9 Important Steps to Help You Write a Blog Post
The ability to write a blog post has become vital in this day and age. Everyone knows it’s no longer just a medium to express thoughts, updates or personal advice. Blogs now go further than that. They can be helpful step-by-step guides, and share important news. Not just that, they’ve become crucial to businesses on the rise.
Maintaining an active blog keeps businesses and their users close. That improves brand awareness and helps the readers connect to them. Blogs can also provide their own source of income. Many digital nomads depend on their blogs for a huge chunk of their monthly earnings. So it goes without saying that learning how to write a compelling blog post is important these days. That’s why we brought you these top nine tips to help make it happen.
1. Identify Your Target Audience
One of the most important aspects of writing is knowing who you write for before you sit down and get to work. This is why it is crucial that you identify your audience before doing anything else. Here are the things you need to do to identify your audience, understand it, and write for them.
Do your research
Collect as much information about your audience as you can. You can consult various databases with the metrics related to your target audience. Or you can seek advice from professionals who have experience with your audience.
Segment your audience
Once you have the general picture of who you want to be writing for, you will need to segment your audience. There is no universal reader. So, you need to understand the specific needs of the different types of potential readers.
Compile your personas
After you segment your audience, you will be able to compile your personas. These are the profiles of the different types of readers you will be writing for. They consist of their interests, needs, beliefs, values, and other information.
Direct your writing
Lastly, you will need to direct your writing at these personas you have compiled. You might want to create content for each of them. Or target only one or two of them to have a narrower but also a more dedicated audience.
2. Craft a Headline That Nobody Can Resist
Once you know who your audience is and how you need to target it, you will need to craft a headline that nobody can resist. If you think about, your headline or title is the first thing that attracts the attention of your readers. Here are some tips on how to do it.
Think about your topic
Start by thinking about your topic. Take into account other titles you have seen that have a similar topic. For example, if you are writing a tutorial, titles that have “how to” or “guide” in them work best.
Make it short and simple
There is no need to make your headline too long or complicated. You don’t want to confuse people. You want them to feel like this is the type of content they are looking for and will want to read.
Don’t make it clickbait
Once again, your title must show that the piece you wrote is something useful. Clickbait headlines have a bad reputation. So few people enjoy such articles and blog posts.
Use correct keywords
Of course, don’t forget to use the correct keywords. The right keywords will be of great help to your headline. It will both attract attention and also positively influence your search rankings.
3. Create a Captivating Introduction
After your readers click on the title and access your blog post, they will need to a “hook” to keep them interested. You want to make them invested from the start. Getting distracted or bored might lead them to click away. Here is how you can create a captivating introduction.
Introduce the problem
You will need to start by introducing the problem that you will discuss in your blog post. This is the question bothering your audience they want to hear the answer for.
Promise a solution
Then, you need to promise the solution to this problem that you will describe in your blog post. Remember that you shouldn’t give away the answer at once, so you will need to only talk in general terms.
Give them a sneak-peak
You might want to include a sneak-peak of the solution that you will describe in your blog post. It might be something small, but it will show your audience you are an expert rather than an amateur writer.
Be unconventional
Another way to prove your expertise is by approaching the topic in an unconventional way. Look at it through a lens that nobody else has tried.
4. Make It Organized by Creating an Outline
One of the biggest mistakes that you can make as a writer is not organizing your blog post. If you keep jumping from one point to another, your reader will get confused. They might even stop reading simply because they don’t understand what you are trying to say. Here is how you can create a good outline for your blog post.
List the points you want to cover
The first thing you should do is sit down and list all the points about the topic you want to cover. Just whatever comes to your mind.
Group the points to create sections
You will need to group the points according to the topic to make them more organized. After that, create sections that you will then have in your blog post.
Find a logical way of development
Think about the way you want your “story” to develop. What perspective are you taking when writing the blog post? Is your article informative or are you trying to make an argument about something?
Put together a comprehensive outline
After that, put the sections one after the other in a logical way that will help you develop the topic organically. This will give you a general picture of what your post will look like.
