How to Write Compelling Articles That Get Read and Shared
5 steps I’ve followed to craft trending Medium articles
Recently,
I was talking to a friend who was feeling disappointed with her blog
posts. She’d publish a post, and all she’d hear were crickets. Even
after promoting her posts, hardly anyone was commenting or sharing her
articles.
Most of us writers know what that feels like.
When I began my blog
a few years ago, I set out to write blog posts that would inspire and
help fellow writers. But after spending days crafting a post, I would
only receive a handful of comments.
Many
of those comments were positive, though, and they encouraged me to keep
going. Still, I felt a little discouraged. I wanted my posts to reach
more readers.
After
a while, it occurred to me that maybe the problem wasn’t with my
content but with the way I was presenting it. So I decided to study the
rules of copywriting and read every article I could get my hands on
about how to write powerful blog posts.
As
I started implementing what I was learning, my posts began receiving
more and more comments and shares (one even went viral on StumbleUpon). I
republished my posts on Medium, and many have become trending articles
in numerous publications. And my email list grew from 200 to over 2,000 subscribers in just a year.
In this post, I’m boiling down into five steps everything I’ve learned about writing articles for the web.
Please note: This isn’t a guide to writing viral posts. Rather, this is a guide to writing compelling articles that will resonate with your readers and add value to their lives.
1. Craft a Strong Headline
Imagine
you’re browsing through the newly released books at a bookstore. You
don’t have enough time to stop to look at every single book. Most
likely, you’ll only pick up a book if it has an intriguing title and
cover design.
The
same is true of blog posts. People’s social media feeds are flooded
with a constant stream of articles and online content. In order to make
yours stand out, you have to have an attention-grabbing headline:
something that offers value to the reader in exchange for their time.
David Ogilvy, known as The Father of Advertising, is said to have stated,
“The headlines that work best are those that promise the reader a benefit.”
A
benefit could be anything from entertaining someone to teaching someone
to inspiring someone to helping someone solve a problem.
Take for example my top three posts from 2016:
- How to Keep a Writing Notebook: A Peek into the Notebooks of Famous Writers & Thinkers
- 5 Rules for Writing Well: C. S. Lewis’s Letter to a Young Writer
- 15 of the Best Free Web Applications for Writers
Each of these headlines states a clear benefit to the reader.
As you write your blog post headlines, keep the 4 U’s of headline writing in mind:
- Unique
- Ultra-specific
- Urgent
- Useful
Usually,
you won’t be able to cover all four of those U’s, but if you include at
least one or two you should be able to come up with a strong headline.
List posts perform well because they are ultra-specific, and how-to
posts do well because they are useful.
You can run your titles through the Coschedule Headline Analyzer to see if there are ways to tweak them to make them more powerful.
Bonus Tip:
Once you’ve come up with your headline, you should also choose a lead
photo for your post that illustrates your headline in some way. This is
the photo that will appear when your post is shared on social media (or
in your readers’ Medium feeds) so make sure it is eye-catching.
Unsplash is a fantastic website where you can find beautiful, royalty free photos to use.
If you’re posting on Medium, I also recommend including a subtitle.
2. Open with an Irresistible Introduction
You’ve caught your reader’s attention with your headline, but does your post deliver what it promised?
The
first paragraph of your blog post should draw your readers in and make
them want to read more. This is where you lay out what they can expect
in the rest of the blog post.
There are three elements of a powerful introduction:
- The Hook
- The Transition Section
- The Thesis Statement
This is the same formula I used when writing introductions to college essays, and it is very effective for blog posts too.
In
the hook, you grab your reader’s attention with a memorable story or
fact or question. Usually, in the hook, I set up a problem that is
facing the reader. Often I like to address the reader directly with a
question. For example, “Does it ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day for everything that you want to accomplish?”
Next,
I’ll transition into a story about a famous person or even a story
about myself. In this transition section, I’ll dig a little deeper into
the detrimental effects of the problem. Then, I’ll explain that I have
found a way to solve the problem.
