Picture a scientist in his dimly lit lab. His white lab coat has a few oily stains, oversized transparent goggles, and glove-covered hands holding a bubbling liquid in a test-tube. He nods, gently puts down the test-tube, grabs his checklist and pencil, scribbles something, and continues his experiment.
Writing a blog post is like a scientist carry out an experiment in his lab. It’s both an art and science that involves processes, checklists, split testing, and feedback loops.
Crafting a blog post can be a daunting task.
Nevertheless, blogging is still the best form to get seen and hear by your potential customers. Many companies today turn to pro bloggers to craft content that helps them reach their prospects.
Want to write blog posts like a pro?
In this article, you’ll learn how to write a blog post. You’ll also learn processes pro bloggers have used to perfect their craft to churn out great blog posts. And a step-by-step guide to writing a blog post that wins you thousands of raving fans.
Let’s get into it.
If you’re entirely new to content creation, here’s what you have to know.
Simple guidelines for writing a valuable blog post
Blog writing is the art and science of researching, planning, writing, editing, and publishing content for the web.
The truth is – blog writing isn’t as simple as it sounds. A whole lot goes into writing a blog post that gets read and shared by thousands of people. Moreso, churning out great blog posts consistently. This why blog writing isn’t only an art but also a science.
When starting as a blog writer, I made the same mistakes that other novice writers usually make – approaching blog writing as a pure art form. Needless to say, I toiled without reward.
But luckily, you won’t have to. Here’s a few things I’ve since learned about blog writing. And things you need to consider when writing your blog post.
1. Determine what you want to achieve with your blog post
It’s a romanticized idea to immediately get on writing your blog post. And the words magically appear on paper. This only happens in movies.
Even professional writers establish a process before writing. With blog writing, you’ll need to be more strategic.
Before putting pen to paper or hand to keyboard, you need to do a bit of brainstorming. It’s important to have a concrete understanding of what you are writing, why you are writing, and for whom you are writing your blog post.
As you might already know, each blog post you’ll write serves a different purpose. You write blog posts to inform your audience, entertain your audience, or to get them to sign up for your newsletter. And many more reasons.
Having a concrete idea of what thought you’ll like to express in your blog post helps you determine the best form of blog content to write. It also helps to know what action you want your audience to take after reading your blog post.
So what do you write about?
2. Carry out a comprehensive keyword research
If you are looking to attract audiences, grow your business, or sell products, you simply can’t write about just anything. Remember, when writing a blog post – you aren’t writing for you, you are writing to be read. You’ll do well to write your blog post about what your audience is looking for.
This means carrying out comprehensive keyword research.
Keyword research is important to your blog’s success because it helps you find the topics that your audience is interested in.
Using keywords to write your blog post does several things for your blog;
- You provide valuable answers to questions people are looking for
- You attract an audience that wants to read what you write
The easiest way to get started with keyword research is by using a keyword research tool such as SEMrush, Moz, Ahref, etc. These are some of the best research tools in the market. Search your main keyword on the keyword tool to discover keywords with high search volume.
For example, if you blog about beauty and wellness, you can search different keywords, keyword variations, or longtail keywords to keywords with a high search volume.
Needless to say, if you want your blog post to get read, carrying out a comprehensive keyword. It also helps you determine how to write your blog post and an understanding of the audience you are aiming to persuade.
3. Create an outline
A challenge novice blog writers always face is staying on track with their blog posts. An outline helps you organize your ideas and guides your writing and ideas before you put your hands to the keyboard.
Think about an outline like a roadmap. It guides you from a blank screen to edit and publish.
An outline is a must for creating valuable content. It also prevents the dreaded writer’s block. When creating your first draft, an outline makes the write much easier and less daunting.
The best way to create an outline for your blog post is by using a pyramid structure:
- main topic
- subtopic
- supporting subtopic
- conclusion
I’ll explain it.
Let’s say you are writing about liver diseases, you can outline your blog post this way:
- Liver diseases
- what are liver diseases
- types of liver diseases
- diagnosis
- treatment and prevention
- conclusion
Your outline guides your readers from the main idea of your blog post to supporting ideas to the conclusion of your blog post.
Bear in mind that your subtopics also drive traffic to your blog post as visitors may be looking for different aspects of your blog topic.
As a writer, you should be looking to create valuable content that gets read and shared. Your readers should love your blog post so much – they’ll show it to others.
Reports show that about 2 million blog posts are shared on social media.
Surprised?!
No need to be.
If you are looking to drive traffic to your website and increase your readership, you should focus on writing valuable content that gets shared on social media.
There are probably other writers blogging about the things you are planning to write. It’s important to stand out from the crowd.
This means having a unique personality, also having a unique take on the topic you are writing about.
5. Craft a click-worthy headline
One effective way to stand out in a sea of blog posts is by crafting click-worthy headlines. Your attention should grab eyeballs to your blog post.
Great headlines make random visitors click on your blog post. Web-users read your headline first and decide whether your blog post is worth reading.
Why might be wondering why this is important.
Here’s the thing.
Stats show that 8 out of 10 web users read your headline but only 2 web-users actually go ahead to read your blog post. So what does this mean?!
It means – if you want to get read, you have to work 2x harder on your headline. This doesn’t mean crafting click-bait headlines, but headlines that’ll entice your audience to click on your blog post.
Your headline is the first impression you give your readers. And your first line makes the second impression. So make it count.
6. Make your blog post easy to read
Remender what it feels like to read a scientific journal. The wall of text staring you in the face. The densely packed words and numbers. You mostly zone out while slogging through such scientific papers.
Your blog post should be far from this – or you’ll drive people away.
When writing a blog post, break up your text, use simple words, and leave plenty of white spaces in between paragraphs.
You can also use lots of images, videos, Gifs, and infographics to make your blog post more engaging.
It also helps to write like you are having a conversation with a friend. This doesn’t mean using all the slang you use when talking to your actual friend. It means being casual and relaxed with how your writing, so your readers feel like they are receiving a letter from a friend. This makes for a far more interesting read.
Checklist for Publishing Your blog posts
Now, you’ve churned out your blog post first draft. You’ll want to go over your first draft and polish your writing till it shines. Be sure to check for grammar errors and spelling issues. Cut long-winded sentences. Rewrite sentences till it conveys the accurate message.
Most writers do their work alone as such don’t always have a second opinion on their writing. But if you have the luxury of an editor, be sure to get feedback from your editor.
You can use writing apps such as Grammarly or Hemmingway to spot errors and tailor your writing to your audience.
Once your content is good to go, you are now ready to publish your content. Since you are looking to attract an audience to your blog post, you should optimize your content for search engines.
Here’s an SEO checklist before publishing your blog post
- Optimize for social sharing
- Optimize for One Keyword
- Use The Main Keyword and Related Keywords appropriately
- Optimize your images and video
- Edit your URL appropriately
- Use internal and external links
Carrying out these SEO checks is crucial for ranking your blog post and attracting an audience.
You can also use the Yoast SEO plugin on WordPress to optimize your blog post before publishing.
Conclusion
Writing can be a daunting task if you are just starting out but approaching your blog post as an experiment can make things less frightening.
Want to write like the pros? Take each step of your work one at a time – craft a writing process and checklists.
Finally, be sure to establish a writing calendar as well – this helps you stay on track and avoid burn out and procrastination.
Remember, if you don’t hit publish, no one will read what you’ve written. So go ahead and smash the publish button and do it again.