Over the past five years I think I may have started around three or four blogs with great intentions of really working hard to gain followers. Truth is… a few months later I always found myself shutting them down. My husband on the other hand, was a dedicated blog writer for years, often times writing guest blog posts for other blogs. He not only had great success, but he continued to see an increase in his website traffic over time.
The whole process of dedicated blog writing can be somewhat of a tedious process, especially when you don’t even know where to begin!
What was the difference between our experiences? He had a plan.
Effective Blog Writing Steps
1. What’s the Subject?
When writing a blog post, you need to do your research on what blog subjects will gain valuable readers. If you own a hair salon, writing a blog post on “The Art of Woodworking” might not fit well with your targeted audience. A much better blog post would be “How to Keep your Hair Healthy during Dry Winter Months.” Simply choose a subject that you can write passionately about and relates to your website. Make sure to choose topics that you can include links to other areas inside your website, this is not only a free way to promote your services but internal linking also improves your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Writing blog posts that answer common customer issues or questions is a another great subject idea as it not only addresses issues but allows you to build your customer service.
In order to always have a list of potential blog posts, simply start keeping a running list of ideas. When my husband was active with his blog, I would always find pieces of paper in his pockets or around the house with blog ideas. This was one of his favorite tools to prevent writer’s block.
2. Flash Back to Grade School
One of the key planning elements of writing that you most likely were taught in grade school is to create an outline! Begin jotting down your key points that you want to make, along with supporting elements, facts, and begin collecting any images that you want to use to help build your story.
Once the outline is complete, begin writing and start filling in any blanks that may be present. Start with an attention-grabbing introduction with carefully built supporting paragraphs and end with a strong conclusion. Use sub-headers to draw attention to key elements of the post. When finished, sit on the post for a few hours and come back and look at the post with fresh eyes to begin the editing process.
When writing a blog post, you don’t have to meet a specific word count and many bloggers have different opinons on how long a post should be. The length is up to the author but should be long enough to fully convey the message and short enough not to lose any visitors.
3. Fine-Tune and Revise
Read, reread, and ask someone else to read your newly written blog post. Make sure that the post is relevant from beginning to end and that it does not go off track. A good tool that I often times use myself is to have someone read the post that is not knowledgeable in that area. If they can understand it, then great job! If not, you have some editing to do.
As pointless as this sounds, double check your spelling and grammer usage. Nothing will make someone click away from your blog post quicker than the use of bad grammer. Make sure that your facts are correct, credit is given where needed, the post flows well from beginning to end, and any images that are being used relate to the blog subject.
4. Title is Key
The title of a blog is quite frankly the most important part of the blog post. It’s that first handshake and really the only thing that will make a reader click into the post to read more. Use your creative skills and write an amazing attention grabber! A well written blog title will convey the overall message of the post and encourage readers to read more!
Now that your blog post is written, promote the new post by sharing it with your friends and on any social media websites. We also recommend writing blog posts as much as your schedule will allow! The fresher and newer the content, the better!
R2F Creative LLC provides graphic design + branding and web design solutions for clients nationwide and locally in Ankeny and Des Moines, Iowa.
