Tips for Writing Your 2nd Blog Post

It’s time to crank out your second article!

Check your list and find another article that excites you. Remember, we want to aim for at least 500 words, so pick something you’d have fun writing about.

The same assignment parameters apply here (see below), but there are some new aspects to think about now that you've already written your first post.

Linking Back to Previous Articles

This time, try to think about how this article will link back to previous ones.

Let's say you're a personal trainer. Wouldn’t it be awesome if, in your article on insane fitness workouts, you could naturally add a link in the introduction back to your first article on the importance of stretching and warming up? You’ll be naturally directing traffic back to your own articles -- and you’ll actually provide more value to the visitor.

This kind of natural interlinking is also important from an SEO perspective so it's a good practice to get into.

Want an example? Look what I did in the intro of this article :)

Tips to Keep Your Reader's Interest

First person writing helps to tell a story. Short, snappy writing is much easier to read than walls of text.

Focus as much as possible on providing value for your target audience and making that value easily digestible.

I love this quote by Neil Patel:

"Reading a sentence is like holding your mental breath. You can only last so long before you start to pass out. 

Shorter sentences help readers take lots of breaths -- and that keeps them interested."

Fleshing Out Your Brand

Write what excites you but be brand-aware too.

As you start to fill up your blog, you are fleshing out your personal brand. That's great!

I suggest that you remain aware of the types of posts you're writing. How are you portraying yourself? What do readers learn when they scan through your blog's titles? 

In one sense, it's good to write about what interests you. If you feel strongly about a topic, your passion will probably ooze off the page. If you don't give a shit, your readers won't either. 

But it's also good to be generally aware, in a meta sort of way, how you are portraying yourself with your posts.

Let's say you're still a personal trainer and you're trying to get the word out about your training services. You're not a nutritionist, but you feel strongly about great nutrition. It relates to your brand as a thoughtful personal trainer so you write a post about it. 

If you write a few more posts about nutrition, you've suddenly made yourself out to be more of a nutritionist to the online world than a personal trainer. It's a small shift, but one that could impact your business.

Here are your assignment parameters:

• At least 500 words (aim for longer if you can)

  • Why: Quality is the name of the game here. Length is just one consideration of a quality blog post, but it’s still a factor. If you can say everything in 100 words, then you probably didn’t choose an appropriate topic. Plus, all else being equal, longer articles are more likely to be shared on social media than shorter ones. I usually go for 700+ if I can, but again, quality is most important here.

• An engaging style that matches your brand

  • Why: You may know I’m a fan of conversational content, but this won’t necessarily fit everyone’s brand equally. Consider who you’re trying to reach with your content and write with them in mind.

• At least one interesting image

  • Why: Content with relevant images gets 94 percent more views than content without.

• An engaging headline

  • Why: A failed headline is a failed article. If your headline doesn’t encourage anyone to click it, then nobody sees your article and where’s the fun in that? Spend at LEAST a few minutes drafting up a few headlines and finding your most engaging one. If you need tips for writing a great headline, read my article, “Don’t Waste Another Headline -- 4 Psychological Tricks To Get You Clicks.”

Tips

• Need help finding free images? You can always use the Creative Commons filter when searching on Google, or just use this free image resource.

• Read your work over OUT LOUD as if you’re speaking to your target audience. You’ll be surprised at the things that sounded fine in your mind but sound weird as hell when you speak it out loud.

• Make sure you cite sources when appropriate. All you need to do is hyperlink to the site when you would typically footnote.

Activity Recap

→ Go through your list of blog topics from Day 7 and find one that you’re most excited about.

→ Spend the next 60m researching, writing, and editing your blog post.

→ When you’re done, go post it on your Blog! Remember to embed your image(s) and fill in the SEO information in your plugin.

How to Write Your First Blog Post

If you don’t already have a list of blog topics and ideas, please go back to Day 7 and put your list together before starting here.

I’m going to keep this one nice and short because, well, you’re the one doing all the writing today.

First, go through your list of blog topics from Day 7 and find one that you’re most excited about. Then, use the following parameters to guide your writing.

And don't forget to have fun!

Here are your assignment parameters (and why):

• At least 500 words (aim for longer if you can)

  • Why: Quality is the name of the game here. Length is just one consideration of a quality blog post, but it’s still a factor. If you can say everything in 100 words, then you probably didn’t choose an appropriate topic. Plus, all else being equal, longer articles are more likely to be shared on social media than shorter ones. I usually go for 700+ if I can, but again, quality is most important here.

• An engaging style that matches your brand

  • Why: You may know I’m a fan of conversational content, but this won’t necessarily fit everyone’s brand equally. Consider who you’re trying to reach with your content and write with them in mind.

