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Why is a Blog still so valuable?

A blog in 2020 is much more relavent than you may think.

Your blog and its articles should play a central part in an overall marketing strategy that includes Social Media. Gone are the days where all you do is a blog and you will see traffic coming to your website.

Instead what a blog has become is a:

  • The beginning point where you structure content to be re-purposed and shared on various platforms
  • A central place where most of your content, products and services live
  • A digital address where your audience and fans visit to find everything relevant to you and or your brand.
  • A place to offer more detailed content which you cannot easily share on Social Media

Additionally, people still search for information and knowledge on Google and Google hunts and ranks websites and blogs above all else.

Think about it, when you need information, where do you start?

Usually its; Google or YouTube, very rarely do you search for useful or helpful content to your questions on Social Media.

Focus on the big picture:

Developing a marketing strategy (with your blog at the centre) is probably one of the hardest things to succeed in as it requires you to think about the bigger picture.

When it comes to marketing, “Content is King”. And a Blog is a content Beast. Plus you own the content and not at the mercy of any one platform

“Content is King”. And a Blog is a content Beast

You must change your mindset from short-term daily tasks like scheduling and replying to comments to a broader level of thinking.

It is also useful to have a marketing strategy so you’re not wasting time and posting content just for the sake of posting content. Instead of having a planned strategy helps you maximise your time to achieving your marketing and business goals, faster. This ability will be one of your greatest skills.

How to write a perfect Blog that you can re-purpose?

Now that we know why a blog is important and that it plays an important part of a complete marketing plan.

Lets break down how to create a blog for multi-use.

Things you will need:

Step 1: Research, Planning and Notes

Knowing what to write about is up to you. But to make it easy there are 3 simple areas you can start with:

  1. Your own thought or idea you wish to share in the world, simply start with that topic.
  2. Competitor content: Creating content similar to a competitor, then make sure it is better, more detailed or easier to use than competitors. This is called ‘Skyscraper Technique’.
  3. Goal Specific To attract an audience and write topics that people are currently needing or topics that may be trending, then you will need to do a little bit of research.

Trending Topics are the best way to get fast traffic.

  1. Research competitors – This could save you time as a good chance they have already done the research for the topic
  2. Google Search: Go to Google Search and see related search section (see bottom of Google)
  3. Google Keyword Planner
  4. Tools Check: BuzzSumo, SEMRush or Ahrefs
  5. Audience questions: Check Forums, Facebook groups or comments on social media posts and blogs

Put the information you have found onto an organiser, such as Asana, Trello, Microsoft OneNote (recommended), Google Docs or a notepad.

Check out my article on How To Get Ideas For Your Blog

How To Get Ideas For Your Blog

Step 2: Blog Title and Topic

Now that you have an Idea what to write about

  • Catchy and relevant Blog Title (H1)
  • Opening paragraph state what the blog is about and what the reader will get and Hook the reader

Step 3: Subheadings and Bullet points

To make your Blog easy to read, easy to scan and for Google Bots to scan and rank it make use of Sub-headings and Bullet points

Go back to your notes and simply make subheadings of all the key areas you want to cover.

Advice

Subheading are H2 and H3 Tags (important for Google). Use correct Heading tags.

Example below is for WordPress 5 within the Post editor:

Click Text that you want to be a Heading

Select Heading Type

H2, H3 or H4

Image below shows how it would look to the reader

Example of Title tags, H1, H2, H3 and Bullet points for blogs

Step 4: Begin Draft Writing your Blog

Now that you have your Title (H1) and Subheadings (H2, H3) placed in order and have some bullet points you want to list. You can begin the Fun Part! Start writing. 😉

  • Write your opening paragraph – Make it catchy and to the point
  • Write content under your subheading – Go back to your notes and add the content and edit

Advice

Tip: Write Like you Talk

PRO TIP: Write content on Word first and not on the blog

I recommend your write your content first on Microsoft Word or alternatively like Google Docs) as it’s easy, will save automatically, you can easily Cut & Paste from Word to WordPress and retain all editing structure.

You will also have a backup of the original article.

