Does your story put readers to sleep? When’s the last time you updated your bio on your blog’s About page?

Every story has some basic elements to it that make it a really good story. Personally, I think everyone has a good story to tell about themselves, only most don’t know how to tell it well so that readers are enchanted and moved.

When we work with clients to improve their blog, we don’t often see them telling their story well, if at all.

Many bloggers copy and paste their bio or resume onto their About page, written in the 3rd person:  “John Smith is a consultant with 20 years experience working with Fortune 500 companies on their strategic development plans”

(ZZZZ…snore…sound of readers drifting off)

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I’m preparing handouts for our Better Business Blog Writing Class, and came up with a 18 point blog writing checklist. Tell me what you think. If you review your posts after you write and before publishing, this will help you get better results.

A Blog Writing Checklist:
The anatomy of a blog post that Educates, Entertains, Engages and Enriches your readers
© 2008 Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. & Denise Wakeman aka The Blog Squad™

This blog writing checklist is designed to cover learning styles of readers so that you connect with as many different kinds of readers as you can.

1. Why is this post important? If readers ask “what’s in it for me?” – will they know right away?
2. Does this post describe a problem? Does this post appeal to readers’ pain, needs, wants, desires?
3. So what? Do readers understand the consequences of this problem?
4. What’s your solution? What are you educating readers about? What’s your unique perspective? How is your solution different from widely accepted knowledge?

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Remember the 3 E’s of Better Business Blogging? It’s my short hand memory checklist before publishing a blog post: Educate, Entertain, & Engage readers.

You write to educate, entertain and engage readers when you want to build readerships and get great results with your blogging.

When it comes to educating readers, it’s important to take a page out of teachers’ notebooks. Teachers know that not all people learn the same way.

Most of us teach in the style we’re most familiar with: our own learning styles. If you’re analytical, you’ll teach using data. Your blog readers will understand and learn well if they’re like you.

But not all readers are the same. Denise is an active experimenter. She wants to know how to do something and needs to try it out before she learns something.

I’m probably more of a conceptualizer: I’ve got to sit and think about something a while. It also helps when there are visuals so I can see how it works.

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