The post 5 Critical Elements You Need to Check Off for Every Blog Post appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is by ProBlogger subject matter expert Ali Luke

Over the past few years, I’ve conducted a lot of blog reviews for fellow writers. It’s always great fun to read other people’s posts … especially when they’re on topics that are totally new to me!

Along the way, though, I’ve noticed that there are five critical elements that far too many bloggers miss out of their posts.

Could your posts be missing any of these too?

They are:

1.       The Hook

2.       Subheadings

3.       Transitions

4.       Links

5.       The Conclusion

#1: The Hook

I’ve never seen a blog post that didn’t have an introduction. I’ve seen plenty of posts, though, that had over-long introductions without a hook: a compelling reason for the reader to keep going.

Here’s an example of a good hook, from Laney Galligan’s post 5 Ways You Can Use Facebook Groups to Benefit Your Blog:

That’s right, more than 1 billion people are using Facebook groups. That’s where the conversation and community is happening and it’s something you can easily create for your blog.

Laney makes the benefits clear (Facebook is where “the conversation and community is happening”) and also makes an implicit promise that this post will teach the reader how to “easily create [that] for your blog”.

The first few sentences of your post, too, need to convince the reader that your post is worth their time.

#2: Subheadings

Very short blog posts (say, under 400 words) don’t need subheadings. Anything longer, though, can normally benefit from being broken into sections.

If your post is missing subheadings, it’s easy for the reader to get lost midway.  When that happens, chances are, they’ll stop reading. Subheadings help because they act like signposts: they tell the reader where they are and what’s coming next.

For more help with subheadings, check out my podcast for ProBlogger, How to Use Subheadings to Add Structure to Your Blog Posts.

#3: Transitions

A transition is like a little bridge from one thought to another. Sometimes, you don’t need a transition at all (a subheading can essentially serve the same purpose). If your post feels disjointed or abrupt in places, though, you may need to add in a quick transition.

Often, a transition is helpful before any major new section of your post. They can also be used to introduce lists.

Here are some examples, from Nicole Avery’s post How to Reduce Your Time on Social Media to Increase Your Blogging Productivity – you might want to read the whole post to see how these work in context:

There are two different ways that I see social media impact bloggers’ productivity negatively.

How does this behaviour on social media impact their productivity? It impacts it in three key ways:

It doesn’t mean that you can’t be on social media, it just means you need to take a more planned and proactive approach to how you go about it. Here are two actions you can take to help you:

#4: Links

While it’s not absolutely essential for your post to contain links, it’s almost always a good idea to include at least one. Both internal links (to your own blog) and external links (to other websites) matter.

• Links to past posts on your blog help readers dig in … and stick around.
• Links to posts on other people’s blogs position you as someone helpful and knowledgeable.
• Links to your products or services help you make more sales.
•  Links to books on Amazon can bring in affiliate income – and also make you look helpful and well informed.

It’s often appropriate to include links throughout your post, usually to give more information about a particular point. If you quote someone or give an example, you should provide a link too.

Sometimes, you might not have many opportunities to link within a post (or you may not want to distract readers – e.g. in a how-to post): if that’s the case, you could include some “further reading” or “where next?” suggestions at the end.

#5: The Conclusion

Of all the missing elements, this is probably the one that seems to get left off the most! If you finish your post too suddenly, though, it not only seems weirdly abrupt to readers … it robs you of a great chance to direct their next actions.

There are several ways to tackle the conclusion: personally, I think it’s good to sum up briefly (if only in a sentence), and to give a “call to action”. You can find out more about those in the ProBlogger podcast episode How to Write a Post That Contains a Call to Action.

Here’s an example of a conclusion that encourages the reader to take action based on the content – this is from Colin Gray’s post How to Get Your First Podcast Sponsorship:

If you’re looking to dip your toe in the waters, but sponsoring your blog is a step too far, then try your podcast. Build a relationship there and who knows, it might lead to your blog, your video channel, your social media.

If that gives you the time and the space to spend time on the content you love, offering more and more value to your readers, then it’s worth an ad spot or two. Give it a shot!

When you’re busy writing a blog post, it can be difficult to think about everything you need to include … you’re probably hurrying just to get all your ideas down.

As you edit, though, use these five critical elements as a checklist: make sure you’ve included each one – or that you’ve got a very good reason not to!

Which of these five elements do you find yourself inadvertently missing out? How could you include it in your next post? Share your thoughts or tips with us in the comments!

