Blogging can be a great way to share your thoughts, passions, and ideas with the world. But, if you’ve never written a blog post before, it can be a little daunting. In this article, I’ll share 7 steps on how to write your first blog post today!
Why Start a Blog for Your Business?
Starting a blog for your business can be a great way to connect with potential customers, share your latest news and updates, and build brand awareness. By writing engaging content that resonates with your target audience, you can encourage them to visit your website, read your blog posts, and buy your products or services. Additionally, blogging can help you learn more about your customers and better understand their needs. By taking the time to create quality content, you can build a loyal following of followers who will appreciate your insights and recommendations.
According to OptinMonsters blogging statistics and facts for 2022
- each month, approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages
- websites that also have a blog are shown to have 434% more indexed pages in search engines
- companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites
- 77% of internet users read blogs
- blogs have been rated as the 5th most trustworthy source for gathering online information
- businesses that blog experience twice as much email traffic as businesses who don’t.
As these blog statistics indicate, it doesn’t appear that the trend will go away any time soon. Blogging continues to gain relevance in 2020, and this is quite remarkable.
What are the Benefits of Blogging?
There are many benefits to blogging, including the ability to share your thoughts and experiences with others, build a following, and make connections with other bloggers. Additionally, blogging can be an effective way to promote your business or organization, generate leads, build relationships and set yourself up as an authority in your field. Now that you understand the benefits of blogging, it’s time to learn how to start writing your first post.
Define Your Goal Before you even start writing, it’s important to have a clear goal in mind. What are you hoping to achieve by starting a blog? Are you looking to build an audience of interested readers or to promote your business? Once you know what you’re aiming for, it will be much easier to write content that meets those objectives.
Who’s Going to Read Your Blog Post?
When you write a blog post, you want to make sure that it’s going to be read by as many people as possible. So, who is going to be reading your blog post?
Your blog post is likely going to be read by people who are
- interested in the topic of your blog post
- similar to the audience that you’re targeting
- interested in what you have to say
- looking for information on how to do something
Once you know who is going to be reading your blog post, make sure that your blog post is written in a way that is interesting and engaging for them.
Bonus Tip: having an ideal customer avatar aka ideal customer profile or target audience profile, this makes the blogging process so much easier because you have a clear picture of who you’re writing for. I’ve written these blog posts that can help you define who you want to help in your business.
How to Write your First Blog Post
Use the following 7 steps as a guide to help you write your first blog post. By repeating this a few times, you will start to feel what topics you are able to write about, as well as develop your own writing style.
Step 1: Choose a Topic
Before you start writing, it’s important to do your research. Know what topics are popular and what will interest your readers. Find a topic that you’re passionate about and that you know something about. Write about topics that are important to you and that will interest your readers.
If you have trouble coming up with topics, go read this article: Overcoming Writers Block
There are many different things to write about, so it can be tough to decide. Here are some tips to help you choose a topic:
- Think about what you’re interested in. What topics are you passionate about?
- Who exactly will be reading your blog post? Look for topics that are relevant to your audience. Are you writing for people who are interested in your topic, or for people who have something to learn from your topic?
- Think about your skill level. Are there topics that interest you, but you don’t have the technical skills to talk about it?
Here are some examples:
- you love creating TikTok videos, and would love to teach people how to do it, but you don’t know enough about how to use TikTok for business
- you love to cook and would love to teach people how to host their own dinner parties on a budget by DIY’ing their menu, but you know nothing about budgeting parties
- you did a great job on training your last two dogs and feel you could offer training advice, but you know nothing about working with reactive or aggressive dogs
- Look for topics that are meaningful to your target audience and are within your skill set. You can always learn and improve your skills down the road.
Step 2: How to Research the Topic you Want to Write About
When you’re choosing a topic to write about for your blog, it’s important to do your research. You want to make sure that the topic you choose is something that you’re passionate about and that you can write about effectively. Here are some tips for researching a topic:
- Look online: Google search is a great way to find information on any topic. You can type in specific keywords or phrases to get started.
- Talk to friends and family: If you have friends or family members who are experts on a certain topic, ask them for advice. They may be able to give you some great insights that you didn’t know about.
- Check out popular blogs: Take a look at some of your favorite blogs and see what topics they’re writing about. What are their techniques? What are their tips?
- Read books: If you’re curious about a topic but don’t have time to research it online, read a book about it. There are tons of books about cooking, gardening, parenting, and so on that can give you valuable information.
- Talk to experts: If you still don’t have enough information about a particular topic, talk to an expert. There are plenty of people out there with knowledge in a variety of different fields, so it’s likely that you’ll be able to find someone who can help you out.
- Checkout YouTube.
Step 3: Write a catchy headline
When you’re thinking of a catchy headline for your blog post, make sure it’s attention-grabbing and will encourage people to read further. Try to find a headline that accurately reflects the content of your post, and is catchy enough to catch people’s attention. Some ideas for catchy blog headlines include:
- 5 Simple Tips To Improve Your Cooking Skills
- 5 Tips To Help You Write Better Instagram Captions
- 3 Simple Steps To Start A Successful Coaching Business
I have to admit, that sometimes I’ll write the headline at the very end of the blog post to make it easier. But sometimes I’ll write it before my outline to make sure that I stay on point and don’t veer off topic. After you’ve written a first blog posts (trying each method), you’ll find what works for you, or use them both. The blogging police aren’t invited to this party!
Step 4: Write Your Outline
When you’re ready to start writing your blog post, it’s important to have an outline in place. This will help you stay organized and make sure that your blog post is coherent. Think of your blog post outline as sections.
- What are you going to write about?
- What are your main points?
- What are your supporting facts?
- What are your examples?
- What are your conclusions?
- What are your ideas for future posts?
- What are your social media links?
Example: in the blog post you’re currently reading, each step is the outline.
Step 5: Write your introduction
Your introduction is the first sentence of your blog post. It sets the tone for your post, and should be interesting enough to lure readers in. It’s also a great place to introduce your main points. The goal of the introduction is to get the reader to move into the next paragraph.
Step 6: Write the body of your post
Your blog post’s body is where you’ll share your thoughts on the topic, introduce the topic, and provide your readers with the information they need to understand what you’re writing about.
Make sure to start your blog post with a strong opening sentence that grabs your readers’ attention. Then, provide enough information for your readers to understand what you’re writing about. Finally, wrap up your blog post with a strong conclusion that leaves them wanting more.
You can use images to evoke emotion on the page, and include links to factual information or supplementary information.
Step 7: Write a conclusion
When you finish writing your blog post, it’s important to wrap things up. This includes a conclusion that sums up your main points and why you think your readers should read on. This can be a short sentence or paragraph that sums up your post and leaves readers with a takeaway.
In conclusion, don’t be intimidated by blogging. There’s a huge community out there, and there are many ways to get started. When you’re starting out, you may overthink things and look at trying to write the perfect blog post. Writing a blog post doesn’t have to be hard. Just follow these 7 steps and you’ll be on your way and know that the more you write, you’ll start to develop a style that feels right to you!
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