Finally,
I present the thesis statement: a one-sentence summary of the post and
how I will be helping the reader solve their problem. For example, “In
today’s post, I’m looking at five different ways we can carve out time
for writing even when it seems like there are no more hours left in our
schedules.”
My examples are from a how-to post, but you can adapt this formula to any type of post that you are writing.
3. Follow the Story Structure of the Hero’s Journey
Stories add another dimension to our writing. This fascinating Infographic shows how the human brain is hardwired to respond to storytelling differently than other forms of writing.
You
can use stories to illustrate your main points, and you can also use
the elements of storytelling to structure your entire post.
When I write my posts, I follow the outline of the hero’s journey,
a term coined by American scholar Joseph Campbell to describe one of
the most common storylines in literature. Think of the plot of Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, or The Odyssey.
Here’s the basic outline:
- A hero is called to go on an adventure to solve some kind of problem. (Every good story has some kind of conflict driving the plot forward.)
- She may be reluctant to accept the call but eventually realizes that if she doesn’t solve the problem, her life will spiral out of control.
- A mentor helps her prepare for the adventure.
- After facing a series of challenges, the story reaches its climax. Will the hero overcome the problem or not?
- The hero emerges victorious and returns home transformed.
How can you use this storyline to write your blog post?
Use
the body of your post to take your readers on a journey. Your hero is
your blog reader. You are the mentor. Share the steps you took to
overcome a problem that the reader is facing. Then show the reader how
they will be transformed once they implement those steps.
My post below shares eight more tips for writing powerful stories that will connect with your readers:
4. Make Your Post Easy to Read
Even
if you write a wonderfully compelling or incredibly helpful post,
people might still not stay around to read. Most people glance over a
post quickly to see how long it is. Others are wary of click bait, not
wanting to invest their time in something that won’t benefit them.
Here are three steps you can take to make your post more convincing to read:
1. Break your post up into short sections with subheadings
The subheadings give your reader an outline to follow, and the short sections make a long post much easier to digest.
However,
you want to make sure that the subheading doesn’t give too much away or
people won’t bother reading each section. Notice how each of my
subheadings in this post are short teasers to what follows in the
paragraph.
2. Use short paragraphs and sentences
Long
blocks of text are intimidating to read, especially if you are reading
on a mobile device. I try to write paragraphs that are no more than
three to four sentences long.
3. Evaluate your post’s readability
I use Grammarly to catch any typos or grammar errors I might have made. And then I evaluate my post against a readability score.
A
readability score tells you roughly what level of education someone
would need in order to read your piece of text easily. It will help you
write with a more conversational style. I try to write my posts as if I
were talking to you in person over a cup of coffee in a café. Would you
like another latte?
You can use this website to measure your text readability. Or if you have a self-hosted WordPress website, I recommend downloading the Yoast SEO plugin. It will help you optimize your content for the web and has a built-in readability analyzer.
Here are several more tips from Kurt Vonnegut on how to improve your writing:
5. End With a Call to Action
You’ve taken your readers on an incredible adventure. Now what should they do with that information they’ve just learned?
I
usually title the conclusion of my blog post “The Takeaway”. It’s where
you can emphasize the most important lessons of your post.
Next,
give your readers a clear call to action to follow. Maybe you tell them
to implement the steps they’ve read about in your post (stress the
dangers if they do not take action).
Finally, you have a chance to build a relationship with your readers.
I
like to end with a question and encourage readers to answer it in the
comments. You could also create an additional resource to accompany your
post that readers can download by signing up for your email list. (You
can embed an email subscription form in your Medium post using Upscribe.)
And
don’t forget to ask readers to share your post on social media if they
enjoyed it. At the bottom of my Medium posts, I ask readers to click the
heart if they found the article helpful.
The Takeaway (and a free checklist!)
No
matter what kind of article you are writing (a how-to, a listicle, a
personal narrative, a book review), you can use these steps to make your
article more powerful and engaging. Adapt them to your style and your
topic.
Ultimately,
you want to keep your readers in mind. How will your post add value to
their lives? Is there any way that you can dig deeper and add a unique
perspective to your topic?
When
you implement these five steps, you will transform your posts into
content that will truly impact your readers. They will be eager to share
and read more of your work.
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