Tell me that I am not alone, tell me that it happened to you too. At some point in your blogging journey you wrote an article jam-packed with useful tips. An article where you put all your knowledge. An article that made you so proud, probably the best article that you have ever written. But when you hit publish… crickets… nothing happened. No one seemed interested in it and no one read it.
Actually, you don’t need to tell me that it happened to you too, I know that it did, I have used the tips in this post before committing to it and so I know people want to know more about why this happens to them.
I think this is the biggest disappointment for bloggers, you really worked hard on that blog post, you know it has a lot of value, and I believe you.
But, hey, every day millions of blog posts get published, but unfortunately, only a small percentage get read. Are you in that small percentage? If you are not, keep reading because today I will show you the mistake that every blogger has made at least once, especially at the beginning, and that gets them in the large percentage of unread blogs. And of course, how to fix it!
But before we get started, let me clarify a couple of things.
Although I have worked as a lawyer specializing in International and EU Law (LLB, LLM, PhD) for over 15 years and helped more than 30,000 bloggers and online entrepreneurs create their blog legal pages and policies with my plug-and-play legal templates, free legal templates, online courses, an affordable legal bundle for bloggers, and an affordable legal bundle for online business owners, this article is meant for informational and educational purposes only.
It does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. I will not be held liable for any damages or losses caused by acting or failing to act on the grounds of the content of this article. Should your circumstances require, I encourage you to seek legal advice through other avenues. Please read my full disclaimer for further information.
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If you’re in a rush at the moment, don’t sweat it! You can always download this post as a PDF and come back to these tips on writing blog post people want to read later.
So, it’s time to start saying goodbye to that disappointment because after fixing this little mistake, if your blog post is actually as good as you think, it will be read and your efforts will be appreciated.
Let’s dive in!
The Mistake
So, what’s this mistake that everyone makes at least once?
As you have probably already figured out, this isn’t about how to write a blog post. Your blog post was probably actually a good one, BUT, a blog post starts way earlier than the writing process. And this is where the mistake is usually made.
And I did it! I made that mistake.
Ok, let me be honest, when I started my first blog, it was just a hobby so I didn’t really dive into all the specifics of writing a blog post for success. But I was actually lucky and people were reading my blog posts… until one day it happened, I hit publish aaannd… no one cared!
Whaaat? Why? I was devastated. That blog post was one of the best that I had produced.
I had put value in it, I had given actionable tips, I had solved a problem with that blog post! What happened?
Yep, you got it, I had made that tiny little mistake that ruined everything, the mistake that every new blogger makes… I had written for myself, not for my audience.
As I said, until that point I had been quite lucky, I had given so much advice on relationships to my friends before starting my blog that when I actually started writing about it, I started choosing topics from my experience and that worked for a bit. I talked about what I wanted to talk about without thinking about my audience.
And I know, especially at the beginning, everyone tells you to write about what you are passionate about. I’m not telling you that’s wrong but it is important that you find an aspect of your passion that people actually want to read about.
It’s true, that post that flopped was solving a problem. I was giving them great tips, but nobody had that problem. Nobody wanted a solution.
Another way bloggers make the same mistake is by writing from their point of view instead of their audience’s.
Let’s say that you are passionate about your life (good on you). If you want to write about the walk that you took yesterday, probably not many people would read your post. But if you write about the benefits of taking a walk every day, maybe the number of readers would grow.
This is simply because the number of people who find value in your post grows.
I might or might not care whether you walked yesterday, but if you tell me that I can get some benefits out of a walk, I really want to know.
In other words, you don’t have to write what you want to write, you have to write what people want to read.
It’s absolutely true that with your post you need to solve a problem, but you need to solve your reader’s problem, not yours.
So, if you think that you can solve a problem with your blog post, before you commit to it, double-check that it is an actual problem that your readers have.
It all comes down to planning and research!
How can you come up with interesting subjects that will intrigue your readers? How can you ensure that people will read your blogs? No worries, there are actually some great fail-safe steps you can follow and I am here to show you.
Before I move on to the nitty gritty, if you want to learn more about how to start a blog and make money blogging then make sure you click the image below because I have a free guide that will dive deeper into how to create your own blog and get you started.