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The post How to Write Faster, Better Blog Posts: 4 Techniques Top Bloggers Use appeared first on ProBlogger.

Is it taking you ages to write blog posts?

You’re not alone…

Whether you’re new to blogging or you’ve been running your blog for a while, the time commitment can be really overwhelming. Just getting one post published each week can be a struggle, especially if you’re focused on producing high-quality long form content. 

Even if you’re not a natural writer, there are lots of ways you can speed up your writing process. Writing faster means you can publish more often—or you can spend more time on other vital activities to grow your blog’s traffic.

First, let’s address a common worry about writing faster…

Faster Writing Doesn’t Mean Slapdash Writing

One of the worries that some bloggers have is that by speeding up the writing process, they’ll compromise on quality.

I don’t believe that’s true. Sure, some methods for speeding up might affect the quality of your post – if you decide to shave time off your process by skipping editing completely, that’s probably going to result in posts that have typos or other glaring errors. And if you simply hand the whole process over to an AI tool that can whip up an entire blog post based on a one-sentence prompt, you won’t be producing something of your usual quality.

But in many cases, working more effectively improves the quality of your finished posts. Let’s say you speed up by cutting out distractions when you’re drafting: your post might flow better as a result, with smoother transitions between sections. Or how about you speed up by nailing your outline before you start writing the post—you’ll have a well-structured piece that covers all the most important points.

With each step we cover, we’ll be looking at how to write faster and better. Along the way, we’ll take a look at some key techniques that top bloggers use to consistently produce high-quality content.

How to Speed Up Your Blogging Process from Start to Finish

Whatever type of posts you write, and however long or short they are, you’ll be going through these different steps of the blogging process:

1. Coming up with an idea
2. Outlining your post (you might be doing this in your head / as you draft)
3. Drafting your post
4. Editing your post (you might be doing this as you draft)
5. Publishing your post

Each step is important, and by recognising each of these as distinct parts of the blogging process, you can look at how to speed up and write even stronger posts.

We’ll take a look at ways to be more efficient and effective at each step … but before we dig into that, let’s tackle a huge issue that’s probably on your mind as you think about writing fast.

Should You Use AI to Speed Up Your Blogging?

As a freelance writer, I’ll admit to some mixed feelings about AI (artificial intelligence). On the one hand, I think tools like ChatGPT are very cool—I’ve had fun playing around with them. But I’m also keen that the machines don’t put me out of a job!

The good news for me is that AI really isn’t at the point yet where it can replace a skilled blogger (or freelancer, author, or journalist). I don’t think it’s a good idea to “speed up” by simply handing the whole blogging process over to AI. You might get a technically competent piece of writing, but it’s not going to be as engaging and well-written as a post produced by a human.

But AI definitely has a role to play, and it can help make your posts stronger. I like to see AI as a bright intern. You wouldn’t hand over full control of your blog to an intern … but you might ask them to carry out some preliminary research or to write a rough outline for a post.

As we go through the steps, I’ll give you some ChatGPT prompts you can use if you want to speed things up using AI. If you want to go further, I’d recommend using a premium AI tool aimed at bloggers—some good ones to check out are:

• Jasper (formerly Jarvis): one of the best-established AI tools out there, with a huge range of different features, the ability to learn and match your brand voice, a wide range of AI templates, and the option to create AI art too.
• Copy.ai: a fully-featured AI tool, similar to Jasper in its features. It’s a slightly newer tool but also comes in a bit cheaper, and includes lots of sales tools as well as marketing ones.
• RightBlogger: a smaller and newer AI, with an impressive suite of tools specifically aimed at bloggers. It doesn’t have any credit/word limits, so you can experiment without worrying that you’re using up your monthly budget.

Step 1: Coming Up With Ideas – That Work for Your Readers and Search Engines

The first step of the blogging process is to come up with an idea. You can’t get very far without one!

To write a really good post, you want an idea that works for both your readers and for search engines. That means doing some keyword research if possible, so you can figure out something that people are searching for online, and write a post to meet their needs. Obviously, you also want to choose a topic that’s relevant to your readers.

If you’re struggling, here are some great ProBlogger posts to help:

• The Only Blog Post Idea List You’ll Ever Need
• How to Come Up WIth More Than Enough (Great) Ideas for Your Blog
• What Can You Blog About When All the Good Ideas Are Already Taken?

