First Four Steps To Write An Outstanding Blog Post

Jane Sheeba 2517 Views, ,
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So you want to write an outstanding or killer blog post? I am sure every blogger wants to write such posts at least once in a week. Some want every post published on their blog to be outstanding. The latter is a good thing to aim at.

So here are four five steps that will make your post outstanding, I promise!

The Title and the Body

Make sure that the body of the post delivers what is promised in the title. I know what you are thinking. Will someone do this? Yes, actually many are doing this. Why? Because there is such a thing called search engine optimization.

People are so much obsessed with that SEO thing and just stuff their blog post heading with potential keywords. I agree that optimizing your titles for search engine bots is quite important. But overdoing it will derail your blog post.

Make sure the purpose is served and that is your most important step to make a post outstanding.

You should actually promise less and over deliver in the body of your post. So if you promise to give 4 tips to something, there is nothing cooler than giving 5 tips, as I have done in this post ;).

Engaging Introduction

While writing an introduction to your blog post, you should make sure that your introduction captures the interest of the reader. The first few sentences are what you have to let the reader decide whether to read your post or simply click the back button.

So make the introductory lines catchy. You can open the post with a question, a famous quote, introduce an issue, make a joke about a serious issue (that is starting something solid and deep in a very light manner) and so on.

Make sure that your first paragraph sets up the scene, tells clearly what you are going to talk about in the blog post as a whole and set up the mood.

From Your Heart

Blogging without passion is dead blogging. Period. Passionless blogging is one of the main reasons why most blogs are not updated regularly on the long run.

How can you write about something which you don’t love? Even if you blog for money, you should only write about something you are knowledged about and on a topic about which you are passionate about.

In simple words, you should write from your heart and not from your brain.

Interlinks

blog post deep linkingLink your blog post to relevant content in a non-spammy way. This gives credibility to your post. You can add references that support your views or you could link to a popular post.

I have called them interlinks but your blog post doesn’t necessarily have to be stuffed by links within your blog alone. Indeed you should equally include links to relevant posts from other blogs too.

This helps you to make more friends, gain attention and indeed makes your post outstanding!

To the Audience

Do you know who your audience are? Do you write for your audience or you write just because you want to dump those thoughts onto a file?

Your blog post will be outstanding when you write your post by keeping your audience in mind. Ask these questions to yourself before you even start to write your first sentence –

1. Who will read this post of yours?

2. Will it be beneficial for the audience you are targeting?

3. Are the ideas practically applicable to those people who are reading it?

4. Have you addressed their past questions or concerns?

5. Are you offering anything new to your target audience (or are you just writing a typical post which your audience would have read about in 100 places already)?

How do you write your outstanding blog post?

Jane Sheeba

Jane helps bloggers and entrepreneurs to build blogs that succeed.

24 thoughts on “First Four Steps To Write An Outstanding Blog Post”

  • Jane,

    Okay, my favorite is “promise less and over deliver” I see this used in sales and business but I had not equated it to blogging. Adding that little something extra is a great idea… over deliver on what you promise.

  • Really good article. There is a lot that can be learned here to ensure that blog posts are engaging.

  • Jane, this is a great post, especially the part that it has to come from your heart. And like you perfectly pointed out it has to be in line with a compelling introduction and well to the audience.

    Again, great post, buffered it! 🙂

    • Hey Leo,

      I am so glad that you liked the post. Thanks for buffering it 🙂

      Cheers,
      Jane.

  • Hi Jane,

    Some great tips you share here. Your point about writing for your audience, in particular “are you offering anything new to your target audience ” is a key point.

    By regurgitating what hundreds of other sites are posting, you are doing a disservice to yourself and your readers. Maybe what you are covering is not “new” but you can put a spin on it that is different from everyone elses site. This will not only help you stand out, but also keep your readers engaged and interested in what you have to share.