Yes ! you can log in to WordPress and begin writing, however, it is not what I recommend. As many times I have lost the work I have done and had to start again.

Many problems can happen that cause your to lose your work for example:

  • Your website may stop working,
  • Your host may do maintenance,
  • You may lose internet connection
  • and so on.

Warning

In such cases, you will lose your work.

Blogging Best Practice: Write blog content on Microsoft Word first

Step 4: Media, Images and Videos

Very important section; Images and Media.

Images and media you use in your blog can easily be shared and re-used on Social Media. Readers will also share nice images and graphics to their followers.

Images also makes your blog interesting and engaging.

You should have already researched and noted ideas of Images that you need in the planning stage.

  1. From your planning list start creating and adding images you need
  2. Create Social Media images first: Pinterest, Instagram (correct Sizes)
    • Save the Higher resolution version of it on HDD (on the website it should not be more than 500kbs)
  3. Add additional images you need

Ensure SEO by inserting Meta Tags, Alt-Text, Title, Captions and Description

Blog Image SEO

Advice

These options can be found in the Media Galary of WordPress, or on the Right Coloumn when you click an image within the Blog Post editor

Key Image Sizes you need minimum:

  • Featured Image (1200px x 628px) – Blog Featured image and Facebook ads
  • Pinterest Image (1080px x 1350px) – Portrait
  • Instagram Image (1080px x 1080px) – Square

Image sources

Ensure All images are size optimised or They will slow down your website and user experience. To ensure you have correctly sized images you have taken can use Image Resizer Tools:

How to resize in Photoshop:

Best Photoshop Alternative online tools I recommend for Blog graphics are:

If you are not familiar with Photoshop you can also use Online Tools to make it easier. Though I do recommend you learn Photoshop.

Recommended Online Graphics Tools:

Canva Graphics Editor for Bloggers
Snappa Graphics Tool
Stencil Web Graphics Tool

Images should not be larger than 500kbs

Step 5: Call To Action or Products

You need a clear call to action for your readers. You have spent allot time creating content, therefore do not leave it up to chance. Make a call to action to direct the reader to do an action you wish them to do.

Call to actions can be:

  1. Product sales Landing page
  2. eCommerce products page
  3. Course page
  4. Sign-up form (like the one below 👇 😁👍

Step 6: Conclusion

Do not just tail of, end with a summery or a conclusion.

Simply summerise key points you have covered in a bite sized way. Simple and to the point. As this blog post.

Where we have covered the importance of Planning and Organising using Apps like Asana or OneNote.

How to research and create Blog Titles, Subheadings and ensuring they have the correct H1, H2, H3 Tags. Importance of bullet points and easy to follow structure. Drafting your article on Word before pasting into WordPress Blog.

How Images used in your blog can be used in Social Media and correct sizes to use. Tools that you can use to creating your images and royalty free image sources.

Before you end your blog ensure you have Call to actions in place and the blog text and images all have correct SEO to help you be found on search results.

Step 7: Optimise SEO (Very Important)

Make sure your blog is SEO optimised (important).

  1. The blog has Meta descriptions in place, all the Title Tags correct (H1, H2, H3).
  2. Images all have the Meta content correctly titled and labelled
  3. Images sizes are not too big (500kb or less recommended)
  4. Ensure Keyword and Keyphrases are optimised and used within the blog post and relevant areas
  5. Link to any blog posts you already have made (Internal Linking) that could be of use
  6. Link to relevant external sources (backlinking)

Use Yoast SEO Plugin to check your blog post SEO is optimised for Google

Yoast SEO Plugin

Step 8: Share on Social media

Share your hard work on your social media.

  • Facebook Timeline
  • Instagram timeline or Stories
    • Share your best images on Instagram
  • Pinterest portrait Image
  • YouTube if you have made a video and link the blog post in the YouTube description

Step 9: Schedule (advanced)

If your more advanced or are beyond the initial start phase, you should schedule drip release of your content using software such as:

I hope this blog post helps you get creative quickly and organised. Comment below if you need further instructions on steps mentioned.