5 top tips for writing ‘top tips’ blogs

Writing top tips is a great way to share your knowledge and skills; to share what you know in a simple to follow way, especially via a blog post.

In this post, I share 5 top tips to writing top tips (…see what I did there!) to help you shape this reader-friendly blog post style.

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Reasons to write a ‘top tips’ blog posts

There are so many advantages to using top tips, when it comes to writing a blog post. The title is immediately eye-catching. It draws the reader in, knowing they will gain great bitesize chunks of information.

The top tips can be on a very general topic, such a ‘Top Tips on Taking a Good Photograph’ or very specific, like ‘Top Tips on Capturing the Landscape at Dusk’.

Each tip should stand out – made bold and tagged as a heading – which makes it great to scan read.

In addition, it’s a wonderful way to share your expertise and add value to what you offer.

5 top tips to consider for your next top tips blog post

1) Choose the right title

5 Tops Tips…3 Great Ways… 7 Helpful hints….

When I say ‘top tips’, this doesn’t have to be your title. You can use an array of different wording to capture a similar concept – that of offering a certain number of ideas the reader can easily apply.

Whatever you do, ensure what your title, or headline as some prefer to call, says exactly what the tips will cover. This is really important for search engine optimisation – it will be your focus keyword most likely.

Also, there is nothing worse than ‘click bait’ – so be really transparent about what the tips will be. When a post says something like ‘3 ways to clean your oven in 30 seconds’…and it turns out there is no useful or realistic advice to actually take away.

 2) Choose the ‘right’ number

I would recommend writing your tips and then seeing what you have, rather than setting yourself a definitive number first. I think five is a good number, in terms of ensuring the blog post is about the right length. However, it completely depends on how much detail you want to offer for each tip. Importantly, make sure they are all genuinely ‘good tips’ – remember respect your reader.

If, instead of struggling to reach five tips (or even fewer!), you have 10 or more, consider if you could break up the tips into two or more individual posts. Perhaps, you can group the tips together to create two more specific blog posts – remember to change the title to reflect this.

If you are keen to offer a very ‘overarching’ general top tips posts, then evaluate all of the tips you have and be critical about which are more important. You could also group tips together, using headings to identify the groupings

If your word count is over 1000 words (which is a good 5 minutes of reading time on average), seriously consider if you will lose people’s attention. I think when there are more than 10, most people will end up reading the subheadings only, and not your explanatory information, which is a shame.

3) Make your top tips genuinely useful

This relates to click bait too (see above) and also choosing the right number. If you are seriously struggling to get to five top tips, consider if three good ones would be better than three good ones, plus two not so good, which are ‘scraping the barrel’. It is obvious to any reader.

Don’t over promise and under deliver. Ensure all of your tops tips are useful, are applicable and can be used effectively by your target audience.

If you offer top tips which are bizarre or irrelevant or actually not a tip, then any future top tip style posts risk being ignored too. Giving advice is a task that should be handled with care and respect – it is your chance to show your expertise, not waffle on!

4) Consider your target audience

We are all passionate about our businesses and you may have lots of advice that you want to share, but consider who your clients are, who the target audience for your blog is and, therefore, what top tips would actually be of use to them specifically.

I love the science of language and particularly etymology (the history of words) …I could offer top tips on identifying where a word is likely to have originated from. However, as a content writer and consultant working with small businesses, I don’t think that will actually help you directly with creating engaging content, exciting blog posts, readable website copy and information-packed emails!

Therefore, as with all types of blogging, remember that the posts aren’t all about you and your interests, as such, but about guiding, informing and helping your readers and clients. What will they find useful? What information from your sector/business/profession/skill set could you share which might genuinely make their life a little easier? Have a think, I bet you have a lot of helpful information to share.  

5) Consider the order

As part of good editing practice, once you have written your top tips blog post – consider the order of this tips. I have put this tip last on purpose, as I think it is one of the last jobs to do before publication. Reflect on your tips and see if there is a natural flow from one tip to another. Are some more engaging than others? Well, then put them higher up the list.

Sometimes you need to ‘know’ tip 1 for tip 2 to make sense, as well, for example.

Finally, consider also which tips might attract your readers’ attention more readily or be assessed as ‘the most useful tip’. Put this first. This will hook readers in at the beginning and hopefully encourage them to read the whole post.

You may also want to put a great tip last, as we often scan read and again readers get hooked in as they reach the bottom of the page and decide to go back and read in more detail.

Now share your own top tips

Top tips are great fun to write and don’t forget they provide a fantastic opportunity at a later date for an updated post – perhaps adding another 5 tips on the same topic, incorporating further advice related to the original article, which may come from something new you have learnt or from readers’ comments on the post.

They are also great for sharing on social media. You can share the link to the blog post itself. In time, you could also share the content (or main top tip headings) in a social media post. And, you can even share the tips individually as social media posts too.

And my final tip…have fun sharing your knowledge! I bet you’ll be amazed at how much you have to offer and the response you get. What may seem obvious to you can be life-changing advice to someone else!

If you want more help with blog posts, content creation ideas and repurposing content for social media, why not book a discovery call. Find my Calendly booking form here: https://thecontentconsultancy.com/contact-kate-llewellyn/