If you’re trying to draw more people, make blog posts. Each month, more than 409 million people visit 20 billion pages on blogs Many of them eventually are later converted into brand fans and customers. Here in this guide, you will learn how to write quality content step by step.
If Orbit Media surveyed over 1,000 bloggers in 2021 77% of the respondents thought their blogs provided “some” or “strong” marketing value. To be in the “strong” category — 22% of respondents you must have posts that speak to your audience and keep people returning.
Learn how to make blog posts that do just this.
Read Competing Blogs
Before you begin making individual posts, you must decide what you’d like to write about. If your intention is to advertise your company Find out which subjects are most popular with your clients.
The most efficient way, for trustworthy digital marketing experts, to gain an understanding is to research your competitors. Check out their blogs to find out what they’re talking about.
Check to see if they concentrate on a single subject or break their blog into different topic areas. Note down the subjects they discuss. Consider topics that could be interesting to your audience.
On each blog’s website visit a few of the latest competitor blog posts. Take a look carefully, paying attention to the times you’re most active.
What articles make you want to know more about this company? Consider what caught your interest. Perhaps it was a specific area or format of content. Make notes about it with a focus on what you’d like to incorporate into your blog.
If they have a comment section, discover which ones get the most replies. This can tell you much about what readers are looking for. Write down any questions your readers are likely to ask. They could be great ideas to research.
Whatever you do, do not copy someone else’s content. Rewriting an article for the purpose of “making it yours” is known as black hat SEO or search engine optimization (SEO) which is a shady method that can hurt your rankings and may even lead to your website being banned.
Choose a Focus
As with any other marketing endeavor, creating a successful blog is about demand and supply. When you go through your competitors’ blogs, search for ways to add your voice to the discussion.
Don’t be too specific just yet. There will be a need for a variety of topics therefore you need an area that has plenty of possibilities.
Consider your industry and your business’s area of focus. Your field is likely to be too broad there are thousands of personal finance blogs for instance.
What knowledge do you have to share? In the business of advisory, it might be beneficial to focus on investing for newbies. Be sure to make several months’ worth of content prior to launching.
Create a Blog Content Plan
Planning content is vital for keeping your blog going forward. As per the Content Marketing Institute, 80 percent of the most effective content management systems have a clearly-defined calendar, in contrast with 50% of the less successful.
Content calendars help you stay on track by defining which, where, and when you’ll publish. They’re a great method of staying organized especially when you increase the size of your blog and make posts often throughout the week. Without a system, you may quickly miss deadlines or not remember to order an important item.
It’s easy to make a content calendar specifically to use on your site, or you can use it to incorporate other channels, such as email or social media.
If you’re new to the art of content planning, you might want to consider the calendar template. Websites like Hubspot and Coschedule have free, downloadable templates to help begin your journey.
What Content Is Best for Blogs?
First-time bloggers are usually surprised at the number of different kinds of posts available. Starting from “complete guides” to short-form lists The possibilities are infinite.
Today, how-to-articles have become the most sought-after kind of blog post. In the survey of Orbit Media’s participants, 76% stated that they had published how-to content for their websites.
The most popular articles that are based on how-to guides include:
- Listicles and lists (54 percent)
- Guides with long-form forms (45 percent)
- Trends and news (41 percent)
- Opinion pieces (41 percent)
This is just content that’s focused on print. Videos and infographics bring the variety of your blog and can help draw more readers in.
Explainer videos make great blog content. According to a Wyzowl report, 84% of people have purchased a product or service after viewing an explanation video. In addition, 86% of customers would like to see more videos from companies.
They also boost engagement. A study found that they attract more interest than research done by researchers in social media. They also have more backlinks and are accessible to share. Create a variety of blog posts that draw your readers in.
Find Post Topics
The topic you choose is more important than the types of content. To improve readership and improve your ranking in search results it is essential to create an ongoing stream of content.
HubSpot recommends that blogs with smaller posts post every three to four times per week in order to increase organic traffic. It’s at a minimum of 12 ideas per month.
It’s not as difficult as it may sound. You don’t need to come up with each idea from scratch. These methods will allow you to create new blog ideas consistently effectively, efficiently, and with less anxiety.
Identify Topic Categories
The organization of your blog posts into categories will make it easier to think of ideas. For instance, a real estate blog could have categories for sellers, buyers, and investors as well as homeowners.
The topics you choose should be:
- Be aware of the main interests of your audience
- Are they able to create content for the long term?
- Broad enough to allow for many posts and sub-topics.
Additionally, after you have created blog posts in each of the categories, you are able to sort your blog posts into sub-pages.
For instance, some CMS blogs offer category pages that include the strategy for content and web writing tips. Each one attracts a different kind of audience — business owners and owners of businesses in one instance, and future and active writers in the other.
These categories are a reflection of two main motives for people to go to purchase content or become writers. Consider your blog. What are the primary audience segments that you reach in addition to what would be their main desires? This will be your starting point.
