Redefining Content:How to write articles that get NOTICED!

Do you want your posts to be a hit?

Do you want the hours spent in 

writing a content to be fruitful?

Then you should be reading this.

What exactly makes a good article?

Many factors are taken into consideration, the most

important of them is the post length.

Post Length Matters

There has been much debate about the post lengths. I am pretty sure you have already read articles with heading: Long posts vs. Short post, How much length a post should be, etc. Some say that long posts are awesome while some provide an dual view on the issue.

Here is a post by Quick Sprout which explains the essence of post length: How post length affects conversions and traffics
These debate ward off when the king Google prefers long posts. Yes, Google prefers long posts. According to a survey by serpIQ, the average words of an article in the top ten results are 2000+. This fact is convincing enough to prefer long posts.

Do you write such epic contents?

If you ask me which piece of knowledge about blogging you consider most precious, then I would say: "Writing long posts". Yes, I would favor long posts.
Long post is something that when a person sees it, this should be his thought, "This person exactly knows what he's speaking".

But wait, there's more to it. We are not the only who know this. There are millions of bloggers who know this but only a fraction of them apply. But this is not as simple as it seems. You may write an epic shit but the next day you see that the article is not a hit. Why? Because it's not unique or probably filled with stuff not to the point. That brings me to my next point: Unique Article.

What is an Unique Article?

Yes, you might be familiar with the term. It is an important part of the algorithm that Google uses to list search results. I am not telling you to be a scientist and try inventing new things to blog on. But you should not copy articles from other websites. You should master the practice of writing your content in your own unique style. 

You may spend hours and write in your own words a copied content but you cannot escape Google and ultimately it will penalize you for copying content. Unique article doesn't mean you cannot copy a few lines of information from Wikipedia or insert someone else's video from YouTube. You definitely can. But you should try to add something new to the value.

You can check out this post about the degree of uniqueness you should try to bring in your article to perform well: How Unique Does your Content need to be?
Check out this post to learn about unique article:

Why Long Posts are Better?

Let's come back to the post length. Here are 7 good reasons why long articles hold an edge over short articles:

• Here's the first and most important reason: According to the survey of SerpIQ,  The top 10 results in Google search have 2000+ words in average. 
• You get to express yourself more openly. Thus, you can invoke a feeling of trust among you readers and convert them into your regular ones.
• You get the chance to include more graphical media and links. It has been proven that posts with more images, videos, links, bullets are linked more.
• Your readers would be more mature, i.e, only mature people would read a long post and they would read it fully. Hence there is a greater chance that they will comment and share your content resulting in high traffic for your blog.
• You get the chance to promote your own product or affiliate service, resulting in higher monetization.
• Short articles are easier to copy. But in case of long articles, it is an whole new story. Anyone copying your article can be easily found.
• Many Probloggers when asked what they wanted to know when they started out, answered, "Long posts".
  Now that you have known that long posts are fruitful, let's discuss on how to write a long post.

But before that, you need to know that stretching a post unnecessarily can have negative impacts. Don't go away from your point. It's just that you couldn't express it shortly, so you wrote a longer post. This should be the feeling. And Always, Always prefer quality over quantity.

The Perfect Blog Post

Before going further, let me show you what a perfect post is. According to Social Triggers, a post must contain two sub-headlines as well two C.T.A . Look at the image below.

How to write it?

Just relax. I'm going to share some simple, practical and easy to implement ideas to write a good long post.
First and foremost, relax and empty your mind and then brainstorm the topic. Once you start writing, don't get up until you finish writing. And remember never to format while writing. Let your ideas flow and then after writing you can format it, update it,etc.

Start by writing the Headline and Sub-headlines

It can be easy for you to craft a long article if you start by writing the headlines and sub-headlines. Frame the structure of your content first and then fill it with words. Thus, it will be relatively easy for you to write a long article and you can save much time.

Its all in the headline

Yes, the headline is everything. You make take hours to make a masterpiece content but it is not a hit. Why? Because you didn't pay attention in writing a good headline. It's everything. If you fail to attract a person through headline, there's no use how good your content is.

So writing a good headline is the most important thing to be able get noticed. Look at the headline of this article, isn't it magnetic? You can too craft such magnetic headlines through a little practice. Here are 3 best resources on magnetic headlines:

• How to write magnetic headlines-by Brian Clark of Copyblogger
• The ultimate guide to writing incredible headlines
• How to write magnetic headlines with 7 tips

Here is video showing 5 great headline tips and examples:

      

Make the introduction attractive

Don't say everything in your introduction. Make it as short as possible. According to Social Triggers, you should make line length short in the top so that the user reads it. Often people don't read long length content. The other half space could be used by an image which must have a nice caption.

