It takes everyone a different amount of time to write a blog post based on factors like: Plus, Orbit Media Studios discovered that bloggers who spend more time on their blog posts get more success. Most importantly like you said though is to just get out there and start writing. When I searched for "business blogging," on the other hand, I found keywords with lower search volume, but would be more specifically targeted to the audience I'm trying to reach. After you finish writing your first draft, give it a headline. Bookmark this blog post, and make sure you've completed this checklist the next time you press "publish.". We'll show you how to do both. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, 'ccc95db5-9007-49cf-b69c-94bb5c46b366', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); We get it, though: It can be difficult to keep track of all the right blog components when you've got a full plate of projects. What’s in it for them? HubSpot Podcast Network is the destination for business professionals who seek the best education on how to grow a business. Don’t just look for what ideas the other blog posts include. Great post! It’s very helpful your words for a beginner like me. You could ask your readers to: It’s best to stick to one CTA so your readers aren’t distracted. Chances are that a third party will be able to point out things like logical loopholes and poor flow that you won’t be able to spot on your own. Irreverent and insightful takes on business and tech, delivered to your inbox. That scribbly time is surprisingly helpful for creative productivity. It’s not a sign of bad writing. By understanding the other content out there on your topic, you can find ways to improve upon it. Unless you’re a very experienced writer, don’t stress too much about grammar, usage, spelling, word choice, or even logical flow. Thanks for some solid content :-). Featured images usually sit at the top of a blog post and are another element to draw readers in to learn more. How to Write a Blog Post in 12 Steps Follow these 12 steps to get started on a quality blog post that will attract more readers to your site. At the time of writing a post, I get several ideas for my next posts. This is a great way to grab your readers’ attention, and they’ll definitely want to read it till the end in the hope of finding the solution. Mark it for later and revisit it when you have more context to work with. I explained that angle in the second paragraph of my intro. If you know there’s a right way to do something, use that knowledge to create your outline. Step 4. That’s amazing Ryan. Thank you for the information , it’s very useful to me, I just started blogging this month and get frustrated in designing my theme, so I decided to leave it until I have money to buy a customizable theme, so I just want to focus on writing my blog post. For a general overview of how to write a blog post, here is a list of steps. You never know when those random thoughts would come in handy. Shows estimated monthly search traffic to this article according to Ahrefs data. You’ll need to find out what your followers want to know and read about, so your post will continue to get traffic after it’s published. Include a subject line. Because force negates. In WordPress, you can edit this data by changing your post’s code or using a plugin. Use sub-headers to split up sections of your blog post -- making sure to integrate the keywords you're using this post to target. Note that your goal is not to copy and rephrase the top-ranking pages. While the average word count of top-ranking content (in Google) is between 1,140 and 1,285 words, short blog posts are easier for the reader to . You sit down to write a blog post and see a blank page. I’ve never been good at sitting down at a screen and coming up with great ideas. What did you used to do incorrectly? HelpScout’s 13 Best Practices for Improving Online Customer Service introduces online customer service, then digs into its items. For this blog post, we’re writing the headline after the content so you have your draft on hand to inspire your headline. Do you want to write for the Ahrefs Blog? An interview blog post showcases an interview the author has with someone who has insights to share about the article topic. Implement keywords to optimize searches of your topic and reach your target audience. Any writer at work can use this simple process to learn how to write a good blog post — as many blog posts as they need, actually, without tears or frustration. The more content ideas you capture, the more will come. Writing and gardening happen in cycles. To acknowledge that this year has seen a sharp rise in anti-trans sentiment in the United States, Xbox Publishing is accompanying the free period with donations of $25,000 each to . For reference, these folks wrote an average of 1,416 words per blog post. Thanks for your awesome advice. In fact, 60% of readers don't read past the headline, which presents a big opportunity. Quality writing is what Cal Newport calls deep work. Recipe blog posts are a popular example of a how-to blog post. Since I write from personal experience on my blog, and have only been doing it a few months, I still have a lot of material to write about. Thanks so much for the ideas and info! Avoiding any interruptions to your writing. 