Research Keywords
When you’ve got a general idea of what you’d like to write about, it’s time to start thinking about the individual articles. Before you begin, figure out what subjects your readers look for.
Keyword search tools can be the most reliable sources. They will tell you how well-known the keyword is as well as what it’s like to be ranked for the keyword. They also offer ideas for other terms which drive traffic.
There are a variety of free or paid tools. Paid software such as SEMRush tends to have more features and include more data such as search frequency as well as the difficulty of ranking each keyword.
If you don’t have the money for paid tools, then there are some great free tools to use, too. One of the best tools is Ubersuggest which was created and developed by the digital marketing expert Neil Patel. Ubersuggest offers a simple overview of the popularity of a particular keyword and its competitiveness.
Another helpful tool can be found on Answer the Public The site provided 383 suggestions for the phrase “budgeting.” The website organizes its ideas into categories such as “questions” and “comparisons,” making it simple to locate the idea that appeals to you.
Review Competitor Blogs
Do you remember the notes you wrote on the blogs of competitors? Go back and review those notes. Look over the posts you flagged as having a large number of comments. Pick those that correspond with your criteria.
Think about how you can be a part of the discussion. What are the best places to go or look at another angle? There may be a subject that others aren’t addressing.
Then, dig around and discover blog posts that are similar to yours you’ve not yet read. Google certain words you’ve discovered in your research, and then read popular blog posts. Also, consider where you can fill the gap in the available knowledge.
Browse Online Forums
Another method to determine what your target market is interested in is to examine what they are discussing on the internet. Facebook or LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your industry are good places to begin. The same goes for Reddit which is a social media site that offers special-interest communities for users, referred to as “subreddits.” Find subreddits that are related to your industry or topic and learn what the community is talking about.
Quora and StackExchange will reveal the most popular questions asked by users on the topic of your choice. These are the two most popular question-and-answer websites.
It is also possible to check out message boards and forums in your industry particularly if your area is highly special. These forums will provide insight into the needs of your audience.
Pinpoint Industry Trends
Create blog content that is evergreen, that is, valuable to a person regardless of whether they read it tomorrow three or four years from today. Other content should be current and relevant.
There are two kinds of current topics:
- Industry buzz
- General trends and current events
Professional magazines will guide you to industry news and help you stay ahead of the pack. Trends of the moment are easier to discover, but they may appear to be less important initially. Don’t let yourself be discouraged. It is possible to link articles to your blog’s main focus. This is just one example– Compose.ly’s article on content marketing in the face of a crisis, released in 2020.
When you spin general-interest trends to make them pertinent to your readers They make excellent attention-grabbing articles.
Develop a Blog Writing Format
Once you’ve got a couple of weeks of thoughts, you can begin thinking about the specifics of every post. (But don’t stop thinking about ideas for a while — it’s a continuous process and your blog is always in need of more subjects.)
Begin by creating a format for your writing posts. Formatting can help you organize each post and prevents you from having to reinvent the wheel each time.
In the end, your article layout should be easy to scan. Studies show that people are more likely to read an online piece of content than read it word by word. If they can look through your article and grasp the main points of your article then you stand a greater chance of attracting their interest.
A scannable format of the post contains:
- An introduction that is brief and includes the keyword of your choice at minimum once
- Subheadings and headings to divide sections
- Briefer paragraphs (no longer than two or three sentences)
The way you format your content can also help with SEO. Search engines like to offer readers what they want therefore they will not read articles that are too long in paragraphs and sentences.
Outline and Research Your Post
Readers and search engines share something else in common; they both prefer blogs with valuable information. To provide value, you must thoroughly research each post.
Start with your layout and begin by creating a rough outline of your article. Determine the points you wish to emphasize and the aspects of the subject you’d like to address. Convert those into sections. For instance, if you’re writing about the process of buying an apartment, you could choose to include topics such as looking at a prospective neighborhood and making lists of the features you want to see.
After you have completed your outline Make a list of the information you require to fill each part. Seek out opportunities to prove your position by citing facts and figures.
Google will provide you with all the information you require about your subject however, be cautious about the sources you pick. Choose the most reliable websites relevant to your subject. Try to find .edu, .gov, and .org websites whenever you can. Newspapers and magazines online can be very helpful. Avoid connecting to websites that sell products.
If you are citing statistics, make sure you look up the original study or survey as often as you are able to. If it’s older than two to three years old and isn’t from any academic publication, search for something that is more recent. The more your readers trust the sources you provide and trust your sources, the more they’ll be able to trust you.
It’s time to begin creating blog posts. Remember that you’re writing for the internet not printing So keep your posts short and stay clear of “fluff.” Don’t push your products too much. So this is a post that tells you how to write quality content. Blogs are meant to educate and encourage readers. You have plenty of opportunities to motivate purchases once you’ve established the trust of your readers.
Spend about 4 hours on each blog post. That’s how long bloggers put in, as per Orbit Media. However, Orbit also discovered that bloggers who work for more than six hours achieve higher outcomes, so don’t be uneasy about investing more time. Make sure you start now. Your customers are eager to hear about you.
