For blogging to work for you, you have to succeed in gaining attention (be it bots or humans) and there are multiple factors involved, and a big part of it comes down to various eye tests.
If you're in a community such as this one, the rules of gaining engagement may be different than when writing for the consumer, but the fundamentals remain much the same.
1. Have a title that catches the eye
My Tuesday posts have strictly been of the Ask An Ambassador series for years. I would hope by this point that the AAA lead-in is sufficient for some to check out what's inside, but if not, what comes after has to do the job. Be it wordplay, clickbait style words/phrases (Ultimate, Complete, Shocking), a keyword that you know your audience reacts to (e.g. Zillow anyone??).
If you're after consumers, you may need to be much more concerned with winning the bot wars, so using SEO terms may be critical. Be specific about your new listing! Where EXACTLY is it? Just saying waterfront, gated community, etc. is too generic vs. "Cincinnati Gated Community Ranch Home For Sale"
2. Eye candy
Glance through this site's blog roll. What catches your eye first? The titles, or the pictures? I think most will say picture first, title second. If you don't have your own photos (I did this time), find a good source such as Pixabay.com. A few minutes investing in picture selection may be key to getting an open and being skipped. If needed, sprinkle more graphics/pictures in your post.
At a minimum, use sufficient white space, font size, etc. to make your post easy to read. Avoid the dreaded wall of words. No matter how good your content might be, if it's eye strain to read, readers will bounce out quickly.
3. Reputation is in the eye of the beholder
I don't do politics in my posts, but as a prime example of how reputation impacts whether a consumer clicks or not, don't certain media outlets have reputations for fronting for one side of the political aisle or another? So if you did a search for a topic, would you read a result from a source that is typically the opposite of your views?
On the other hand, if you find a source that reliably provides good information, entertains, etc., wouldn't you be a bit more willing to overlook a title or graphic that isn't award winning?
Basically working this trio of factors increases your odds of being found, being clicked, being read, and being contacted IF the content inside the post is worthwhile.
Sure there are other factors such as spelling, grammar, post length and more that can impact your ability to be found and read, but mastering some key basics improves your odds of success.
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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