How to write a blog post For Beginners: 12 STEP GUIDE + Free BLOG CHecklist

Block off time to write.

It can easily take an hour to get into a writing zone, so block off a day just to write. It’ll take you far longer to complete your blog if you’re allocating an hour here and there.

Leave your headline until last.

Writing headlines is an art form. It takes skill. Not only do you need to entice your readers, but you also have to answer to search engines.

So you need to include your keywords in the headline and make it clickbait-able. I’ll only finalise the headline once the first draft is completed. I don’t necessarily know how many steps or points I’ll share, so leave your headline until last.

Craft a compelling introduction.

The best bloggers craft an introduction that readers literally cannot look away from.

Think of a car accident. A truck ploughs into a 4×4. You know it’s a gruesome scene. Somebody has likely died. But still, you’ve slowed down to 5 miles an hour—not to be safe but so you can crane your neck and eyeball the damage.

So you want your introduction to be unmissable because if it’s not, your readers won’t keep reading. Make sure your introduction includes your keywords in the opening line, states the problem you’ll solve, and contains a little story.

Add interesting stats (data your readers can trust).

Readers love data. It gives your advice or suggestions credibility. For example, why would I take up email writing just because you say I should. But if you include a stat like email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent, well, you’ve got my attention.

The thing is, you need reputable information. If only 100 people were surveyed, taking data as the gospel truth isn’t concrete evidence that the wider population shares those opinions. So make sure you check your facts.

• Who conducted the research?
• How many people took part in the focus group or survey?
• Are they part of the target market?
• Was evidence given to confirm the claims made? For example, did the report show examples of different company’s campaign results? Don’t blindly accept information—question everything.

Give away stuff for free.

Let’s be honest. People love free stuff. Whether that’s a coupon, free trial, eBook, t-shirt, whatever, people love it. IP intellectual property is just as powerful. It’s something you own and can brand. It could be a:

• Guide to blogging
• Checklist
• Template for building out your content plan or writing your first press release
• List of the best performing subject lines
• Video series

It gets leads to opt into your website. From there, you just need to market to them until they buy. So make sure you’re grabbing your readers’ attention with a free giveaway.

Be prepared to walk away.

Writer’s block is a reality. There will be times when it feels like you’ve vomited nonsense onto the page. Step away and do something else. Trying to push through will only result in frustration and feeling like you’ve achieved nothing that day.

Double-check the final document.

Once you’ve finished writing, you want to re-read your blog post and ask yourself the following:

• Have you answered the question?
• Does it flow? Is there any area where the writing is clunky or disjointed? Are there sentences that you can break up or shorten?
• Have you used transition words?
• Are your subheadings distributed evenly?
• Is it in your company’s voice?
• Is it written in first-person narration and second-person narration? We want to address the audience directly, so use words like you and your.
• Have you broken up large chunks of texts? Walls of text are scary for most readers. It feels overwhelming, and this can be a turnoff. Instead, you want to use bullet points, numbers, bold, and italics to break the content into bite-size pieces of information which are easy to digest.

Use Grammarly to help you iron out confusing sentences, incorrect grammar, spelling mistakes, and get rid of plagiarized sentences.