- Intention,
- Goal,
- Strategy.
‘Where your energy goes your attention flows.’
As a writer, I find most people underestimate the time it takes to write a blog that takes the reader on a journey, engages their imagination and offers solutions to the problems they are surfing the internet for.
What I have come to understand is that, if you have 12 well constructed, content rich, value sharing blogs, you have over a years of worth of content to post on socials and include in your newsletters, that drives traffic back to your website.
When allocating time, ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST!
- What’s the purpose of your BLOG? Why are you writing? What do you want to achieve?
- What will be the main message of your post? What’s the key question you want to answer?
- Who is your audience? What is the problem are they trying to solve?
- What information do you need to write your piece?
- In what order will you present your information? What will be the structure of your article?
When you get this formula right, they become informative, time saving online brochures that you can constantly refer to with new clients. The types of blogs are endless including
Education, Case Studies, Personal Shares, A Typical Day and you can find more types here. Essentially you have a short and long form blog, from 500 to 2000 words.
Your blog quality will be influenced by the amount of time you have available to create it and the resources you engage such as interviews for quotes and comments, images and links.
Start with Basic, Simple and Easy.
A basic blog includes the Hook, the Problem, the Solution, The Promise, yet its effectiveness is reliant on an engagement and promotion strategy, there’s a little bonus I have for you at the end of this blog.
Now before we move forward, have you got a digital asset or lead magnet that will encourage your reader to engage further? It might be Checklists, roadmaps, audio files podcasts series, workbooks, DIY audits, social media accounts, social handles, online course, youtube tutorial, email optin or a landing page.
Lets’s talk intention.
If your primary intention is to fill the pages of your blog page with information, sharing a story or provide an education module, a 500 word read with a simple call to action should take about 42 minutes to write.
- Brainstorm and Research. It’s probably a topic you already know about, give yourself 5 minutes to brainstorm and update your research and confirm the facts or the theories that support the outcomes you want your reader to have.
- Plan your structure and format, by choosing three primary points and 3 easy references that validate your claims and explain complex topics. 5 minutes
- Make up a headline and introduce your topic with an eye catching first sentence. Make it both informative and something that will capture the readers’ attentions. This can be a question or statement. 2 minutes
- Write your body and be sure to include a personal paragraph about how it impacted on you, summing up exactly the outcome your clients wants to achieve. This section will help you choose an image that will feature in your blog. 25 minutes
- Your call to action is about reading another blog in your collection that relates or buying into a freebie or product that you offer. Embed the link to the asset ( WordStyler DIY Content Audit ) and invite them to read more. 10 minutes
This writing formula also includes embedding the link to your ‘digital asset’ in your call to action, but it may take you a little longer to create, design and formate the DA.
In Summary
These blogs are the quick content fillers, remembering you can alway go back and update them. Don’t forget to read your post aloud to check how it flows. These are blogs that you as small business owner best done in your own brand voice and are great for sharing a personal experience.
Don’t forget to complete a simple edit for spelling, punctuation, construction and format.
A more sophisticated blog also includes these critical elements in your posts:
- Magnetic headline.
- Compelling lead.
- Useful subheads.
- Informative and engaging body.
- Appealing graphics.
- Powerful call-to-action.
- Relevant internal links.
- Good meta description.
So let’s talk goals.
If your primary intention is to engage your audience and lead them along a path of discovery, a 700-800, even a 1500 word read can take around 2 hours to curate. But trust me, I’ve spent longer.
- Brainstorm: Brainstorm, dump ideas and put your information into content pods (takes about 10 minutes).
- Digital Assets: Start thinking about your digital asset or develop the check list that’s going to form the body of your content that the reader can step through. One point per point.
- Research your links, find evidence and other articles that reference your point for and against your persuasive text. This will take around 15-20 minutes and be sure to copy the URL link in the document ready to embed.
- Headline: Write an awesome headline, making a promise to deliver the content and outcome with a solution to the readers problem.
- Sizzling Start: Develop your first introductory paragraph. Drop your reader into the scene with a snap shot of the topic, enabling them to feel the problem. Engage their imagination, describe the scene, articulate the emotions and the particular characteristics of the people, places and things that are relevant and relatable to the blog.
- Question: As an option, at the end of the paragraph, ask a question that evokes guilt or desire.
- The Journey: Construct your points of persuasion in order from worst to best or least to most effective. Whether you have three detailed paragraphs or 10 sharp shooting sentences, find a sequence that flows. Embed reference links in those relevant and relatable words pertinent to the point being made.
- Images: Gather 4-6 images that create a visual story board and place them in between the text.
- Aha Moment: Write about the lightbulb moment, include your perspective, the impact or purpose of your article.
- Summary : The last paragraph is to sum up the points, the solution and highlight your best supporting statement that leads into your call to action, inviting them to engage further.
- Take a few lines to tell them about yourself (with a link to your BIO or Contact Page or a related product), at the end of your blog. Great opportunity to thank your inspiration for the post.
- Don’t forget to edit your draft and proofread your final copy.
These blogs can be time consuming but given the effort they are worthy of the investment, and with a clear intention of driving traffic back to your website, engagement is the both a strategy and goal.
Now you have your blog – Click Here to get the four hacks that improve blog search, rankings and engagement:
So how long does it take you to write a blog?
The WordStyler is a content architect, collaborating to create digital assets that build your personal brand. An experienced writer of your ‘about me’ page and expert wellness industry articles that dive deep into research, bringing to life the experience that shares the stories to inform and influence.
We help people create their content and we do it for them. We follow a process that maximises and leverages the information.
Get in touch today if you would like to know who to create 12 highly engaging blogs that generate leads and increases sales.
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