This week we’re sharing our own process on how to write a blog post. We’ll be also writing a piece following this on what to do after you write your article so it gains maximum impact online. Watch out for that!
Our skeletons form the foundation for the rest of our bodies. Without them, we’d look closer to Jabba the Hutt than our usual well-proportioned selves.
Just as our skeleton holds the rest of us together, a reliable template is the backbone of any good blog post.
If you need to produce consistent posts for your blog, then you need a template to show you how to write a blog post transparently. Whether you like to write or find it a complete bore, we’ve got a practical and useful template tool to make your writing goals achievable in one easy copy and paste job.
In this post, you will discover how to write a blog post and do it in a way that makes your articles interesting. You will learn the importance of using a skeleton template, and we will provide our foolproof ways to make writing easy, fast and reliable every time.
Why use a ‘How to Write a Blog Post’ template?
You’ll be surprised how many people don’t plan ahead when they first look at how to write a blog post.
Many begin writing, hoping their ramblings will all come together in the spur of the moment. Not only is this blind approach super ineffective (unless you have the writing ability of JRR Tolkien), but it will also cause you to ramble, lose focus and forget points you wanted to make.
All of the best writers follow a template. Planning around a solid structure gives an organised flow to the piece. Making it easy to begin, keep on point and wrap up concisely.
You’ll find using a template not only dramatically speeds up your writing, but you’ll be able to come back to it and pick up almost instantly time and time again.
Interesting Content
To really achieve an effective inbound marketing strategy around your blog, you need to have engaging or entertaining content. Content that your readers genuinely value. Only then you will engage them and develop a faithful following and see the full effects of your inbound marketing strategy.
We will look at the different types of posts that you can produce to keep variety and interest to your blog. We will also see how our blog post template can be used to fulfil most of these article types.
Give Variety to Your Blog
When beginning your blog post decide what format you want your article to have. There are so many different types of formats out there, here’s a few to get you thinking.
- News post (formal, factual)
- How to (instructional, step-by-step, lists)
- Entertaining (funny, informal)
- Media Posts (Infographic, video, images)
- Personal Spotlight (engaging, relatable, friendly)
- Q&A (professional, opinionated)
Depending on what type of post you decide, naturally, the flow and format of your blog post skeleton will change. Use our blog post template as a general guide for more focused and productive writing.
Look out! In future posts, we will tackle a detailed template for each of the blog post types above.
How to Use a Blog Post Template?
Your skeleton has around 206 bones, but all of these bones rely on a network of tendons, ligaments and cartilage to connect them.
Think of your blog post template with the main headings as the bones and the tendons and ligaments as the connecting points between.
Here’s how you can apply the bones and tendons technique.
Starting with the Bones
- Title
- Introduction
- Main body
- Conclusion
- Call to action
Now Let’s Add in the Ligaments and Tendons
- Title: Include your focus Keyword
- Introduction: What the post is about, why is it important, who will it help
- Main body:
- Identify: Present the problem, list the main points to address, why this can make a difference, why this is important
- Solve: Provide your solution to the problem, discuss the main aspects of the post, use research and links, examples and evidence to back up your answer
- Conclusion: Closing paragraph, summary and expectations for the future
- Call to Action: For more information on X visit…
How to Get Started
Now start filling in your template. You can come back to your title last. But the best thing about creating a skeleton like this is that you can be writing and come back to it anytime without wondering, “where was I?”
SEO Keyword Research
Your focus keyword or phrase is critical. Use Google Trends to do some keyword research. You may find that by tweaking your keyword or phrase, you’ll reach more potential online searches!
As an example, this article initially used “blog post template” as our SEO search phrase, but after research, we found that “how to write a blog post” ranked higher.
Within your webpage a great SEO indicator is Yoast. You can enter your focus keyword here and see how it performs, and it tells you what to improve. From the diagram below you can see that “How to write a blog post” ranked two-thirds higher than “Blog Post template” in the United Kingdom.
Introduction
What the post is about, why is it important, who will it help
For this section, post the question that you are trying to find the answer to the right at the top of your screen. Every time you feel yourself trailing off come back to this question. Does it ramble off into a different trajectory? If so, it may be useless to the piece, and you could probably cut it out.
Concise and relevant posts are king.
Why is your question important? Answer this question and pop it in your post right at the beginning, it will allow your readers to understand the article they are about to read and keep their interest. Your focus keyword or phrase also needs to be prevalent here.
Who will this blog post help? Think about the type of audience you are aiming for. Write as if you’re speaking directly to them. This is a great way to engage with your readers and demonstrate you are what they are looking for.
Main Body
In this section, we will answer the main questions or problems with evidence and examples. We break the main body down into two parts: Identify and Solve.
Identify: Present the problem, list the main points to address, why this can make a difference and why this is important.
Begin the main body with the current problems and identify any mistakes or situations that currently make the problem you’re addressing worse. Then list the points of what this blog post will discuss.
You’ll also find this helpful to know what you need to cover in the post. Then put a reason why these solve the problem and why this is important. Do this for each main point for clarity and a great structure.
It’s helpful to keep these sections broken down into subheadings to make it more digestible for your reader.
Solve: Provide your solution to the problem. Address the main points of the post, use research and links, examples and evidence to back up your answer.
It’s a great idea to outline mistakes or problems initially. Then cover the main points that explain your problem or question. Using research, examples and evidence, back up your points with evidence to give validity to your post. Reference thought leadership from external links. These links also rank your post higher on Google.
A great tip is to find tons of research and paste it all under this section with the links. Then when it comes to writing the post you’ve already got all of the information there.
Conclusion
This is your closing paragraph, summary and expectations for the future. If your reader only studied this section, then they should be able to take away a solid answer.
Make an overall conclusion on the solution to your problem. You can include a summary of the points you covered. A great way to bring the post to an end is to make a prediction on the future direction of your subject.
Call to Action
For more information on X visit…
Don’t ever forgot to add a call to action. This will remind engaged readers to actually follow through with what they read and see what you are all about, especially if you’ve piqued their interest.
A small CTA at the beginning, middle or bottom of your post will give some readers the little nudge they need to click through. Just don’t plaster the CTA’s all over your blog. There’s nothing more annoying than having to consistently close down more than one pop up and notification for you to sign up to a newsletter. Pleasantly engage with the reader, not annoy them into leaving.
Now to Crack Those Fingers
You should now have the outline to answer the question, how to write a blog post that is compelling to the reader and simple for you to write.
With the bones and tendons laid down, it’s time to work the muscle. We call this the muscle stage as it’s all about defining and refining.
Use your time in the drafting stages to rearrange, add or remove ideas to make the piece more connected and relevant. Check your grammar and sentence construction is correct.
Take as many drafts as you need to get an overall smooth and easy-to-read blog post. Don’t forget to get someone to proofread your work. If you don’t have anyone, a great tip? Read out loud. You’ll be surprised what you can skim over when you speed read in your head.
You’re not done yet- Final touches
We know you’re waiting for another anatomical reference, and I’ve got it right here for you.
Holding all of this together is the skin. To really take your inbound marketing strategy to the next level you need to come back to the overall objective.
What to do After Your Blog Post is Written
Well, to be honest, there is a whole other article we need to write on this subject, so we’re getting this ready now. We’ll introduce you to Grammarly and Yoast and show you how they can save you time and effort. Sign up to our Newsletter to be made aware in the coming weeks.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed our step-by-step guide on how to write a blog post. Stay tuned as there will be a whole series of posts just like this to follow.
For more information on how to get engaging and loyal following check out our posts on branding: 7 Steps to Build Brand Loyalty