What to Write and How to Write it: A Beginning Blogger’s Guide to Content

“Where the internet is about availability of information, blogging is about making information creation available to anyone.”
Once you’ve set up your business blog on a blog-hosting site such as Blogger, Wordpress or Tumblr, it’s time for the exciting part – publishing your blog’s content! Simply put, blog content is the written words you publish on your blog, or your blog’s “posts.” Copyblogger.com takes this simple explanation further by explaining that content marketing is “creating and sharing valuable, free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.”
The content on a business blog should always be closely related to the products or services offered by your business. By focusing on your own industry and experience, you lead people to consider you an expert in your field, allowing them to trust you enough to do business with you. Be sure that your blog posts contain stories, images, articles, videos and other material that directly correspond with the type of business you’re promoting. For example, an HVAC company’s blog would contain posts about tips for maintaining your HVAC system, video segments about how to replace air filters, infographs about record heat waves, or other related information. With a basic understanding of what content is and how to use industry focused content on your blog to establish your business as a trustworthy, professional source of information, we can now move forward with tips and tricks for writing outstanding, interesting blog content!
Layout and Content
1. Take Notes. Once you have chosen a topic for your blog post, your first step should be to sit down to research and make notes about the subject at hand. Pinpoint specific subtopics you’d like to address within the post, draw visual aids such as idea maps and brainstorming charts to organize your thoughts, and take some time to fact check and investigate issues you may not be completely familiar with. Taking some time to lay out your post on paper before your fingers ever hit the keyboard is a sure way to develop concise, accurate, well-planned content.
2. Start with a Bang. Give a great deal of thought to the title of each post. Focus on simple, to-the-point headlines that will summarize the content contained in your post and grab the reader’s attention. Blog post titles are the first thing seen when your blog appears in an RSS feed or comes up on a list of search engine results. Keep it simple, make it interesting and summarize the entire post in one sentence if possible!
3. Open Creatively. Consider catchy, interesting ways to open your posts. The opening lines of a blog post are what a reader uses to determine whether to keep reading, or move on to the next source of information. Focus on quality writing that is both attentions getting and attention keeping.
4. Subheads. Since many blog readers are scanners of the posts they encounter, map out your post with subhead lines and bullet points where applicable. Subhead lines guide even the quick-scanning blog reader through your content by summarizing the subjects of each section of the post with a short, concise headline, typically written in bold font just above the section they pertain to.
5. Call to Action. A good blog post almost always ends with a call to action for its readers. Think about what you’d like your readers to do once they’ve read your content. Visit your website? Join the discussion by commenting on your post? Sign up for your business email list? Always offer readers a course of action that can be taken as a direct result of having read your content.
6. Read it over. Once you’ve put your blog post together, be sure to reread the content and add additional depth where possible. Often, after getting all of your thoughts down in a post, you will find areas where you could be clearer or offer further information. A good rule of thumb when it comes to web content is to read, reread and then read again! Before clicking “publish” and sending your post live, make sure you’ve thoroughly reviewed the content you’re about to release.
7. Proofread. While you’re rereading your post in search of areas where you can be more clear or elaborate on your words, be cognizant of your grammar, spelling and punctuation. Make each read-through of your post a time of proofreading, seeking errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting and spacing.
Content-Specific Tips
1. Know Thy Problem. When planning your post, be aware of what problem you plan to address in your writing and of what solutions you will suggest to your readers. Writing a post about last-minute Christmas gift ideas? Offer procrastinating shoppers an invitation to shop your website and receive expedited shipping! Discussing tips for busy moms who want to keep their homes organized? Offer downloadable menu planners and shopping lists to get them started on the path to organization!
2. And Thy Audience. Be aware of who you are targeting with your blog posts. Identify your customers by age, gender, stage of life, occupation – whatever descriptors apply! Once you have a good understanding of who you are writing for, you can adjust your voice and style to best reach out to your targeted reader base.
3. Loosen Up. The most important thing to remember about composing blog content is to enjoy yourself and have fun! Blog posts are a form of expression and can be a fantastic outlet for your creativity. Enjoy your journey as you experiment with different techniques and post types and figure out what works and doesn’t work for your specific business blog!
Post Organization and Planning
1. Make a Plan. Create a calendar of blog posts, taking time to plan out at least a week in advance which posts will run on your blog each day. Having a clear plan and direction about where your blog is headed each week can keep you on track and help you produce well planned, interesting content consistently.
2. Schedule in Advance. In the same vein, look into the schedule ahead- posting features offered by your hosting platform. Many successful bloggers compose all of their posts for the week at the beginning of the week, and schedule them to post each day in consecutive order. Taking advantage of this feature can help you remember to post daily, consistent content that your readers will come to depend upon!
Writing blog content is a task to which you should apply the highest of standards. When posting content to your business blog, you are putting your writing abilities and style on display for the entire world to see. The internet is readily accessible to readers and consumers worldwide, making it imperative that you take pride in the content you produce!
The tips outlined in this chapter provide a thorough map of how to develop well-written content, from the initial planning phases through the time you publish a post live on your blog! As you begin to compose and publish content, visits to your blog will increase, and you will begin to desire promote your business blog and generate more readers. in the nest article i talk about, into blog traffic – what it means, how to generate it, and when to get creative to bring in new readers!