Writing is not an easy thing to do. Even harder to do it consistently. The accursed writer’s block is always around waiting to pounce in our creativity. But then once you have the topic nailed down, I think following a process makes it easy to consistently produce content. I have broken it down to 7 easy steps to help you put together a blog post in no time:
1. Choose a topic: Something that will be relevant to your target audience. For instance, if you write for freshers, interview blunders should be a popular topic. Or if you write a tech blog, how-to tutorials can work well.
2. Research: If required, mostly it is. Jot down all the points that can go in the post. Finalise the points that’ll finally make it to the post. Research on these specific points. Look up any interesting stats, facts, articles you can link to your post, stories, anecdotes that might make the post interesting
3. Write the first draft: The aim here should be to just get the content on paper. Don’t edit as you go along. Write whatever you want to say about the topic. If it becomes too long, you can prune it later.
4. Come up with a great SEO rich title: You can always google for ideas on great post titles. There is a lot of practical advice on the net. Try a few titles for your post. Choose the one that is the most eye catching. The ones with adjectives tend to work well.
Here are a few resources to help you find your best title: 101 Catchy Blog Title Formulas from Co-schedule and How to Write Catchy Headlines from Hubspot
5. Find or make creatives: If you choose to take images off the internet, don’t forget to attribute credit to the site you picked it up from. Or you can use stock images from sites like Stunning Free Images · Pixabay. You can also use Canva to create your own images. Canva has thousands of templates to choose from which can then be customized to your needs.
6. Edit your post: The post that you write is a piece of work that people will know you for. Edit and proofread it so that it’s crisp and easy to read. Make sure that it is free or grammatical and typo errors. Not paying close attention to these details only shows a sloppy effort at writing. And I don’t think that will build your credibility too well.
7. Put all the elements together: It’s time now to put the post together. While you are at it, also edit your blog link to include the keywords so that Google can pick it up during search. Put the title and paste the body of the blog. Add images and captions to them (captions is another place that the google trawler looks for during search. So add keywords here too) Add labels/tags and categories in the respective widgets so that google can find your post when someone looks for that topic. Give it a last look to make sure everything is the way you want it to be and hit publish.
Additional tips:
This is the general process that I follow. Some people may also recommend that you go to Google keywords to see which words are more popular for your topic. I don’t do that since I have a fair idea of the key words that’ll work for me. You can go ahead and use Google if you like.
Also, trying to fit in all 7 steps in a single day would be impossible. If you post one blog post a week and that day happens to be a monday, it’s a good idea to start a week before. Get your research and draft done in a day. Look for images or create them the next day. Edit and proofread with a fresh mind on another day. This way you’ll have enough time to space it out.
I also want to say that writing a post is just one of the things in maintaining a blog. You will need to repeat this process and put out content regularly if you want Google to rank you higher in search and attract readers. It is equally important to share your posts online and on relevant communities so that you direct traffic to your blog. Also visit the blogs of others and comment so that they’ll return the favour too. This helps you gain traffic and create a network in the blogging world.
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