What Chris Garrett Says About Coming Up With Ideas Faster

Some of my best articles have come from reader questions. They work well because if one reader wants to know a particular answer you can guess many more do too. If you can’t find anything useful in your own comment area or inbox, go look at another blogger’s comments or a forum.

(How to Generate Post Ideas When You Are Stuck, Chris Garrett, ChrisG.com)

Using AI to Power Your Ideas

There are plenty of AI-powered keyword research tools out there. ClickUp has a great list here.

ChatGPT Prompt

Give me [X] blog post ideas for a blog about [TOPIC]. The audience is primarily [A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR AUDIENCE]. For each idea, tell me the primary keyword to optimize for.

Example: Give me 10 blog post ideas for a blog about personal finance. The audience is primarily people in their 20s and 30s who feel a bit daunted by getting on top of their finances. For each idea, tell me the primary keyword to optimize for.

Step 2: Outlining Your Posts – And Giving Them a Rock-Solid Structure

Once you’ve got a clear idea in mind, it’s time to craft an outline for your post. This is such a tempting step to skip, especially if you’ve got a title that gives you a pretty clear picture of how your post is structured. 7 Easy Ways to Improve Your Morning Routine, for instance, is clearly going to be a listicle.

But spending just 10 minutes outlining your post could make a massive difference to how quickly you can draft it. Those 10 minutes might save you an hour or more … and result in a much better finished piece.

When I’m outlining, whether that’s for my own blog or for a client piece, I like to include:

• A sentence or two about the introduction: what’s the “hook” for this post? What needs to be said in order to set up the rest of the post?
• All the key points the post is going to cover: usually, I’ll write these as subheadings and include a short list of bullet points for each little section. This makes drafting the post so quick and easy … I’m just fleshing out what’s already there.
• The conclusion to the post: how am I going to round things off, and what will I prompt readers to do at the end of the piece?

Some posts are easy to structure, like listicles and how-tos. Others are a bit trickier, like an A vs B comparison review, where you could give all the information about product A first, then cover product B … or you could do a point-by-point comparison of features, pricing, and so on. Even a list post can be tricky as you need to decide on the best order to present your different points.

The advantage of writing an outline is that you can experiment with structure until you’re confident you’ve got something that works and flows well.

What Neil Patel Says About Outlining Faster

A good outline gives you a holistic view of how your article will come together.

Aim to be as thorough as possible. The research process is key to ensuring that you have as much detail as possible.

This way, you can knock out each point without having to divert your attention away from writing.

(How to Become a Better, Faster, and More Efficient Writer in 7 Steps, Neil Patel)

Using AI to Power Your Outlining

Either use AI to create the outline first, then edit it to add/remove points—or write down your key points, then create an outline with AI to help you spot any ideas you may have missed.

ChatGPT Prompt

Write a detailed outline for a [XXXX] word blog post titled [“TITLE”]. Give a suggested word count for each subsection. Include a call to action at the end to [CALL TO ACTION].

Example: Write a detailed outline for a 1,500 word blog post titled “Zero-Waste Vegan Kitchen: Sustainable Cooking and Eco-Friendly Tips”. Give a suggested word count for each subsection. Include a call to action at the end to download my free vegan cookbook.

Step 3: Drafting Your Posts – Without Procrastination and Writers’ Block

The stage of the blogging process that takes the longest is drafting your content. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of staring at a blank page on the screen, trying to figure out what to write: if so, you should find it much easier to draft now you have a solid outline in hand.

But even when you’ve got a clear outline, it can be hard to stay focused when drafting. The biggest problem that trips bloggers up here is getting distracted and going off-task. This can easily make a one-hour writing task take three hours … and it may also end up with your post seeming disjointed at the end of the process.

Here’s what you can do to dramatically improve your focus:

• Turn off distractions when you’re writing. Silence your phone, close unnecessary tabs, switch off the TV. It’s basic, yes, but it really does work.
• Write somewhere away from home. If you’ve got kids, roommates, or a spouse who keeps interrupting, pack up your laptop and head to your local coffee shop to write.
• Set a timer while you’re writing. Challenge yourself to stay focused for 30 minutes: you might be amazed how much you can produce in that time.
• Focus just on drafting and moving forward. Don’t go back to edit or look up facts. Put in a comment so you can come back later to any sections that need more work.
• Listen to music that helps you get in the writing zone. Some writers I know love movie tracks for this; others like music specifically designed for focus. You may even find ambient noise tracks work well for you.

