This is a guest post by David Sneen from EarnMoreSpendMoreGroup.com
Whoa, with a title like that, what if this article turns out to be a dud? Pressure! My goal is to write a superior article–otherwise my content will contradict my heading. Therefore, I welcome your feedback (comment).
(I wrote this article with the written blog post in mind. You may find some of this information to be irrelevant if you are creating videos or Powerpoint content.)
Finding a topic
What am I going to write about? Everything interesting has already been said. What can I say that no one else has said?
Do you ever get those thoughts and ask yourself those types of questions before you begin? It is natural. Some of it is concern. Some of it is resistance to getting started. Either way, the solution is simple; make up your mind that you are going to write, and get started. If your goal is to write a superior blog post that your visitors and Google will love, keep reading!
Decide what category (for instance, blogging tips) that you wish to write about. Look at the news and trends. If you can tie your article to a current event, you may get a whole new set of visitors. Then brainstorm. What do you want to write about? Consider your options. Then, go for a walk, do yard work, or take a nap. But, have a pad of paper and a pen handy to jot down ideas that come to you. Your subconscious may very well take over; it could easily shower you with three or four great blog post ideas!
Writing your blog post
Once you have your idea, then it is time to brainstorm again. Write down items that you wish to include in your blog post. Then make an outline. You might be thinking, “Hey, wait a minute! I did this in English class when I wrote essays!” Exactly! And the technique that worked then will work now!
With your outline to guide you, you are ready. Don’t worry about saying everything right the first time. You can always come back and make corrections. Move from one topic to the next — get your ideas down. Just write like you are talking to the paper. If you are having trouble with writer’s block at this point, this recent SmartBloggerz’s blog post should help you.
Many people write their opening and concluding paragraphs after they have written their content. Your introduction (what you are going to say) and your conclusion (wrapping it up) are your two most important paragraphs.
After I am done with my draft, I ask myself, “Where can I insert keywords without taking away from the flow of my blog post?” Keywords are important to getting yourself ranked in the search engines. My keywords are goals, subconscious, and blog post. (I may have underused them–optimum use is between 3-5%. However, I would rather be a bit short, than force my keywords into my blog post and detract from its content.) Search engine visitors are likely to be your best visitors, because they requested your article.
Proofread your blog post; let your subconscious work for you if you get stuck
Next is the fun part. Proofread your article. Use your spell checker first and make changes as necessary. Make sure it reads well. It sounds hokey, but I recommend reading it aloud at this point. You catch far more mistakes when you read aloud than you do skimming or scanning your article.
When you think you said something wrong, think of an alternative way of saying it. When I had just started blogging, I would frequently ask myself, “Should this sentence be worded this way…or that way?” If neither feels right, don’t waste more than a minute thinking about it. Move on!
When I am at an impasse like that, I let my subconscious come up with the answer. And, I have found that the correct answer is almost always…neither way! My subconscious will deliver a third way of wording that sentence that is far superior to either of the options I had been considering.
Next, create your subtitles and links.
- You want at least three subtitles. I like bold Heading 2 or Heading 3 (WordPress) .
- At first, your links will be to authoritary sites. To get the most link juice, link to the topic that Google likes most. For instance, if I was going to link to the term “subconscious” from the previous paragraphs, I would Google “subconscious,” and link to one of their top choices. Once you have several articles, you will want to link them together. Google likes this internal linking and your visitors remain on your site longer, reading one blog post after another.
Always include pictures!
Don’t forget your pictures. People are likely to leave your site immediately if your blog post does not have at least one picture on it. I recently read an article about saying what you need to say with pictures. The article had multiple pictures on it. And, he had a good point—60% of us are primarily visual.
The title — last, but definitely NOT least!
Lastly, the title! You might say, “Oh, I created my title right away!” You could be right. But…there may be a better title. I am not going to say I have the best title in the world. But, what if I had entitled this blog post, Writing Great Blog Post Stuff? Would anyone read it? And, if no one reads it, why bother to write it? If you are at all unsure of how to create a great title, Google it!
You can Google blog post titles. Many top bloggers spend more time and effort creating a title than they do creating the material within their blog post. It is that important.
Writing an essay is a relatively simple thing. A blog post is a bit more complicated. But, when you create a great one, Google will love you, your readers will seek out more of your material, and you can reach your online goals!
Top 10 Search Terms:
• how to write blogs on google
Interesting insights. In terms of proofing articles, I suggest always finding the shortest way to express your thought. Instead of “the earth is orbited by the moon,” say “the moon orbits earth.” If that ends up shorting your word count, throw in some related news as examples. It never hurts to attach a current event where you can.
