Writing blog posts is one of the most effective ways to boost your SEO, drive traffic and generate new leads. While your audience may not be able to see it, you’re probably already doing a lot of work behind the scenes — concept, researching, writing, and editing. But how do you get started?
The following steps will help you ensure you’re always on top of your game. Externalize The best way to come up with great blog post ideas is to get them out of your head and externalize your thoughts. There are a lot of ways to do this. One of my favorite ways is writing a brain dump. Take a notebook and start writing down any idea that comes to mind.
Those first steps can feel intimidating, especially if you’re blogging for the first time. Fear not. Today, we’re sharing our favorite methods for finding content ideas that have been proven to work. Learn more
- How do you know what to write about?
- Your audience. Think about your audience.
- What are the problems, questions, and needs of your audience?
- What does your audience want to know about?
- The most important thing is to know your audience and what they want to read.
Blog Posts Analytics
Take a look at your site analytics, use Google search and keyword planner, and look at popular content on your site, blog, social media, and more. I use the most advanced research tool on the market today, Jaaxy. Learn more
You’ll likely find many opportunities for content that your audience is eager to read. That gives you a huge leg up!
- What should I write about?
- What do they need to know about?
- Your expertise. What do you know?
- What are your strengths?
- What are your areas of expertise?
- Are you an expert in a particular industry?
- A software program?
- A particular subject?
- An industry or group?
Research Your Blog Posts
Research and planning can help you focus your content creation efforts and get more in less time. By understanding what your competitors are doing, what your audience wants, and what you have to offer, you’ll have the makings of a killer content strategy. I use Copy Smith Automated content research tool. Learn more
You may decide to do all your research and planning at one time, say on Monday morning, choose to do it a little bit every day, or select that you don’t need to do any research and planning. Learn more
Whichever you decide, you should approach your research and planning with the end in mind and have a clear idea of what you want to do, who you want to do it for, and why you’re doing it.
Have a list of ideas ready to go as soon as you know you’re ready to start blogging. You’ll never find yourself scrambling for content—or coming up empty when you’re prepared to write. How do you find what you can write about?
Use the search box. Take advantage of the Google Advanced Search box.
What words did you use?
What words did you not use?
Blog Post Tips
- What are you not finding? What’s missing?
- How can you add value? How can you fill a need your audience has?
- What words are they using?
Here are some of the best strategies for researching and planning your content.
Invest time in researching your audience.
You can’t write effective content if your content doesn’t answer a need you’ve identified in your audience. So before you write a single word, spend time researching your audience. There are several ways to do this. You can do specific audience research using surveys, polls, and questionnaires. Learn more
You can use social media to get a pulse on the overall sentiment of your audience. You can use your web analytics service tools to see what content your audience consumes on your website.
You can do an ethnographic study and talk to your audience. You can do a content audit of your current content to see what your audience responds to. You can do content inventories of your competitors to see what they’re up to.
You can also do free or inexpensive research using readily available information like blogs, magazines, and social media sites. Once you’ve done that research, you need to identify your audience’s needs. Doing that will enable you to write content with your audience in mind.
Before you write, outline your content. Do this so that your content follows the needs of your audience.
You can do broader research on your topic and your competition. You can even use social media to talk to your audience to get a feel for what they’re looking for. Whatever you do, make sure you spend time getting to know your audience before you start writing content.
Plan Your Blog Posts Content
Before you start writing, you need to find a way to organize your ideas. There are several ways to do this. You can find out what your audience members are looking for by monitoring social networks and forums.
You can analyze your site traffic statistics to see what people are looking for on your site. And if you don’t have any of this information, you can ask your audience.
On the other hand, you can do more informal research. Talk to your customers, your co-workers, or friends and family. Whatever research you do, find out what your target audience wants.
Grammarly proofread this post.
Once you’ve identified their needs, you can start writing content that matches them. Help them avoid mistakes. A great source of content is to share lessons learned from your mistakes. Learn More
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