Creating an Epic Blog Post: Top Secrets Revealed During the #WhenInManilaBlogging101 Summit at The Mind Museum

 

Creating an epic blog post – what does it really take? Getting high traffic? Getting thousands of likes? Getting the post shared by many people? Having the post recognized by someone famous about the field that you have written? Having the content still read several months, and even years, after it has been written?

You might get envious when I tell you that I recently had the chance to learn some of the top secrets that will help in creating an epic blog post. Lucky me! During the recent blogging summit organized by When in Manila exclusively for its contributors, we learned a lot about creating online content that will reach wide readership. With lectures from the likes of Jomar Hilario and Anton Diaz, our Saturday afternoon spent at The Mind Museum was a knowledge-enriching experience filled with fun!

 

The Steps to Creating an Epic Blog Post

 

1. Consider the length: Do you know how many words an epic blog post should have? As shared by Jomar Hilario, it should contain at least 2,000 words. 2,000? Are you kidding me? Wouldn’t I fall asleep and get wrist pain from too much scrolling just to finish reading the article? These were my exact thoughts when I heard that from Jomar. Turns out, however, that this has been proven to be effective in creating an epic blog post.

The important thing is to make sure that it has the basic elements: a catchy title, various sub-headings, and attractive images. One perfect example of this would be a recent article from Just One Way Ticket about a guide for Siargao for non-surfers. Even with thousands of words, it isn’t boring at all. In fact, it makes the traveler in us immediately book a ticket to Siargao by simply just looking at the pics!

2. Timing is necessary: Once a post is written, do not be in a hurry to have it uploaded, unless of course it is a story about a breaking news or any other instances wherein time is of relevance. The awesome Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet shares that you should carefully time the posting of your article. Based on some studies, the best time to post is on a Tuesday, which is the time where people have already recovered from the weekend and already starts planning for the things to do for the rest of the week. More so, another thing that you should learn about time is the importance of writing an evergreen content. By being evergreen, it means that your post will be able to withstand the test of time. Even after a long time, your readers must still find the relevance on what you have written so that they have reasons to read the article over and over again.

3. Make it search engine optimized: Meta tags? Latent Semantic Indexing? They sound too technical, right? Yes, they may give you a nosebleed once you hear them for the first time but they are very effective. With Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, you can increase the likelihood of your posts ranking better in Google. SEO experts Sean Si and Clayton Wood shared that these things are essential to be learned if you want higher traffic.

The goal is simple: make Google realize that your article is worthy of being recommended to readers. SEO will be your friend with this endeavor. In the same way that SEO should be given attention, Jason Cruz also shared that it is important to understand the role of social communities online and how they will create an impact on your article. Because digital is the trend, it is also important to make sure that your article will be well-received and will rank well on social media sites.

4. Inject an element of fun: Some of the most beautiful women behind When in Manila – Mae Ilagan, Angeline Rodriguez, and Charmaine Cabugnason – shared how it is possible to make your posts fun and worth the attention span of your readers. Having good pictures, keeping it simple, and making it relevant should be some of the essentials on your checklist.

Anton Diaz also shared that contents that get recognized in the internet are those that deal with positive emotions, such as laughter and awe. This is in line with the fact that many of the internet users are professionals and are online in order to find relief from stress. Give your readers contents that are fun to read and you will surely have them engaged.

5. Put your heart in it: Cheesy? Right! Cliché? Right! Nonetheless, this is still one of the most important ingredients that should be in an epic blog post. It is hard to write an article that will convey the message effectively without being passionate about it. Write about what you love and it will show naturally on the work that you have done. Azrael Coladilla gave a talk about his experience in 11 years of blogging and Dust Gaudan shared how it has opened career paths for him. Both Azrael and Dust showed how passionate they are with what they do – the kind of passion that is reflected in their writing and makes them able to connect well with their audience.

The next time that you write, do not just let thoughts flow out of your head. Make sure to check the things that have been mentioned above to make it epic! Do not be the lazy writer. Let us give our readers as many reasons to love us as possible.

 

 

Creating an Epic Blog Post: Top Secrets Revealed During the #WhenInManilaBlogging101 Summit at The Mind Museum