Step 1 – Brainstorm 

Jot Down Ideas

Think about different subjects you may like to write about and simply jot them down.

Think About Your Audience

Think about what audience demographics you are trying to reach, which includes ages, genders, locations, and more. This is important as the broader the audience you plan to reach, the more likely your blog is to be viewed many times.

Think about what resources and content the audience would like to see. For instance, should you include links to those resources so they can easily source them, or should you include short explanatory so they clearly understand what it is you’re talking about?

Research

Keyword Research

If you have already installed the keyword surfer now is the time you will begin to use it along with Google.

In your Google browser enter the ideas you had during the brainstorming segment. You will see what comes up and you will also see how many times per month that subject or exact words have been searched every month. You may need to try different wording or phrases also known as keywords to identify the exact term people use when searching a subject. For example, the keyword phrase “crop-top outfit” has 0 search results while “crop top outfit” has 9900 monthly search results. So to capture that keyword one must misspell the title and the word within the blog. Now that goes against Google’s grammar requirement, but it is a good example of what to look for in your research.

What are people saying?

See what people are saying about a topic, and also see what they are not saying. If they are not covering a particular aspect of the topic that may be important it is a great opportunity to rank in the keyword since your particular topic is something that has been covered yet.

For instance back to crop top outfit. You can keep the keyword crop top outfit, but your title can be a black spaghetti strap crop top outfit. That is called a long-tailed keyword and if we look there are 0 blogs for that long-tailed keyword. So your title may be 10 black spaghetti strap crop top outfits to wear in 2022. You will still set your keyword as crop top outfit, but the extra portions will give your blog a better chance to rank not just for crop top outfits, but certainly for black spaghetti strap crop top outfits. We will cover more of this in the SEO module of this training.

Say something unique

It is important for many reasons to make sure what you write is unique. There is so much content on the web you want to say something new and different. Your blog has a better chance of ranking in search results but beyond that, people do not like to read the same old things over and over. Make sure your content is unique and something they can relate to. On a personal note, I like when the author adds their own personal experience. For instance, you may want to say, when I wear a crop top outfit in public sometimes I feel underdressed, so I always make sure the top is not too revealing. That personal experience is something many people can relate to and is definitely unique.

Make An Outline

Bullet Points

Outline the main bullet points you want to cover in your blog. This will help set up what your headers will be when you write your blog and give it a nice structure as well.

Sub Sections

Under the bullet points write sub-sections you do not want to miss when you write your blog.

3 Part Essay

It has been our experience that the best way to write anything, especially a blog is to use the 3 part essay rule you likely learned in school. Let’s cover the 3 part essay here.

Part 1- Introduction and make a statement 1 paragraph

The first part of any good blog has an introduction, makes a statement, and should contain your keyword. And we are not talking about welcome to my blog. Going back to our crop top outfits let me give you an example.

If you are looking to stand out this summer then you should consider a crop top outfit. Crop tops have been trendy since the 1920s but this year; it looks like they may be the Go-To outfit in the hot weather. In this post, we will talk about the best crop tops for 2022.

You will notice we have made the introduction a little exciting as we suggest “standing out”. We have made our statement “you should consider crop top outfits”. And finally, we let them know what we will talk about in our blog. This is an oversimplification example, but I think you now understand

Part 2 – Back up the statement with 3 or more paragraphs

Now your statement is “You should consider crop top outfits”. So let’s put together an example of why you should consider them.

Yellow Crop Tops

A yellow crop top will stand out whether at the beach, dinner party, or on a night out on the town. Add a spaghetti strap and you can pair them with a dark skirt or pants to really catch attention. If you have a print try to keep it simple as you do not want the print to overpower the brilliant yellow of the top.  

In this first example, I have covered why you should “consider a crop top outfit” and given the example of a yellow crop top outfit to back up my first statement. Each example only helps to prove my statement and can go on endlessly.

Part 3 – Summarize your statement and draw a conclusion. 1 paragraph

Now that you have met the first two requirements of a good 3 part essay it is time to close it out. We do this first with something like “in conclusion”, finally, “now that you know” etc. then summarize the statement. A good example would be.

In conclusion, any great wardrobe this year should include a crop top outfit as they stand out, are unique and so sexy as well. Be sure to grab yours before the spring rush hits the stores as usually happens early in the season.

We have drawn a conclusion and summarized the initial statement. We have found that this format works very well when writing just about anything. So keep it in mind as you begin.

Blog Length

Your blog should be at minimum 600 words. And keep in mind blogs that rank usually have more than 1000.

Sentence Length

Sentences should be kept under 20 words but can be made longer by using a semi-colon. Keep your sentences short as it will make the work less difficult to read, and it is also very good for SEO.

Paragraph Length

A single paragraph should not exceed 200 words. If you have more to say on a subject begin a new paragraph at a strategic location.

Headers

Most blogs should have headers. Headers are that bold words at the top of a paragraph and give the reader an idea of what the section or paragraph will be about. But there is a lot more to headers than that especially when you consider SEO. It is strongly recommended that you break up your paragraphs with headers whenever practical.