Like most things in life, blogging, unless it is done well, is hardly worth doing at all.

We all know the value a blog can have on a business. What this means in real terms is that an awesome blog gets plenty of visitors so unless your blog is getting traffic, you’re whistling in the wind.

The sad reality is that there is a lot of average bloggers who like the sound they make when they put their lips together blow. How do you move from an average to an awesome blogger? Here are key 5 tips on how to blog better:

1. Write great content

The average page view for the average blog post is less than 20 seconds long. That means you have 20 seconds to grab – and keep – your visitors attention. So the first rule to becoming an awesome blogger is to write great content and a great title opens the door to the rest of your piece.

So make it memorable.

Once you’ve got a reader’s attention, you need to keep it by writing about a subject that inspires you – your enthusiasm should come through in each piece you post. And it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) each piece should be grammatically correct and spell-checked to ensure that simple mistakes don’t detract from the message.

2. Understand the medium

Forget about what Mrs McCready taught in your Year 9 English class about paragraphs needing 3 sentences at a minimum, with a thesis and a conclusion blah, blah, blah.

An awesome blogger writes to the needs of his audience.

Since blog readers have notoriously short attention spans, an awesome blog post should be relatively brief (between 500 and 2000 words long), with short, punchy paragraphs.

And pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

3. A little SEO goes a long way

SEO or search engine optimisation is all about harnessing the power of Google. Potential readers enter a search word or phrase into the search box and you want your page to appear on the first page of results. How do you do that?

It’s complicated.

That’s why average bloggers should focus on only one aspect of SEO and that is this: own your keywords and phrases.

In order to do that you need to know what words or phrases people searching against. Google Adwords is a great tool for figuring this out. Then you need to make sure that key word or phrase is in your title, in the body of the post, and in your description and tags. Keep doing this for the same handful of keywords and phrases and soon you’ll be cornering the market.

4. Keep it coming….

Blogs that are updated frequently with new and original content reap a number of benefits. First, search engines rank them higher. Second, fans keep coming back for more because everyone likes fresh content.

And third, the more you post the more opportunities you have to share your content and sharing your content gets more readers.

5. Share, share, share

Sharing content is a must for anyone looking to move from average to awesome. But not all networking sites are the same. A new like on your Facebook page, for example, generates 13 times more traffic than a single Twitter follower.

But since syndicating is also about engaging with other users and readers on that platform, it makes sense to stick with 3 or 4 networking sites that suite your personal preferences and then devote your time to those sites only.

Knowing how to blog effectively is important if you want to use your blog to grow your business and your brand. With a little discipline even the most average blogger can become, if not great, at least a whole lot better than they were.

And we’re not just whistling Dixie.