This guide will walk you through the blueprint I used to start my blog that turned into a multiple six-figure business, and comes with in-depth strategies, assignments, and tons of actionable tips, so you don’t want to miss out. You can check it out for free here.
Moving on to the first way to find out what people want to read: Check what people are searching for.
Use An SEO Tool
How do you do that? Use a SEO tool that gives you stats about keywords.
SEO tools help you identify the keywords people are already searching for on Google and Bing. If a keyword has a large search volume, you can bet there are plenty of related topics to use.
We use different SEO tools for Blogging for New Bloggers.
They are both really valuable but while we use RankIQ for more inclusive SEO purposes on our blog, I would recommend you use KeySearch for the purpose of this post.
You can try some of its features and capabilities for FREE. No payment details required.
Or if you would like to try all of its features and capabilities, You can use my discount code KSDISC for 20% OFF.
So, enter a topic or a keyword on KeySearch and check if anyone is actually looking for it.
Keysearch will give you the search volume for that keyword (in other words how many people usually look for that keyword in a given month). If the search volume is not high enough don’t waste your time writing about that topic.
Keep in mind that we are not looking for keywords for SEO purposes right now. Don’t worry about whether you can rank for a keyword yet. You just need to know what topics are being searched online the most. Only after you settle on a topic will you brainstorm long-tail keywords and start trying to rank for those.
Another good way to understand what people are interested in is to check out Google’s latest search trends. This can give you a good general idea regarding topics and their search ranking.
With Google trends, you can enter a topic and it will tell you how that topic is trending. Basically, it will tell you if the topic you picked is a topic that people are interested in.
Plus, it gives you some related topics from which you can get some good ideas.
Additionally, you can also check out Answer the Public.
Another place where you can find topics is Pinterest
Yes, Pinterest is a search engine, people actually go there to look for solutions to their problems.
And we really want to know their problems so that we can write a blog post with the solutions, don’t we?
So, use Pinterest’s search bar to see what people are searching for.
Type your topic in the search bar. It will give you more suggestions and once you click on one of the suggestions it will go deeper. This is what you should write about!
The next way to figure out what to write about is to get inspired.
Get Inspired
Are there bloggers that you admire? Are they in your niche? Check what is working for them and get inspired.
Go and read their income reports, not for the income, but mostly to see what has worked for them.
Check which of their posts got more interaction, more shares, more comments, and do the same.
Just to be clear, I’m not telling you to copy their posts. Absolutely not. Don’t do that.
What I’m saying is to get the inspiration you need.
If you can see that yoga is a topic that works and your blog is about health and fitness, write more about yoga. But obviously, if your blog is about finance don’t write about yoga just because it works.
Do the same thing with your own posts: if your post on “quick dinner recipes” did well, write one about “easy breakfasts”, and so on.
Use BuzzSumo. You can find what content performs best for any topic.
Enter your keywords or topic and BuzzSumo will show you the most shared headlines.
Also, an AI tool like chatGPT can be useful for brainstorming topics that will get the attention of your audience.
But do you know which is the absolute best way to go? Just ask.
Just Ask
Yep, that’s right, the next way to look for topics that people want to read about, it’s to ask them!
Asking directly to your followers is the best thing you can do.
Not only because you definitely want to serve them well, but also because you get to hear your audience’s struggles in their own words and you can use their language in your blog posts to make a true connection with them.
Plus, what’s better than asking those directly who will read your blog what they want to read about?
So, how do you ask? If you have your own Facebook group, ask there.
A simple question such as “what’s your biggest struggle as a new blogger?” or “what is keeping you from starting your health journey?” can give you plenty of ideas!
But often you don’t even need to ask, go into any Facebook group related to your blog topic and check which questions are asked most often.
And, of course, ask your email list. This is the best place where you can ask for ideas. The people on your email list already trust you, you have a connection with them and if they are there it means that they want to hear from you.
So, what’s better than answering their questions? Solve their problems and they will read your blog posts.
Also, ask directly in your blog post if they have more questions on the topic or if there is something that they would like to know more about.
Read the comments to your blog posts. Often you can find ideas for a new blog post starting from your reader’s questions.
So, if you write about what people actually want to read you can be assured that your blog post will be read but at that point, you need to deliver, or else they won’t come back and you will get crickets again so read this post next to understand how to write the perfect blog post and increase your blog traffic.
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