Been asked to write a blog post and have no idea where to start? Creating a compelling blog post involves a balance of creativity, structure, and strategy. This trifecta will help you capture your readers’ attention by delivering compelling and valuable insights in a succinct manner. We have developed this simple guide to get you started.
First let us start off with what a blog post is and is not. A blog post is written content that is published on a website. Blogs can contain images, graphics, and videos that help enhance your written content/storytelling. A blog post can be a how-to/step-by-step guide, a news article, an interview, a review, or a personal story – and they can be long or short depending on the topic you are writing about. As a start, we recommend sticking with a topic that you are excited and passionate about!
Understand Your Audience
Before you begin writing, you need to understand who your target audience is. This will help you tailor your blog post to craft meaningful and relatable content that meets the needs and expectations of your audience. Below are key considerations.
- Demographics: Age, gender, location (rural, urban, suburban), population, education level, etc.
- Interests: What topics might they be passionate or curious about or what topics are you knowledgeable and passionate about that you wish to share.
- Pain Points: What problems or challenges are they faced with? What lessons learned or actions would you like to impart or share that can help them overcome those challenges and/or difficulties. This could be something as simple as My Top 3 Parks to Visit that are Mobility Friendly.
As you review the above information, you may uncover a variety of topics that you can develop content around that address your audience’s problems/challenges or topics of interest to your readers. TIP: Keep these thoughts in mind as you move along – Why should they read it? How will it help them?
Choose a Captivating Topic
Selecting the right topic is essential for attracting, engaging, and sustaining your audience. Below are tips for choosing a topic.
- Target Audience: Pain points or interests of your target audience may provide helpful insight into the types of topics they might be interested in. (Examples: Mental Health, cooking, baking, travel, most nutritious dog food, best car washes, best personal trainers in the region, sports, beaches, health insurance, Trauma-Informed Care practices, food, housing, how to use uber services, etc.)
- Trending Topics: Explore social media, news sites, and forums to find what is currently popular.
- Unique Angle: Offer a fresh or unique perspective on a common topic to stand out from the competition.
- Keyword Research: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to identify trending topics and keywords. Even just using Google to search what topics are trending when searching potential keywords can be helpful.
Create an Outline
Creating an outline can help organize your thoughts to ensure logical flow and comprehensive coverage of the topic. When developing your outline, focus on three main sections: the introduction, body, and conclusion. Below are helpful tips to get you started.
- Introduction
- Hook: Grab the reader’s attention.
- Purpose: Clearly state the purpose of your blog post.
- Preview: Briefly mention what you will cover.
- Body
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- Break the content into sections with subheadings.
- Use bullet points or numbered lists for clarity.
- Provide evidence, examples, research, pictures, experiences, and anecdotes to support your points.
- Conclusion
- Summarize the key points you want your audience to walk away with.
- Provide a call-to-action to encourage readers to comment, share, or explore related content.
We created a simple blog post template to get you started. You can tailor it to fit the purpose of your blog post.
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Write Engaging Content
When writing your blog post, aim to engage and/or activate your readers. Below are helpful tips for writing engaging content.
- Tell a Story: Write as if you are speaking directly to the reader. People connect with stories. Use a friendly tone and incorporate personal experiences and anecdotes throughout your blog to make it more relatable and memorable to your audience.
- Break Up the Text: Use short paragraphs, bullet points, subheadings, and even visuals to make your content easy to read. Concise and succinct paragraphs help readers stay engaged, especially when reading on a mobile device or tablet.
- Add Value: Provide your reader with actionable advice, practical tips, or useful information that they can apply. Give your reader something they can take away.
- Active Voice: Write as if you were having a personal conversation with the reader. Writing in an active voice allows you to connect and engage with the reader. Take them on a short and meaningful journey, dining, travel, or adventure.
Craft a Compelling Title
Your title is the first impression readers will have of your blog post. Make it clear, intriguing, and relevant! A great headline can help draw the reader in. Make it count. Below are tips to craft a catchy title.
- Be Specific: Keep it short and sweet. Clearly convey what the reader can expect or will learn from your blog.
- Use Numbers: Titles like “5 Tips” or “10 Best Practices” or “3 Things to know before signing a lease” can attract and grab your readers attention.
- Incorporate Power Words: Use impactful words to capture their attention and spark curiosity like ultimate, essential, guide, lessons, learned, strategies, my personal journey, or evidence based. These words create a sense of value and authority, encouraging readers to engage.
- Ask Questions: Engage curiosity and create a sense of urgency with questions like “How?” or “Why?” to stimulate conversations and the importance of why they should read your blog.
Tip: Using Keywords within your blog post is not as relevant and critical as it used to be. However, if you are writing a blog post on food nutrition, you may want to consider using the keyword Nutrition within the link to your blog. Google has changed the way they rank content and are basing their rankings more on keywords in links versus keywords peppered throughout your content.
Proofreading and Editing
Before publishing your blog post, do a final read-through to catch any spelling errors, grammatical errors, incomplete thoughts, and ensure there is a smooth flow to your content. Below are tips to deploy.
- Read it out loud. This step helps ensure your blog post makes sense and doesn’t feel choppy or hard to read.
- Ask someone you trust to review and make recommendations and suggestions. Getting someone else’s perspective can help catch things that you might not see or provide helpful insights and perspectives.
- Sit on it overnight or a couple of days then come back to it with a fresh perspective.
Writing a blog does not have to be a big burden! Think of it as a short story of what you would like your readers to know more about or why they should act. It is a snapshot of your passion, experiences, learnings, work, or research that you wish to highlight and share with others. Start small and have fun!
Resources/References
How to Start a Blog in 2024 – Easy Guide to Create a Blog for Beginners (theblogstarter.com)
23 Beginner Blogging Tips to Get Better at Blogging (Fast) (ahrefs.com)