Will your blog take the Internet by storm?

The Masquerade Crew is about ten or eleven months old (depending on how you're counting the days), and I've learned a lot in this short timeframe. Since part of my goal is to promote authors and their blogs, I tend to visit a lot of them. I've noticed a few trends that make some blogs not as great as they could be.

There are a lot of tips about how to turn a fizzling blog into a hurricane, but I'm going to narrow this post down to four tips about your actual blog posts.

Write a Killer Headline

Your headline or post title is the first thing most people will see, and oftentimes it is the reason they visit ... or not. I share a lot of content through Triberr, and based upon that content as well as my own posts, it's clear that a good headline makes all the difference.

Your goal is to attract people's attention. You have to give them a reason to check out your blog post. Otherwise, your fanbase will not grow beyond your most loyal readers.

Here are a few types of headlines that attract attention:

• Ask questions. "Will your blog take the Internet by storm?"
• Use a number. "4 tips to create better blog posts."
• A call to action. "Calling all writers! Take your blog to the next level."
• How To. "How to write a better blog post."

Your post should be the proper length

Although short posts can be effective, longer posts tend to do a better job (as long as the post is engaging throughout). However, if it's too long, you'll be putting a heavy weight on your readers, encouraging them to move on (and possibly not come back).

There is no magic number of words to shoot for; however, depending on the topic, 300 to 500 words is a good range to shoot for. If it's longer than that, you'll need to do certain things to further engage your readers (which I may blog about another time).

Use images, especially one at the top

Images are a great way to engage your readers. They give your readers something to look at beyond your words, which will encourage them to stay longer. If they are browsing your post titles, an image at the top might give them enough interest to click on the post and read more.

Tag your posts to assist navigation

Not every post will interest every one of your readers. You should be tagging your posts to assist them in finding what they want to read, especially if you blog about a variety of subjects. For Blogger users, tags are called labels. For Wordpress users, there are two versions: categories and tags, giving Wordpress an extra advantage.

What blog post tips do you find helpful?