Plan Your Blog Post and Create Amazing Content

Today’s guide is going to cover the detailed process I use to structure a post and create great content. This will focus more on the technical layout and planning of a post, where my last guide covered the zen surrounding content creation.

If you are new to blogging I highly recommend reading this guide to help you get started. As you discover your writing style you can expand on what I have outlined here to best suit your blog.

These are methods I have taught to numerous people who were new to blogging and everyone that has learned them has thanked me for presenting these ideas in such a methodical way.

When I write my blog posts I like to use Microsoft Word or any third party writing program so that I can save my work on my computer. I do this for two reasons. The first reason is that I like to have a backup of all the work I do write on my PC. The other reason is incase the server lags, crashes, or gives a internal 500 server error, then my work will not be lost.

This is a good practice to follow to safeguard all the hard work you put into writing a post. It will help you avoid a lot of frustration, so you don’t have to worry about losing your work.

So now let’s take a look at how to start structuring your first blog post.

 

It All Starts With a Great Idea (Inspiration)

As I outlined in my last guide, “How to Get Started Writing Your First Blog Post” a major key to a successful blog post, is “Inspiration”.

Many people overlook the significance of being inspired when you write. You absolutely need to be. That inspiration makes what you are writing interesting to others, and without it you are just producing stale content that people will be unlikely to read.

Becoming inspired to write can be one of the hardest things out there. I mentioned some methods for this is my previous article but the main concepts that apply here are:

• Writing about something you know.
• Be passionate about your subject matter.
• Look for things that excite you, and share that excitement with others.

Keeping these three basic ideas in mind will definitely start you on the road to good content. Becoming truly inspired will help you create great content, and will lead to big things for your blog.

 

Make a Great Title to Draw People In

A great title is very important when structuring your blog posts. I like to focus on the title of the article before I start anything else.

Once I have my idea and my inspiration, I sit down and create a great title for that plan. I do this partially because it inspires me and it also helps me define my subject matter.

A good title should be clear and concise. Pretend you are writing for a newspaper and have a limit of 5 to 10 words to express the idea behind your article. What would it say?

You want title to not only draw people in, but also to give them an idea of what they are clicking in to.

The page title for your post is what will show up in the search results and also carries a hefty weight for any keywords you use in it. So in addition to being interesting you want to utilize the power the title has for your keywords also.

As you can see from looking at the title of this page “How to Plan and Structure a Great Blog Post”, I have a few of my keywords in the title, along with an explanation of what the post is about.

If someone was searching for “How to” “blog post” etc, these are all things that may bring up this post. Another word I made use of is the word “Great”. This is known as a modifier. Modifiers are helpful because they are conditional search terms people use to express intent in a query.

In this case the person searching for this article may not only be looking for a post on how to write a blog post. They may be looking for information on how to write a “Great” blog post.

At this point in your blogging career I would say focus on writing a title that people will find interesting and don’t worry about keywords, modifiers, and SEO for now. Just be aware of these things, as they will become more important down the road.

Ok. So now you have a great title for your first post. That’s great! You have just created the first piece needed to start structuring your post. Write your title at the top of your post and then close your eyes and think about how your post relates to that title.

 

Visualize the “How to” Aspect

Now that you know what you are writing about and you have a great title that let’s people know what to expect, it helps to do a visualization exercise so you can write the most concise post possible.

The guides I write on Make Money Life are a good example of this because they are all “How to” guides. Depending on your topic this may not be as critical but it always helps. Whether you are writing about how to do something, video games, or the latest craze on the internet, visualizing what you are going to write about will feed your inspiration as well as help you remember all the details.

When I write a “How To” guide I constantly find myself closing my eyes and visualizing different processes in my head. In the case of this article, before I even started writing I closed my eyes and pretended I was writing an article.

This made me realize the first step I take is creating a title, then creating points of interest like a table of contents, and then I go into detail on each section, etc. Now when I open my eyes I have the entire body of my post fresh in my mind.

As I mentioned before always write when you are inspired. Don’t let your ideas fade away. The same goes for the visualization process. Now that you have the points of interest for your article we need to write them down.

 

Create a Table of Contents for Your Article

So now let’s take the points of interest we visualized and add them to our article. All we are doing here is creating an outline that we will eventually fill in with details.

