How to Write a Successful Blog Article Series

Whether you're new to blogging or a published author, writing a successful blog series requires creativity and a few search engine optimization techniques. You may have heard the term "search engine optimization" before, and it can be a very intimidating concept, but basically it's related to copywriting in order to enhance "search traffic." Search traffic are visits to your blog post that originate from any of the major search engines. A visitor will type in a keyword, find your post in the listings, and click through. Keywords are key to writing for the web, but you'll want to ensure that your copy is readable to humans.

This step-by-step process integrates keywords with creativity by focusing on you -- what you want to write and who you want to write it for. There are many different types of articles and blog series that you can write, here are my tips and tricks for designing an ongoing successful blog or article series:

(1) Decide what you want to write - the topic that you want to write about

(2) How do you want to write it? - the format you're going to take. i.e. rant? weekly round-up?

(3) What is the timeliness or lifespan of your content? - i.e. "evergreen" (will live on the web indefinitely) versus timely (will be outdated by a certain point in time)

(4) What personality will you use to write it? For example, if I was a "single parent with an attitude" my article about raising a child by myself might draw more attention because of the way I relate to other single parents. Personality can add instant recognition to your content -- but it can also backfire, too.

(5) Write decent headlines - This is an important one, folks. If you notice, some web- truncates posts and summarizes headlines automatically, similar to the way an RSS feed does. A headline that reads: "Thoughts from a Minister" might not get as much attention as "Christmas Celebrations in Modern Worship."

(6) Use proper grammar and spelling - Do you want your blog or article to be taken seriously? Are you interested in getting paid to write or writing elsewhere? Great! Using internet slang (l33tspeak, LOLspeak, etc.), bad spelling, poor formatting and a general lack of unreadability can end up working against you. Generally speaking, a conversational tone with active tenses works really well to reach a broad audience.

(7) Check/Cite your sources - Links to other articles/blogs/sites that you're commenting on not only add credibility to your post, they provide your readers with additional information if they need it.

(8) Promote your work - Summaries, links, MySpace, LinkedIn, FaceBook, LiveJournal, Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon and forums all help get the buzz out there. If you have an article, don't be afraid to share it with your community of friends, co-workers and family through social media channels. Any little bit helps.

(9) Write on a regular schedule - If you can only commit to one or two posts a week, try to stick to the same days so readers will know when to expect

(10) Link to your older posts - Once you've been writing for a while, you'll want to link to your older posts using keywords that describe your post. The days of "click here" are long gone; it doesn't do you or your readers any good. Linking to older posts also helps expose new readers to your older content, and helps you reinforce (remember) what you've already covered.