With thousands of blog posts being published every day, how do you make sure your content stands out from the crowd? Read my 5 tips on how to write killer content.

1. Have a Voice

Having a voice doesn’t just mean the act of talking or writing. It means having a point of view, being distinctive, and maybe even a little opinionated or controversial. There is a lot of noise on the Internet, and one of the biggest challenges that people face is sifting through all of that noise in order to find the content that’s interesting.

In fact, one of the things that makes blogging such a great opportunity for you — the fact that there are virtually no barriers to entry and that it’s easy to start a blog — means that there are a lot of not-so-great blogs out there.

By having a strong and consistent point of view, you’re already going to be more compelling than most other blogs. You may already have an idea of how you want to go about building your blog audience, or you may need to take a little time to self-analyze your author business and your unique voice. The voice of your blog should be a good fit for your author brand. For example, if you are a science fiction romance author, then a writing about  fun alien conspiracy theories is almost certain to be more appropriate than a voice that’s “in your face” or discusses theoretical physics.

Of course, in order to have a strong voice, you also need to know who you’re speaking to.

2. Know Your Audience

Be sure to consider this factor from a couple of different perspectives. First, take a look at your current readers. On average, how old are they? Where do they live? How much do they spend with you, and how frequently do they purchase? Are there any demographic clues that you can derive from your customer data that might help you come up with a picture of your typical reader?

In addition, you should also give some thought to the people you want to be talking to. Who is your ideal reader? Maybe you’re looking to just grow your following with more individuals similar to your current followers. Or maybe you’re looking to branch out into new markets and reach new readers from a different but similar genre.

3. Relate to Your Audience

Be personal. Now, personal doesn’t necessarily mean unprofessional or overly-familiar. In fact, it probably shouldn’t mean those things. “Personal” means that when you’re writing to your audience, you should speak to them as you would if you were having a face-to-face conversation. Your audience is made up of individual readers, not a demographic group or statistic.

Appeal to them as individuals, not a market group. This means that your blog posts should make some type of emotional inroads with them, with the exact nature of the emotional appeal to depend on what you’re writing about. It might mean writing your posts from a first-person perspective, but not necessarily so.

Even if your readership is a large one, and you’re setting out to create a blog that speaks to your reader base, there are always ways to make it personal. Show that you understand the issues they’re facing and the problems they are experiencing. Use your blog posts to demonstrate to your readers that you get them and understand the connection they have to your books.

4. Provide Value to Your Readers

For someone to want to come back to your blog again and again, they have to feel as if it was worth the time they spent reading your posts. Your blog should leave a reader with something when they’re done. You need to provide them with some type of value.

The value you provide can take many forms, and it all starts with being unique. This, perhaps more than anything, will keep your audience coming back for more. Maybe the tone of your blog posts is humorous, or entertaining, or supportive, or informative, or inspirational. Chances are it’ll be a combination of more than one of these approaches.

After all, if you’re simply making posts with information and a point of view that could be easily found on other blogs, why would someone choose your blog over another? Remember that the value and uniqueness of your blog, and the key to growing your captive audience is you. Your blog is the only one that has YOU making the posts, so put that to your fullest advantage!

5. Let your readers guide you

Look at what your readers are talking about on your page or in your group or on other authors social media and write posts that talk to those issues. Are readers looking for quick reads for the holidays? Suggest a couple of your favorite authors’ books and plus one of your own. Are readers looking for inspiration or connection? Write an uplifting post or share a funny video and inspiring quote.

Have an opinion and make your blog posts relevant to your audience and post consistently to attract more and more readers.