I know, I know – do we really need a post about how to write a blog post? You might think “no,” but I think “yes.” Yes, anyone can write a blog post. But writing an effective blog post, writing a good blog post, is different than just writing one in general. I’ve been blogging for 8 years, and the industry has changed a bunch since I started in 2013. So what makes a good blog post (and how to write one) has changed a bunch, too.
In that vein, let’s talk about my process for writing a great blog post. And be sure to scroll way down to the bottom to get a free blog post template!
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How To Write a Blog Post
Step 1: Brainstorm – I’ve mentioned it before, but I keep a running list of blog post ideas in Evernote in separate notes for each category: Lifestyle, Writing and Blogging, and Health. This way, I always have ideas of what to write and I don’t have to worry about coming up with a blog post topic when I sit down to write. I’ve used Evernote for years, and I’ve found it incredibly helpful. I have the Evernote app on my phone, as I frequently get blog post ideas while doing things away from my computer, and I want to capture them before I forget them.
Additionally, I ask regularly on Twitter and Facebook if people have post requests. If there’s a suggestion for a post that I haven’t written yet, and it’s one that I feel like I could write, then I add the idea to the list. If I have already written the post, then I’ll send them that link.
However, sometimes, people will send me ideas that I don’t feel comfortable writing about. Maybe it’s because it’s a topic that I don’t have experience in and I feel like it would be better for someone else to write about it. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the topic and don’t want it associated with my blog! That doesn’t happen very often – I think it’s only happened a couple of times. In those cases, I don’t add them to the list. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: my integrity is the most valuable asset for this blog.
Step 2: Consult your editorial calendar – I use an editorial calendar to run this blog, meaning that I decide ahead of time what topics will be discussed on which day. Usually, I make the calendar (in Google Calendar) 2-3 months ahead of time, and when I do that, I only decide the exact post topic for a handful of posts, and usually it’s for holiday-related posts.
This strategy is also helpful because I look at what is going to happen in my personal life and decide ahead of time when I’m going to be offline/take a break. Because I write about 3 general categories, I want to spread them out as much as possible, which is another reason why planning it out on a calendar is so helpful.
It can sound like a lot of work, but it isn’t too much, and it is so worth it. It helps my stress and helps me keep a consistent schedule!
Editorial calendars help you be more organized as a blogger and not stress every time you need to figure out what to write about. They help you make sure you don’t post about really similar topics two days or posts in a row, which keeps your readers coming back since they know that you’re going to write about new and interesting things every post.
Plus, if you are going to need to take pictures for a post or go shopping for materials or make any other preparations – which will depend on what you blog about – you’ll know ahead of time and can adequately prepare.
Getting Smart with an Editorial Calendar for Bloggers + Free Editorial Calendar
Step 3: Choose the specific topic of your post – Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before the post is due to be published, I go through Evernote and decide what topics I’m going to write about. I try to go off of what is catching my attention so that I’m somewhat inspired.
I don’t want to force myself to write about something that I’m not interested in, as that will come across in the post and/or it will take forever to write. Plus, while I do make money from this blog, it’s not my main source of income, so I want to enjoy what I’m doing. Especially because I have so little free time to write posts anyway!
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Step 4: Pick and organize your post’s SEO – Once I’ve chosen the topic, I look up the SEO terms I’m going to use for the post. (Unsure about SEO? Read more about it here.) The reason I do this before I start writing is that adding SEO keywords after you write the post results in posts that look like you found the keywords after you wrote and added them in. So I started finding them earlier, especially because sometimes my post topic would change slightly if I found a keyword I really liked!
I have a Google Sheet (aka like an Excel sheet) where I keep track of possible keywords to use with 1 tab for each category. I not only track possible keywords, but also the volume of searches per month, how competitive they are on a scale of 1 (not competitive at all) to 100 (extremely competitive), and whether or not I’ve used those keywords.
I try to use a bunch of similar keywords in each post to increase the likelihood that my post will be found – and clicked. I also try to use keywords that are searched for somewhat regularly – aka not only 10 searches per month – but have a competitive level below 50. That way people are likely to look for what I’m writing about, but my posts are also likely to show up. The goal is to show up on the first 3 pages of search results, but ideally to show up on the first page. I mean, how many times have you searched for something and gone past the first page?
There are a couple of different tools that I use to find keywords. My favorite one is Ubersuggest.
I use Ubersuggest to find SEO keywords to use. Not only does it give you keyword suggestions, but you can also find related keywords, long-tail keywords, questions, prepositions, and more. It will tell you what the search volume is for each keyword, as well as how competitive it is so you can choose the most successful keyword. And so much more.
You can get a basically unlimited amount of info if you sign up for a subscription, but a free membership still gives you 3 searches per day. And you can use your Google account to get a free subscription.
I also love Moz! Moz is a hugely reputable site, and I use them also for checking my domain authority (DA). Unfortunately, you only get 10 searches per month, but they have so many other SEO resources that it’s absolutely worth it.