What Linda Formichelli Says About Drafting Faster

I use a writing tool called TextExpander — which expands custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently used text — for common copy, like my email sign-off, bio, mailing address, book titles, HTML codes, and words and phrases I often use in my writing.

(How to Write Faster: 10 Quick Ways to Hit 1,000 Words Per Hour, Linda Formichelli, SmartBlogger)

Using AI to Power Your Drafting 

I prefer to draft without AI, but you may find it helpful to use AI to kickstart your writing – particularly your introduction, which many bloggers struggle with.

ChatGPT Prompt

Write a [XXX] word introduction to a blog post titled [“TITLE”]. The tone should be [TONE].

Example:

Write a 150 word introduction to a blog post titled “10 Common Blogging Mistakes Holding You Back (and What to Do Instead)”. The tone should be friendly, supportive, and encouraging.

Step 4: Editing Your Posts – Polish Your Work and Catch Mistakes Easily

If you started out with a solid outline, you’ll have found it much faster to draft your post. You’ll also save a lot of time when you edit your post, too. The fundamentals of your post will all be in place, and hopefully you won’t need to make any really major edits (like cutting out or adding in whole sections).

Most likely, your editing will involve:

1. Reading over your post to check for any extra points you want to include or links you want to add in (e.g. to related posts on your blog).
2. Making sure that all facts (e.g. statistics, quotes, sources) are correct – this is especially important if you’ve used AI to produce some/all of your text.
3. Checking for stylistic issues, like clunky phrases or run-on sentences. 
4. Looking out for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and typos. 

AI can be a great help with points 3 and 4 here. I’d also recommend reading slowly through your post yourself, of course, but AI may catch things that you didn’t realise were wrong (lots of bloggers confuse it’s and its, for instance) as well as typos that you failed to spot simply because you’re so familiar with what you thought you wrote.

You don’t need to spend hours editing or aim for absolute perfection. One of the great things about blogging, compared with some other forms of writing and publishing, is that you can quickly and easily go back and correct mistakes. 

If you’re using SEO software (like Clearscope or Surfer SEO), the editing phase is also a good time to optimize your article with these, making sure you’ve included relevant keywords.

What Sola Kehinde Says About Editing Faster

Some writers think the best way to create outstanding content is to write a few sentences and then stop to edit all the errors in it. But at the end of their writing session, they may still be stuck reading and editing the same few sentences over and over without making any progress. […] To increase your writing speed, do yourself a favor and ignore all the typos and errors you observe while you’re still writing. 

(9 Tricks That Can Boost Your Writing Speed, Sola Kehinde, Craft Your Content)

Using AI to Power Your Editing

My favorite AI tool for editing is Grammarly: it does a great job of spotting not just errors (like typos and spelling mistakes) but also sentences where I’ve been too wordy. 

ChatGPT is rather inconsistent (sometimes spots mistakes that aren’t mistakes at all, and sometimes misses mistakes) but you can give it a go for checking your text, using the prompt below.

ChatGPT Prompt

Check the following text for spelling and grammar errors. Please highlight errors in bold and give a recommendation to fix them. Do not give a recommendation that’s identical to the original text.

[TEXT OF YOUR POST]

Choose One of These Techniques to Put Into Practice This Week

Writing faster while also producing excellent content means getting more efficient at each stage of the writing process. Whether you’re coming up with ideas, crafting outlines, drafting content, or editing efficiently, you can speed up—and get better results. 

Experiment with AI to improve your efficiency and blast through writer’s block, but remember that you have the final say over everything you publish (and the responsibility to make sure it’s accurate).

Pick one of the ideas above to try this week … and pop a comment below to let us know which one you’ll be incorporating into your blogging process. If you’re already using some of these tips, let us know which are working best for you.

The post How to Write Faster, Better Blog Posts: 4 Techniques Top Bloggers Use appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post 7 Powerful Ways to End Your Next Blog Post appeared first on ProBlogger.

This guest post is by Ali Luke of Aliventures.

You know your title has to hook readers.

You know your first line needs to keep them reading.

The start of your blog post matters. But so does the end.

In fact, without a powerful end to your post, all the work that you put into the title and paragraph one is wasted. Because the end of your post is what keeps your readers coming back for more.

Here are seven powerful ways to end your post.

1. Sum up your key message

Sometimes, you need to hammer a point home. The final few lines of your post are a great opportunity to make sure that your key message gets across.

