How to Write a Blog Post in 10 Easy Steps

Congratulations you’ve started a blog, but now you’re expected to actually write something, edit and publish.

No, you’re not required to write a blog post every day but you should write something daily just to keep your writers streak alive.

The following 10 simple steps will show you how to write a blog entry that won’t take more time than you have. We all struggle with clicking that ‘Publish’ button and spend way more time on the ‘Editing’ than we should, but if you nail down the ‘Writing’ steps the other two are much easier to execute.

Here are a few simple steps explaining how to write a blog post.

#1 WHAT’S TODAY’S TOPIC

So what’s on your mind today? Have you read something recently that commands your opinion? Perhaps you’re good at solving problems.

What problem are you trying to solve, which newsworthy article is worth talking about or do you simply want to teach your readers something today?

Start thinking about a general topic that relates to your target audience, then refine that into something more specific.

If you’re stuck for ideas then here’s another 81 Blog Post Ideas to get you moving.

#2 DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE

Well done. The topic is sorted but now you need to define your audience. Writing for a 16-year-old, will be more different than writing for a 35-year-old or even a 60-year-old.

Next you need to consider what experience they already have with the subject. Do you need to keep it light or can you go deep into the topic?

Sure you can write a great piece targetted at everyone, but likely it’ll impact no one.

Having trouble already because you don’t know who you are writing for, then choose someone close to you who you know intimately and write for them.

The reason good writers connect with their readers is because they are writing for someone just like you. Although, they don’t know you, us humans are a little more similar than you might imagine.

Truly, understanding your audience will take time but can only happen if you get started with your writing.

You can use this tool to check to see if the way you write is ideal for your target audience.

#3 LET’S BEGIN HERE

Every good story needs an Introduction, and a blog post is no exception.

You have a small window of opportunity to capture your readers attention, so make sure what you’re about to say is compelling, heart-warming or funny.

With any luck and much practice, you’ll start to understand what your audience actually resonates with, not actually what you want them to resonate with.

Let your voice flow and DON’T edit, as that will stop the flow of words. It’s a bit like pausing for too long when you are speaking, it’s very hard to get back on track.

#4 WHAT’S YOUR POINT

Now you’re on your way to writing your blog post it time to consider what your point is. Ok, perhaps you should have known this a little earlier but if I had you thinking too soon about structure then I might have lost you.

You’ll need a point to this post. So after writing a great Introduction it’s time to get to the point.

Yes, now is the time to write about that thing that got you started on this post in the first place.

#5 DON’T LEAVE THEM HANGING

So you’ve built the tension with a good story, and now’s the time to give your readers closure, never leave them hanging.

You may have posed a problem, but now is your time to solve it and to make the reader feel like they indeed have closure.

If you’ve taken your readers on an emotional roller coaster then now is time to bring them back down gently. All must be good with the world before you move on.

#6 TIME TO EDIT

It’s now time to EDIT your little heart out. Don’t be afraid to discard things that don’t work or re-arrange them into meaningful sentences. If you truly let yourself ride, without holding yourself back, you should have plenty of fodder to to work with.

When, you’re done then read it again because it’s easy to miss something that isn’t obvious.

Just have a look at the second sentence in this section where I purposely did back to back words ‘to to’. It’s really easy to miss this stuff.  If you did pick it up then awesome work, but it’s there to prove a point so don’t remind me in the comments.

#7 WHERE’S THE CALL TO ACTION

Have you finished your editing?

Good and you’re nearly 90% there so should consider how you’ll work in your call to action.

What call to action, I hear you say.

The one that helps your reader find your next great post, sign up to a mailing list or simply point them to the ‘BUY THIS’ section.

Regardless of where you send them, you should give them a hint at least what to look at next or the next action they take might be to close the browser window and move onto something else.

#8 IMPROVE YOUR INBOUND MARKETING

This section is entirely optional, but if you want some free organic traffic delivered to your site, you’ll need to use the language that people search with. The easiest way to do this is to type some of your keyword phrases into a Google Search Window and see how Google interprets them.

For example, a keyword phrase that I would like to rank for is ‘Write a Blog Post’

So I start typing this phrase into Google Search and Google shows me common phrases so I know it’s a plain English phrase.

Happy that my search term is ‘OK’ I select ‘Write a Blog Post’ to return some results and then navigate to the bottom of the results page to the ‘Related Searches’ section and find other similar phrases that should give me a boost in ranking if I use them in this post.

Go ahead and see if you can find a couple of these phrases that I’ve added to this page.

The alternative and the more complicated method is to use the Google Keyword Tool inside Adwords to find the most common search phrases and the level of competition there is for these keywords.

The Google Keyword Tool is beyond the scope of this document and I’ll cover this more extensively when I show you how to write a blog and get paid. Today we are just covering the basics.

This might be an easier way to improve your organic traffic.

#9 REVIEW YOUR BLOG POST HEADLINE

So now that you’ve learned a little about Inbound Marketing, you should add a keyword or phrase to your blog headline and try to make it remarkable enough to capture the attention of your potential readers.

Usually, you want the headline to solve a problem or address a ‘want’, rather than give a solution or satisfy a ‘need’.

You can use this Headline Analyzer tool to see how we’ll you’ve nailed your message.

#10 DON’T FORGET TO PUBLISH

If after doing all the hard work you don’t schedule or publish your post, there’s a chance that it’ll sit there while you contemplate if it’s actually good enough or worse still revise it or delete it because it doesn’t meet your unrealistic standards.

The great thing about owning your own blog is you have total control of what gets published and what doesn’t. You can even publish something and then revise it later if the feedback isn’t great.

But how will you get feedback if you never publish it?

Be Brave, Keep Going.

Hopefully, this post has helped you understand what’s needed when writing a blog post and more importantly inspired you to actually write one.

If you’ve got questions, please leave them in the comments below. Happy Blogging!