Finally, a huge free tool in self-hosted WordPress is the Yoast SEO plugin. This is an absolute must-have. It helps rate your blog posts’ SEO and their readability by using a stoplight system (red, yellow, green).
It also gives you concrete things you can change in your post so you’re not just hoping for the best. You can write the meta description that will show up on search engines instead of the first few sentences of the post, and so much more. Yoast does have a premium version, but it really isn’t necessary.
Generally what I do is choose one keyword to be the main keyword, and I input that into the Yoast SEO tool. I still use the other keywords throughout the post, but the main keyword is the most important one.
Step 5: Outline your post – Before I write, I always outline the post. This makes it easier for me to flesh out my ideas since then I know what part of the topic to focus my brain power on instead of staring at a blank Google doc. (I now write my posts in Google docs and then transfer them over to WordPress.)
Of course, this is a personal preference. For example, in book writing, there are generally 2 types of writers: plotters or pantsers. Plotters are people who plan what they’re going to write ahead of time and generally outline their book. Pantsers are people who fly by the seat of their pants, aka people who figure out what they’re going to write as they’re writing it. I’m 100% a plotter, and that definitely applies to blog posts, too.
My outlines include what I’m going to write, the subheaders I’m going to use, where I’m going to put images, where I’m going to put calls-to-action, and what types of calls-to-action I’m going to use. My CTAs are generally signups for my newsletter or an easy tweet-it button.
I will often use some of my keywords as subheaders and guides for sections. For example, my post on Tuesday was What You Should Know About TMJ Arthritis. One of the keywords for that post is Treatment for TMJ Arthritis, which is the name of the last section. Another is Is TMJ Arthritis?, which I used in the first section where I answered questions about TMJ arthritis. You get the idea!
Step 6: Write it! – This is, hopefully, the most obvious step. It’s basically fleshing out the ideas from the outline.
Most of my posts are from scratch, but sometimes I write updates of older posts. That’s what this one is, actually! Since I’ve been blogging since 2013, I have a lot of old posts, and some of them are about topics that are still applicable, but the information isn’t always updated.
For example, I have written a couple of different posts about how I promote my blog posts: in 2016, 2018, and 2020. Blogging is a changing industry, so how I promote my blog posts changes over the years. That’s why I write updated posts.
Sometimes, I take an older post and update it within the same post. That’s usually what I do when there isn’t much to update, or one thing has changed since it came out and I just fixed that one thing. But sometimes, I write a whole new post. Again, that’s what this post is.
When I write a post like that, I still make an outline like it’s a fully original post. Then, I open the old post, and I copy over the parts of that post that I want to include. I don’t always want to include the entire old post! I copy that information into the outline where it applies, and I write things like “FINISH” or “UPDATE” in all caps at the end of the paragraph so I can see where I need to work at a glance.
Regardless of whether a post is a brand new one or a new version of an old one, I always write the introduction last. This is the same thing I did for my essays in college and grad school! Sometimes what you think your post is going to be about transforms into something else. Maybe that something is slightly different, maybe it’s totally different. Either way, you would need to go back and change the introduction so it fits with the rest of the post.
Another reason I wait until last is that, in high school when I wrote papers, my teachers would often give me feedback like, “Make your conclusion your introduction and rewrite your conclusion.” Basically, I was spending my conclusion recapping everything, which, if I changed some words slightly, worked better at the start of the paper than the end. That used to be the same thing with my blog posts!
Finally, it’s good to wait until later to write it so that you’re not getting wrapped up in the introduction and letting the rest of your post fall by the wayside.
Here is what this post looked like while I was working on it in Google docs:
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Step 7: Images – Once I write a draft of a post, I make the images for it. Sometimes, I use stock images mostly from Unspalsh and Pixabay, but over the last couple of years, I have been using images I took myself. I also have stock images I have bought, and when I do that, I always buy a package of stock images so that I’m getting the most out of my money.
Regardless of the source of the image, my blog image process is the same. I put white space in a rectangle over the image, and add the text for the image inside it. My citation (www.katethealmostgreat.com) always goes at the bottom of the image, and it’s not in a white box like the main text. I started doing this so that my text would stand out, but I continued doing it and ended up branding my images this way. Hopefully, people who are familiar with KTAG see my images on sites like Pinterest and know that they’re by me just by looking at how they’re styled.
I generally put the white space at 64% opaque, so you can see the image behind it but also the text is easier to read. If for some reason the text still doesn’t stand out, I put it at 70% opaque. I always use the font Bitter as my main title font, and I use Janda Elegant Handwriting as a subheader font. I used to use colors from the image for the font colors, but I now just use black or white, depending on the color of the image. Scroll back up and look at the images from this post to see what I’m talking about!
