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Are you Ready to write a Blog Post?
Now that you have your hosting and WordPress installed, it’s time to write your first blog post. I highly recommend you start with an outline first. But you may be one of those people that can just write off the top of your head, but I’m not. An outline not only helps me with my writing process, it tells me where to add the h2, h3, and h4 headings! It can also serve as a checklist of sorts. As an example:
My Blog Post draft title
1. Outline
2. Subheading – Research
3. Subheading – Editors
4. Subheading – Use WordPress Edit
5. Conclusion/Call to Action
6. Opt-In ideas
7. Keywords to Use
8. Videos
9. Images
To download a free checklist, sign up for our resource library here:
Write Your Outline First
In this outline, I show my title, my subparagraph titles, and even whether or not I will show a video or podcast or what images I want to include. This helps me decide what I’m actually writing about. For more on this subject, see Before You Start a Blog.
Do Your Research
You should write a blog post for SEO anytime you write. So based on the outline above, I would start researching the keywords and phrases that I want to include in my post. Think of the variations of the phrase as well. I would create any images or opt-ins for the post at this time, or you could batch post (see Batching Blog Posts for the Perfectionist).
One of the best courses on content development is Kim Anderson’s 12 Week Blog Growth Strategy
I highly recommend this course for beginning bloggers!
Add keywords and subtitles when you Write Your Blog Post
Once you have determined your keywords, add them throughout your post. But, don’t forget, you should write like you speak (otherwise known as writing naturally), so don’t force the phrase. For example, in this instance, my keyword may be “write a blog post”. It would seem unnatural for me to say
“I highly recommend you write a blog post and start with an outline first.”
But it would not be unnatural to say:
”Are you Ready to write a Blog Post?”
How Long Should My Blog Post be?
For good SEO, your blog post should be a minimum of 600 words. I recommend no less than 1,000 words, and 1,500+ words if at all possible. However, don’t just write nonsense to get to the word count. If you make your point in 600 words, and the writing is good, so be it. Remember section titles count as words too!
Write Your Blog Post and Add images
Add images to your blog when it makes sense. Don’t just add images for the sake of adding images. For example, it doesn’t make sense to add an image of a castle in this post. But it does make sense to add an image of creating a post in WordPress:
Don’t think about it, click Publish.
Don’t overthink your post. When I first started blogging it would take me 4 hours to write one blog post. I kept reviewing, changing, adding, and deleting for hours. Remember, nothing is permanent. You can always go back and add or delete later when you are refining for SEO. Just write your blog post, do a quick spelling and grammar check, TAKE A DEEP BREATH, and hit publish.
So How Do I Write a Blog Post and Make Money?
Many people want to know how to write a blog post and make money. This should never be your first thought. It takes time, patience, and hard work. You should start by writing a blog post for SEO. Optimizing your blog posts will get you higher ranked in Google. More traffic, more ads, more product sales, more money.
But How do I write my first Blog Post?
Easy. Go to your WordPress Dashboard. Click on Posts, and Add New. Take your outline you wrote above, and input the information into the blog post. Until you have the post ready to post, you can save it as a draft or publish it privately. Publishing Private will allow you to see how it looks like an actual webpage, versus draft being just that…a draft.
Use a Tool to Write a Blog Post
There are many tools out there. A few good ones are Evernote, OneNote, Trello, and Milanote. I use two: Trello and Milanote. Each have their benefits. We’ll discuss that in another post.
Here’s an example of Writing a Blog Post using Trello:
Here’s an example of Writing a Blog Post using Milanote:
Whatever method you choose, just write. You can always fix it later. Add images, pins, and videos when you can. Just write.
Until Next Time, Happy Blogging!
Your Fairy Blogmother
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