9 steps to writing an awesome blog post

by Kathie Taylor, In Plain Sight Marketing

OK, so Mr. Mann has assigned you a blog post to write, and some marketing lady came to class to talk about blogging before 7 a.m.

In. The. Morning.

In case you were sleeping a tiny bit, here’s a recap on how to write a kick-a$$ blog post. This is one assignment where your writing will be seen by people other than Mr. Mann and maybe your mom, so you want it to be good. Here are nine steps to writing a good blog post, liberally borrowed from my friends at HubSpot and reframed for my audience.

1.      Understand your audience. 

No, it’s not Mr. Mann and it’s not even your mom. And someday, you may be writing for a really big audience, like Congress, so this one is important.

Who ARE you writing for? In this case, it’s your classmates, teachers and maybe community partners like that lady from the marketing company or people who will or may potentially donate to FFA so you can go to state or nationals. At the very least, your blog post may go out on the FFA Facebook page, so anyone interested in FFA may read it.

But no pressure.

Ask yourself:
·        Who reads or will read your blog?
·        Who do you WANT to read your blog?
·        Why are you blogging? (and no, it’s not because you have to for a grade – it’s because you have something interesting to say. Really.)

2.      Pick a topic and a working title. 

You may have been assigned a topic, which is pretty cool because if you’re planning to be a blogger, coming up with topics is sometimes a challenge. If not, you have to come up with something.

Go back to number 1 above – who is your audience? What do they want to know? Try to imagine you are explaining FFA or your agriculture class your Great Aunt Mabel. What kind of questions would she have? What does she want to know?

There. Now you have a topic.

Let’s say she wants to know how to grow lettuce. You can write a big general statement about growing lettuce for one blog post – but what if you have to write a blog post every week about growing lettuce? How can you get more miles out of this topic?

Turn it into a specialty topic:
·        How to grow lettuce indoors
·        How to grow lettuce in sandy soil
·        How to grow lettuce without soil
·        How to grow romaine lettuce
·        How to grow iceberg lettuce (and so on)

Change the timeframe:
·        What you missed about lettuce growing season
·        The biggest trends in lettuce growing in 2017
·        Growing lettuce in winter months

Create a niche audience
·        What every mom in Carson City should know about growing lettuce in winter
·        What every school district official should know about growing lettuce in the CHS greenhouse

Go negative or go positive
·        10 Community gardening rules you should always follow for growing lettuce
·        10 things to never do while growing lettuce

Try a new format
·        Your lettuce growing checklist
·        The Ultimate guide to growing lettuce
·        Infographic for growing lettuce (infographics are an awesome way to say a lot of stuff in a graphic. Google “infographic templates” for free resources.

See how much you can blog about growing lettuce? At least 15 blog posts right there – almost four months’ worth!

3.      Write your introduction

First: Get their attention with the first paragraph or they’re gone forever. You may have a lot of information to get through, so don’t be boring in the very first paragraph. 
·        Tell a joke or a story
·        Appeal to their emotions
·        Use an INTERESTING fact or statistic

Then: WIIFM (What’s in it for them?)  This is The Most Important part of any blog post.
·        Explain the problem you are solving for your audience – remember, it’s for them
·        Tell them how this information improves or enriches their lives

4.      Organize your content

Back up at #3, we said you probably had a lot of information to share. What’s the best way to get it out there so it doesn’t resemble your science textbook?
·        Create an outline
·        Break it into sections and maybe even sub-sections. Nobody wants to read a brick of solid text.

5.      Write! It’s the best part!
Blogs are fun because it’s not a school report or a business plan or some other odious (look it up

–it’s a great word!) task. You can inject your personality, make it as fun as you like while still providing value to your audience. It’s why they are still with you.

That being said:
·        Use your thesaurus – Google “odious synonyms” and see what comes up. So many great words exist – use them! Your writing will be more colorful and memorable.
·        Always, always, always use attribution. You’re going to do research and use stuff you find on the internet or …a book?... to help you make your points. Be sure to acknowledge where the information comes from (see paragraph 3 at the top.)
·        Do not plagiarize! Mr. Mann, and just about every other teacher in the world has told you this, so we’ll just leave it at that.
·        Use the research tool in Google Docs and crowdsource with your peers for input before you publish.

6.      Add photos and images. 

How boring are research papers? Insert photos into your blog post. Ideally, they are real, authentic photos from whatever project you’re working on. So much more interesting than stock photos. (See other items in this list.)

However, if you have to use stock photos:
·        Use images from free stock photo sites if possible
·        Usually ok to use images from the internet for school/educational purposes
·        Not ok to use images from the internet for business/commercial purposes

7.      Use spell check and prufreed yur werk.

Nothing is more embarrassing than someone else pointing out your typo, spelling error or grammar flub. Don’t let it be your work everyone on Facebook is talking about.

At my marketing firm, nothing goes out without at least three sets of eyes on it first. We proofread each other’s work several times before we publish it. 

8.      Review your title. 

By this time, you’ve said everything you need to say. Does your title still match your content?

Now that you’ve been madly typing, having fun with words and proving your expertise in the subject, you’ve probably come up with something droll (google “droll synonyms” to see more awesome ways to say funny). If not, see the title of this blog post for an easy, but sure way to grab a reader’s eye. Lists are good, but witty, lighthearted titles are better.

9.      Give yourself credit.
Write a pithy (check it out – it’s the last one) author’s statement to follow your awesome blog post so people can learn a little something about you.

About the author: Kathie Taylor is the co-owner and managing partner of In Plain Sight Marketing LLC, a Carson City based public relations and marketing firm. Kathie has been writing since junior high school, when they spelled her name wrong in the school paper. Which is a really long time.