How To Write Your First Blog Post – 10 Steps To An Awesome Blog Post
Congratulations! You’ve decided to start a blog and write your first blog post!
Not many people have got this far in their blogging journey, so pat yourself on the back!
There can be many reasons you want to learn how to write your first blog post:
- Maybe you’re an entrepreneur wanting to make money online with a blog
- Perhaps you want to start a hobby blog to share your knowledge with people
- Maybe you are an affiliate marketer wanting to earn an income through affiliate marketing
Whatever the reason, you’re at the right place.
In this article, I will teach you how to write your very first blog post on your very own blog!
If you already have a blog or website – great!
If you don’t own a blog or website yet, no worries.
I will briefly walk you through setting up a domain name and web hosting and installing one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world – WordPress.
You can also join my Blogging Amateur email course to learn how to set up a blog for yourself quickly.
Once you have your blog up and running, you can follow the steps in this “How To Write Your First Blog Post” Guide and publish your first blog post.
I hope you’re as excited as I am!
Let’s begin.
Disclaimer: If you buy something using the links in this article, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Know that I only promote stuff that I use and trust for the sake of my readers and the reputation of this website.
How To Write Your First Blog Post
Writing your first blog post can be intimidating. Trust me, I know.
Every blogger has been there. Only when you overcome your fears and write your first blog post will you move forward and get where you want to be.
Once you’ve finally published that first blog post, you’ll gain the confidence to write your next.
Remember not to go after perfection right from the start. You’re still learning and need to give yourself room to grow.
Your first blog post will not be PERFECT. But that shouldn’t stop you. Follow the steps and tips in this blog post and keep writing blog post after blog post. That will help you eventually get to where you want to be – and there’s no stopping after that!
On that note, let’s start.
1. Define Your Target Audience
There’s no point in blogging if you don’t take the time to know your readers. There is a common saying in the blogging world that if you write for everyone, you’re writing for no one.
That means you need to narrow down the topics you talk about on your blog.
Study your target audience.
Who are they?
What kind of lives do they lead?
What are some of the common problems they face that you can help them solve?
What is their profession?
How old are they, on average?
Now, I know that as a business, you may be catering to different people with different personas. Find the most common persona and create a profile out of it.
For example, maybe your target audience is corporate individuals in their mid-forties looking for the best email marketing software for their business.
Once you’ve created that user persona, it will be easy for you to figure out things like:
What tone you can speak to them in
What unique challenges they face every day
What kind of solutions are they looking for
Determining your target audience is the best way to write an SEO-friendly blog post.
Your whole blogging process becomes a lot easier. You will know what topic to write about, what keywords to target, and how to make your content SEO-friendly.
When you know who you are writing to, your blogs will have a deeper connection with people in your target audience. You will have posts on topics that answer each question they have about something related to your niche.
2. Get Web Hosting And Set Up Your Website
So, you’ve determined your target audience and know exactly how you’re going to help them – by writing blog posts!
But where do you write and publish these blog posts? How will your target audience access and read your first blog post?
To run a blog, you will have to set up a website first.
Setting up a website does not have to be complicated, time-consuming, or expensive.
You can buy a domain name and hosting easily and cheaply. That means, if you don’t already have a website or blog, you can have one up and running in a day!
Want to know how? Join my email course, Blogging Amateur, to learn how you can set up a fully functional blog in a day.
Here are some reviews of really cheap hosting sites you can use to buy hosting:
Top 17 Cheapest Web Hosting Services For Your Business
13 Best Month To month Web Hosting Services For Your Business
Having your own blog or company website can help you easily rank on Google so that people can find your blog posts when they look for specific keywords.
Bloggers usually set up a WordPress account as their content management system because it is easy to use and helps you optimize your blog posts for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Once you’ve decided on a topic or idea that you want to blog about for your web readers, you can set up your blog.
Once this step is done, you can move on to the next steps in this “How To Write Your First Blog Post” guide.
3. Choose an Easy Blog Post Topic
Okay, so now you have an up-and-running blog.
What do you write in your first blog post?
You’ve finished the hard parts. Now let’s get into the actual process of blog content creation.
Like I said before, it can be really overwhelming to write your first blog post.
Where do you start?
What do you write about?
Will your blog post even be read by anyone?
Or worse- what if people DO read it and find it boring or useless?
Always remember that your first blog post doesn’t have to be perfect. You will figure out how to write SEO-friendly blog posts that people love. But don’t burden yourself right at the start.
