- Killer content: everybody tells you to create it, nobody seems to be able to tell you how.
- That’s because even the people who are saying it don’t know.
- Try writing from your gut instead of your brain.
- Don’t edit your feelings out of your writing.
- Tell personal stories that have a lesson to teach.
- Write faster and don’t edit yourself.
- Hit Publish before you have second thoughts.
- Keep asking what really matters to your audience. Ask it of yourself and ask it of them.
- Personality is more important than grammar or in many cases even usefulness.
- Pretend you’re talking to one person at a bar when you write.
- Look for problems to solve and write about them.
- Take a stand.
- Don’t stay silent any longer about something that’s wrong.
- Yes, keywords matter. Learn how to use Wordtracker and Google Search-based keyword tools. Get Scribe SEO. Get found or go home.
- Personality and parables are still even more important than SEO.
- Nobody cares about your cleverness. What people care about is that you care and that you demonstrate that.
- Make a confession and turn it into a lesson.
- Stop trying so hard. Relax.
- Look for the obvious and put a twist on it.
- Look for what everyone else is missing and make it obvious.
- Lists always work.
- Start with how you want people to respond, then write something that makes that happen.
- Start with the headline first.
- Write twenty headlines. Write until you exhaust all the easy ones that nobody would look at anyway. Go way past that point.
- Remember that the reader is the other half of the equation. Don’t do all the work, let them do some of it. Don’t say everything, let your readers say the rest in the comments.
- Fire your inner editor and replace him or her with your ideal customer.
- Try to really feel your customer’s fears and hopes as if they were your own.
- Look for origins, causes, and triggers and expose them.
- Look for symptoms everyone confuses for causes and lead your reader up the chain to the real problem like a detective solving a mystery.
- Get out of your own yard: find examples and experts and cite them. Collect and synthesize.
- Don’t be safe—nobody cares about safe content. Nobody links to it. Nobody comments on it.
- Observe what your audience responds to in your competitors’ blogging. Try to figure out why it got a response. Use that understanding when writing your own posts.
- Forget about blogging: learn the fundamentals of good writing, period.
33 Thoughts on Creating Killer Content
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Great list. Especially #31: “Don’t be safe—nobody cares about safe content. Nobody links to it. Nobody comments on it.” And numbers 1 and 2 are awesome too.
I've often thought about this. What makes killer content? As you stated, even the people who tell you to create it can't tell you how. When I find a piece of killer content I feel like it was written specifically for me. And more than that, it gets me to take some sort of action.
Those are two great qualities to have in a post. Writing to just one person
and calling for action. Both aren't as easy as you might think, because to
do them we have to begin with the end in mind, which most people don't do.
“Forget about blogging: learn the fundamentals of good writing”. Yes, absolutely. But that doesn't tally with “Yes, keywords matter”.
Which one takes precedence?
Not at all. Isn't one of the fundamentals of good writing having a clear
topic and sticking to it? And isn't another knowing who you're writing for?
Plus, using the correct vocabulary? I see all these as related to keywords,
but it's a subjective thing for sure.
Great post, made me think a bit of my content.
I think I know when my content suck or when it is good.
Don't publish anything that sucks.
Most people over-think what they're
doing, but under-thinking before you begin writing (not during) is a common
mistake. A well-formed idea makes for a better post.
Wow! Fantastic tips. Have to tell you, as a relatively new blogger (started in Jan) who is still finding their blogging voice, found this post really inspiring. Thank you.
Good advice and training at start help ensure a better beginning that shoots
you past others who are not learning. Investing in your own training is
crucial to success. Thanks for being here!
Number 22 is very good advice. I have definitely also fallen into the trap of being my own worst enemy(number 7), on several occasions.
Having a goal in mind for the post makes a huge difference. Can you guess what the goal of this post is?
Great list Michael!
I was not aware of the Scribe SEO plugin until I read this post.
I need to pay more attention to the keywords I am using when writing my own content because at the moment it seems the search engines are an after thought – Scribe would help my situation perfectly.
