I’ve been blogging for a long time, so I’m super familiar with writing successful blog posts. It depends on the niche, and what makes them successful has changed over the years, but I’m here to help you become a pro at blog post writing. And at the end, I’m sharing over 50 blog post ideas – which is a year’s worth of posts if you write 1 per week.
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Tips for Successful Blog Posts + Blog Post Prompts You Need
While the blogging industry has changed since I started KTAG in 2013, some things about writing blog posts have stayed the same. Those are the things I’m focusing on in this post.
But feel free to use the table of contents below to skip down to the blog post ideas or even skip to the blog post category you need.
Want more blog prompts? Get 164 blog post ideas for free or get my ebook bundle for health bloggers and get those 164 blog posts plus an additional 50 blog post prompts, among other things.
Successful Blog Post Basics
What should be in a blog post?
Regardless of your niche or specific topic, your blog post should include a few things.
- Introduction
- Main content of your post
- Conclusion
- At least 2 vertical images, as that’s the orientation that does best on Pinterest
- Links to related blog posts of yours
- Easy ways for readers to sign up for your newsletter, share your post, and follow you on social media
- A disclaimer if you provide advice of some kind (medical, financial, legal, etc.)
- A disclosure if you use affiliate links, are sharing sponsored content, have a connection to a business mentioned in the post, etc.
Your introduction and conclusion don’t need to be long or deep. The introduction can be “I’ve lived with chronic pain for 20 years and here are the things that I’ve used to deal with it!” and the conclusion can be “As always, please talk to your doctor before making ay adjustments, but I hope some of these are helpful.”
(Note: you should always include your disclaimer before you share possible health changes, but I’m using this as an example of how you can end your posts.)
You should also include SEO keywords relevant to your topic.
I have a Google 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.
Research Tips for Health Bloggers
What should a blog post look like?
Yes, this is different from the previous point!
Your posts should not be:
- Gigantic blocks of text not broken up into paragraphs
- A few run-on sentences
- Free of images
One way to think of this is to ask yourself: when I read blogs and websites, what irritates me? What makes it less likely for me to read? What makes it more likely?
The amount of images will depend on how long it is and your niche. For example, fashion and beauty bloggers typically use more images than other niches. But if you’re not in those niches and you write posts fewer than one thousand words, you shouldn’t have more than one image.
11 Things You Need for a Good Health Blog
How long is a typical blog post?
First and foremost, it really depends on the niche and the purpose of the post. You don’t want to include text for the sake of having text; you want your text to have purpose. If you have a fashion or beauty blog, which is more focused on images, you don’t need to have as many words as I typically put in posts for this health blog.
I write posts that give information and advice, as well as explaining and citing my sources. They’re going to be long in order to properly make my point.
(And for anyone wondering … yes, I really am this wordy in person!)
That being said, let’s talk about how long blog posts should be.
Bluehost says that the ideal short blog post length is 300-600 words, medium blog post length is 700-1,000 words, and long blog post is 1,200+ words.
Neil Patel says, “The ideal length for a blog post varies depending on the topic, audience, and purpose of the content. However, a general guideline is that a blog post should be between 1,000 to 2,000 words” (x).
In 2023, Orbit Media said that the average blog post was 1,400 words (x).
17 Things Needed for Making a Blog Successful
Other Blog Post Writing Tips
Before I share some blog post ideas, here a few quick-hit blog post writing tips.
Don’t write the entire post in one sitting. Breaking it up over time will help prevent burning out as well as forgetting things.
Make sure you proofread before publishing! I know this seems obvious, but it has to be said. I recommend using Grammarly, which catches things that other spelling and grammar tools don’t.
Additionally, remember that our reputations are our most valuable assets, and our blogs impact readers’ real lives. After all, I can’t guarantee that a reader will talk to a medical professional before making a change and I can’t guarantee that that change will cause positive benefits. That’s why I try to include as much up-to-date and accurate information as possible as well as provide links to my sources.
Blogging 101: Terms You Need To Know
Blog Post Prompts You Need
Okay, now that we’ve talked about what makes a successful blog post, what should be in a blog post, what a blog post should look like, and how long a blog post should be, let’s talk about blog post prompts!
I’ve published a lot of blog post ideas over the years, both for public consumption and for subscribers, but I’m back with another 50+. These are primarily aimed at chronic illness bloggers, so whether you regularly blog about health or every now and then, you will find something to write about.