Blogging is a long-term strategy, and you will get better at it – that’s for sure.
For your first blog post, choose something simple to write about. You do not have to write stories about why you are starting the blog or who are you.
If people have questions like who are you or what your story is, you can write about that on the About page of your blog.
Think about the purpose of your blog and write your first blog post related to that. For example, if your blog helps working mothers find simpler ways to run their homes, you could write your first post on a popular topic in that niche – meal planning and prep.
After you write your first blog post, you can branch out to other related topics such as “how to organize your home on a budget”, “how to make the most of your mornings,” and “how to organize the kids’ room so that your home is always mess-free.”
This kind of content strategy is called topic clusters, where you write about one broad topic and then link it to different blog posts related to it.
Remember, the first step to a successful blog is to write your first blog post. Everything else will automatically fall in place if you keep learning and blog consistently.
4. Figure Out What Type Of Blog Post You Want To Write
There are many types of blog posts you can write on your blog, depending on the topic you’ve chosen and the format you wish to follow.
Since this is a “How To Write Your First Blog Post” article, I will list down the simplest types of blog posts you can choose for your first blog post.
a. List Posts
A list post (or a listicle) is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a list of things with some information about each item.
For example,
You could write a list post about the best fiction authors of the century along with their most famous works.
This post about the characteristics of an entrepreneurial mindset is a list post:
To write your first blog post as a list post, you must first ensure that the post makes sense in a list format. Don’t just add items in the list to make it longer – each list item must add value to the post.
Since each item on your list needs to be cut short to keep the whole listicle at a readable length, make sure to link out to deeper resources on each item – either on your blog (hello, more blog post ideas!) or other reputable sites.
b. How-To Guides
How-To guides are useful resources that help your readers get from point A to point B by following some steps.
You can write an in-depth guide on any subject as long as you can teach your readers something new or help them perform a certain task by the end of the post.
For example,
This “How-To Guide To Content Writing” helps readers understand what content marketing is and then shows them step-by-step how they can craft a content strategy of their own:
c. Roundups
Roundup blog posts are a collection of expert tips or advice from industry experts in a single blog post.
These kind of posts are extremely popular because of the credibility it gives you and the exposure you get from one single post.
To create an expert roundup post, you must reach out to different bloggers or influencers in your niche and let them answer a question or two. You can then assemble all the answers in one expert roundup post while linking to the individual contributors.
Your readers get to know what industry experts think about a certain topic, and the experts get a backlink to their blog from your article. Once your blog post has been published, you could reach out to the contributors again and ask them to share it on their social media – giving you great exposure!
Here’s an example of an expert roundup post:
d. Product Reviews
If you have an affiliate marketing blog, product reviews are a very important blog post for your business.
In a product review post, you can review a product without being biased. Tell your readers the features and benefits of the product, its pros and cons, and your experience with the product.
Product reviews help your audience make an informed choice when choosing a particular product. They also help you earn a commission if your audience decides to buy the product using your affiliate links.
This post is a great example of a product review post:
Apart from these four, you can write many other types of blog posts, but pick one that fits your topic well.
5. Do Keyword Research Before You Write a Blog Post
Once you’ve decided on a high level what topic to write about and what kind of blog post format you want to follow for your first blog post, keyword research is next.
Keywords are a crucial part of the writing and content marketing process. Your blog posts must have one focus keyword so that Google can easily figure out what your post is about.
Having a focus keyword also makes it easy for Google to rank your post in the search engine results pages so that your blog post shows up when someone types that keyword in the search box.
You can search for what keyword to focus on when writing your first blog post in three ways. Of course, tons of free and paid SEO tools will help you do that, but the easiest way is to search for clues in Google itself.
a. Look at the suggestions in the search box when typing in your chosen keyword.
b. Look at the “People Also Ask” section in Google.
c. Scroll all the way down to the “Related Searches”.
You can learn more about focus keyword research in this post:
SEO For Bloggers: How To Write Blog Posts That Will Boost Your Search Engine Rankings
Here is a video from ahrefs that tells you about more free keyword research tools you can use when you are on a tight budget:
6. Write Your First Blog Post
Okay, now you’ve got the keywords you want to use in your blog post. What next?
How do you start your first line on a blog?
Every blogger has been where you are. It can be intimidating to stare at a blank page with only a bunch of keywords to inspire you.
So what do you do?