David
Having keywords in mind before you write helps. Then write for people. Then tweak for search engines. That way, you get everything you need: great content and SEO together.
Thank you for posting this list of very helpful points!
I spend way too long on most of the posts I've done. I try to make these creative works of art, and my readers keep telling me they want to see more of the raw me in there.
I'm going to put your ideas to work for my next post.
Anything that hides raw creativity is artifice, not art.
Fantastic list. I tried to pick a favorite, but every tip is just amazing. I love number 7. I've been way too guilty of overthinking what I write and doing 47,613 revisions before I'm ready to hit publish.
Not any more!
I do try to edit for brevity and clarity. At this point, I can do that without sacrificing the voice and personality in the writing.
Finally got Scribe…I had to add the AIO SEO PAack and stop using my Studio Press built in SEO, but I am so glad I took the leap, because it seriously is like CHEATING!!!
Scribe rocks, glad you're on board with that! It is like cheating, isn't it?
You got that right, Michael! Lovin' #30, get out of your own yard!
Working from home as I do, it's too easy to never leave the house and miss all kinds of inspiration, ideas. I love bookstores and grocery store checkout lines to look at magazine headlines.
Eh, is it just me or is this list rife with inconsistencies? “Hit Publish before you have second thoughts” and “Personality is more important than grammar or in many cases even usefulness” don't really work with something like “Forget about blogging: learn the fundamentals of good writing, period.” I do like #31, though. In fact, there's a lot of good stuff in this list.
Why should everything be consistent?
Pick out what speaks to you, ignore the rest, yes?
That's true. Although consistency in your approach to writing anything is crucial if you want to test what works and what doesn't. In other words, consistency is at the core of finding out what speaks to you.
Great list Michael. I love the idea of not being safe and not editing. I've noticed when I write without thinking too much some of my best work comes out. When I don't censor or use too much caution even better stuff comes out.
Really, censoring would've been a better word than editing. Thanks for mentioning that. Although when most people “edit” what they end up doing is weakening their writing and censoring themselves.
I like how you wrote this list as a stream of thought type of exercise…very cool idea. A few of the things you said, like not editing out emotions and writing with your gut are what helped me transform my writing over the past year.
Absolutely, and that's really clear in your work, too. Emotions and guts help any blogger's writing.
I really like 3-8
I particularly like the last bit of advice on writing, but I got to tell you that some of the earlier pieces of advice (3,4,6,7) have led to a lot of the offensive, bitter divisive commentary that blogging is famous for. I particularly thinking of politics and sports blogs.
Don't know as I agree, but I see what you're saying.
I like all of the points here, especially the ones that stress out the importance of personality, the tip about talking to your readers as you would talk to someone in a bar, and not trying too hard.
#13, Michael. That's why I love blogging.
wow. This is a great post. I kept thinking as I read “this is my favorite” but that kept happening as I read each one!! I've shared this with my readers. I find beginning bloggers can have a lot of trouble creating content ~ it seems to stem from lack of confidence. A lot of your thoughts speak to that. Thanks
Remarkable, as everything Michael writes! My favorite is #22 and I'm going to start using Scribe SEO, because I love to “get found”
Wow! All these will need good brain to remember all the 33 content killer. To read and refer will make things more difficult because I have to bookmark this blog. Thanks for your article post.
great tips if you wright your content, any tips on image content?
Make sure you have the right to publish the image.
Always credit the photographer or artist with a link if you can.
Name your image files according to search terms you're targeting for the
POST, not just what the image is about.
Same thing for alt text.
The main image has to stop people dead in their tracks.
Make images easy to navigate (too many times it's a pain in the ass).
Make them big enough (not too small, not gigantic, like 1024 pixels wide at
the most).
Images that tell a story are powerful.
People showing emotions in images are powerful.
Hot babes are powerful
This is a really great post. People do visit your blog to 'read you', not just another words. .
Thanks for sharing this