As an avid blogger, I spend a lot of time thinking of new ideas and creating blog posts. To begin with, I really struggled to produce good content on a regular basis.
It seemed after two months of writing I had run out of ideas. I had literally gone through everything on the subject of network/Internet marketing and I didn’t know what to do.
Even if you do have ideas, If you can’t properly structure them in an easy to read blog post then you’re wasting your time. So I decided to put together a simple guide to help you create your blog posts.
How to write a blog post in just 15 minutes?
1. Planning
I would definitely say planning is the most important component of a great blog post. I think before you even open WordPress admin or whatever page you use to publish blog posts, create a plan. Honestly, the best thing to use is an old-fashioned paper and pen. Planning is a simple process, over the period of 15 minutes, you need to write down:
- Post Title
- Description
- Introduction
- Paragraphs/Structure/Style/
First, note your ideas down on a piece of paper. Once you have a solid idea you think you could write about, think of a description. The description is really what the post is going to be about.
Straight after that, you should write an intro. Lastly, you should write-up a template for the post. Structure it by writing sub-headlines for the paragraphs or numbered bullet points for each point you want to make.
2. The Title
After you’ve fully planned out your post, think about your title again. Your title is usually what makes people click on your post.
Since I started blogging I’ve experimented with hundreds of different titles. Whatever your title, it must match and briefly explain what your post is about.
For me, numbered titles have always worked best. For example, “10 Ways To Drive More Traffic” or “Top 15 traffic generation strategies”.
Spend a little while on your title, make sure it briefly explains the post and is very attractive!
5 Business Lead Generation Ideas
3. The Introduction
The introduction is what fully grabs people’s attention and sends them into an almost hypnotic trance of reading your blog post.
Most internet users have an attention span of a few seconds. So you must capture than in your introduction.
In your intro, you need, to sum up your entire post and clearly, explain why your readers should read it.
4. The Structure
The third thing I do whenever I write a blog post is a structure the content. Structuring is essentially creating a blog post template.
First, you need to decide what kind of post you want to write. Whether it be just a load of paragraphs with sub-headlines, bullet points or my favorite; numbered paragraphs.
Out of everything I’ve tried numbered lists work best. For example “6 ways to” “9 strategies for” or “the top 12”.
It could be “The Top 12 Link Building Strategies To Drive Traffic”. In the example post, you could list the top 12 link building strategies in numbered bullet points before you start. So…
- Comment Marketing
- Web2.0’s
- Press Releases
You get the idea right? Just structure your post’s content so you know exactly what to write.
5. Spacing
Once you’ve structured the post you can start writing. As soon as you’ve finished you should proof read it and then do the spacing.
The spacing is actually extremely important and if you get it wrong; you can end up losing a huge percentage of all visitors.
The spacing (line breaks) really affect how long people read your paragraphs for.
If people spend too long reading the same block of text, their eyes will start to get lost and they’ll forget which line they’re on. As a minimum use 2-5 lines per paragraph. Only ever use 5 or more when needed.
6. Finishing Touches
At this point you should have your post complete; so all you have to do is add the finishing touches. The finishing touches are:
- Call To Action
- Images
- Links
First, you need to finish your blog post with a strong call to action. Your call to action is essentially the reason you wrote your blog post.
If you don’t have 1 clear objective, you’re never going to get anywhere. Your call to action could be to get your visitors on your email list, subscribed to your RSS feed or even to simply comment on your blog posts.
Whatever it is, have one! As without a clear call to action, you’re just writing for the sake of writing which is pointless.
Generally, with every blog post I write, I have one very clear call to action. What’s important is that you actually state your call to action.
You need to ask or tell your readers exactly what you want them to do. Usually, I’ll do it in my P.S. line or at the very bottom of my article.
A typical one is “P.S. Leave me your thoughts, questions and comments below. Also, put your name and email address in the form on the right for more cool blogging tips, tricks, and secrets”.
Besides that I’ll ask my readers to like me on Facebook, subscribe to my RSS feed or even just leave a comment. Next are the images.
Most of the time I just use one main image at the top of my blog post. However, if I’m writing a really important post or trying to get a clear message across; I’ll make the most of the images I have available.
Lastly is linked, inserting links are the final step in creating a killer blog post. By links, I mean external and internal. It’s good for your SEO to link certain keywords you find pop up in your post to certain pages/posts on your blog.
Once done, you’re practically ready to press the big “Publish” button. You just need to preview your post in a new window, make sure everything is in the right size, proofread the content once more and that’s it.
Once you’ve done all of the above, you can hit publish!