How NOT to Write a Blog Post (Part 2 of 2)

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If you didn’t read the first post in this two-part series, called Seth Godin Wiffs One go check it out.

Last week, Seth wrote a post that was stupid.

So I wrote a post telling the world why he’s wrong, partly just to say so and partly to setup this post… a blog lesson wrapped in a touch of self-criticism. Here we go.

5 Reasons NOT to write a post like ‘Seth Godin Wiffs One”.

Reason Number 5: I ain’t getting any points for uniqueness.

I was pretty quick on the draw this time, so maybe I can be forgiven for not seeing this coming… but the chorus of dissent Seth got for his post shouldn’t have been any big surprise. All advertisers are going to write the same darn thing. Within a couple of days, there have been literally dozens of similar posts. Blogpulse reports 41. Yahoo reports 140.

The point is that wonking on about a mistake by Seth Godin is NOT going to have me(/you) stand out in the crowd.

Reason Number 4: Opinions are like arseholes… everybody’s got one.

Not to boast, but to make a point: Many people would consider me to be a pretty successful guy. I have a fantastic family that I love, and an amazing group of close friends that I see several times each week.

I’ve started and built four or five businesses, depending on what you count. Have created a killer team in my present biz, OfficeAutopilot, and have developed a truly market-leading product with them (with more to come). Was a self-made millionaire by age 28. I live on 11 acres in paradise.. Santa Barbara, CA.

Not too shabby so far. Overall, I’d suggest that there are less credible opinions out there than mine on the subjects that I normally write about.

But one thing I’m NOT is a well-known authority. And since I’m not well-known (a la Godin, Kawasaki, Meerman Scott, etc etc) my opinion isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

Based on my scientific research, 99.92% of all blog posts are nothing but someone’s hot air.

Now, don’t get me wrong. If you’re blogging for fun about your opinion of the latest Poodle hairstyle, more power to you. Blog on.

But if you’re blogging for business, you (should) have a goal. For me, it’s to engage readers, build relationships, and cement my reputation as a thought-leader and provider of killer value… as someone worth paying attention to.

Yammering on about my random opinions doesn’t help. (Note to self: stop it.)

When you get to be a well-known authority, you then get to yammer on about your opinions. You can even write books full of them, and people will buy them.

Reason Number 3: No onpage SEO

If increasing readership is a goal, then thinking about SEO is important.

If someone’s searching for my subjects (marketing, automation, ROI tracking, lead generation, personal discipline, etc) they’re not going to find this post (no keywords, etc).

And if they’re search for Seth, they’re not going to find it either (because it’ll be buried among the millions of other posts on the subject of Seth.)

Also, the title of the post is hardly impossible to ignore, unless you happen to dislike him already: Seth Godin Wiffs One. You want to write titles with both keywords AND attractiveness to feed readers in mind.

Reason Number 2: No Linkability

Building traffic and readership is going to depend on good folks linking to me. But if the eminent spreader of link love, Chris Brogan, were to happen upon this post.. who would he tweet? My article, or Seth’s?

Truth is, I’ve noticed three blog posts by my readers on the same subject and only one pointed a link back.. and that one because he wanted to use the pic of Seth’s head on a baseball player that I stitched up. That’s not a complaint. It’s just what happens when you don’t think ahead.

Before you write a post consider how it’s going to be received, and whether it’s worth writing.

Reason Number 1: No Added Value

Huffing about my opinion of some famous guy’s mistake adds no value to readers.

You didn’t walk away enlightened. You didn’t walk away with anything actionable to better your business or your life.

Maybe you thought I was right or you thought I was wrong, but that was that. You didn’t say “DANG! I gotta make sure to add this guy to my reader so I don’t miss his next opinion!” (Actually 4 people did.)

You didn’t mention to a colleague that my blog might really interest them.

And you didn’t Digg or Stumble it, either.

The articles that get Dug, Stumbled, recommended to friends AND which support your position as a valuable thought-leader are the ones that provide actionable, useful content that teaches me something or changes my behavior in some way.

For Example

If you’re a blogger and you don’t know Chris Pearson, just try to go to his site and NOT learn something, add him to your reader, and wonder at the veritable candy-shop of informational goodness that he’s built there.

I’ll leave you to figure out who Chris is, but will point out that virtually every single article on his blog is value-packed. To his audience (particularly newer bloggers), every article there is a must-read and you won’t want to miss anything he puts out in the future.

Chris has done this very much on purpose. The 20 or so articles you see there aren’t the only that he’s written… far from it. The rest are just sort of buried.

Is it because they didn’t get a ton of comments? Nope. Is it because they’re no longer relevant? Don’t think so.

I can’t say for sure because I don’t know him personally, but I think it’s because Chris is smart enough to know that it doesn’t take quantity, it takes quality. What he’s now presenting there is, according to him, his best work - his very finest foot forward. And the experience that new visitors have is a power-packed one.

The Checklist

Before you write and before you publish, check in:

1. Is your subject worth writing about? Does it really add something to your reader’s business or life?
2. Will people link to it? Is there an angle you can take or something you can add that will make it worth mentioning to a friend?
3. Have you considered SEO for titles, descriptions, and <h1,2,3> tags?
4. Is your article credible? If not, how can you add credibility?
5. Most important of all, is this the best you can do? What would make it better? Will you be proud of it in a week? A month? A year?

What else should be on your pre-publish checklist?