Secrets to Writing Your First Blog Post

Step 1: Determine a question you want an answer.

This is assuming you already have a website and a niche. A good article answers a problem. If it does not, then no one would read it. Think of a problem that is within your niche. Formulate a question out of that problem that could stimulate reader’s curiosity. Be sure that if this question is answered, the problem you want to address will be solved completely. Where will you place the question? It is important to make a clear direction from the very start. So you better state it in your title. It’s the first thing that the readers will see after all.

Consider the quality of your question.

Ask yourself a question on what do you want to learn about your niche. Stick with it. Determine whether it is a great question or a nonsense one. However, any query could be a great one. It is because you want an answer to that question make it a topic worth discussing. If you want an answer to it, probably more people want an answer as well. If any question could be a great question, any could be nonsense as well. So, be careful with this part. Make sure the question is simple. Simplicity makes it direct and clear.

Add small questions that will collectively answer the main question.

Step 2: Brainstorm for answers in form of words or phrases.

You now have a topic to focus on. The next thing to do is brainstorming. If you are with a group, the better because you can have as many keywords or phrases as possible. If you are blogging alone, you just list everything you think will answer the question. The accurate way to perform brainstorming is listing down everything that everyone have to say. The words or phrases may be or may not be really connected to the topic. Just them all down. If you ran out of ideas, you can stop and proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Make active short sentences.

After having this list of keywords sort them according to relevance. Then, make short sentences. Short sentences are advised to be used in articles for simplicity. Simple sentences are easily understood and proven to avoid boredom to readers.

Step 4: Form paragraphs.

Step 5: Use headings and subheadings in your article.

Most readers do not have the luxury of time to read the whole article. For your first blog post, you must build an impression. Building a good reputation is really a way to gain visitors. Headings and subheadings highlight important words or phrases that could arouse curiosity. Then, the readers could stick around and read the whole post. Moreover, headings and subheadings alone could answer what the readers are seeking. They can also be a part of the whole answer just like what I did in this post.

Step 6: Layout

A great article does not only include awesome writing. What it looks like is also a big factor. How it is laid out matters. It is an instinct to people to stay with a website if harmony and balance is at play. A perfectly placed image complimenting the words within the article should be always the priority. Well laid out page gain trust. Besides, your blog must look professional.

Step 7:Research for added information you missed

Credibility. It is what we wanted to gain in other for us to build visitors and readers. We wanted to write an article that we think we know of very well. We will not write about it if we know nothing about it. However, there might be some part of information that is not very clear even with us. This is the time we need to hit the search button and learn facts that could be new to us or we wrongly understand. I would like to emphasize that researching must be done after you already made your own article. This is because you might loss the creative juices flowing in you. Things that you could read during research can influence how you compose your sentences. I find it difficult to write my own words if I already read some really good stuffs. Researching just before writing could hinder your ability to write things you want to say.

Step 8: Proofread

Read the article after injecting few information you acquired through your research. Look for misspelled words or wrong grammars. Try to correct them. This is called proofreading. Proofreading is done to clean your blog post from errors. It is also a way to review how your topics were stated and arranged. Minimizing errors is a very important part if you want to achieve high volume of readers. Blog visitors can see even the tiniest mistake in a blog post. They might see you incompetent and unreliable. If you think that you are not great for this job, go find a proofreader. You might happen to have a friend who can help. Or find a freelance proofreader to do the job done.

Step 9:Check your article for plagiarism.

Be original. You do not want to face problems if someone charged you with plagiarism. Copyright is one of the biggest issue we must face everyday. You have to make your article original so that you can monetize it later. There are instances that you accidentally arrange the words in your sentences exactly the same with other articles online. Yes, it is possible. I was shocked the first time it happened to me. I was rejected by Google Adsense several times due to this. I am sure my articles are originally made by me. Eventually, I learned about plagiarism checker online and checked my articles. To my surprise, there are some part of my articles that are plagiarised. Do not worry because it is free to use plagiarism checker. The tool will tell you how much of the article is plagiarised. It will also show you the exact sentence and you could change it easily. You can use synonym or revise the sentence or just delete it if not too much in significance.

Step 10. Include photos

A blog without any image is boring. Include at least one photo or image that represent your topic. An image could be pinnable or just a simple photo. When I say pinnable, it means that the image could be pinned in Pinterest. Photos can make a visitor stay in your blog. Interesting images could become viral and hand with you the jackpot. Just be sure the photo or image is relevant. You can download stock photos from some websites if you do not have your own. You could read my post about blogging tools to learn more about stock photos.

Step 11: Publish

Finally, you can now publish your first ever blog post. Savor this moment. Read your article and be proud of it. This will keep you going. Being able to read the article of your labor is a great feeling. Enjoy it and share them to the rest of the world.

You could  make an incomplete list for your IG account so that they visit your

Please do remember that the steps in this article is just to guide you with your first blog post. There are so much more you should learn if you want to pursue this journey. You will encounter other important things like SEO, readability, keywords impressions, etc. 
We want to be part of your blogging adventures every step of the way. Feel free to subscribe and receive our latest articles. Don’t hesitate to contact us if ever you have anything you want to clarify or learn. We are willing to help.