I’m no expert, but I have had a lot of experience writing blog posts. And although everything that works for me won’t necessarily suit your blog or your writing style, I’ve chosen four of the most useful guidelines I’ve come to rely on when writing blog posts. Each of these has been proven to work in my own experience as well as for numerous other bloggers, so if nothing else they’re good starting points for figuring out what works for you.
1. Write an Outline and a Working Title ASAP
I’ve eschewed this rule a few times but never with good results. No matter how many other approaches I try, I always find that an outline is imperative to writing a good blog post. An outline is a skeleton version of your post: it’s a structure for you to follow when you get down to the real writing stage. You could use a mind map or Post-it notes for your outline; go with whatever suits the way you think.
My outlines look a bit like a list: they’re usually made up of several subheadings/topic points and notes for each one about what I’ll cover when I fill out that section. Here’s an example:
Write the Perfect Blog Post: 4 Tips from 24 Months of Content Marketing
