It’s no secret that blogs can be very profitable in the world of content marketing.
More than 409 million people browse the blog every month, providing greater brand awareness, consumer trust and possible positive returns. Additionally, blogging resulted in a 434% increase in indexed pages and a 93% increase in indexed links.
That means more incoming traffic and more repeat customers for your business. What’s not to like?
However, 8.2 million blog posts are uploaded worldwide each month, and this talent pool continues to grow. To stay competitive, you have to keep up with the latest blogging trends and content marketing strategies.
Here are some of the biggest blogging trends to look out for this year, along with quick and easy ways to incorporate them into your blogging strategy.
Blog Trend #1: Visual Content
No blog trending list is complete without reminding you of the importance of visual content.
There is no doubt about that; Improved visual content. Studies show that even three days later, readers can remember 65 percent of the visual content they saw.
This is a huge boost to your brand’s visibility and engagement.
As blogs get longer and more detailed, design and interactivity become more important. Visual content can offer readers the opportunity to scan content without reading it in full.
Only 16 percent of online readers view content verbatim. Others scan information quickly and effectively.
If you want your readers to stay with you, get involved and promote your content on other platforms. This makes your information easy to scan and remember – just with the help of visual elements.
Use visual content in your blog posts
Adding images and videos to your content breaks up a lot of text and gives your audience a responsive new way to interact with your content.
It’s always better to use original content on your blog, but stock images can still be useful when designing a compelling blog. For example, infographics offer readers a way to easily use your information without having to read the entire post. By the way, if you want to get out of copyright infringement issue on any platform, such as Instagram, youtube, facebook and etc, you will have to use a technique, which is fully explained in the guide : “I do not own the rights to this music”
Here’s a great example from an Oberlo infographic.
Similarly, another of the hottest blogging trends this year is video content, which offers a more engaging way for readers to engage with your posts.
Wyzowl’s research found that people watch an average of 2.5 hours of video content per day. So, integrating video content into your blog is a great way to optimize the time users spend on your pages.
Blog Trend #2: Affiliate Marketing
Another important factor in the current blogging trend is the use of affiliate marketing links in your blog content.
Affiliate marketing allows you to create a continuous sales funnel outside of your website.
For example, if you run a B2C business, you can hire a blogger to write reviews for your products. From there, you can offer your followers a discount if they buy it through this post.
This not only increases your sales reach, but also introduces you to a new target group.
The blog accounts for more than 40 percent of all affiliate commissions in the United States – earning affiliate merchants an average of $65,800 per year.
No wonder affiliate marketing is one of the hottest blogging trends this year. So how can you benefit from this technique?
Use affiliate marketing on your blog
When setting up a blog, think about affiliate marketing techniques you can use.
If you mention a product or service, contact the Website Development Companies to see if there is an affiliate program you can join. You can do this with a simple Google search for: product + “affiliate program”.
It’s always best to choose a product you know and love because your results depend on how well you sell it.
However, no one wants to read a sales pitch. A successful affiliate blog should be educational, informative, and use other blogging techniques like SEO marketing and visual content.
It’s also important to note that the FTC requires you to disclose all affiliate programs, which you can do with regular writers on your posts.
Blog Trend 3: Critical Reader
One of the most relevant trends in blogging today is the inclusion of critical readers into your audience as public perceptions of online content change.
With terms like “fake news” and increasing competition for content, readers are less likely to trust content that is not in good standing.
Readers today need to be reassured that your content is accurate and honest. You expect citations, sources, and statistics to back up your claim. Likewise, you should consider the amount of content that is easily accessible online.
Every year more people and more brands enter the blogging world.
To stay competitive and improve your SEO, you need to write proven content with good sources.
Writing for critical readers
It’s important to write logical, honest, and high-quality content that uses trusted sources and consistent citations.
Making unfounded and unsubstantiated claims is a great way to lose your readers. Not only that, poor sourcing can even have a negative impact on your SEO and the overall credibility of your page.
Here are some simple tips to follow when writing for critical readers:
Write honest content backed by trusted sources.
Use references to cite sources or add them as footnotes.
Don’t make claims you can’t prove.
Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver.
The key here is to avoid writing anything that is untrue or that an accurate source cannot corroborate.
Loss of trust can be a huge blow to your business. Stay informed and enhance the integrity of your brand.
Blogging trend #4: Mobile format first
Trends in blogs often come and go, but mobile formatting will still be there. Nowadays everyone uses their cell phone to read online.
From news articles on your Facebook feed to blogging on Instagram, your users are constantly surfing the web from their phones.
It is very important that the websites, blogs and other digital content you create are mobile friendly. No one wants to click on an article just to pixelate it or crop their screen.
If you don’t have mobile optimization, you run the risk of readers leaving your site before they can read your content. A study by Small Biz Genius showed that 88% of users will not return to a website after a bad experience.
Write in mobile-first format
When creating mobile-friendly content, it’s important to consider how your content will look on mobile screens.
Sentences on desktop screens can look like mobile paragraphs.
Therefore, break up paragraphs, use short sentences, and make sure your site is mobile friendly.
Here are some other points to keep in mind:
make navigation as easy as possible
Make your content easy to scan
Ensure fast page load time
Use mobile adaptive web design
Don’t use text wrapping for images
As always, writing simple, accurate and concise content can improve your overall mobile accessibility.
Blog Trend #5: Crowd Content
Crowdwriter links agencies, companies, and retailers with the top content writers on the Web to assist them in implementing their content marketing strategy. This fad has crossed all the boundaries of popularity and today all the crowd writers are in giant demand.