Daunting -could be the best way to describe writing your very first blog post.
At least, this is how I will describe my very first attempt at crafting my first blog post.
Even though blogging can be a great way to gather samples as a newbie writer. It can come with some questions, like:
- How do I start?
- What way should I structure my post?
- How long should the introduction be?
- What’s the best way to write a captivating headline?
- How many words is ideal for a blog post?
Answers to these and so many more questions will be divulged in today’s topic:
Five simple steps for writing your very first blog post
The first step to writing your very first blog post for yourself or a client is;
1. Determine your topic
By the time you are contemplating writing your very first blog post, you should already have a topic in mind.
This could be anything from health topic, lifestyle, travel, style guide, a personal story, mom and/or parenting content.
Your blog content could be anything you are passionate about. It could be something you experienced. Or something you are willing to have thorough research on depending on how in-depth you want to take the idea.
Once you have your topic, another thing to consider is the angle or perspective at which you want to discuss the topic.
Once you have the topic and your angle of writing sorted, you should write out all that comes to your mind about said topic. Put them in a short bullet list.
Pro tip: Write all your points before going into research mode. This is so, your ideas do not get contaminated while consuming other people’s content.
Now that you have a topic and your personal view on the topic (bullet points), we can move to our number two-step for writing your very first blog post which is:
2. Research
This is the time to go beast mode on the internet. Comb every nook and cranny that is within your reach. You should always get information from reliable sources.
Check the date of publication of contents, so as not to regurgitate outdated data. More so, desist from stealing content to avoid plagiarism. That’s very distasteful as a writer.
Also, you hurt your website or your client’s. What you should do instead is read to understand and then write the same idea in your own words.
Remember to time yourself not to get sucked up and hence spend excessive time only on researching.
So, you have successfully scaled the first two steps in writing your very first blog post.
Before you continue reading, may I ask where you intend to post your very first blog post?
Do you already have a blog or website?
Can you design one or you need to pay a web developer?
If you are scared that getting a website for blogging would cost you an arm and a leg, there’s something cheaper.
In fact, it’s free and there’s even a potential of you making money from blogging on the platform.
If all you need is just a place to host articles and blog posts so that prospects can view your self-published work, then medium.com is your best bet.
Let’s move on to the third step in writing your very first blog post.
3. Just write it
This is the time to pour your soul into your word processor. Start to piece together your ideas and your research findings into crafting your blog post.
Here’s an outline that can guide you:
First, you write the introduction. I call this the preamble. This is how you guide readers softly into getting in the mood for what they are about to digest. This should consist of 10% of all the blog content.
Second, the body which is the meat. This is the flesh of the content piece and should occupy about 80% of your blog post.
Here, you spill all the tea, all your ideas and also your new knowledge from research.
When writing, use short sentences and easy to read grammar. Make good use of paragraphs so that you do not scare readers.
Paragraphs make your content less cluttered and easy to read. You must understand that the human attention span has narrowed to 8 seconds, especially when it comes to reading online content.
So, this should be put into consideration when crafting and formatting your post.
Third, the concluding segment. Advice, your view, motivation, call-to-action, all these items belong to the concluding parts of your blog.
As a guide, you should also make this apart 10% of the blog post. Please note that this is not a hard and fast rule.
This should serve as your guide and give you an idea of how things should look.
For instance, if you are writing your very first blog post of about 1000 words and you decide to take the aforementioned guide.
Your post will be structured as thus:
- Introduction: 10% of 1000 = 100 words
- Body: 80% of 1000 = 800 words
- Conclusion: 10% of 1000 = 100 words
Like I stated earlier, this is no hard or fast rule. Let this only serve as a guide.
Another point worthy of mention here is, as you write, resist the urge to stop to edit as you write.
Stopping half way to make edits will only obstruct the free flow of your thoughts, ideas and writing.
This is just the time to write. Do not allow grammar, errors or sentence structure correction halt the free flow of your ideas.
Write it all and then edit later -as if your life depends on it because, in a way, it does.
4. Take a short recess
After writing, it is now time to proofread and edit your work. Doing this immediately may be counter-intuitive as you will likely read what you have in mind and not what you wrote.
That’s why authors who want crisp, clear and error-free books do their due diligence and employ the services of a proofreader.
But, yeah, I know we all can’t afford to engage a proofreader on every blog article. We, therefore, have to do the proofreading and editing ourselves.
So, I suggest you allow yourself time to clear your mind for a bit. And then, when you come back with a fresh headspace, you can read your content piece and can see what you have written rather than what’s in your mind.
5. Proofread and edit
After your short break from writing, get back to read what you have written. This is now the time to correct grammar, improve sentence structure, cut outlines that do not fit.
You can also add words or sentences to improve the flow of your content. Technology comes in handy here too. Grammarly, a popular writing assistant will help when writing your very first blog post.
After the first edit, ensure you take a second round at it. Edit again. This time paying close attention to punctuation, basically dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s.
Now, you can craft your blog title, attach an image and post your content for the world to devour.
Conclusion
Writing your very first blog post can be intimidating especially when you pay attention to how lengthy other blogs are.
Your blog doesn’t have to be 7,000 words. As someone writing your very first blog post, this will mean shooting yourself in the foot.
Ideally, 800-1000 words is enough to have high-value content. But if you need to go longer and can develop the relevant content to fill up your word count, by all means, proceed.
After all, the higher your content value, the more you gain your reader’s trust and the more confidence you get at writing.