There are more than 156 million blogs on the web. That’s a lot of content and there’s a lot of competition. So whether it’s an individual blog or a blog on a company website make sure you’re making the most of it with these five tips:

1)     Write amazing headlines – people don’t have a lot of time and their attention spans are shorter than short, sometimes the headline is all they read. Your headlines need to make people want to read the blogs. Amy Izzo, marketing director at Marketri says, “I think it’s important to have a headline that’s really going to grab peoples’ attention. If not, you’re going to lose half the audience. There needs to be something quantifiable for the headline so readers will know what they’ll come away with after reading your post.”

2)     Give it a purpose – a blog and indeed any piece of article writing should inform, whether it’s a piece of news or a guide on how to do something the reader needs to learn something by reading the piece. So make sure what you’re posting has value to the reader and gives them something to think on.

3)     Get chatting – blog posts are conversational, they are meant to engage your readers and invite comment. You can do this by making them more personal, inviting questions or even arguing for a cause. Marcus Sheridan, marketer and president of The Sales Lion says, “I think everyone should have an opinion [in a post]. The more black and white you can be the more successful it’ll be. The people that stand out in the industry actually have something to say. Too many people are afraid to have an opinion on anything.”

4)     Interact with your readers – you can invite people to write their own opinions but you need to acknowledge them and talk back otherwise people will think you don’t care. Blogging can be as much of a networking tool as other forms of social media. “When your readers see you responding back to comments, they get encouraged to share their thoughts,” according to Mustafa of Performance Marketing Insider. “Everybody wants to be heard, and acknowledged. People want to build a relationship with the blogger via commenting. So by intelligently responding back to comments, you’ll automatically get more readers to participate.”

5)     Tell people what you’re doing – it’s all well and good creating dazzling, informative content but people need to know about it. Make sure your posts are linked up to your social media sites so they update automatically. If you have a company email newsletter it’s worth promoting on there too.