One popular post can bring your more traffic and links than a month’s worth of your usual content. In this post, I want to set you a challenge with the potential to launch your blog into the stratosphere. So make sure to use these tips and make the next post you write your most popular post ever.

1. Time is more important than talent – After blogging for some time, I’m more than convinced that writing has nothing to do with talent. Assuming you have acceptable grammar and vocabulary, writing is more about editing and coming up with ideas. Obviously, the longer you spend on an article, the better it will be. With the extra time spent, you can refine, format and fill your post with plenty of value.

2. Use your best idea – I’ll be honest here. I use to have a tendency to keep my best idea for later use. I won’t recommend this to anyone. The whole point is to try writing your best post one after another. Here’s the rule of thumb. The more your post help people solve their problems, the better it will do.

3. Write in short paragraphs – The visual appeal of your blog’s content can be just as important as the content itself. Write your blog posts in short paragraphs (no more than 2-3 sentences is a safe rule) to provide visual relief from a text heavy web page. Most readers will skim a blog post or web page before committing to read it in its entirety. Text heavy web pages and blog posts can be overwhelming to readers while pages with a lot of white space are easier to skim and more likely to keep readers on the page.

4. Brainstorm headlines – A good headline should always give out an idea or hint to attract readers and visitors to your site. Do note that it’s bad if you give out the entire story in the headline itself as there would no longer be any reason for people to read the article then. To cut the story short, any headline that does not give indication of an idea or hint will actually deter prospects.

5. Invest plenty of value in your post – Ever bookmarked or voted for something without completely reading it? We’ve all done it. It’s because of the ‘Wow’ factor – the presence of enough promised value in one place gets the reader enthusiastic about the post straight away. Instead of 5 tips, why not share 50? Instead of 9 resources, why not 40 or more?

6. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – If your post looks good, it will draw readers in. Take the time to add images, thumbnails and formatting to what you create. Make your post a visual feast. With so much web content presented in a bland way, your post is guaranteed to stand out.

7. Write like you talk – Even if you aren’t a natural born writer, you can write for your blog. Just write like you’re speaking to your friend or to yourself.

Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on blog setup. You can check out his guide on how to install wordpress.