For now just write out of the different points as though they were chapters in a book. For example, if I was writing about how to cook something the points of interest might be:

1. Get out your cooking supplies
2. Gather the correct ingredients
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
4. Mix up the ingredients
5. Spray non-stick oil onto a pan
6. Add you ingredients to the pan
7. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven
8. Let cool for 10 minutes

Now to be honest, I really don’t cook much. My lovely wife loves to cook, and she does most of the fancy stuff. But having cooked some basic things, and watched her in the kitchen I can picture the steps involved in a given process.

Looking at the list above you can see we now have a great structure for a post with 8 different sections.

We don’t need to focus on the details for each section yet because we just want to create a solid outline so we don’t leave anything out for out readers. Imagine if after reading six steps the author didn’t tell you how long to bake your dinner for. That would be pretty frustrating.

This outline process ensures that we cover all the important information our readers need to get out of your article.

Now that we have entire outline for the article completed we know that we are not leaving out any sections of important information. Now comes the fun part.

 

Outline the Details of Each Section

At this point we need to go into detail on each section we have outlined. As I mentioned before you want to make sure you pick a niche you are familiar with. You can now see why this is such an important decision.

I feel that the outline method we are using is a great technique because it allows people to focus on the article one section of information at a time. This frees up your mind to focus on one small section so you can add as many important details as possible.

It also keeps people from going off on tangents because they can see the road map for their information. If you find yourself writing about something that comes later in the article simply copy and paste what you have written in the appropriate section.

Once you have finished adding the details to each section take a moment to re-read your article. You may discover some areas that need to be elaborated on.

 

Fill in the Blanks

It is very different, reading your own work for the first time, than it is writing it. This is because our mind has a hard time writing while thinking. As I write I mentally dictate what I want to say to people. For the most part this works fine, but sometimes my mind is saying one thing and my hands are typing something completely different.

Reread your article and make sure that all the points you wanted to make are clear, and as intended. Sometimes a simple misspelling of a word or incorrect usage can completely change the meaning of a sentence. A good example is writing “CAN” when you mean “CAN’T” or vice versa.

As you read through your work think to yourself if there are any details that have been left out that would help people better understand the point you are trying to make. Sometimes adding an additional sentence can clarify something that might have otherwise been vague or hard to follow.

Your goal is to give your reader everything they need to know without having to come back and ask questions. People want to act on what they are reading, so give them the information they need to accomplish something and they will think of you the next time they are looking for an answer.

 

Re-read and Proof Your Work

Proof reading your work is one the most important parts of writing an article. This is different than “re-reading” because now we are looking for grammatical errors and incorrect word usage.

Proof reading should be looked at as what we did in school in English class. Check to make sure words are spelled correctly using a spell checker. Using Office software can be helpful to look for sentence and word usage errors.

The reason we want to do is because it only takes a few extra minutes to make sure we provide a polished finished product for people. Not only that, but a poorly written paper can affect your credibility as well. No one is going to take technical advice from someone that has trouble writing complete sentences.

It also helps to have a second set of eyes to help you spot errors you otherwise would have missed. Have friends or family check over your work to see if they spot anything you may have missed. This can also be helpful for having someone point out something that may be unclear to someone that is not familiar with your subject matter.

I can’t stress enough the importance of the proof reading stage. After all the effort you have put into creating great content make sure it really shines by following this last easy step.

 

Congratulations!

So you’re done proof reading and everything looks good? Awesome! You have just finished writing your first structured blog post. Congratulations.

Now that you have followed this method you can see how easy it can be to create a well-planned and structured post that will offer a lot of value to your readers.

As you become a more experienced blogger you may find techniques that you add or change, but I feel the basic ideas we have covered here offer a solid base to anyone who may be uncomfortable starting out with their first post.

Before you know it you will be able to create a post like it was nothing and the ideas will come flowing out. That is one of the best parts about being a blogger. When you finally find your inspiration you will realize that it isn’t hard to produce content, it is fun!

I don’t think it should ever feel like work to write. Maintaining a site is one thing, and it does require effort on behalf of the admin, but creating content for your site should be an enjoyable experience. This way you know you are on the right track.

Now that you have written your first article let’s look at some of the next important details involved in publishing your post. To move onto the next section click on my link below for “Why Are Categories and Tags Important for my Blog?”