6 Can’t Miss Posts in 2016 to Help You Become a Better Blogger

Today, people with decent writing skills can start a blog. But if your purpose is to build a brand, attract a large crowd, and make money along the way, then blogging can be a daunting challenge.

Keep in mind that, as a professional blogger, you need to learn different skills aside from writing and editing. You must be able to do research, design your website, promote your content, and build profound connections with key individuals in your niche.

More importantly, you should always seek to expand your knowledge in online marketing, which can be difficult because the industry is ever-changing. To keep up, you need to learn from only the best thought leaders who've already been to the top.

Below are five of the best blog posts you should read if you want to be a competitive blogger:

Neil Patel is famous for his epic, in-depth articles that hold you by the hand as you learn new strategies and tips. In this particular post, he talks about tips on how you can improve your content if you can't afford a ghostwriter or simply need to improve your writing skills.

Take note that writing an engaging blog post is a lot different from writing an essay. You need to plan an outline and pick the right words that can retain your audience's attention. Also, make sure your article is valuable by covering relevant topics.

You can easily brush up on your writing skills, and you can very easily tackle content marketing with a limited budget. You don't even have to be a good writer – you just have to find a way to provide value and unearth opportunities to share this value. – Neil Patel

Mike Brown's blog – The Blogging Buddha – is full of posts that can teach you the best blogging practices. However, one of his most useful posts is all about the worst ways to blog. Pay attention to the examples of 37 blogging experts to know exactly what to avoid in this field.

To develop their blogging superpowers, making mistakes and failing miserably were vital. Successfully navigating the precarious path to blogging fame and fortune means biting the dust more than once – as you'll see. – Mike Brown

One of the worst mistakes to blogging is to bore your audience to death with a "textbook"-style writing. Keep in mind that your audience won't be impressed if you know every word in the dictionary. They're only in it for the knowledge and value they're going to get – so best to keep things simple.

This post by Henneke Duistermaat on Copyblogger should give you a lesson or two on maximizing engagement using a conversational tone. It also covers the importance of finding your writing voice, which will be instilled in your brand and win the loyalty of readers in the future.

In a world of endless pixels and meaningless 'likes', we crave human connections and voices that resonate with us. – Henneke Duistermaat

Whether you like it or not, you need to learn SEO or Search Engine Optimization if you are to be a successful blogger. Unfortunately, SEO is quite complicated and encompass technical concepts such as keyword research and link building. But first things first, you need to learn how blogging affects SEO and what you can do to improve it.

In this post, Neil Patel talks about the effect of blogging frequency in your search engine rankings. You will also pick up a few tips along the way on how you can sustain traffic and keep conversions coming.

When you stop blogging for an extended period of time, your stream of organic traffic can dry up, which can obviously have some undesirable consequences. – Neil Patel

Remember that there is a huge difference between blogging in copywriting. Unlike blogging, copywriting covers multiple content types such as ads, CTAs, opt-in offers, and so on. In this kind of writing, maximizing engagement means everything.

In this post on HubSpot – written by Eddie Shleyner – you can learn the exact steps on how to create copy that maximizes conversions. It also gives a few examples to help you understand the specific lessons.

Compelling copy fascinates its target audience and drives them to pull the trigger on a CTA. It does this by capturing their attention, unearthing a pain they're desperate to assuage, and presenting a mutually valuable, solution-driven call-to-action. – Eddie Shleyner

Monetizing a blog is never simple. If you're not selling a product as an online store or affiliate, then one of your remaining choices is to live off of paid advertisements. However, you need to implement a strategy that will maximize the visibility of ads without being intrusive to the reading experience of readers.

In this post by Nadav Dakner on Crazy Egg, you will learn how to maximize your income without spamming ads all over the place. There's also a bunch of examples and screenshots that will help you apply the outlined tactics.

Remember that there are tons of native, unobtrusive ways to monetize your existing site. You just have to find the right combination of techniques and tools that work for you. – Nadav Dakner

Conclusion

By taking the advice of thought leaders, you don't have to spend a lot of time figuring things out yourself. Let their experience be your guide as you get your hands dirty in the field of blogging.

Author: Christopher Jan Benitez

Content marketer during the day. Heavy sleeper at night. Dreams of non-existent brass rings. Writer by trade. Pro wrestling fan by choice (It's still real to me, damnit!). Family man all the time.

Source: 6 Can't Miss Posts in 2016 to Help You Become a Better Blogger