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“The life of a blogger is always intense.” – Repo Man
Follow this blogging zero-to-hero guide and learn the 5 essential steps to write and publish your first tech blog post (see Appendix for more details). This is an optimized roadmap that contains actionable tips for the aspirational rookie writer. It is designed to get Fortune 500 companies hooked on your blogs.
The ultimate goal is to learn how to write blog posts that actually get readers.
Let’s get started.
Contents:
- Step 1: Preparation
- Step 2: Execution
- Step 3: Publication
- Take time with your conclusion:
- The conclusion is arguably the most important part of your review, so make sure you spend plenty of time crafting it. Don’t make it too long, either – a couple of paragraphs will do. It should recap on the key benefits and disadvantages and deliver your ultimate verdict.
- Step 4: Promotion
- Step 5: Feedback
- Key Takeaways
- Internal Links
- External Links
- Appendix: Read More
- 1. How-to – In a how-to blog post, the blogger explains the steps the reader needs to take to complete a task. Recipe blog posts are a popular example of a how-to blog post.
- 4. Interview – the blogger introduces a person they’ve interviewed and provides some background information about the interviewee and their work.
Step 1: Preparation
The What
- Define your overall business objectives to improve customer experience (i.e. customers, companies, competitors, collaborators, and context), your strategy (segmentation, targeting, positioning) and tactics (product, location, promotion, financials, etc.) that satisfy the SMART criteria.
- Define the niche of your blog that has a clear subject and point of view linked to your target audience and beyond. A good niche narrows the content of your blog. If you opt to write about whatever comes to mind, you blog can become chaotic and people may struggle to make sense of what your blog is ‘about,’ and this can affect your retention rates.
- Choosing a topic for your blog involve 3 main components:
Clear topic ideas (see above), a great headline, a hook, and a solution.
- Attract a Wide Audience
- Establish SME Authority
- Build Rapport/Engagement
- Create Business Opportunities
- Organize Your Thoughts/Learn
- Tell Your Story
Blogging enables you to be your own media company.
- Networking
- Stand Out
According to “the 1 percent rule,” only 1 percent of Internet users actively create new content, while the other 99 percent of the participants simply view it.
- Expertise Debugger
- Make Money (cf. Appendix)
The How
- Research Internet to land on a compelling topic
- Come up with a great post title = headline that attracts eyes
- Define a scope/context by outlining your post
- Demonstrate your connection to the topic by making your blog writing personal = connect with your audience
- A clear layout: make sure your post is laid out in a clear and visually clean way
- Grow your audience base by writing blog posts that you feel passionately about
- Propose solutions: provide your readers with a well-sourced case study that relates to the topic at hand (it’s not enough to just give a cursory overview of a topic)
- Research available SEO, proofread, and promotion options.
Step 2: Execution
Ready to start blogging? Follow these steps to write a great post and effectively reach your target audience.
- Set up your blog = determine a budget for your blog. You’ll need to pay for the following: Hosting, The domain name, Design services, and blog writing and/or editing (unless you plan to do all of this work yourself)
- Don’t have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Persona Template]
- Check out your competition – it’s worth taking a look at popular, highly reviewed blogs
- Determine your topic(s), identify your unique angle, name your blog, and create your blog domain
- Choose a CMS (content management system) and set up your blog
- Customize the look of your blog
- Write the actual blog post as follows:
So, you’ve done your research, settled on a headline (or at least a working title), and now you’re ready to actually write a blog post. So get to it.
Step 3: Publication
Publishing is the best way to get your blog onto your website, it’s super simple, super fast and comes with many amazing features to make sure blogs look and perform the greatest.
Each website provider tends to be slightly different for how you publish your blogs. Click the link below that matches with your website provider for the next steps:
New blog posts are initially saved as drafts. As soon as you’ve finished composing your blog post, you can publish it yourself anytime.
- Before you send your blog post to be reviewed, you should check your post against the Editorial checklist on the right-hand side in the blog post editor.
- Once you’re happy that the post is ready, set the status (just below the ‘Save’ button) to ‘Ready for review’ and then Save the post.
Take time with your conclusion:
The conclusion is arguably the most important part of your review, so make sure you spend plenty of time crafting it. Don’t make it too long, either – a couple of paragraphs will do. It should recap on the key benefits and disadvantages and deliver your ultimate verdict.
- When you finish writing your blog post, you’ll click “Publish” at the top right hand corner of the page and your blog will be live on your website.
Step 4: Promotion
Work on a Distribution and Promotion Strategy:
- SEO usually takes time, and it’s a good idea to work on a channel mix
- To make the best decision on your promotion strategy, spend enough time analyzing your audience and their habits
- Have a form where people can subscribe to your newsletter.
Use the following distribution/promotion platforms:
- Social media (from Instagram and TikTok to LinkedIn and Twitter)
- Forums, as well as platforms like Reddit and Quora
- Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Industry community platforms
- Industry publications
Track Content Performance:
There are several important metrics you can track, depending on your goals. The main ones include:
- Traffic on your blog (source: Google Analytics)
- Sources of that traffic (source: Google Analytics)
- Rankings (source: Position Tracking)
- Average time spent on your blog posts (source: Google Analytics)
- Conversion rates on the blogs (source: event tracking in Google Analytics or your marketing automation platform).
Refresh & Repurpose Older Content:
Running content audits should become part of your regular activities. It’ll help you collect the low-hanging fruit—improve existing content to rank higher—and keep track of your overall performance.
Based on the information you collect, you can add several changes, such as:
- Update blog posts that are losing ranking and traffic
- Delete or update old blog posts with irrelevant information
- Repurpose high-performing blog posts (e.g., create an ebook)
Based on our research, it’s most common to run content audits twice a year.
