1. Choose a topic.
I get a lot of my ideas from other blogs. Sometimes I want to restate something in my own words. Sometimes there is hidden fodder in a much larger post. I also turn to Alltop when stuck.
John Haydon inspired me to write this post. He shared how to get blogging ideas from emails. I wanted to personalize it.
2. Write the title.
I always write the title first. The body comes second.
When I find my writing segues away from the title, I copy that chunk of text and create a new blog post from it. I try to stay within the confines of the title because it helps me stay focused.
3. Remove unnecessary words.
Eliminate adjectives — except where absolutely necessary.
Ensure that the tenses are correct; if I want to write in first person with I, me, and my, then I change any yous, hes, and shes from the body.
Change passive voice to active voice.
4. Add subheadings.
Each of these steps is a subheading.
They are marked with bold formatting. If there was no boldness, you would be less inclined to read every step and would gloss over everything. But here, you can read the steps you find interesting.
Use short paragraphs, too.
5. Get an image.
Pictures speak 1,000 words. Never forget that.
These horses come from MorgueFile.
I also source photos from Flickr (go to the bottom of the advanced search page and check the box for Creative Commons licensing). There are many places online for free photos for your blog.
6. Tune your engine.
Write meta tag keywords and meta descriptions.
These help googlers find your best stuff.
Depending on your blog platform, how and where you insert those keywords and description may differ.
7. Link and share.
People get bored reading text without links.
People leave your blog if you have too many links.
Everyone wants to find new and exciting places on the web. Imagine if someone likes cows and is excited when you link to an article about breeding cattle in reaction to climate change. You might become that person’s best friend for sharing cows. For instance.
Find balance and also be contextual.
8. Publish it.
Your blog post will never be perfect.
Who cares?
You don’t think you’re going to receive more visitors than anything published today on the Huffington Post, do you? Publish it anyway.
People will add comments to share their perspectives. Some people will rip apart your theories and others will offer thanks. You will love them all because you know you’re not perfect.
When you follow these steps to your satisfaction, you win.
Sit back and cheer. You did it.
Do these steps make sense to you?
What’s missing?