If you could take a tally of which niche each blog on the internet is dedicated to, I think you would find that internet marketing “how-to” blogs are definitely King.However, I believe, in close second would be health related blogs.

As a dedicated blogger and authority site publisher, I read lots of blogs, many of which are “how to’s” on content creation, marketing or sales conversion. I see lots of great general advice, rarely, however, do I see “how to” offerings specifically for health and wellness blogging.

I would like to get the ball rolling then with a list of essentials that all health related blog authors should consider when writing a post. Even if you are leaning towards video or podcasting on your blog, no authority site will last without “stellar, pillar or flagship” written content in the posts and pages.

Therefore, I offer you, “8 Essential Ingredients to a Powerful Health Related Blog Post“.

NOTE: Of course, some of the tips here would apply to any blog but the following are especially important for health related blogs. Enjoy!

A Compelling Title: What is a compelling title?

That is a question with a million answers so… how about an example? Here is a formula for a great health related blog post title which you could use on practically any health related blog.

NOTE: Don’t use this formula for every post but every week or two, you’ll want to post with a solid title similar to this.

Formula: # + action word + problem/solution + disease state

Example: 10 Ways to Attack Painful Joint Deterioration Caused by Chronic Inflammation

{#} {action word]} {problem} {disease}

So, you simply adapt this to your health related niche and each week:

List X number of ways to attack, prevent, zap, etc. a problem caused by the disease state.

or

List X number of ways to improve, accelerate, empower , etc. a solution to the disease state.

TIP: There is an interesting little headline/post title tester HERE.

Teaser Picture

This is critical! Don’t underestimate the power of a carefully selected picture.

If you are new to blogging, you might think that inserting a picture into a blog post is an advanced technical feat. Regardless, you must learn how to do it, and quick!

There is nothing more effective at capturing attention than a picture.

To select the right picture, I use the following rules of thumb:

• Don’t spend hours searching for a picture.

• Check for images on Google then go to a paid service if necessary.

• Don’t always choose the obvious. (If your post is about vitamins, don’t use a picture of a vitamin bottle. Boring!)

• Do pick a picture that teases the visitor to read the post but doesn’t leave them wondering how the picture relates.

• Do liberally crop the picture so the particular aspect of the picture that provides the teaser is immediately highlighted.

• Do resize the picture so it accents (not overpowers) the post and put it at the top of the post, (right or left, doesn’t matter).

Use an image manager plugin to make it easy (the Wordpress Image Manager plugin I use).

Consider the Keyword

If you are like me, once you get an idea for a post you probably jump right into it, madly typing away.An hour later, you might congratulate yourself for the wonderful bit of content and then realize, “once again I forgot to optimize the post with a focused keyword (or key phrase)”. D’oh!

Begrudgingly you return to your cave, make keyword adjustments to the post and promise, “next time I will optimize before I write the post”.

So, why is it so important to choose the keyword or key phrase first?

Because, of course, you are not writing for the “New Yorker” or “Style Magazine”. You don’t have thousands of subscribers trained to digest anything you cook up.

The hard-to-swallow fact is no one will read your post unless it ends up on the first page of Google, Yahoo, etc. And, it won’t get love from the search engines unless the content is focused; unless your keyword or key phrase appears consistently in your post.

So, I suggest choosing one main keyword (or key phrase) and one long-tail keyword (key phrase) and write your post accordingly. This way you are sort of “baiting” the search engines from the proverbial right and left.

TIP: Hittail.com is a great place for help choosing long-tail key phrases. Sometimes, the health and wellness information being searched for is amazingly specific.

Hittail.com helps you uncover those searches.

Format For Me, Please

Generally speaking, health related blogs have more scientific/medical info than most blogs.

Unless you are a physics professor, this type of content can be tough on the super-scanner, web-reader eyeballs.

Why not make it easy on your reader? They will thank you by returning to your well-formatted, easy-to-read post over and over again.

You will, of course, do your best to make the article interesting and informative but, just as importantly, please format the post for us poor souls who read small text on bright, shiny computer screens.

So, other that avoiding long text-only paragraphs, what does this mean?

Would you like to know? Then, see below…

• Use questions (see ^)
• Avoid long text-only paragraphs (no example provided anywhere in this post, I hope)
• “Use bullets () and quotes”
• Bold your main points (
• Include personal commentary (^see<)
• Don’t be totally conventional and, you know, just write the way you talk, OK?

Credibility vs. Readability

Unless you are a doctor (or some sort of celebrified health guru), you need to ask yourself, why will my readers care one dribble about what I say?

This is a big issue!

