How to Write an Engaging Blog Post in 6 Easy Steps

Congratulations! You’ve decided to start a blog — or you want to increase your following — but what makes an engaging blog post? How do you draw in readers, keep them reading and move them so much that they want to comment on your post and share it with their friends? It doesn’t have to be difficult — and you’ll be more likely to post on a regular basis if you make it easy on yourself to write — but there are some basic rules to follow each time you start a new article.

Here’s how to write an engaging blog post in six easy steps.

1. Start strong and stay strong

Your title is what catches the reader’s eye and often determines whether or not they’ll continue reading. Use a bold fact, question, quote or “how to” in your title to appeal to your audience.

The paragraphs that follow must be compelling enough to keep them reading. Be funny, empathetic or shocking, but make every sentence count. Your goal is to have them read your post all the way from start to finish. Be a good storyteller and engage readers with anecdotes, analogies, statistics and humor.

2. Be short, but be thorough

A long form blog post is perfectly okay, but keep sentences and paragraphs short. Your blog post content should be compelling and clear, but laid out so that your reader can digest your content at a glance.

Edit ruthlessly. Since it’s your blog, you control what — and how often — content gets published. If the argument you’re trying to make has too many supporting points, break it up into a two-part post or make it a series. Not only will it keep your articles bite-sized and readable, but it will help fill up your blog calendar as well.

3. Make sense

Don’t turn off readers by using 10-cent words you wouldn’t say in normal conversation, and avoid relying too heavily on a thesaurus or stuffing your post with industry jargon. Skew your syntax towards the vernacular so that the intent of your words is clear and sensible, and readers can relate to it.

The whole point of writing a blog is to get your opinion and personality out there so that you attract like-minded followers to your message. Be engaging, not esoteric; thought-provoking, not pretentious.

4. Get to the point

Nothing loses readers faster than a rambling manifesto that goes nowhere. Your title made an exciting promise; don’t let it go unfulfilled because you allowed your writing to go off track.

Take the fact, question, quote or “how to” promise you used in your title and follow up on it, answer it, build on it or teach it. A good tactic is to simply write out the message you want readers to take away from your blog post — don’t edit yourself at this time, just jot it down — then plot the points you want to use to guide them to that message.

5. Find the angle

There are always several perspectives on any given topic. Pick one and write about why that angle compels you — or make it an opinion piece and write about why that angle should compel your readers. There is rarely a topic someone else hasn’t already talked about, so don’t get too frustrated if you feel as though you’re not being 100 percent original. It’s okay to write about what others have discussed; just make sure to take a fresh approach.

6. End memorably

If you’ve successfully engaged your readers, they will have followed you to the end of your post and will now want you to tie it all together. If your title held a question, summarize your answer. If you grabbed them with a shocking factoid or statistic, provide context. If you promised to teach them “how to” do something, tell them where to use it next. When you finish your blog post, make sure you give meaning to the five or ten minutes they just spent reading your words.

Writing a blog is your chance to draw people to you, share your message and get them to pass it along. It doesn’t have to be long, difficult or profound every single time; it just has to engage readers and, hopefully, make them think about an issue from another perspective. Keep it simple: The most effective communication is the one that gets through.