Now we are at the meat and potatoes of blogging…your blog articles and content. At this point in the How To Start A Blog series, you have everything pretty much setup minus your sidebar and miscellaneous design items. Now – we need to get into producing quality content on your blog by writing articles that your readers are going to soak up like cold water on a hot summer day. Quality content is your blog’s foundation. Without these engaging articles and posts, you have nothing but graphics on a screen. There have been extremely well designed sites that failed miserably because all the focus was on plugins, design and other non-important items that – in the end – do not keep readers on your page. Your content is the #1 most important part of your blogging. Without compelling content…you are just wasting your time.
How To Draft and Publish A Blog Article In Wordpress
If you have never drafted an article in Wordpress before, opening that “Hello, World!” post can be a little nerve racking. Before we even get started, you need to go in and delete that post (which will get rid of the comments attached as well), and start a new article using the video below as a guide.
https://videopress.com/v/a81PKPUD
Note: Depending on the theme you are using, you might have some options when it comes to inserting images into your post. These are done through custom panels inserted by your theme or through the custom fields box in the write screen. Please refer to the instructions provided with your Wordpress theme for details on how to use those features. There are too many options out there to cover them in these tutorials.
You will notice on the right hand of your write screen that there is a box for categories. These categories are going to help your readers navigate your content, so – for this article (and the subsequent articles you will write in the future) – you will need to select/create categories for your articles. For example, this article is under “How To Start A Blog”. If you want to…you can also list it under multiple categories that your particular article relates to.
Writing Quality Blog Articles and Content That Readers Will Connect With
Unfortunately for most bloggers – myself included when I first started out – we are not fantastic writers. Hell…I’m still not and probably will never be a literary expert. I am more of a math and science kind of guy. But the beautiful thing about blogging is that incredible writing skills are not required. Your goal in your blogging is to find your writing voice that connects with your readers. Your drive is to be unique in a way that draws readers into your content and makes them want to stick around.
Blogging is not about being perfect or scrutinizing over every word on the page. Blogging is about that personal connection between the blogger and reader and that should be your #1 focus as you draft articles. Any plain, old, boring SOB can put up a dissertation on how to do something, but a blogger can bring that content to the web with flair and personality. One of the biggest hurdles I found in blogging was getting out of the writing style that has been beat into our heads from day one of grade school. We are not writing term papers here. We are writing content that is engaging and inspires conversation.
What is the best advice I can give new bloggers looking to make it big on the internet sharing their passion with the world? Be yourself. Bring as much of yourself into your writing as you possibly can. Do not fret over the little details in the beginning and start getting content out there. As you continually write and publish articles, focus on bringing something different to the table. Do you want to be another copycat or original? You do not have to worry if it is not coming easily right away. As with most things in life, you are going to get better with practice and that will start to come through in your writing.
The only way to get better at blogging is to blog.
Resources That Will Help You Write Engaging Content On Your Blog
The following list is a resource of articles that will help you find your own voice and get your readers to stay on your pages. These are the same articles that helped me in my beginning blogging (and still today), so instead of rewriting what has already been said…I will share them with you now.
Finding Your Blogging Voice
- How to Find Your Blogging Mojo – Problogger.net – Great article by Darren at Problogger that gives you way to experiment to find your own blogging voice.
- How To Write With A Distinctive Voice – Copyblogger.com – The king of content production goes into detail on how to find your own voice with your blog.
- Seth’s Blog: Maybe you don’t want traffic so badly? – A short slap in the face about finding your voice in blogging.
- Finding Your Blogging Voice – JohnChow.com – This guest post on JohnChow.com goes into some detail about finding your blogging voice.
Content and Article Production
- Pillar Article – How To Write Great Blog Content – Entrepreneurs-Journey.com – Yaro Starak writes an incredible article on pillar articles and why you have to write them on your blog.
- 10 Steps To Develop Killer Blog Articles – DailyBlogTips – Great list post of the key ingredients to a great blog post.
- How To Write Great Blog Content – Problogger.net – Darren’s list on how to write great blog content.
Becoming a Better Writer and Blogger
- 10 Steps To Becoming A Better Writer – Copyblogger.com – Another great resource from CopyBlogger
- How To Be Interesting – Copyblogger.com – Everyone wants to be interesting right? You are going to have to be…to be successful in blogging.
Keep The Readers Coming Back For More
- 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky – Problogger.net – Tips on making readers want to stick around by Darren.
Writing content on your blog is probably the #2 most talked about topic in the blogging niche (behind making money on your blog), so I am sure there are thousands of other articles on the net that are just as useful…but there are a couple that will get you started. Do you have other blogging resources related to content production that have helped you in your blogging? Hit up the comments section and share those articles that have made your content jump off the page.
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