With our goals and plans firmly in place we can now start creating content. We’ve decided on our core message and the themes we’ve brainstormed will fit in with this.
So the next thing we need to do is decide what types of posts we are going to write. I’ve included a link to a resource from the Digital Marketers lab with 212 different blog posts or ideas.
So have a look at that but it is my recommendation to choose a few that you will work with and maybe create your own templates around them. I will talk more about templates later on.
Here are my favorite types of posts to write:
- List Posts
- How To Posts or Steps posts
- FAQ or SAQ
- Ultimate Guide Post
- Review Post
- Product or other types of Tips
- Interview
- Series
Next you are going to revisit your why’s and goals for each post. Every time you sit down to write a blog post, you should be
asking yourself,
“Why am I writing this blog post?”
• What do you want your readers to take away from it?
• What do you want them to do once they’ve read it?
• What is your overall goal—to teach, to entertain,
to sell?
With this in mind you can decide on your message or your big idea for this post and then create your attention grabbing headline. You headline need to let your reader know through an explicit or implied promise what they will gain from reading your post.
Use numbers in your headline where appropriate.
From there you are going to create your outline You can investigate your topics further and create your outline from that or you can use one of my or your own templates to help you create content fast.
You don’t need to use all of the techniques. These are just a few different ideas to help you start with something. You can download templates for free or you can create your own by looking at your favorite blog posts and how it is structured.
Using templates can help with writers block and just get you going.
I have 3 templates that I’ve created. The FAQ Template, The Tips Template and the Steps Template. I also gave you 2 other ways of outlining your posts either the 10×3 Where you have 10 topics with 3 ideas under each one or WWHW Where you ask the questions to prompt the answers.
Another way is to write quickly!
Write a headline. You can change it later.
Write everything. Start writing down all the ideas that come to you, in no particular order with complete disregard for grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Use a word bank if you need to.
Write as it comes to you.
You can Set a timer for 5 minutes or 10 minutes and write as much as you can in that time.
You then go back and structure your ideas.
Creating Quality Blog posts- These are some pointers to write quality readable posts:
A first paragraph or intro that pulls the reader in – with a promise. In many cases the first paragraph will be used with a Read more in email or social media posts so think of adding some sort of cliffhanger
Visually appealing text Including:
• Short sentences and paragrahps
• The use of bullet points
• The use of subheadings
• Break it up with images if appropriate
Your posts should contain quality links and links to previous post but not too much. – don’t overdo it
End with a strong close
Tell a story, take a stand, educate or inspire or entertain in some form.
Reread or edit your posts
Edit out the unessential. You might have heard of the 60 seconds copy writing challenge and the idea behind is to write copy that will fit in or on a radio commercial. So iow the perfect pitch
Now you don’t have to do that for blog posts but keep the idea in mind – remove fluff Get to the point quickly And make sure that you stay on track – keep within the theme of your post
Although you need to mix up your adjectives and remove cases of the word really and I think and I believe etc. Keep the language simple and use language that everyone will understand when it comes to blogging there is no need to impress by using technical jargon
The Content Creation Camp is starting April 1! Sign up now to get early bird pricing!