Posts for specific times of year
Chronic illness New Year’s resolutions
A year’s look at awareness days and holidays for your condition
Valentine’s gift ideas for chronic illness patients
Dealing with your condition in a specifically difficult time of year (ie summer for POTS patients)
Spring cleaning tips for someone with your condition
How to have a good season with your illness
What do you do now to make an upcoming time of year easier with your condition?
Dealing with your chronic illness during a specific holiday (ie as an Irish-American Catholic, Christmas is really busy for me, so here’s how I make it easier)
How you get ready for a new year with your condition
How you get ready for a new school year with your condition
What you do to make a specific religious holiday easier for your chronic illness (ie I don’t stand or kneel as much as everyone else when I go to mass in person and I don’t fast on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday due to my health)
What to say to people when they ask why you’re not doing things that healthy people do on a religious holiday
What did you do in the past year that hurt or helped your health? How will that affect what you do in the upcoming year?
Expert Holiday Blog Post Ideas You Need This Year
Guides
An organized guide to your blog posts
An organized guide to your social media posts (ie Reels, IG posts, TikToks)
A big-picture history of your condition
A-Z guide for your condition
Travel guide for your condition (when you go to x city, here are the places that have wheelchairs available for rent or here are the locations that have public bathrooms)
Guide for traveling with your condition (I use a wheelchair at the airport to make traveling easier on my body, I bring enough medications for x days, etc.)
Your guide to going to a specific specialist (here’s what the appointment will be like, here are some things they might ask you, here are some possible outcomes from the appointment)
Your guide to supporting a loved one with your condition
What x gets wrong about people with y (ie what Criminal Minds gets wrong about people with schizophrenia, what rheumatologists get wrong about fibromyalgia patients, what Chicago Med gets wrong about treating people with anorexia, what the book The Fault in Our Stars gets wrong about seriously-ill teenagers, etc.)
52 Blog Post Ideas Health Bloggers Need
Symptoms
Name some key symptoms of your condition. What is living with them really like?
Products that make living with your symptoms easier
How to make a specific hobby easier to accommodate for your symptoms
Myths about your illness’ symptoms
Pick one of your illness’ symptoms and ask other people to describe their experience with that symptom (ie I asked other people to describe their arthritis pain in this post and included the responses as well as what specific type of arthritis they have)
Little-known symptoms of your illness (ie pain is the best-known symptom of RA, but these are also symptoms of it)
Tips for explaining your symptoms to kids (ie Mommy lives with chronic pain, which is …)
Symptoms that surprised you
How To Brainstorm Blog Post Ideas: 12 Questions To Ask Yourself
Real Life with Chronic Illness
Budgeting tips for chronic illness patients
What is a task that is difficult to do with your condition? Explain what makes it easier for you to do that task.
Reviewing miscellaneous products that should help with specific symptoms
Your time management tips
How do you make specific chores easier on your chronic illness?
Guides for going through a particular time of year or life with your condition (ie how to make planning your wedding easier as a chronic illness patient or what you wish you knew as a new parent with chronic illness)
Journaling prompts for someone dealing with your condition
Lessons you’ve learned about living with your condition
Your advice for talking to an employer or professor about your condition
Problem-solving for your condition
Authentic Mental Health Blog Post Ideas That People Actually Want
Personal
How your illness started
An open letter to the doctor who diagnosed you (good, bad, in between)
Your idea of your condition before and after your diagnosis (these are things I thought, this is the truth, I had only heard of this condition in a show where a character has it, etc.)
Explaining a surgery or procedure you’ve had done and your advice for other people having it
Alternative treatments you’ve done for your condition and your experience with them
Interview your caregiver(s) about their experience with your health. For example, what do they think when they go to your doctor with you? What lessons have they learned?
If you dealt with this condition as a child, what do you wish you knew then that you know now?
If you dealt with this condition as a child, what tips would you give parents of kids with the condition?
Regrets you have from things you’ve done that made your health worse
Jokes people make about your condition that aren’t funny and why
What you wish you and your caregivers had known earlier in your illness journey
Explaining how you decide whether or not to do something
How your illness has impacted your life
Things people shouldn’t say about your illness and why
25 Awesome Blog Post Ideas for Beginners
Want to be an even better blogger? Get my signature ebook for health bloggers, Take Your Blog (And Income!) to the Next Level. It’s just $10 and includes blog and social media ideas, templates, places to grow your blog and income.
Like this post? Share it! Then check out:
What I Would Do If I Started a Blog Today, Starting a Chronic Illness Blog: Tips for Blogging with Fatigue and Pain, 12 Tips for New Health Bloggers, What Blogging Platform Should I Use?
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.
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