Create a Quality Control Process and Use It for Every Article:
Content quality is quickly becoming the number-one strategy for ranking on Google. To do that, grab our free Blog Post Quality Checklist.
Bottom line: In fact, you should spend only 20% of your time writing, and 80% getting people to read what you wrote.
Step 5: Feedback
- Online blog review – get actionable feedback on your blog posts.
- Look at your current comments – Which posts have the most comments?
- Ask around on Twitter or Facebook
- Find a blogging partner
- Post a message in a forum
- Join a blogging-related course
- Get Instant Feedback When You Publish via WordPress
- Publish client feedback on your website!
Key Takeaways
- It is widely accepted that highly specialized nicheblog topics have certain useful qualities that earn money and provide content guidance for both novice and advanced content creators.
- Choose a Good Topic – what your followers want to know and read about
- Do Your Research – make sure to research the front page of Google and your main competitors
- Take Notes and Start an Outline – keep a notebook handy where you can take down the important points
- Start Drafting Your Blog Post directly on your (WordPress) dashboard
- Hook Your Readers With a Great Opening – pose a question addressing the reader’s problem
- Write Like You Talk – Writing like you’re talking to your reader can make them feel like they’re having a conversation with someone, rather than actually reading a post
- Make It Scannable – People usually don’t read blog posts word-for-word. Instead, they scan them for the information they’re looking for. Here are a few ways you can make your blog posts scannable: Use Subheadings, Write Short Sentences, Keep Paragraphs Short, and Use Bullet Points
- Use Images for Visual Engagement – content with images gets 94% more views than content without.
- Include a Compelling Call to Action – convince your users to take action on the site (Sign up to your email newsletter, Leave a comment, Share your post on social media, Buy your product, etc.)
- Add a Featured Image – Shutterstock, Unsplash, and Pixabay are great platforms to help you find an appealing image to use. You can also use Canva if you like them edited
- Level Up Your SEO – You need to add a focus keyword, add a title with the keywords in it, and also add an SEO title and meta description.
- Publish at the Right Time – Hit publish at a peak time.
- Blog Checklist: After You Click Publish, Do These 10 Things
- Jumpstart Traffic with a Teaser Email
- Deploy a Never-Ending Social Media Campaign
- Persuade Influencers to Spread the Word
- Go Hunting for Juicy Backlinks
- Perform a 10-Minute Internal Link Audit
- Answer the Burning Questions on Quora
- Repurpose Your Post
- Turn Your Post into a Facebook Ad
- Dig Deep Into the Data
- Remind Yourself to Refresh Regularly
Good luck!
Internal Links
How to Build a MarTech Stack from Scratch
10 AI-Powered Websites for Content Writers
Top 10 Most Upvoted Apps Sept ’22
External Links
IAPWE | International Association of Professional Writers & Editors @iapwe
How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free Blog Post Templates]
Tips on How to Write Your First Successful Technical Blog
5 Tips for Writing Blogs About Technical or Complex Topics
How to write a great technical blog post
How To Write Technical Blog Posts
7 tips to start writing your technical blog post
How To Start Writing Technical Blogs
Our 8-Step Guide for How to Write a Pro Blog Post
101 Blog FAQ Questions Answered That New Bloggers Often Ask
Appendix: Read More
What is a blog post?
A blog can be a section of a website or a standalone website of its own. Written content is a key component of a blog post.
That is right, it is all about the content creation or content marketing.
Types of blog posts:
1. How-to – In a how-to blog post, the blogger explains the steps the reader needs to take to complete a task. Recipe blog posts are a popular example of a how-to blog post.
2. List-based – This is a list of related entries.
3. A news article blog post links to a trending news article and provides the blogger’s thoughts on that news article.
4. Interview – the blogger introduces a person they’ve interviewed and provides some background information about the interviewee and their work.
5. In a review post, the blogger reviews a movie, video game, TV show, product, etc.
6. A personal blog post, like a personal essay, is where the author discusses their personal experiences, thoughts, and/or opinions.
7. An explainer blog post is similar to a how-to blog post in that it provides a thorough, objective explanation of its topic.
8. An image-based blog post is a post that focuses on images. The post could be an infographic or it could be a post consisting of multiple images.
A business blog is a part of a brand’s website where content is published that helps educate the company’s target audience about its products or services. A blog is a marketing channel and is an essential part of a brand’s content marketing strategy in that it helps attract potential customers via search engine listings.
- Can You Make Money With A Blog?
Yes, you can make money by selling advertising, through affiliate marketing, and by selling products or services through your blog.
- What Are The Best Blogging Platforms?
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the web. Other platforms of interest are Google Sites, Squarespace, Tumblr, and Blogger.
- What is Guest Blogging?
Guest blogging, also called “guest posting,” is the act of writing content for another company’s website. Generally, guest bloggers write for similar blogs within their industry in order to: 1. Attract traffic back to their website, 2. Boost their domain authority using external links to high-authority domains, 3. Increase their brand credibility and awareness, and 4. Build relationships with peers in their industry.
Blogs, at least the most helpful ones out there, help to educate and inform your target audience on various subjects that your audience is most interested in. Business blogging helps to increase your business’s online visibility, establish your company as an expert in your field, and turn the readers of your blog into an engaged audience.
- What is the SEO pyramid?
- Optimize your content for Google’s top 3 ranking factors
- Create content for people who can give you links
- Featured snippets
- Use LSI Keywords
- Update old posts
- Optimize for voice search
- Add videos
- Use up-to-date SEO tools
- Implement visuals-first approach
- Meet user expectations
- How to construct my mental framework for content marketing?
- What is marketing analytics?
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