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The term “blogging” is so common nowadays. Almost everyone has a blog or at least read one or more blogs per day. With applications like Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad, it is simple to write a blog entry. However, to write a good blog entry that is interesting and at the same time critical is not as easy as it seems. A good and rounded blogger should possesses writing skills that captivate readers and at the same time deliver a clear intended message. It is said that “Writing is a skill, not a gift“.

Here are a few of the most essential that you should polish:

Great Headlines. Headline is one of the most important part of a blog post. Some even go as far as to say they account for as much as 90% of the effectiveness of you blog. A good headline will attract readers to read your content. This is especially true for RSS readers. A poor and unattractive headline could result in losing many of your potential readers even though you have a great content.

Write an interesting and descriptive first paragraph. It is important to capture your readers’ attention after the headline. If the user on your site, feed, or search engine summary, you should be able to present a good description of your blog post within the first two or three sentences.

Grammatically Correct. Your blog post should be easy to understand and use grammatically correct English as far as possible. You should try to avoid careless grammar mistakes e.g., the difference between “it’s” and “its”, “their” and “there”, “effect” and “affect”, “you’re” and “your” etc.

Be Original. Content in KING. Generally the more useful and interesting original content a website has the more successful it will be. This is because more people will want to visit it again and again, this is especially true if a website is constantly adding more and more content on a regular basis be it articles, tutorials, news and opinion or whatever.

Communicate with your readers. A good blog post is post that is able to communicate effectively with the readers. Try show your personal side in your blog posts. It is important for your readers to be relate to you personally, the blogger behind the blog.

Use proper descriptive images and links. As the saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Blog writing isn’t limited to just the words. A good blog post should be accompanied with proper descriptive and relevant images.

Keywords. Keywords are important part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A good blog post is written with keyword-rich content to increase your page ranking for your selected keywords in search engine.

Explain to the readers. Try to write a blog post that everyone can understand. If there are technical terms in your blog post, always try to give proper explanations. It is bad to assume that all your readers know what you are talking about.

Write in short paragraph. Long paragraphs discourage readers from even trying to understand your material; short paragraphs are easier to read and understand. Writing experts recommend paragraphs of no more than 150 words in three to eight sentences. Paragraphs should never be longer than 250 words. Vary the lengths of your paragraphs to make them more interesting.

Proofread and Editing. No one is perfect. It is often undermined and many deem it as unnecessary, but that really is untrue. A good blog writer is someone that always check his/her writing. Without proofreading you risk having sentences which don’t make sense, run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, and a higher number of grammatical and spelling errors than you would have if you had proofread. In fact, the more you proofread, the better your writing will sound and flow.

What writing skills do you find essential? Let us know in the comment.