Blogging 101: Writing a Blog Post

I've been blogging for about two years now. Wow, that sounds like much longer than it actually feels. I've enjoyed having this blog so much. It gives me a place to share my voice and ideas and help others.

Anyway, I came up with the idea the other day to write a series of blog posts about blogging, for anyone who's getting into it or is just starting. This series, Blogging 101, will have three parts, coming out today and the next two Saturdays. Today's topic- writing a blog post, an integral part of any blog.

A few words of encouragement

I want to start off by saying blogging is both easy and hard. It's easy to write up a blog post and send it out into the world. But it's harder to write a good blog post, attract readers, and do all the other stuff that comes with a blog. Don't be discouraged if no one seems to read your posts at first.

It takes practice to figure out how to write a good post and to find what you actually want to talk about. But once you do, people will be able to see the passion in your posts and enjoy it. Even if only your mom reads it at first, more people will come.

Pre-step 1: Take a rhetoric course

This isn't a necessary step, but it is a good one. I took a rhetoric course in my senior year of high school. It taught me how to write an effective essay from first to final draft. I really think that course helped me when I started into blogging. I used what I learned to craft blog posts, which are similar in structure to essays.

If you have the opportunity to take a course on rhetoric or writing essays, I think it's a good skill for anyone to learn. It teaches you how to form them and create a good argument. You don't have to follow this structure with blog posts, but it's a good starting place.

Step 1: Decide a topic

Before you can write a blog post, you need to decide what to write about. That all depends on what your blog is about- writing, fashion, food, and so on. I suggest keeping a list of blog post ideas in a notebook, a Word document, a white board, or whatever works for you. That way when you have an idea, you can write it down, and when you need an idea, you can look at it.

If you need more post ideas, try searching for blog post ideas for or about (fill in the blank with what you want to write about). There are plenty of great articles out there to help jump-start your creative juices. Then all you have to do is pick one to write.

Step 2: Draft the post

Once you have your idea, all you have to do is sit down and write it. Depending on the topic you pick, it could take fifteen minutes or an hour to get it written. It's also good if you can draft it a day or two before you're planning on publishing it so it can have some time to percolate in your brain. Here's a few tips on drafting a post-

• Start with an intro, explaining what's going to be in the post and maybe providing some background.
• Then go on to the body of the post, talking about whatever you're post is about.
• Add line breaks (an extra white space) between paragraphs and points to make it for easier reading.
• Finish up with some sort of wrap up. This can be a recap of what you talked about, a sign off, or whatever you want.
• Finally, encourage people to comment by asking questions for them to answer in the comments.

Step 3: Create a header image

All blog posts need a good header image to give people an idea about your post and make it easy to pin. Creating one is simple. You either take a picture or find a free stock photo that matches what your blog post is about. Then you just take it in a photo editor (I suggest Picmonkey. It's easy to use and a lot of it is free) and add the title of your post to the image, as well as your blog name if you want.

If you need a site to get free stock photos, here are the ones I use-
Pixabay
Unsplash
Negative Space
Pexels

Step 4: Revise the post

If you've written your post a few days before you plan to publish it, on the day you plan on doing that, open it up and revise it. If you don't do that, then just read over what you've written again. Look for typos, sentences that don't make sense, or places you completely want to change something. Don't forget to keep your personality, though.

One thing that helps me catch any little things I might have missed is to click the preview button. It shows you what your post will look like when it's published and helps me see stuff in a new light. Like printing out a novel vs. looking at it on your computer screen.

Step 5: Publish your post

Now for the easy part. Hit that little orange (or whatever color it is) publish button and send your post out into the world to be read and judged by everyone. Actually, it's not that scary. Most people will leave nice comments on your post. Congratulations, you published a post!

Step 6: The extras

All that's left after publishing is a few little extras. Sharing your post on Facebook, promoting it on Instagram, pinning it to Pinterest, things like that. All this is optional, but it does help people see your stuff easier.

That's the end of the first post in this series. See you next Saturday for the next part. At the end, I might also do a poll on whether you want to see me cover other topics related to blogging.

Let's talk! How do you write your blog posts? Do you have any tips to add? Tell me in the comments.

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