A lot of new bloggers or business owners can’t believe just how many blog post ideas they can come up with.

Fitness blogger? You can film daily workouts, combined with recipes and motivational recipes.

Sell jewellery? Offer accounting services? Work for a car garage? Yep, there’s still loads you can write about.

No matter what your background is, if you enjoy writing and are willing to develop your skills, your blog can succeed. But I have a spoiler for you. Being an online content writer is about so much more than just having the ability to write.

Content is pretty remarkable, don’t you know?

Reading a blog post is different to reading any other type of content. You wouldn’t sit and read a magazine article the same way you would a blog post. And if you want to write content successfully, you need to know what your audience wants to read.

It’s about making sure you’re providing your readers with high-quality content that’s going to help them improve in some way. And when you’re delivering content that has value, your own value increases, too!

So what is valuable content?

For me, there are some blogs I go to that provide an unlimited amount of value in their content. But some? There’s just not enough there.

But what does that mean?

#1 | WRITING IN AN ENGAGING WAY

Whenever I read one of Allison’s blog posts, I’m hooked instantly.

She uses the classic copywriting technique of starting off each piece of content with a question and it works every single time. By asking an open question like this, she makes you feel intrigued about the answer and so you want to carry on reading.

This is the definition of writing in an engaging way. It starts a story that you want to know more about.

#2 | MAKING SURE YOUR CONTENT IS FORMATTED PROPERLY

One thing that really gets to me more than anything is when I come across a blog post that is poorly formatted. I’ve written multiple blog posts about this in the past, which just goes to show how important it is!

Why do I keep going on about this? Because I know it’s probably one of the most likely ways to increase your authority as a blogger. Remember, readers go to your website, click on your blog, and hopefully go through to read a whole post.

They can immediately tell if you’re legit or not by how good your content looks.

#3 | INCLUDING DATA IN YOUR CONTENT

It’s not only Google that favours this, you know. One element that hugely adds to your credibility as a blogger is when your content is packed up with examples and stats. When a reader is deciding whether or not she should create a Facebook page for her blog, she isn’t looking for content that says:

“A lot of bloggers and business owners use Facebook.”

This sentence isn’t valuable. It’s simple just stating an opinion. Here’s what you do instead:

Add in a stat about the amount of bloggers and business owners who have Facebook pages
Add in a stat about Facebook in general (i.e. it’s the biggest driver of website traffic)
Share examples of Facebook pages you like by linking to them and include screenshots

Now you’re adding value!

How value helps boost loyalty in your community

When a member of your audience reads a piece of content that is filled with value, they’re going to keep coming back to your blog.

I’m going to purposefully pause right here.

How powerful is that?

I have a reader that enjoys my online marketing and productivity content. Actually, they love it so much that they’ve become a member of my mailing list community and now they’re thinking about buying one of my products.

For a while, I didn’t even have a mailing list. I used to think that I was too busy and it was easier to just keep churning out blog posts than it was to add weekly email content to my to-do list.

I was sure that this reader would eventually find another blog she loved, because there’s so much noise out there (she didn’t). I mean, the digital marketing niche is super popular, and who wants to read another post about blog tips?

But you know what? Because this reader was in my ideal target audience and I was writing to her from a relatable place, she got it. She continued reading, sharing and commenting. Why? It all comes down to the value I was providing her from my writing.

I’m not sharing this story to blow my own trumpet. This story is to try and help you understand the importance of writing high-quality content.

When you do, your community will explode. Why?

#1 | YOUR WRITING IS MORE DETAILED

When you start writing high-value content, you’ll start to notice that you need to write more. Most of my posts are 1,500+ words, because I always pack so much value into them. You’re not filling it with fluff.

For instance, when I first started out, some of my blog post titles were:

5 ways to tidy up your social media channels
7 of the biggest reasons why you just aren’t getting the job

These were OK, in the beginning. But once I started offering services, I knew I needed to up my game. So I started creating more detailed posts like:

How to find the fave social platforms of your readers (+ why you need to know)
My favourite tools for blogging - amazing apps, add-ons and programs

These types of posts take me so much longer to write to get my point across. I need to do research and all in all, it probably takes me twice as long to craft a blog post now than it did in my early days.

Because of that, your community will grow.

#2 | YOU COVER ALL ASPECTS OF A TOPIC

I want you to take a look at one of my favourite blog posts over at Femtrepreneur:

Just looking at the headline will make you realise that this is going to be an ‘ultimate guide’ of a post. And you’d be right. Mariah goes into a huge amount of detail, gives you personal examples and offers takeaways that you can use for your own online presence.

The Femtrepreneur blog is filled with content that their target audience will eat up every single time a new post is published. You can see how the team are utilising the blog to turn readers into subscribers and subscribers into customers, based on the value of the content.

#3 | YOU’RE HELPING PEOPLE

As we’ve talked about in a previous post, a part of your content marketing strategy should be to solve your readers’ problems. You want to help them. I get that you’ve got an end goal in mind (where they sign up to your mailing list, follow you on social etc.), but before that, you need to help them.

Let me ask you something. Think of one of your favourite blogs. Picture it in your head. Why do you visit it? There are two reasons that spring to my mind:

Learn something new
Solve one of my problems

My blog is positioned to help bloggers and business owners get more out of their online presence by working IN it, not on it.

I want to provide the best free content to help you do this, because it’s what I want more than anything - for you to succeed with your blog or business (or both) while also living a fulfilling life.

Sure, I’d be chuffed if someone inquired about my services, but I’m still happy if they can reach their goals by using the content on my blog or in my free 28-day challenge.

When your writing helps people, your readers are more likely to stick around, because they begin to understand the value you have for your topic of knowledge and for your readers, too.