How to write a good blog post

Erica Johns and Charlie Wheeler-Osman
Sep 13, 2017
6 min read

Writing a good blog post

You may think, blogging is easy it's just writing down your thoughts in a post, adding a few images and publish... Well you couldn't be more wrong! Blogging is way more than just a few words and pictures and that's why we want to share with you how we feel a blog should be produced. The most important thing is to have fun and be creative, use your innovative skills to produce the best blog post, don't just post something you feel is half-finished, take your time and create something captivating!

Knowing your audience

Did you know that your blog is specific to an audience? Well I hope you know this! Depending on what type of blog you have will depend on the audience, obvious I know. So before you even begin to write, you need to have a clear understanding of your target audience. What do your readers want to read about? To work this out, you must enjoy reading your posts yourself. Would you read this if it was on someone elses page? Yes? Then chances are you're going the right way but if not, then you need to rethink!

As well as this you do need to decide what age range your audience will be, or if you want to keep this wide range, then you must ensure you post blogs specific for all ages, so if you're young, get your parent to read over a post, see if they feel they can relate or understand your thoughts.

Knowing your audience also involves not rambling off on unrelated subjects that could lose your readers attention. If you are, like us, a travel blogger then you must ensure that your posts are all travel related. Your travel readers do not want to read about fashion tips, but they do want to know tips on where they should travel to next or information on what camera you're using to produce such amazing photography/videos on your website.

What is your blog post going to be about?

Before you begin your blog post, first of all you need to think about what your post is going to be about. Your topic can be general or it can be specific but you need to know this before you begin typing or you will end up rambling on. So if you are a travel blogger, you may want to create a post about things to do in a Paris. Therefore you can begin to compile a list of what things there are to do in Paris and then you can expand on this, adding images in along the way of each attraction. Once you have begun writing, the title of the post should just come to you, it can be something you take from the main body of your post or it can be something eye catching. Just remember the title is the first thing someone sees, so either way it has to sound interesting or something that will make someone click on to read more.

Creating an introduction

The second most important part about your blog post is the introduction, this is the next thing that your reader will come across, so grab their attention straight away so that they do keep reading. Does it bore you? Well if it does, it will most certainly bore your readers! Put yourself in the shoes of a reader or get someone to read over your work, it's important to not release a post that could ruin your reputation and lose yourself some potential subscribers!

There are a number of ways to grab a readers attention, you could begin to tell a relatable story or a joke, or grip the reader with an interesting fact or statistic. Either way the opening has to be great, using one of these tools is definitely going to draw them in.

Next you are going to need to give more of an explanation into what this post is going to entail, usually the title does a lot of this for you but expand on this and let the reader know what they're going to be reading about. Describe the purpose of the post and explain how it could help the reader out with, for example a problem the reader may be having with building a following on social media. This will give the reader a reason to keep reading and it will help them create a connection to how it will help them improve their work/lives. So when you create your introduction ensure you have a purpose in mind for your post, do you want to help the reader with an issue they may be having? Do you want to give them tips on something? Or do you want to let them know of a product you use that you want others to hear about? Whatever your purpose, make it noticeable in your intro!

Layout

Another important aspect of your blog post is to ensure you organise your content well throughout the post, you do not want to lose your readers focus with bad organisation skills. A great tip for the layout would be to trick the reader so that they're not intimidated by the length or amount of content. The organization of your post can be laid out in a number of ways: sections, lists, tips, whatever's most appropriate to the purpose of your blog, whatever you choose it must be organised!

A great example of what we feel is a great layout for a post is show here in our "How to build a following on social media" post. It is sectioned in 4 parts: Social media, Through your blog, Through another website and Other. Within each section is broken down again into sub sections of specific examples of each. For example within social media it is then broken down into types of social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram etc.

Write

So before you begin typing your main body, have a rough idea on what you want your blog post to entail, write a rough idea down on paper. Give up the rambling and organise your posts, it makes all the difference for your readers! Keep to your notes, just expand on your points, section and then sub section or list!

And one last HUGE tip is, please proofread, sometimes you may be using a website that may have an American spellcheck or an English one, which obviously won't spell the words correctly to your country. Or you may misspell a simple word and it may auto-correct to something completely peculiar, it happens and it will only make you sound odd!

Images

The important part of your blog post is the images you choose to accompany your work, you don't want to throw any old image into the post, you need to ensure it fits with your text. As social networks treat content with images more prominently, visuals are now more responsible than ever for the success of your blog content, so you need to ensure your post stands out from the rest, you want people to stop scrolling their feeds to stop and read your blog post!

For example for our blog post "Top things to do in Florence" we used a stunning image over Florence. We then added wording on top containing the title, so the readers scrolling on social media could instantly see what our post was about. Therefore if they are interested in going to Florence, they knew to click to view more, simple but effective.

Finished your post?

Okay, so now take a look back over your blog post, not the content but the visual appearance of your post. Does it look readable? Does it look too wordy? Is it all set to the left/middle of the page? How do you think it looks overall? This is such an important aspect of creating a blog post, if you feel it overall looks great, it probably does but if not make them changes don't leave them, move whatever it is that stands out in a bad way around until it feels and looks right. Breaking up sections of your blogs with a simple divider works to break up a wordy looking blog post or adding in images or screenshots that are relevant to the text.

Tagging

On most blogging platforms you should have the option to tag your blog post, this is an important aspect to your blog, it helps your post get found! So add relevant tags into the tag box, see below on where to find this using Wix, it is set to the right-hand side of your blog post in editor mode.

Have you got a call to action?

With any blog post, usually there is a reason for why you have bothered spending hours typing up a post, so what is that reason? What do you want your readers to do with the information you have given them. Do you want them to sign up to something? Like your post? Share your post? Subscribe to your site? Whatever this call to action is, write it at the end of your post with a link to what you want them to do. If they have got this far with your blog post to read the end then chances are they're interested in whatever it is you have to say, so make the most of it!

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