300 guest posts! What makes you angry about this topic? Open Google Docs and write all of them down (use a notepad if you prefer analog). Write until it’s done. Again, if possible, take a break from drafting and work on something else. What’s not helpful can always be omitted or reframed if it makes sense to keep it later. I also refer back to it when I need more ideas for future content. A thorough edit is important for creating quality work, but there comes a point when you reach “good enough,” click Publish, and move on to the next idea so that you can stick to a schedule. Include stunning Instagram-friendly photos to really capture the reader's attention. List-based Also known as a "listicle," a portmanteau of list and article, a list-based blog post is one that's organized as a list of related entries. Hit publish at a peak time. Don’t worry if they look goofy on the page. Write down 25 versions of your headline to give yourself plenty of choices to consider. Product reviews and comparisons evaluate the usefulness of products for the reader. But think of this number as an estimate. If you're interviewing for a highly competitive role or with a hiring manager who has multiple job openings, it can be useful to add the job title to your subject line. David, I am a great fan of your writing. But not everyone can create one that people want to read. To help you publish an amazing piece, I’ll show you how to answer all these questions and more. The internet’s full of that—cookie-cutter content no one’s interested in. Great analogy to soil, water and sunlight, too. There are a lot of other factors that contribute to making your blog post a success. At this point, it’s not uncommon for those ADD-kitten ideas to dart off in all kinds of crazy directions. Nobody likes clickbait, so you want to make sure your post is about what the headline says it is. You don’t need to start at the beginning to write a good blog post — just jump in where you feel moved, and draft a paragraph or two. Here’s how it works: Get the week's best marketing content in your inbox. In fact, it’s possible (and even pretty common!) Finish your conclusion with a meaningful call to action (CTA) for your reader -- whether it's advice, a content offer, or a link to another related blog post. If I don’t get that idea down immediately I might never remember it. You probably need to get away from distractions or interruptions in order to write a good blog post. Love the analogy! The ideas are all running around in our heads like kittens with ADD, and we have no idea how to get them corralled. You can also use Canva if you like them edited. Make Use of Visual Elements 7. Get new post notifications emailed to you. Use the last lines of your post to leave the reader feeling like he or she learned something from you -- and like there's, even more, to learn from you, creating the desire to click a link or CTA image and read more. We’ve got plenty of time to fix that. In our analysis, we found the ideal meta description length is under 155 characters. With some products, you can share the results of how you helped the customer. Consider using some of these tactics to promote your content: Recommended reading: 13 Content Promotion Tactics to Get More Eyeballs on Your Content. Once your framework is in place, you can start anywhere. Your headline is one of many factors Google considers when ranking results on SERPs, and an optimized title will help people find the information they need more easily. An “idea seedling” can be a post idea, but it can also be a theme for: Capture all of them. I got a scuba diver’s underwater writing slate for the shower, and a digital voice recorder for the car (one button start=much easier.) This hits is home for me as I love to be outside in our canopy writing (weather permitting, of course). Use a link in bio tool to showcase more than one link for ultimate traffic conversion. Subscribe to the Marketing Blog below. Also, yes, pen down everything you like when creating the initial draft of your work. A clear subject: Step one of creating your own blog is having a clear subject and point of view. A blog post consists of three main sections that require different approaches: Integrate your blog post’s angle and an emotional hook into your introduction. Orbit Media Studios found that bloggers take an average of four hours and one minute to complete a blog post in their 2022 survey. It also helps me prune my ideas along the way. So don’t be afraid to use templates. Your headline is one of the most important aspects of your blog post. Whichever hook you use, keep your introduction concise — about three paragraphs or fewer. This offer is free for a limited time. Further, the images in your