Absolutely, Robert! The Department of Wordiness and How to Say Things the Long Way needs to be closed. I have consistently found that the short way of saying something is best.
I really think that google hates me. I have high quality items, I have backlinks at all this articles, and many of my articles are listed after other articles that which are much worse than mine. why?
I can understand your feelings, Alex. I have been in exactly the same situation!
There are several possibilities. I am sure I will miss some. One of the algorithms is how long people stay on your site. Have you checked that? The backlinks that you use may not be ranked high enough. There may be grammatical errors on your blog—have a friend proofread it; we are often blind to our mistakes.
First of all nice article, Yes! I do agree that quality is the main fundamental and that’s the only point which can easily impress Google, the great search engine. 🙂
Thank you, Krishna. Your quote, “quality is the main fundamental and that’s the only point which can easily impress Google,” would certainly make the people at Google happy. That is their goal.
Hey David,
I think sometimes people worry too much about writing on the same topic that someone else has already written on. The truth is, most of the things you write about will already have been written about somewhere else, but just the fact that YOU are writing it will give it a unique spin by the time you’re done. At least it should.
I also think when you’re just starting a website you need to write about “common” things so that your site has all the information on a topic. For example, if I start a site about cats and every other cat site has an article about “How to care for cats”, I”m probably still going to write an article about “How to care for cats” because I want my site to be an authority and have all the information it can about cats. I don’t want people to have to go to other cat sites to get that information.
So I guess what I’m saying is people shouldn’t always feel like they have to be totally unique before they start writing.
Shoot me from a cannon if I am the first to write about this topic, Derek! There is no way I am first.
I agree that you want to cover ground even if your competitors have covered it, too.. You don’t want your blog on cats to not include an article about how to care for cats.
What you might do is come up with a unique angle and give it a different title. How to Have a Happy Cat and Avoid Nighttime Yowling might fill that niche, appeal to certain frustrated cat owners, and get a high SEO ranking. (I said might! I am just giving a “for instance,” I have not researched those keywords.)
Adding multimedia(images, videos and pdf) files and interlinking old content with new updates is always useful for readers as well as for SEO. It would be more better if you upload own videos on blog instead of using embed links.
There are so many things that you can do to make your blog appealing. Multimedia is huge. Google loves videos, etc.
And, with the new algorithm giving credit to time visitors spend on your site, movies, etc. are more appealing than ever! People will spend a lot more time watching than they will reading.
Awesome article David…!
Visitors happy Plus Google happy. Planning and concentration is important. Then you should follow all these points one by one to write superior blog content. Thanks for this useful guide.
Thanks, Saha. It sounds like you are well on your way.
Of course, there is tons of information on the internet. I encourage you to keep visiting top blogs, even as you are writing. When you do some of each on the same day; learning reinforces writing, and writing will bring up needs—things that you need to learn!
Though content is king but most of time people want to stay for for long time which blog have a great content with related pictures. As pictures can also express much information. But one should give importance on content. But this structure is too good for a good article. Thank you sir for sharing this.
Content is certainly king, Khokon. Pictures are necessary, too. If people are used to a blog with pictures, how will you get them to visit your blog which is not dressed up with at least one great illustration?
WOW, that’s was awesome! But i am not a good blogger like you, still i will try to follow your blog post and hope Google will be happy. Any suggestion for me that could help me in writing a good post ?
Thank you for your comment, Ankit. This is one of the areas which I did not fully address that I might have covered more. Your question, “how do I write a good blog post,” is the topic of many blog posts. I plan to address that topic on my new blog soon.
I always start like I did when I wrote essays in grade school–brainstorming. Write ideas for topics, cross off all but three or four, organize them, and begin. When finished, make sure you have a good introduction and conclusion. That is very basic, I hope that helps.
Of course, you can Google it and find a more complete answer.
I like your blog.This post is amazing. I am a content writer so i make some changes in my writing according to the above tips. Before i only concentrate on title,paragraphs and slogans, but now i work on pictures,bold letters and some subtitles, so that i can make my article more better.
Hey, thanks, Tanvi! If I can help you make one change for the better, I will go to sleep with a smile on my face. Like you, I have had to expand my after-content creation to include items I wasn’t using. (links and pictures for me)
This is great insight into what it takes to create a good blog. I recently discovered that I really enjoy writing, so creating a blog seemed a natural thing to try and do.(I would also like to make money at it) So, I am new to blogging and hope to really improve my technique so that what I have to say will be engaging and relevant.