Here are some tips that will help you figure out how to write your first blog post:
Tip 1: Start Writing Your Blog Post Outline
Never ever start to write your first blog post on an empty page. Create an outline of the format you want to use and the subheadings you want to cover based on your keyword research.
It makes it easier for your thoughts to flow in an organized way. Your blog post will start to take shape, and you might have to change some subheadings or the structure of your article mid-way, but start with a basic outline for your blog post anyway.
Your outline should have the following:
- A title or heading
- An introduction with a compelling hook to get your audience interested
- Your subheadings as H2/ H3/ H4
- The conclusion of your post
- A call-to-action (CTA) that tells readers what to do after they read your post (ex: leave a comment../ share this post../ download this resource.. etc.)
- Approximate word count for each of the above sections
Tip 2: Research
Research each subheading as you are writing it so that you can add in useful information such as statistics, images, infographics, or additional resources.
Remember to link to these resources when you add them to your blog post.
Tip 3: Write First, Edit Later
Editing is a crucial part of the writing process for any writer, but it hampers the creative flow. When you write out your thoughts and leave the editing for later, you can write in a casual and conversational voice.
Write first for your readers, then for SEO.
7. Craft a Click-Worthy Title For Your First Blog Post
The heading or title of your blog post is one of the most important elements.
The purpose of your title is to entice readers to click the link and read your blog post. It doesn’t matter whether you have an amazing blog post with a ton of useful information for your readers.
There’s no point if people scroll past your title in the search engine results pages and pick a more interesting title to read.
The responses of searchers to your blog post title are very important. The way in which your niche audience responds to your blog post title determines the success of your blog post.
Have multiple options of your working title to run by your friends or colleagues and see which one resonates with them more. You can also use a free tool like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer to get a picture of how well your blog post title can perform in search results.
8. Optimize Your First Blog Post For SEO
This “how to write your first blog post” article will not be complete if we do not talk about SEO for your first blog post.
Even though this is your very first blog post, it’s never too early (or too late) to think about SEO for your blog.
Here are some blogger SEO tips that you need to implement right from your first article:
a. Enter your keywords in the title, subheadings, body, alt text of images, URL, and meta description of your article.
b. Make sure your content is at least 1000 words long. Make it comprehensive and unique.
c. Link out to reputable external resources from your article.
For more SEO tips for bloggers, you can read this post:
SEO Tips For Bloggers: How To Write Blog Posts That Will Boost Your Search Rankings
9. Publish Your First Blog Post
The time has come for you to hit that first publish button!
Congratulations!
Now that you’ve written your first article, it’s time to show it to the world.
Publishing a post is easy if you use a CMS like WordPress. All you have to do is copy the article and paste it into the block editor of your WordPress backend.
Quickly check to see if all the images and videos appear normal.
You can then add a featured image to your article by designing one on a free tool like Canva. Canva makes it easy for bloggers to design original graphics and images for posts.
It is a fairly easy tool to use and helps you design your graphics for free.
You can download a tool like Yoast SEO to make sure your posts are SEO-friendly. Once You activate and install Yoast SEO, you will see it below every article you are about to publish in WordPress.
Edit the slug of your article in the section below the post:
In the same area, you will see a section for the meta description. Edit your meta description here so that searchers will be able to see what your article is about.
If you do not enter a meta description, Google will display a part of the text in your article as the meta description. Make sure your meta description is within the specified character length or the text will be cut off and end with an ellipsis (…).
You will be able to see a preview of how your post will appear in the search results.
10. Promote Your First Blog Post
Now that you’re done writing and publishing your post, it’s time to share it with the world!
Share your first blog post on social media like Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. Build a community on social media (such as by building your Facebook following or increasing your YouTube view count) so that you can share your posts with them regularly.
Answer any questions your followers may have and encourage them to share your post in their circles.
Remember always to put your reader first and put out quality content that will help them somehow. That is the best way to gain shares and engagement with your posts.
Promoting your posts is a huge part of any content marketing strategy.
Conclusion
You did it!
You finally learned how to write your first blog post!
Now that you’ve begun this wonderful journey of blogging keep at it so that you get better at writing amazing blog posts that help your niche audience.
As a blogger, it is your responsibility to serve your audience with authentic, useful information that helps them in some way.
Keep learning how to perfect your blog posts. It is the best way to grow as a blogger.
Do you have any tips on how to write your first blog post?
Please share them in the comments and help the blogger community! 🙂
