Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays loyal AEA365 readers! I’m Sheila B Robinson, Lead Curator and sometimes Saturday contributor with a few tips and tools for blogging in 2018. First off, content is king with blogging. Always. There’s no other rule as important as composing well-written, well-conceived content that is relevant and relatable to your audience.
Hot Tips: Here are a few up-to-date tips from 10 New Rules for Blogging Towards 2018, where author Yvette McKenzie advises:
1.) Long form is gaining traction.
…“longer reads” or long form content has been gaining traction for several years now. According to Kissmetrics, “Long-form content gets you more online visibility (social shares, links), more proof of your authority and industry expertise, and more material for altruistic community building and engagement.” It might not suit every type of post but long form content should be included as part of your broader blogging and content strategy.
2.) Consider a vlog or podcast.
…not everyone engages with blocks of text as a preferred medium. Many people prefer on-the-go content, including visuals like infographics, audio-only mediums such as podcasts or easily consumable videos. Generally speaking, a solid mix of these elements might gain you the best traction but knowing your audience and how they best engage should be what guides your strategy.
3.) Your audience always comes first.
…knowing your audience/s will always be crucial to your success. Blogs can be a great way to start a conversation, engage with an audience and to state your authority and expertise on a subject. Consider your audience first and try to “solve their problems” by providing the answers they are seeking. Putting your audience first will always be the cornerstone to successful blogging, so make audience data tracking something you incorporate often into your content strategy.
Next up, author Jasmine Demeester, in Blogging Trends 2018-2019 : Latest Blogging Trends agrees with using longform posts and video, and also offers this:
Cool Trick: Images, Graphics, Illustrations – – Creativeness still Ruling Blogging Trends 2018
Since readers now have a wide range of options, a blog would need much more beauty in 2018. By this, we mean that bloggers would have to spiffy up their platforms with beautiful illustrations, images, and anything that could immediately pull in a visitor…Flat designs like these are also more easily downloadable and integrated with any kind of content you have. Plus, they are immediately viewable by any first-time visitor.
Don’t forget to check out AEA’s page of bloggers and tweeters!
Wishing all of you a happy, healthy 2018!
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