The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging
I was checking out “The Best of Copyblogger in 2007” and found a gem that I felt I had to mention, even if I am 11 months late.
Brian Clark put together an article with the same title that I put in my post today that discussed the five must-haves in blogs. Basically, if you want to have a successful blog, they’re the sure-shots for generating good content. Good traffic, of course, is a whole other ball game.
His five laws were as follows:
The Law of Value: If you don’t provide value, then you don’t provide anything. Your blog must be able to benefit your reader in one way or another. Giving them the inside scoop on a big-time interest is good, but teaching them tricks and answering questions is even better. If you can help them grow their business, as we’re doing here at Advice Network, then you’re set.
The Law of Headlines and Hooks: People are lazy. If you’re headline doesn’t pull them in, then you simply won’t pull them in.
The Law of “How To”: As Brian Clark says, “People don’t want to know ‘what’ you can do, they want to know ‘how’ it’s done.”
The Law of the List: As we’ve mentioned before, people love lists. Lists are one of the best ways to please scanners and thorough readers alike. Use them and use them often, they work!
The Law of the Story: People read blogs because they are more personal then most other written media out there. While not every post has to be a story, it’s always great to share a bit about yourself with your reader so that they can get to know you better. This is a technique that can also do wonders for your advice articles.
For the whole article by Copyblogger, click here. If you have any other “Immutable Laws” then I’d be very interested to hear about them. I’m sure there have been new techniques developed since Copyblogger first published this article, so I’d be interested in knowing what they are and if they actually work.
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