If you can, bring out a new point—or sum up in an engaging way. If you just rehash what you’ve already said, readers will wander off, bored.

Example:

To write 100 books (75,000 words per book) over the next 30 years, you need to be writing 1,000 words per day (writing five days a week, 50 weeks per year). At a brisk but comfortable pace, that’s an hour a day.

If you want to write 100 books in the next ten years, that’s 3,000 words a day.

Being prolific is closer to possible than you might have believed.
—David Masters, Writing Secrets of Prolific Authors, Write to Done

2. Encourage the reader to take action

Many blog posts are full of excellent advice, but how often does that advice actually get put into practice?

Readers love posts that are practical, and if you can persuade them to do something (and see the benefits) then they’ll be much more likely to return to your blog.

Example:

But in the meantime, here’s a tip you can use right away. You’ll have vastly better copy on your website in 20 minutes by following these two simple steps:

Go look at your web copy right now.

Take out every word that doesn’t contribute something new.

Come back here and tell us about the before-and-after. I bet you’ll have something to say!
—James Chartrand, Do You Have Useless Website Content?, Men with Pens

3. Ask the reader to share your post

If you want more tweets or Facebook shares, ask for them. Readers won’t always think of sharing your post, and they may not notice that you’ve got a “retweet” button waiting—unless you tell them.

You might also want to encourage readers to forward a post to friends: unless you’re writing for a predominantly techy audience, there’s a good chance that a lot of your subscribers are getting your feed by email.

Example:

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you!
—Ali Luke, How to Have Confidence in Your Writing – and Yourself, Aliventures

4. Link to another useful resource

When readers finish one post, they’ll often be ready to read another on a similar topic. If you’ve written an inspirational piece, for instance, it’s a great idea to link to a practical guide that helps readers turn that inspiration into action.

You don’t need to link to blog posts, either. Pointing readers towards newspaper articles or books in your field isn’t just useful—it also helps demonstrate that you’re on top of what’s happening in your niche.

Example:

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy these posts inspired by art:

• Writing as an emerging sculpture: Inspiration from Michelangelo’s slaves
• 15 ways modern art galleries can inspire writers

—Joanna Penn, 7 Lessons For Writers From Leonardo Da Vinci, The Creative Penn

5. Ask a question to encourage comments

Questions work well in titles and first lines—and they’re also a good way to end a post. Asking a question for readers to respond to (e.g. “do you any tips to add?”) is likely to increase the number of comments you get.

Don’t go over the top with questions, though: one or two are usually enough. You don’t want your readers to feel bombarded with a whole string of questions.

Example:

Did you find some great strategies of your own in the videos? What are the exciting ideas informing your own marketing—and how are you implementing them?

Let us know in the comments.

—Sonia Simone, 3 Content Marketing Ideas You Should Steal from Coca Cola, Copyblogger

6. Tell readers what’s coming next

If you want people to subscribe to your blog, or to keep visiting the site for updates, you need to let them know that you’ve got good stuff coming up.

At the end of your post, let readers know what’s coming tomorrow (or next week). You might simply drop a hint like “I’ve got something big to announce next week…” or you might tell them to stay tuned for a more advanced post on a similar topic to the one they’ve just read.

Example:

Next week I’ll post about moving larger WordPress sites. Those might not work with this method because your export XML file will be too large, and you might not be able to upload it via the WordPress import feature.
—Daniel Scocco, How to Move A Small WordPress Site Via the Import/Export Tool, DailyBlogTips

7. Promote your product or service

Even though you might have information about your book/ebook/ecourse/etc. in your sidebar, some readers won’t see that—they’ll either be reading in an RSS reader or they simply won’t notice.

The final line of your post is a great place to let readers know about your product (or to remind them that it exists). This works especially well if your post has been on a similar topic—for instance, if you’ve written about procrastination and you’ve got an ecourse on getting things done, there’s an obvious link between the two!

Example:

Also, check out our Blogging for Beginners Series for more blog tips and ProBlogger the Book for a comprehensive guide to improving your blog and deriving an income from it.
—Darren Rowse, 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog, ProBlogger

Which of these tips would work well on your next post? Leave a comment below to tell us what you’ll be trying out…

Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach, and blogs for a number of large sites. If you’re struggling to keep up the motivation to write for your blog, check out her post on Six Common Writing Excuses (And How to Overcome Them).

The post 7 Powerful Ways to End Your Next Blog Post appeared first on ProBlogger.