God has gifted you, called you and given you a message. A blog is a great way to get that message out to the world and to attract clients.

But how can you get people to read your blog? To pay attention? To comment? To sign-up for coaching? To actually leave changed because of what they read?

How is your blog doing?

Pull out your last blog post and measure it against the key elements listed below.
Score your blog on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest) to see where it needs improvement.

1.    Good blogs are targeted.

Go out to dinner with friends and you’ll quickly see that everyone’s order is different. That’s because everyone has different tastes.

Blog readers are no exception. If you try to write a one-size-fits-all blog reaching everyone, you’ll end up reaching no one.

Write as if you were addressing your ideal client. When you target ‘one’ you will reach many.

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2.    Good blogs write about their niche’s top interests and struggles.

Your ideal reader has very specific interests that she likes to read about on the Internet. She also has some big problems weighing on her mind.

Be the one to help. Find out your niche’s most burning problems and write about them.

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3.    Good blogs are interesting, engaging and practical.

People don’t surf the Internet looking for textbooks to read online. They want fast, fascinating and easily implemented thoughts and tips.

Don’t make this harder than it has to be.

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4.    Good blogs are transparent and full of your personality.

What differentiates you from other bloggers and other coaches is your unique personality. Coaching is a relationship. Let your personality shine and those you are targeting will be attracted to you.

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5.    Good blogs are short.

400-800 words. No more. Enough said.

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6.    Good blogs are readable.

People read differently online than they do offline. They scan and their eyes are drawn to headers, sub-headers and images.

Keep your paragraphs very short. 1-3 sentences each. Leave lots of white space.

Studies have shown that people immediately click off of blogs with dense text, no matter how good the content.

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7.    Good blogs are imperfect.

Good blogs are published frequently, once a week or more. The expectation is for great information, not great spelling and punctuation.

Of course, you’ll want to do your best to minimize errors, but the best bloggers err on the side of frequency over perfection

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8.    Good blogs are always adapting to better reach their audience.

Install Google Analytics (free) to keep track of how many readers your blog gets and which posts are the most popular. This gives you the opportunity to serve your readers better.

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9.    Good blogs invite reader engagement.

Blogs can be more than just sources of information. They are communities full of like-minded people loving and supporting one another.

Invite readers to get involved by asking for their opinions and comments, and don’t forget to continue the conversation by responding to each comment.

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10. Smart bloggers go outside their blog to build an audience

I hate to say it but your ideal reader probably won’t find you all by themselves. You need to find them and then point them back to your blog.

Be active on other parts of the Internet. As you engage with others, people will become interested in you and then click through to your blog.

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11. Good blogs are in it for the long haul.

It can take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years for a new blog to ‘take off’ and become more widely known.  While blogging is a great way to build relationships, to add value, and to get noticed and indexed by Google, it is a long-term growth strategy. Don’t expect to see massive results quickly.

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12. A good blog is attached to your website.

No doubt one of your major goals in blogging is to increase people’s awareness of who you are and what you do. When your blog is attached to your website, it encourages readers to click around to learn more about you, plus all the blog traffic helps your website rank higher in the search engines.

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13. A GREAT blog incorporates all of the above and also leaves each reader different at the end of the post than they were at the beginning!

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Total Score:

How does your blog rank?

1-93 –  You have some work to do.
94-104 –  It’s time to make a few changes.
105-116 –  You are on the right track.
117-130 –  Good job. You are getting your message out clearly.

Please let me know how you did and the action steps you plan to take in the comment box below.

*Need help with the technical aspects of blogging? Stay tuned. Beginning next Friday, Susan Fleming, will begin walking you through the whole process with one simple step each week.

Kim Avery