How to Write a Blog Post: A Simple Formula to Follow
Step 1: Understand your audience.
Before you start to write, have a clear understanding of your target audience.
For instance, if your readers are millennials looking to start their own business, you probably don't need to provide
them with information about getting started in social media -- most of them already have that down. You might,
however, want to give them information about how to adjust their approach to social media from a more casual,
personal one to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach. That kind of tweak is what separates you from
blogging about generic stuff to the stuff your audience really wants (and needs) to hear.
Step 2: Start with a topic and working title.
Before you even write anything, you need to pick a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to start
with. For example, if you're a plumber, you might start out thinking you want to write about leaky faucets. Then you
might decide to narrow your topic to "Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets" or "Common Causes of Leaky Faucets."
A working title is specific and will guide your post so you can start writing.
Step 3: Write an intro (and make it captivating).
First, grab the reader's attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs -- or even sentences -- of the
introduction, they will stop reading. You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grip
the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.
Then describe the purpose of the post and explain how it will address a problem the reader may be having. This
will give the reader a reason to keep reading and give them a connection to how it will help them improve their work/
lives.
Step 4: Organize your content.
Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information -- for the reader and the writer. The trick is to
organize the info so readers are not intimidated by the length or amount of content. The organization can take multiple
forms -- sections, lists, tips, whatever's most appropriate. But it must be organized!
To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. That way, before you start writing, you know which
points you want to cover, and the best order in which to do it.
Step 5: Write!
The next step -- but not the last -- is actually writing the content. We couldn't forget about that, of course.
Now that you have your outline/template, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and be sure to
expand on all of your points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, do additional research to
gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, providing proper attribution when incorporating
external sources.
Step 6: Edit/proofread your post, and fix your formatting.
You're not quite done yet, but you're close! The editing process is an important part of blogging -- don't overlook it.
This checklist ensures that you employ correct sentence structure in your written work:
• Do all of your sentences contain a subject and a verb? Eliminate any sentence fragments.
• Have you simplified or removed any unnecessarily long and confusing sentences?
• Did you include transition words to ensure a smooth flow of sentences?
• Do your verbs respect time? (present, past, future - simple or continuous forms)
• Do your verbs always agree with their respective subjects?
• Does every sentence end with appropriate punctuation?
• Do your verbs respect formation rules?
- 3rd person “S”
- simple past (irregular verbs)
- conditional sentences (if …….)
- prepositions
• Do your possessive adjectives refer to the correct person?
