Making Good Blogs, Great.Awesome, actionable tips to make your blog posts more

sharable, likable, linkable and memorable.

Contents:1. Topic Inspiration2. Anatomy of an Awesome Post3. Promoting your Blog4. Assessing Guest Blog Opportunities5. Guest Blogging Bargaining Chips6. #ProTips

Why?Whether writing blogs for yourself or as

guest content for links, creating masterpieces are worth the extra effort...

• Future-proof (unaffected by search engine updates)• More engagement, comments, links and shares• Improve brand/author credibility & reputation• Justification to exist (content is created for a purpose, not

just adding to the noise)• More interest from outreach to blog owners [guest

blogging]

Topic Inspiration for BlogsDeciding what to talk about is hard. Use the

following resources to find inspiration...• Twitter (and Topsy.com) – search #hashtags, monitor

thought leader/influencer posts, trending topics• Yahoo Answers, Answers.com, Quora and industry forums• YouTube• Google Trends & News – Jump on time-sensitive topics and

try and pre-empt growing areas of interest• Competitor Blogs – Which posts get the most engagement?• WordTracker’s Keyword Question Tool• Portent’s Content Idea Generator

Other Blog Ideas• Solve a common question, problem or

error that people often ask about• Create a “one stop shop” list of resources

for a specific topic• Write a well-reasoned (or controversial)

counter-argument to a popular article or blog

Other Blog Ideas (Cont.)• Take a difficult or hard-to-grasp topic and

make it simple• Review a new product, tool, service, etc...• Interview someone (influential people, a

business owner, peers etc...)• Make a prediction – Where is your industry

going? What will your world be like in 2 years time?

Anatomy of a Memorable Blog PostToday, people are scanners, not readers.

Instantly engage them with rich content instead of paragraphs of text...

• Intriguing editorial title, opening paragraph and sub-headings

• Captivating image(s)• Multimedia content (videos, graphs, slideshows, galleries,

embedded sound clips etc.)• Clear, readable formatting• Summary of take-aways

Think About...• “Click to Tweet” links on key take-aways• Call-to-action on share buttons• Expose other related content and relevant

articles• Disabling comments in favour of sending readers

to discuss on your social media profiles• Connecting your author profile to your Google+

profile for rich snippets

Promoting Your Blog PostsExposing your new content is arguably as

important as creating it. Consider the following promotion tactics for new posts...

• Post your latest articles on your social media networks• Answer relevant open questions on forums and link to

your article• Comment on other related blogs and link to your article• Bookmark within relevant categories on StumbleUpon,

Reddit, Technorati etc.• Send to your mailing list or include a link within

newsletters

Promoting Your Blog PostsContinued...• Add a link in your email signature• Alert real-world contacts such as friends, co-workers,

suppliers etc (online and offline)• Outreach to thought leaders and influencers in your niche• Consider paid advertising • Utilise share buttons with a compelling call-to-action• Ask for a link within your content• Create the HTML for readers to copy+paste into their own

sites (Tynt automatically adds your URL when readers copy+paste excerpts of your content)

Assessing Guest Blog OpportunitiesJust because a blog looks good, doesn’t mean

it will benefit your link profile or build brand awareness. Look a little deeper...

• Audience engagement – Do previous posts attract comments? How frequent? How legitimate?

• Social engagement – Does the blog owner have a solid and outspoken following? Are they an influencer in their niche?

• Quality of existing content – Is the blog owner proud of their blog? Do they accept any old rubbish?

• How do page authority and back link profiles of a sample of historic posts look?

Assessing Guest Blog OpportunitiesContinued...• Ownership – Does the blog owner internally link to guest blogs

in their content? Do they share posts on their social media profiles?

• Owner credibility– Do they have a positive reputation in the industry?– Do they consistently write for anyone else?– What social media platforms are they active on?– Do they have a clear passion for their blog/niche?

Bargaining ChipsBloggers may try to charge you to guest post.

Here’s what you can do to sweeten the deal without handing over cash...

• Submit pre-written meta data (remove any extra work)• Offer to promote & share their blog on your social media

channels• Offer to reciprocate a guest blog opportunity• Offer to write a second blog on their chosen topic• Offer exclusive content (or free sample products)[#Tip: Avoid bloggers who charge – they often care more about the

money than quality of content and accept rubbish]

#ProTipsVisit rickeliason.com/blogging for more tips on

optimising and promoting your blog like these...

1. Use more than one resource for your research – don’t simply regurgitate what is already out there

2. If you embed videos in your blog be sure to upload a XML video sitemap to get rich snippets

3. When guest blogging, link to previous posts the owner has written within your blog where relevant – flatter them

4. Links posted on Google+ get instantly crawled – do this for guest blogs to get your content indexed quickly

If you take nothing else away, please follow these guys!

When it comes to blogging, these guys know their sh*t. Here are some of my personal favourites who I know you will love!

1. Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas)2. Heidi Cohen (@heidicohen)3. Kristi Hines (@kikolani)

Lastly...

Please follow me on SlideShare. This is just the beginning, there is lots more to come...

Feedback is always welcome