mismatch.

Mistake #2: Leaving Off the Introduction

Some bloggers launch straight into their list with #1, without even a line or two of introduction. This can come across as abrupt and jarring (or just plain lazy) to your reader.

You can use your introduction to explain the “why” of your list in the introduction, or to tell the reader how to use the list. For instance, you might encourage them to try out one or two of the ideas, even if they don’t have time to do them all.

Mistake #3: Forgetting to Number the Items

Quite often, I come across list posts where there’s a number in the title (“7 ways…” “4 tips…” etc) but the actual list items aren’t numbered.

There’s no good reason not to number your list items. The numbers help readers to orient themselves within the post – they know how far through the list they are at any given stage. Plus, without numbers, your readers may try to count the items as they read – which means they won’t be concentrating on the post itself.

Mistake #4: Failing to Order the Items

One reason why list posts get a bad name is because they often jump around all over the place, giving the impression that the blogger threw them together without putting much thought into ordering.

Your readers may not consciously notice if you’ve ordered your list items, but they will get the sense that your post is carefully constructed. You could try:

• Ordering from easiest to hardest
• Ordering from start to end or first to last
• Alphabetical order
• Alternating between two types of item (e.g. “do”s and “don’t”s)

In this post, I ordered the mistakes so that they match the experience of reading a poorly-written list post – the first thing you notice is the title, then the introduction (or lack of one!) and so on.

Mistake #5: Having Items of Wildly Differing Lengths

If you’re reading a list post where each item consists of several thoughtful paragraphs, then you suddenly hit one which is just one line, it’s going to seem odd. (And the reverse applies too – single-sentence items followed by a huge one.)

Obviously, not all your ideas will be exactly the same length, but it’s goodl to shoot for a similar range. That might be two – three sentences or two – three paragraphs. The key thing is to be consistent. If you’re struggling, try merging together two short items, or splitting up one long one.

Mistake #6: Padding the List

We all know that “100 top tips” is going to sound more impressive than “10 top tips” – but that’s not an excuse for writing a padded list post. It’s better to have a genuinely useful list of 10 or 20 items than a massive list of 100 that doesn’t provide much value.

One great way to ensure a high-quality post is to over-plan your list: if you’re aiming to write a list of 20, aim for 24 or 25 ideas. That way, you can prune out the weaker ones.

What other mistakes do you see bloggers making with list posts? Add your thoughts in the comments…

Bio: Ali Luke is a writing coach and blogger, and writes a weekly column for DailyBlogTips. If you’re struggling to find time to write great blog posts, click here to get her free ebook “How to Find Time for Your Writing” (plus a bunch of extra goodies, including free chapters from her Bloggers’ Guides series).