I make at least 2 images for each post, if not 3 or 4. A good rule of thumb is to have 1 image for each 350 words. I try to break up my text with images and CTAs by that same rule. I make my images using Photoshop Elements, and for each image, I make a version for the blog and a version for Pinterest. My blog images are a minimum of 600 pixels wide, but what works for Pinterest is images that are a minimum of 1000 pixels wide. So after saving a 600 px version, I save a 1000 px version. I also make a “preview” image, which is now primarily for social media. I just crop the white rectangle from the first image, which doesn’t take much time at all.
I also use Canva Pinterest templates. I use those because they’re so much easier considering I make 2-3 new pins a day for old posts. However, I never use those images for in-post images. Instead, I use them for creating free downloads, some Instagram posts, new pins, and more.
Step 8: Move your post to your platform – Once I have a full draft, I move my post to WordPress. While I have a plugin for spell checking, the Google spellcheck is better, as it has more words and phrases in it and also checks grammar, so I prefer to use that. Additionally, having my post in a Google doc means that I can set the doc to be workable offline.
Turning off my Internet is the best way for me to be productive! I have a premium Spotify account, so I set a large playlist (7.5 hours!) to be downloaded. I turn my Internet off and listen to that music while working on the post. I use the comment feature in Google docs to indicate where I want to put links, and I copy all the keywords I want to use into the doc so that I can see what they are while I’m writing.
But before I proofread and check the SEO, I want to have everything in the WordPress post. This not only means the text, but also all of the calls-to-action, the images, the links to older posts, and the links in general. So once I have the whole post written, I copy and paste it into WordPress. Then I add everything that I need and can’t put into a Google Doc, aka the WordPress plugins.
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Step 9: Proofread and check your SEO – Proofreading is essential! A few years ago, I got a comment on a post from someone who said (paraphrasing here): “I really like your blog and you give good information, but you have a lot of typos. I’m telling you this because I like your blog and if it was me I would want to know.”
SO. EMBARRASSING.
The truth is that I wasn’t proofreading as much as I should … and clearly it showed. After that comment, I got the WP Proofreading plugin, and a few months later started writing my posts in Google Drive. I also proofread and edit as some of my last steps.
What I do to proofread is I open the post preview in a different tab. It sounds so simple, but just viewing the post that way has helped me catch lots of things. It also helps me see the post as my readers will see it, which especially helps in terms of spacing out images and CTAs.
This is where that proofreading plugin comes in the most handy, though. If I see an all caps “FINISH”, I need to write more text or finish that thought or section. At that point, I write it in WordPress; I don’t go back to the Google Doc. But I still want to make sure I’m not writing words with incorrect spelling, so having that plugin helps me catch things.
(PS – Thank you to that person who commented. I greatly appreciate you.)
I also use this time to double check my SEO work. My blog is on self-hosted WordPress, and I use the Yoast SEO plug-in to evaluate my SEO use. This is super helpful because I am not an SEO expert by any means, although I probably know more than the average individual.
Not only does Yoast give you a rating on how your SEO is, but it also tells you why your SEO is the rating they gave you. It tells you if you should use more subheadings, if you’ve used that keyword before, if you should use more images, etc. It also lets you set up the search engine preview, both in terms of what the post title will show up as and the first 150 or so characters that will show up when people see your post in a search engine. If you don’t fill that out, search engines will show the beginning of your post’s introduction.
Step 10: Schedule the post and schedule promotional social media – I schedule all of my posts to publish at 7 AM EST, and the day that I schedule the post, I also go to Buffer and Tailwind to schedule post shares for Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. You can check out all the ways I promote my posts here, which include what I just mentioned but also discuss the variety of other ways I promote my posts.
How to promote a blog post in 2021
Writing a Blog Post: Template (Free Download!)
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of this, I have great news: I made a blog post template that’s free to download. Click here, then click “File” and “Make a copy” to download it to your Google drive. Don’t have a Google account? Download it as Word or PDF instead.
I hope that template helps!
And want more incredible blogging resources? Get my ebook for chronic health bloggers for just $10. You get a whole bunch of resources, like blog post ideas, blog post title formulas, weekly blog task checklist, how to make money from your chronic health blog, and more. It’s worth over $140! But click here to get it for just $10.
Like this post? Check out:
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Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
I hate typos! I always proofread, but I tell my boyfriend to please let me know if he ever catches one that I missed. I would much rather know and correct it than someone not tell me because they don’t want to upset me!
I’ve been writing blog posts for a few years now and I laughed when I realized I do all these steps exactly, every single time, without even realizing it! lol
This is a very good list. I should probably proofread myself a little more carefully. I write a lot and especially when it’s your own work it can be hard to pick up on those things. Sometimes a year or two later I’ll be reading an old post and find a typo I missed!
This is a great guide! When I write recipe posts, my process is a little different, but for my general posts I tend to follow a very similar format to this. Outlining for me is essential, since it’s where I can determine if the topic is really enough for one blog post or should be broken into a series. I also am terrible with typos, but luckily my husband is my copy editor! He logs in to edit my posts and catch everything.