7 Things To Do BEFORE You Write Your First Blog Post

7 Things To Do BEFORE You Write Your First Blog Post

Gone are the days when they sat relaxed and wrote a 500-words article without pre-planning. Even they could rank this post in search engines with help with some keyword stuffing, easy black hat backlinks.

Nowadays, the web is more competitive. Google is now super smart. Content Creators starting to make more valuable content.

Thanks to Google to make the web the better place.

Do you know how many blog posts are published every single day?

There is no proven statistics about that but two million blog posts published in WordPress alone every single day.

However, almost 20% of websites use WordPress as a publishing platform.

Now, imagine how many blog posts are published every day? My head is spinning.

This stat shows us how competitive the web is now.

That is why you need to write magnetic contents that get noticed.

before writing a single word for your blog post, you need some strategic approach to standing out from the crowd

So today I am going to share some insightful tips that you need to follow before writing a single word of your blog post.

Let’s dive right in

Prefer Workspace That Suits For You

Workspace impact on my writing. When I choose a distraction-free workspace, I write better.

But in my home, it’s difficult to write as my little brother always irritates me.

However, different writers work differently. Choose a workspace where you write better. It can be your home, a coffee shop or an office environment.

I have seen many people writing in the coffee shop and they write better though there is some distraction. I don’t know how people work there with distractions.

Anyway, I am not many people and you are not me. So  my suggestion: work several workspaces and see what suitfor you.

A nice workspace environment impacts on your mode and writing.

Choose The Right Tools That Enhance Your Productivity

Imagine, you are writing an excellent blog post restlessly. Abruptly, a youtube notification pops up in your window. The title of this notification is so seductive. you can’t control your mind and click on it and never come back.

Has it ever happened with you? I know I know, it happened with you, happened with me also.

So what’s the solution:

Choose a minimalist word processor that is distraction-free. They block out everything except the writing screen.

Here are some good options to choose:

1. Write (Windows-free)
2. Clamly writer (Chrome-free, web-based)
3. Focus writer (Windows, Mac-free)
4. Writer (chrome-paid)
5. Ulysses ( Mac, iOS-paid)

Mind Mapping Simple Reader Persona

The reason you need to mind mapping reader persona: understand your reader and write for them.

Don’t write for everyone. Write for the target audience.

How to know who are your target audiences? This where the reader persona comes in handy.

A simple reader persona looks like this:

Know their demographics such as age, gender, income, profession, education level, marital status. You also need to know their psychographics such as lifestyle, hobby, career goal etc.

A simple persona helps you:

1. Create better content
2. Know where you find your target audiences
3. Know where to promote your content
4. Generate better content ideas.

Doing Keyword Research

If you want to rank your site in the search engine, that must.

Keyword research helps you to know keyword intent, search volume and competition level.

For keyword research, you can use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and keyword finder.

This screenshot from SEMrush. You find all the data you need to know.

These three tools are paid though you can use the free version or free trial.

But what if you’re on a tight budget. Don’t overlook free tools like Google keyword research tool, UberSuggest.

In UberSuggest, enter your keyword. then You’ll find keyword search volume, SEO difficulty, cost per click

and SERP analysis data

You can also use google trends to see the popularity of your keyword.

Doing Research

Once you have selected your keyword. It’s time to go on research.

For blog content, it’s easy to do research. In most cases, you’ll find all the information in Google.

Head over your keyword on google. Read all the articles that rank on the first page. Cheek what things missed your competitors. And then create a blog that is better than your competitor.

However, if you want to take the research to the next level, you can go beyond Google search.

You can use tools like Wolfram Alpha that are extremely powerful for research. It’s like a search engine for the researcher.

It’s extremely useful for comparing data, calculations. You can also use it as an encyclopedia.

This is just a rough introduction of what you can do with this tool.

If you really want to leverage this tool, check out their tour of the basics.

Create An Outline

Without an outline, it’s like driving without a map. You don’t know how far your destination is, or where you go. It makes your writing messy, flawed.

On the other hand, outline guidance tells you the exact road you need to go. It makes sure you don’t miss anything.

It helps you create a detailed guide that solves all the problems of your reader.

The question is how to make an outline? Actually, it depends on what kind of post you create.

For list posts, it’s easy. First, write every possible point you need included in your blog post and then cut off some point that doesn’t make sense. Include points that are most significant for your reader.

For a comprehensive guide, it needs some research to make an outline. Cheek out this guide to learn more about how to create an Outline

Write Winning Headline

“Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” — David Ogilvy

This quote says how important the headline is. Your headline is the most important thing in your writing.

If you write awesome content but the headline sucks, you don’t get the reader.

So make sure you write a headline that tells the reader why they need to spend time on your blog post.

Here are some quick tips to create a winning headline

• Keep it concise
• Use the number to hook your reader
• Use emotional word
• Make a bold promise
• Make questions (what, how, Why)

Conclusion

This is the most important thing you need to do before writing a blog post.

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Have you any questions? Feel free to ask me in the comment box.