With new bloggers, especially those offering information on diverse, ever changing health and wellness topics, there are usually two camps.

Blogger 1: Totally overlooks the importance of credibility and pounds out one opinionated post after another hoping someone cares.

Blogger 2: Simply reformats medical journals, news stories, or other credible sources but never inject any of their own personality into the blog post.

TIDBIT: When I started, I was the latter.

For a health related blog to succeed, you must do both.

So, go ahead, cite CNN, reference an .org or an .edu web site, or “translate” a complicated JAMA abstract, but then, don’t forget to insightfully comment, critique or factually embellish that credible info.

TIP: For some health related blogs, it would make sense to up the ante on credibility by applying for a HON (Health On the Net) accreditation. (you can view the HON accreditation qualifications here)

Call to inter-ACTION

Sharing interesting info with the blogosphere is great but, think about it, wouldn’t you rather change a behavior, solve a problem, or create a new experience for someone?

I think most people who chose to publish a health related blog, as opposed to a “make money online” blog, want to help others feel better, and perhaps get paid modestly in the process. Is this a contradiction? I don’t think so, but that’s just me.

A well published blog is the perfect way to accomplish both of these goals.

• Help others and
• Get paid for doing so.

Your aim then, with each blog post, should be to M-O-V-E your reader.

Motivate, inspire, and even ruffle the feathers of your reader enough to carry them forward a bit.

What type of movement are we talking about here?

Well, with each brilliant blog post you could:

• encourage the reader to set a goal
• ask the reader for comments on, or perhaps critiques of, your post
• challenge the reader to investigate a recommendation or statement you (or others you quote) make
• get the reader to participate in a poll related to the topic
• suggest that the reader check out another related post on your site
• inspire the reader to buy a product that would help them
• help the reader decide to opt-in to your newsletter/tips
• prompt the reader to request a service you provide
• suggest that the reader bookmark or share the post if they found it valuable
• invite the reader become a contributor

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, so, if you have more ideas, I would love to hear them!

Visit Inflammation911.com/move-them and add your suggestions to the list or vote on what has been added already.

Did you know that if 100 people clicked through to read your blog post after finding you on Google, potentially 1000 read your excerpt? (NOTE: I made up those numbers to make my point simple…could be more, could be less, it depends on what we are about to talk about.)

You see, when the title and link to your post pops up on a search engine results page (SERP), it is usually accompanied by the excerpt you provided for your post.

Obviously, many more folks read your excerpt than actually click on to your full post.

So, don’t treat the content of the excerpt as an after-thought. It is vitally important! …and, not as hard as you think to get it right.

Here are 2 rules of thumb to follow.

Be consistent, simple, and visual.

You will want to make sure the excerpt is consistent with the post title. The language you use should be simple, even if the post is about a highly complex clinical abstract. The language should also be as “visual” as possible. (see the example below, “put joint pain behind you” and “squash” are examples of visual language)

Benefit first, feature second.

The first sentence of the excerpt must explain how the reader will benefit from reading the post. The second sentence, if necessary at all, should offer more explanation of how this benefit is achieved.

Example:

• Title> 10 Ways to Attack Painful Joint Deterioration Caused by Chronic Inflammation
• Excerpt> Put joint pain behind you, quickly and naturally. Learn about a few simple, but effective remedies that will squash your joint pain.

Insert Links

This is the easy one…and usually done as the last little “chore”. (That’s how I do it anyway)

This is a nice little SEO tip drilled into me by the folks who taught me at the Authority Site Center. To increase your post’s relevancy to the search engines and social bookmarking services (which drive free traffic to your site, yes I said free) it is important to insert carefully selected text links into the body of your post.

Of course, as a good blogger, you will list tags after your post. What we are saying here is however, you also need to put text link tags in the body of the post.

It is actually very simple to do using a free Wordpress plugin called Tagalize It. Here is the basic gist:

1. Choose a word, phrase, name, book title, etc. (other than your main keyword or long-tail keyword) mentioned in your post that is related to your niche and insert a tag that links it to a list of similarly tagged links at Technorati.com.

2. Now, repeat this with another word, phrase, name, book title, etc. but this time, point the link to IceRocket.com.

3. Finally, carefully choose a section of your post which you have elaborated on in another one of your exceptional posts and create a “self-tag” to that other post.

And that’s it…

Final Word

Publishing an authority site, especially in a health related niche is both tremendously challenging and rewarding. I salute those endeavoring to help others discover real solutions and insight into living a healthier life.

Healthy blogging to you!

About the author: Thomas Deeter is an ASC Member and the editor of Inflammation911.com