Writing Blog Posts Like a Pro

Tips for Writing Blog Posts Like a Pro

A blog is important for building your online presence. Through your blog, you create engaging content that provides value to your target market and SEO power to your website. In addition, you can use blogging to show your expertise, build your brand, and turn leads into buyers. Here, I’m sharing tips for writing blog posts like a pro.

Know Your Audience

Your blog will perform best if you meet the needs of your audience. If you write posts that solve the problems and challenges they face, you’ll offer real value and rise above the competition.

The best way to understand your readers is to create a blog target audience. This group of people can benefit the most from reading your information. Once you identify this group, you can create content specifically for them that meets their needs.

Create a profile that includes demographics, core values, attitudes, and behaviors. Then, identify issues or challenges they face that you can solve through your content.

You can make an educated guess, but you’ll do better by conducting market research. One way to do this is to check out your competitors or other blogs in your niche and see who comments on posts.

You can continue learning about your readership and perfecting your ideal reader profile once you start publishing.

Take the Time to Outline

No matter how short your blog posts are, you should take some time to write an outline. Outlining allows you to organize your thoughts so your writing is more coherent and focused. It ensures you don’t leave out essential information and provides a roadmap that makes writing straightforward.

Start by identifying the main point of the piece. What do you want to teach your audience? Then, break this main idea down into its key parts.

For example, you might introduce a topic, define it, explain why it’s important, outline the benefits, and offer a few tips. If you’re describing a process, you might break it down into steps. For a post with 5 tips, your outline would list the 5 tips and the main points of each.

Research Your Topic

It’s crucial to conduct research for your blog posts, even if you know the topic well and can write the post without it. The reason is that just a small amount of additional research can create content that offers much more value to the reader. Plus, you may learn something new along the way.

You can do effective research for your blog post in just a few minutes. Search for keywords related to your topic on Google and glance at a few articles or posts. For example, if you’re writing a post with tips, you can add more to the ones you already know.

Get the Reader’s Attention

A good blog post gets the reader’s attention and doesn’t let go until the end. The internet is flooded with content. Writing in a way that grabs attention helps yours stand out.

The first step to gaining attention is to write an enticing title. The title should tell people what they can expect from the post in clear language. It should speak to the audience’s needs and tell them the benefits they’ll receive from reading the post. It should be specific, using numbers where appropriate.

The first sentence and paragraph also play a major role in keeping the reader engaged. There are several ways you can capture attention in the first paragraph:

• Ask a question
• Share a quote
• Tell a story
• Paint the reader a picture

Like the title, the first paragraph should be short and snappy, with a hook that leads the consumer to read more.

Write in a Conversational Tone

Writing in a conversational tone makes you more relatable to your readers. Don’t write formally or use jargon that your reader may not understand. The key to communicating through content is to be direct so you are understood.

A conversational tone also makes your text more fun to read. Use “you,” contractions, and simple language that readers of any educational level can understand. Write your blog posts like you’d write an email to a friend or colleague.

Keep it conversational, but make sure you still follow the rules of written English. For example, don’t use internet slang, and make sure your spelling and grammar are correct.

Edit Your Work

After writing a post, read over it and edit it before publishing. Check for errors and watch out for redundancy. Make sure it flows and stays in an easy-to-read tone throughout. Writing blog posts like a pro requires more effort, and it’s worth it!

An excellent way to edit is to read your work aloud. This will help make sure it flows well. Keep in mind the goal is to communicate simply and directly.
Always use spellcheck after editing. You may want to invest in a more sophisticated editor like Grammarly, which can offer suggestions to improve your work.

Formatting Considerations

Web content must be easy to understand and consume to provide value and effectiveness. To write blog posts that will get read and acted upon, you should consider formatting so that your blog page is easy on readers’ eyes.

Keep paragraphs small. If you have large chunks of text, break them up so it’s easier to read. Another idea for breaking up text is to use images related to your topic or white space. You can get pictures from stock photo sites such as pixabay, unsplash or creative commons.

Offer Value to Your Audience

Make sure that each blog post offers value to the reader. What this means is that you’re giving them something they can use. After reading your article, they have some actionable steps to help them handle a problem and save time or money. If readers can get results after reading your blog, they’ll keep returning for more.

You can learn new ways to offer value by setting up two-way communication with your audience and asking them what they want.

Make It Fun and Interesting

We do our best writing when we’re enthusiastic about the topic. It can feel like a grind when you’re churning out content that doesn’t inspire you. Remember this as you consider what to write about.

I was the reluctant blogger when I came online in 2006. I had no writing skills, nothing to say, and just wanted to get to the part where I’d make some money. That first month, I struggled with this, but I took it on faith from those around me that blogging would indeed pay off.

Blogging has been so good to me, that I now have three active blogs that I update several times each month. I earn income from my blogs in a variety of ways, and it began with affiliate marketing, where I was recommending what I was buying and benefiting from, and truly loved. Blogging also lead to:

• Helping me grow a responsive list
• Improving my writing – this is how I’ve been able to write and publish more than twenty-five books since 2010!
• Teaching me more about the topics I post on
• Giving me a platform to share my business with the world!

Private label rights (PLR) content was in its infancy when I began; now it’s mainstream and I use it regularly, from the people I’ve come to know and trust for their high quality content.

Follow the tips above on writing blog posts like a pro, and creating blog posts that offer value to your audience will be trouble-free. And remember, blogging holds great potential for you as a writer. I blogged my first book, and continue to write and publish profitable eBooks on all kinds of topics.

I’m Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, independent publisher, and serial entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and would love to connect with you. If you’re new to the world of online entrepreneurship please check out my training on how to make your first income online at 3 Day eBiz (Use Code: MAKEITHAPPEN to Save) and learn how to gain an unfair advantage when it comes to building a lucrative online business.