5. Hire Professionals to Ensure High Quality Content
If you aren’t prepared to write an article yourself, consider hiring a professional. You could use a service like Online Writers Rating to choose your specialist. This will ensure that your article maintains high quality. If you are uncertain whether this is a good idea, here are some arguments for and against hiring writers.
Cost
If you are on a tight budget, then writing your blog posts by yourself will be more profitable for you. Though freelance writers won’t cost you much, you will still need to set aside a certain part of your budget for them.
Time
On the other hand, you will have more time to dedicate to other aspects of running your blog. If someone is creating your content, you won’t have to spend time on it anymore—as simple as that.
Productivity
Having more time for other aspects of your blog will make you more productive. The writers you hire will also be very focused because that is their job.
Quality
If you find a talented writer, you will know that the quality of your blog posts will be consistently high. In other words, it is an almost perfect situation for you as the blog owner.
6. Give Advice That Is Impossible to Ignore
Good advice is always highly valued. If you know what you are talking about—you are an expert in your industry. Giving good advice, you will definitely be able to find a dedicated audience for your content. Here are some things you could do to make your blog posts more informative and useful to your readers.
Get down to basics
Start with the basic ideas behind the topic you are discussing. However, remember not to talk about these basics too much. Your readers probably already know most of these things or can figure them out.
Explain complicated concepts
On the other hand, you have the complicated concepts that have to be explained. After all, they are the reason you are writing the blog post in the first place.
Find efficient solutions
Your aim is to help readers solve the problem you’re discussing in your article. For that, you will need to find efficient solutions that will be the most helpful for your readers to use. Effectiveness and efficiency go hand in hand, after all.
Ask your audience
But what if you don’t know exactly what is bothering your readers? Then you can ask them directly what topics they want you to talk about or what questions they want answered.
7. Inspire and Motivate Your Audience
Providing your audience with useful information is important, yes. But you should also inspire and motivate them with what you have to say. You want your audience to feel like they have experienced something important. Here are some things to include in your blog post to make it motivational and inspirational.
Focus on the positive sides
Direct the attention of your readers to the positive sides of a situation you are discussing. It might be a problem, but you are here to help them solve it.
Include a call to action
At the end of your blog post, always add a call to action or CTA. This will encourage them to act immediately instead of being a passive reader.
Be an example
Show that you were in that situation before (or someone else has) and you successfully overcame it. Be an example and show that everything is possible.
Show statistics
Personal experiences won’t persuade everyone. It is a good idea to include some statistics that prove the solution you are proposing is really going to work.
8. Proofread and Edit Your Blog Post
Once your blog post is ready, make sure you have proofread it and edited it. You don’t want to be embarrassed when your readers point out the typos you might have made. Poor grammar can really drive your audience away. Here is what you should do once you have finished your article.
Use proofreading programs
Proofreading and grammar-checking programs and apps like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor are important. They will help you get rid of any linguistic errors you might have made by accident.
Show it to someone else
Show it to your colleagues, friends, family, or experts in the field. They will tell you which aspects need to be improved, rewritten, or enriched with more details.
Format it to look good
When you publish the blog post, you need to ensure the titles and main body are easier to read. To do that, make sure you format the headline and section titles differently.
Make adjustments over time
Your old blog posts can be improved after some time. They will still be useful to your audience. It will also bring in new readers if you add new information to them regularly.
9. Add Visuals to Make It Stand Out
Last but not least, add some visuals to make your blog post stand out. Though your headline will attract readers, your images can also serve this purpose. Here are some tips on finding the best visuals for your article:
In your style
Images, videos, GIFs, and other visuals you choose should correspond with the overall style.
High quality
They should also be high quality to show that you put as much effort into them as you do into your text.
Diversity
You should also include different visual content (illustrations, photographs, GIFs, animations, long and short videos, etc.). That will help diversify what your audience sees. It will also make your articles and blog posts more appealing and interactive.
Conclusion
As it’s become apparent, almost everyone online needs a blog. Whether for personal reasons, or to expand their brand awareness. Whatever the reason, knowing how to create one is important. So learning how to write a blog post is something you need to be proficient in to make it work. If you follow these nine tips, we assure you that you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
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