post need to be properly optimized too. We talked about keywords briefly when discussing how you can spy on your competition - to see what keywords they optimize for when creating content. It’s my go-to if I’m stuck, distracted, or procrastinating. If you paste your content from a Google Doc or another online text editor, go through your post and re-upload your images from your computer. Okay, if not a notebook at least keeps a Google doc tab open. Your comparison to a garden fits perfectly. Remember, they’re idea seedlings, so you don’t lose them by cutting them out of this piece. But note that this is not a rule but a guideline. Hello. Once you have all these seedlings, what happens next? Adding links for linking’s sake will make it harder to establish authority and search engine performance. Thank you! Nice post. Copyright © 2006–2023 Copyblogger Media LLC, 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing, A Framework to Start the Writing Business of Your Dreams: 15 Tips for Entrepreneurial Writers, 5 Elements That Build a Roster of Terrific Freelance Writing Clients, 7 Copywriting Strategies the Great Copywriters Wish You Knew, Email Autoresponders: Meet the Lazy Marketer’s Best Friend, The Creator Economy: Audience, Community, and Commerce, Business Blogging Pro Guide (Get Results Without Perfectionism), Words that can be cut without losing meaning, Ideas that can be cut and developed into additional work, Complicated sentence structures that can be streamlined. Step 1: Log into Instagram. Word count: There's a place for both short and long content on your blog. Updated: Step 3. Here’s a hypothetical outline for a blog post by my cat on why I should feed her a second dinner: You can go more in-depth with your points in your outline, but here’s how the formatting should look. If you want a positive response you need to have a plan. The number of times this article was shared on Twitter. When you're ready to wrap up and sign off, make sure to let your reader know the article is closing. News posts share news from your community or company. Wow! If you can create one that’s better than the other top-ranking articles, go for it. I usually adopt the majority of the points you talked about here and they have always work for me. Which parts of this post have a lot of energy? Free and premium plans. Here are a few ways you can make your blog posts scannable: If you use these tips to make your text visually engaging, your readers will be more likely to read the whole post. It’s easier said than done. Even endless edits are not writing. According to Julian Shapiro, there are five novelty categories: For example, check out this blog post by finance writer Morgan Housel: He states something that is counter-intuitive to what most people know and think. For your post to have a lot of readers, you need to level up your SEO, we have published a separate post dedicated to SEO tips for bloggers. It essentially helps you revisit everything that your brain came up with while you were thinking real hard (you won’t miss profiling a single ADD kitten that’s scrambled around your mind.) Your human eyes will catch mistakes the computer misses. Glad you found the article helpful, Ovi. Start by choosing a topic to write about. Start growing the next one. We do this for every blog post at Ahrefs. They act as the framework/skeleton of your blog post and so important to let the reader scan through the things if he is in a hurry. Free and premium plans, Content management software. We only suggest products we’ve reviewed, and in many instances also use, in order to help you make the best choices. This technique establishes what makes your post unique from the start and draws in the reader. Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. lol. And that’s how to write a good blog post! Don’t overlook the style and tone of your writing. You certainly understand what you’re referring to, thanks for the info. If I had to create a blog post on how to do the six-step, I wouldn’t even need to do any research—I can simply pour the information directly from my brain. Your readers will feel like you’re talking to them one-one-one to help them figure out a problem that you can relate to. Still, try to minimize interruptions. What should your call to action (CTA) be? If you get stressed out about a writing piece that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to be, that’s a sure sign you need to be writing more to uncover how to write a good blog post. to be a great writer but not so great at blogging. I often find myself frustrated with writing blogposts, so it was great to see how I could approach it in a different way. I write mostly in Google Docs. Capture some more ideas. To hear yourself think, you need time, space, and privacy. You’ll have your own list you develop over time. Toss in 300 plus video posts on the Huffington Post and hundreds other guesties and I have seen how relaxing, slowing down and calming down, user power and not force, can help you become kinda prolific .