writing a blog

Writing a blog can be difficult, especially for busy, nonstop marketers and agency owners. We know it – trust me! With blogging as a #1 means of earning our traffic and revenue, we sympathize. It’s never been easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding to maintain a business blog and write consistently. To do it consistently, and to do it well, you need a process. Your process serves as your guidepost for making sure you never just sit stuck, wondering what to do next. The goal of this guide is to show you that process and give you a in-depth bird’s eye view of everything you need to write a blog and do it consistently. Then, we’ll dive into the nitty-gritty of how, when, where and what when it comes to impactful blog writing. Ready? [bctt tweet=”Get a bird’s eye view of everything you need to write a blog for your business, and do it consistently. ??” username=”ExpWriters”] The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Blog & a Regular Posting Schedule: 7 Step-List Know the Foundations of Writing a Blog that Matters The Golden Rule in Writing Blogs How Long Should Your Content Be? 4 Steps for Creating Compelling Headlines That Click With Your Audience 6 Steps for Writing a Blog and Doing it Consistently Self Editing Like a Pro, Even If You Aren’t One (Infographic) How to Come Up with Blog Ideas (Infographic) Let’s dive in! Know Your Foundations: Writing a Blog Post That Matters Here’s a quote to inspire you (Chuck Close): Just like anything else, the blog writing process starts with a foundation. Without this foundation, everything else becomes confusing and inefficient. With it, you can regularly create great content that your readers will love. The foundation involves three things: The “Golden Rule.” Write for ONE reader. Determine Content Length. Focus on creating the right content. Create a Strong Headline. Intrigue your ONE reader. [bctt tweet=”The foundation of #writing a great blog post: write for 1 reader, determine length, create a strong headline. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] Let’s dive into these a little deeper. 1. Foundation: The “Golden Rule” The “Golden Rule” of writing a blog is simple; write for ONE reader. The hope would be that you already have a good idea of who your ONE reader is. Hopefully you also have a good idea of where they are, what problems they’re having, and how they communicate. Entire books and long form guides have been written on defining, finding, and targeting your ONE reader (also called target audience, target market, etc.) You should read them. If you don’t have time for that, Forbes has a great evergreen piece on decoding your target audience. Don’t fall into the trap of attempting to write for a viral audience. As Forbes contributor AJ Agrawal points out, ‘Go Viral’ is not a smart marketing strategy. Since most viral content is based on trends, it’s not evergreen and therefore has an exceptionally short shelf-life. That makes it a bad investment. Avoid the masses and follow the “Golden Rule” by writing for ONE reader. It’s the only strategy that has long term value for your blog. 2. Foundation: How Long Should Your Content Be? Google the above question and you’ll find that there are over 179 million answers telling you how long your content should be. Everyone who’s anyone has tried their hand at answering this question – it’s clearly one of the biggest debates among content marketers across the web. I’ll say that long-form has tremendous benefits. I’ve created an argument for long-form content here: in all reality, it does the best for SEO purposes. That’s also why I launched authority content at Express Writers last year. But along with realizing the benefits of long, authoritative content, you want to think most about how to do the right content. Less of the wrong, high-volume, no return content: more of the right content. Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz, has a great statement on this point. He says: to focus on creating more of the right content. What does the right content accomplish? Fishkin outlines four things: The right content serves visitor’s intent by answering their questions and helping them complete their goals. The right content delivers an easy, pleasurable, accessible experience on every device and every browser. The right content gets the right information and experience to visitors FAST. The right content does all of the above better than any of the competitors in the space. But that’s all well and nice to hear what you need to do. How do you actually go about creating the right content when writing a blog? You create your content with these things in mind and use your editing efforts to ensure that they’re followed. 4 Steps for Creating Compelling Headlines That Click With Your Audience While I’m sure you’ve heard it more times than you can count, compelling headlines are crucial if you want readers to actually read your blog. Copywriting legend David Ogilvy is famous for saying: But you know the headline is important. How do you create one that works? Do you use a template that so many others have already used? That’s certainly the easiest option. Do you list a dozen different options and narrow them down one by one until you find a winner? That can work too. Do you include a number or ask a question? Sure, go for it. The truth is, there isn’t a stand-alone strategy that works best for creating compelling headlines when writing a blog. What is a given, however, is that you must identify who your one reader is and you build your headline around what would intrigue them to read on. How to Actually Create the Headline While your headline will differ depending on your ONE reader, there is a simple formula that you can use to short-line the process. After all, writing a blog is hard enough. You don’t want to spend five hours coming up with an intriguing headline. Jeff Goins, founder and owner of the popular … Read more