You can start by asking a simple question, whose answer is only one word. For example: Look at the question I pose in the first line. It's answer can only be yes. In this way, you can get your visitor read your 2nd line and then 3rd and so on.......You can also start with a quotation. Read this post by Darren Rowse of Problogger on how to get more reader engagement in introduction: 11 Ways to Open a Post and get Reader Engagement Also check out Problogger's : 8 Tips for using quotes and Dialogue in your blog posts 

Follow 6-2-1 Formula

• 6 Sub-headlines
• 2 Call to Actions
• 1 Video

Since you will be needing to write a long article, it is important to divide it into at least 6 sub-headlines. People will be more interested in your content. You must describe each sub-headline clearly but remember not to fluff much.
I know the perfect blog post image features only two sub-headlines but it may  be difficult to categorize everything into two sub-headlines. Besides the image mainly focuses on the frequency and positioning of C.T.A.

Call to Action(C.T.A) is the appeal of the writer to the reader to do something. It might be the appeal to share, subscribe to RSS, comment or simply an action relevant to the topic.At least 2 Call to Actions in each post would be good.

Remember greater than 3 different C.T.A would overwhelm your readers and they might not respond. So placing 2 same or different C.T.A is a good practice. For more information, refer to : Calls To Action: 12 Tips to Snap Reader out of passivity

Including media rich content is one of the best practices. Include at least 4-5 images in a 1000+ word article. Include a video and you let Google dance in your tunes. You should also know this that the articles containing more visual elements such as pictures, videos, etc. are linked to most.

Hence, you should use more image rich medias. Using graphs to demonstrate something would be outstanding.

Add more Depth

As you are writing a long post, it would be better if you explain the main elements more clearly. Suppose you are writing about blog traffic and you include a method of traffic through RSS. You should explain RSS in a few lines which makes your content more valuable and easy to understand.

You don't always need to brainstorm. You can copy a few lines about a term from Wikipedia and directly paste in your post. It is not regarded as copying. Further you can provide links to related sources for more information.

There is special algorithm by Google for in-depth articles. In-depth articles rank higher. Searchengineland takes a closer look and explains this algorithm: Google Introducing "In-depth" articles to search results
Neil Patel shows how he multiplied his traffic in this post: How I Increased My Search Engine Traffic by 13.15% in Just 30 Days Through Google's In-Depth Articles

Personalize the Content

Don't write like robots. You want your visitors to trust you. So write like you are writing for them. Make it like a conversation. You can do it by simply adding 'You' and 'I' words occasionally.

Since you are writing the content your view matters. People would be eager to know what you would do in a specific situation. So you should add your personal view within a call-out box.

Use Short Paragraphs

Never use long paragraphs or long slabs of text as they can be annoying to readers. Probably, you might have had the experience of visiting a post having long paragraphs and then closing that site because you felt it annoying. Right? Take example of this post. No paragraph is more than 5 lines. Therefore always use short paragraphs.

Speak out the Voice within You

You want traffic and you can get it by forming a section of loyal reader who visit you blog everyday to check out a new post. But to make a reader loyal, you must invoke trust in him.

To invoke trust, you have to get out your own voice. It is no magic. It should be learnt along the way. But the quicker you get it, the better.

Take care of small things

Small things can have a big impact on your blog and traffic. Here are a list of things that need to be done:

• Make your sub-headlines easy to read. Make them bold, large and of a different color.
• Provide "Tips" in between your posts to make it interesting
• Never forget to use bullets while listing things. It has been seen that articles having more bullets are often linked to. Besides people find lists easily.
• Italicize or bold specific terms or figures in your post which you think is important. But never bold too much words.
• Never forget to use C.T.A.
• Provide external source links for in-depth understanding.
• Always, always use simple English.

Give Room for your Readers to Breathe

Give enough white space for your readers. In order to do that, you must leave considerable space among words, lines and paragraphs. Also make your paragraphs as short as possible. Check out this post for more information: The importance of white space

Summarize your content

Write an indelible conclusion. It should be the summary of what you said all through the post. It should consist of the message what you want to convey to the reader through the post. You can also include a C.T.A like sharing the page, commenting on the post, subscribing to your post and son on. Here is a post giving good tips on how to write a conclusion: 7 Powerful ways to end your next blog post

The Bottom Line

Remember the things I have said above. To get noticed, you have to write great content. And for a content to be great, it should include all the spices that need to be added to it. Never forget to take care of the small things I have listed above. It really enhances readability.

If you forget everything I have said above, do remember one thing. Action. It matters. Reading a pile of content but no action means nothing. So always try to use any little thing that you learn or at least remember each day.
It took me one whole day to craft this article and it takes a second to share it. Please share it if you found it useful..
Do you have any other tactics of writing beautiful articles. Please do share your thoughts in comments. Let me know what you think. Thank you.