    Thanks for the post. Very nicely done. 😉

    • Hi Michele,

      I am sure that every typical problem or a topic has a unique perspective that has not been addressed so far. That is the point of writing a blog post. If I am not saying anything new, I’d better refer my readers to where it has been talked about rather than me rewriting that again!

      Thanks for your comment.

      Cheers,
      Jane.

  • Hi Jane,

    Super tips here.

    Begin the post with an engaging tone, putting readers at ease immediately and keeping their attention. Simply writing from the heart helps you connect with like-minded people and you will naturally follow the other steps when you are being true to you.

    Thanks for sharing!

    RB

    • Hi Ryan,

      I believe that successful writers write from their heart. If there is not passion but only a force, then the reach won’t be good. That is why not every blog post is outstanding.

      I know you are good at your writing and I can smell the passion. You do great.

      Cheers,
      Jane.

  • I simply write as if I’m talking to you, readers really eat up the personability; just make sure it is sincere.

    • Hi Dennis,

      Your approach is truly great. More than a professional writing style which may not be yours, your own personal talking style will work like charm. And, as you say it is good to establish your sincerity too!

      Cheers,
      Jane.

      • I was criticized plenty in the beginning Jane, but ya know, I decided early on, if I wanna say gonna, I will. 😉

  • Hey Jane – That’s all interesting points..

    from your heart and a good title should do the trick and get you the traffic if you’re ready to promote the post like it should be done..

  • Blogging from ur heart, catching the reader’s attention in the first para are some amazing things that a blogger should consider.:) rest sometimes it happens that if you are writing a post that maybe written by someone but if we can draw a different insight then it is cool I think. what is ur thought @jane?

  • Nice post. I like how posts are written so simple yet very informative.
    Thank you! I learned a lot.

    JeD

  • Hi Jane,

    The body should justify the promises of title. Because title is the most important – from both readers and crawlers – we generally tend to squeeze it at its utmost. What could be more sad if the body could not justify what it promised! If your title is bad probably the reader won’t come inside the post and if your body is bad, its certain, the reader will never come back!

  • Hey Jane, all great tips here on creating outstanding posts. You touched on many key points and I quite agree that an outstanding post must have the audience’s need in focus while ensuring to make the tips as practical as possible (usability).

  • The most important thing to write an outstanding blog post is not to write for the sake of writing but only when you have an ispiration about something, of course this means that you will have a big reduction on the numper of posts per month. The best way to overcome this is to allow guest bloggers write for you something that will add freshness to your blog…

  • Some sound advice here. The title and introduction are definitely very important. I often leave the title till the end so I have had time to think of some exciting ideas while I have been writing the content.

  • When it comes to writing a good blog post the most important things are to have an eye catching headline and be as concise and to-the-point as possible. Web surfers are notoriously fickle and will immediately lose interest else if they are not engaged within seconds of reading your post. Unfortunately all web writers have to cater to ever decreasing attention spans.

  • When you are going to write a blog post don’t make it in a hurry. Polish your ideas and ponder upon them. When I write a blog post than in the first attempt I do not think about the SEO or the title I just write what is going in my mind. When I finish writing then I review the blog post suggest a suitable title for it and than change it according to the requirements of SEO but with out effecting the essence of the post. I think your natural thoughts are the most appealing part of the post.

  • Wow! Great article! These are all valuable tips. I liked what you said about “blogging from the heart”. I think its true of anything in life that you must be passionate in order to be successful.

  • Agreed. But it also true very often that most killer post come up when you actually have not planned it to be. Mostly, such a thing may happen, when either you are extremly good at the topic or subject you are writing about or you may have written that after a great research.

  • Really informative post. Leaving so many points to keep in mind while writing a post that should attract the reader and they love to read it and to share it. But that also depends on the nature of the topic. If you are targeting a limited reader then keep in mind their problems and question.

  • These are great steps to go by. I remember when I learned this so long ago in school, and wondered why I would ever need to know this stuff.

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