Blog writing is one of the most popular online activities that generate thousands of new posts on a daily basis. It’s not a surprise given the fact that there are almost 1.7 billion websites currently active on the Internet, but it is a problem for authors who want to distinguish themselves from other digital writers.
In the abundance of blog posts, content planning becomes the only way to stand out from the crowd of competitors. You need to prepare before writing for a number of reasons:
- To save time needed for the actual writing.
- To tailor content for your audience.
- To come up with more ideas.
- To write better articles.
Now, the big question is: How do I prepare for writing a blog post? If you want to find out, keep reading our post to learn the top seven tips to plan your blog content like a pro.
1. Define Your Topic
This is the first step and it should be the easiest one for you. The goal is to think about the theme and define the topic very precisely. The Internet is all about speed and accuracy so don’t fall into the trap of writing about broad or vague subjects.
It’s always a good idea to think of a few titles and to test each one and find the best solution. This is where a digital tool like CoSchedule Headline Analyzer can step in to help you out. With this platform at your disposal, you can predict the performance of every headline even before publishing the article.
2. Know What You Want to Achieve
What is the purpose of your next article? Is it to drive user engagement, build professional authority, attract local customer, entertain, or educate readers? Do you understand the people you are writing for? You have to know it well in advance because it influences the way you write and the style you use.
Let’s say that your latest blog post is targeting senior managers and decision-makers. This type of audience demands highly analytical and data-driven content, so you must keep it informative and straightforward.
On the other hand, younger audiences probably want to read entertaining posts with lots of visual components. Every target group has different expectations, so make sure to find it out before writing.
3. Consider the Length of a Post
The next task is to determine the ideal length of your new post. There is no general rule to follow here because the strategy depends on the nature of your business, topic, and audience. However, studies show that the average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.
It’s a clear signal that today’s users appreciate longer and high-quality blog articles. This is an important issue because the length of a blog post determines the time needed for content creation. If you are about to write a 3,000-word article, you better save enough time for this activity.
4. Make an Outline
Now that you know the topic and the length of the post, you are free to prepare an outline. It’s a plan of work that you should create to ensure full focus while writing. Generally speaking, each post has a traditional structure consisting of:
- An introduction that briefly explains the subject of the post.
- A body part where you discuss all details thoroughly.
- A conclusion where you quickly summarize the most important statements.
Of course, you can (and should) divide the body part into several segments and use subheadings to help readers find their way through the article.
5. Keyword Research
As a blogger, you probably know that search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to the success of your content. In the world where 93% of all traffic comes from a search engine, you must use the right keywords to increase the discoverability of your blog.
A good thing about it is that you don’t have to brainstorm solutions on your own. There are many tools like Google Keyword Planner that can do the job automatically, while your only task is to select the most promising search terms and apply them to your text.
6. List Your Sources
A diligent blogger knows that she/he is not the first one to analyze a given topic. This is why you should consult other sources and prepare to write a post without repeating the same messages all over again. For example, custom coursework writing service professionals always conduct research to get acquainted with the already existing works and also to find valuable quotes and statistical findings. Try to follow the same pattern and list your sources such as case studies, eBooks, textbooks, industry reports, etc.
7. Create a Schedule of Activities
The last tip is to ensure long-term consistency by making a content creation schedule. This is not related to one article only, but rather a series of posts in much a longer timeframe.
We already mentioned that bloggers publish millions of posts every year, so you have to be consistent and create new articles week after week. A simple tool like Google Calendar can help you to stay on track by setting due dates, reminders, notifications, and all other details that can contribute to the content creation consistency.
Conclusion
Successful professionals rarely start a project before choosing the best course of action. Blog writing is not an exception here as you do have to think through the topic and find the most appropriate model for the actual writing part.
In this article, we discussed the advantages of planning blog content and showed you seven ways to prepare like a pro author. This is a general idea of how the planning part should look like, but you can definitely use it and customize it so as to fit your style of work.
Of course, feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or other interesting ideas to share with our readers!
About the Author
Lauren Adley is a writing expert and editor at Bestdissertation, Thesis Writing Service, and My Assignment Help. She is dedicated to her family, work and friends. She is keen on reading, playing the guitar and traveling. She is interested in educational, marketing and blogging issues. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter.