• At least one interesting image

  • Why: Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without.

• An engaging headline

  • Why: A failed headline is a failed article. If your headline doesn’t encourage anyone to click it, then nobody sees your article and where’s the fun in that? Spend at LEAST a few minutes drafting up headlines and finding your most engaging one. If you need tips for writing a great headline, read my article, “Don’t Waste Another Headline -- 4 Psychological Tricks To Get You Clicks.”

Tips

• Need help finding free images? You can always use the Creative Commons filter when searching on Google, or just use this free image resource.

• Read your work over OUT LOUD as if you’re speaking to your target audience. You’ll be surprised at the things that sounded fine in your mind but sound weird as hell when you say it out loud.

• Make sure you cite sources when appropriate. All you need to do is hyperlink to the site when you would typically footnote.

Activity Recap

→ Go through your list of blog topics from Day 7 and find one that you’re most excited about.

→ Spend the next 60m researching, writing, and editing your blog post.

→ When you’re done, go post it on your Blog! Remember to embed your image(s) and fill in the SEO information in your plugin.

A Step by Step Guide to Create a Winning Content Strategy

Coming up with an effective content strategy is not as complicated as you might think. Once you identify your audience and your message, your topics will flow naturally.

Let’s go through the process step by step:

Identify Your Target Audience/Market

It’s great to think of your target audience as a broad market and then categorize it a bit further. The more specific you get now, the better you’ll be at strategizing engaging ideas and developing content that vibes with your audience.

For example, my broad audience would be

• People interested in Online Reputation Management and Personal Branding

But if I were to break it down further, I might come up with:

• Young professionals and entrepreneurs who understand the value of a personal brand but don’t really know what they need to do

• Recent college grads without a strong career direction who are trying to develop Identity Capital along the way and showcase themselves positively online

• The Connected Generation -- 18-34 year olds who are active on social media, particularly Twitter

→ Identify your target audience, both broadly and specifically

Develop Your Message

Think about your industry, your target audience, and the types of things that you want to write about generally. If you have a clear sense of these aspects, your message should start to naturally take shape on its own.

Here’s what I came up with:

Managing your online reputation and developing a personal brand are critical because they influence your ability to get a job, get clients, and even get a date. ORM and Personal Branding are not as difficult as many think. I will be as transparent and engaging as possible in an effort to help the Connected Generation learn how to effectively promote themselves online.

→ Develop a rough message for your content

What Are Some Topics You’d Like to Cover?

Now that you know your audience and your message, you might already be thinking of some of the articles you want to write. Write those ideas down! The last thing you want is to have some awesome topics and then forget them in 3 weeks when you’re looking for something to write.

Need some help coming up with effective topics?

• Write down some trends or innovations in your industry that are making you excited, worried, angry, etc. Look up some news articles and see if there are a couple you’d like to comment on or take in a new direction.

• Write down some challenges in your industry. This is the birth of the How-to blog post.

  • The idea for this 28 day challenge came about because I wrote down the problem, “people don’t know how to tackle ORM themselves”

• Think about a personal experience recently that you can write about. Did you just close a particularly challenging deal? If so, what lessons can you teach others about it? Did you just give a great speech somewhere? How did you prepare for it and what advice would you give to others?

An effective tool throughout this process is BuzzSumo. You can look up a topic to see what kinds of content are being shared the most in your industry. You can use that knowledge to inspire your own content and come up with brand new content altogether.

→ Come up with a list of at least 8-10 ideas to fuel you going forward.

Activity Recap

→ Identify your target audience, both broadly and specifically

→ Develop a rough message for your content

→ Come up with a list of at least 8-10 ideas to fuel you going forward.

No, Conversational Content Doesn’t Mean Unprofessional. Here’s Why.

What’s the main goal of your written content?

No, really. Think about it. Is it to build brand loyalty? Generate leads? Sell your product?

Unless your goal is to come across like your 7th grade English teacher, then conversational content will be your friend as you attempt to connect with your readers. Formal writing is great for essays, academic papers, and the like. But it’s not ideal for engaging and captivating readers. (For tips on captivating readers with your headlines, read my previous post.) Conversational content will give you the best shot of breaking through all the noise and making a lasting impact.

Want to transform your writing from boring to bold? Try the following changes:

Ask Questions 

Let’s face it -- most readers are flying through emails and articles on autopilot. Anything you can do to stop them in their tracks is worth its weight in gold. Asking questions is one of those tactics.

Questions are a natural part of any conversation. Notice the questions I posed at the beginning of this post? They force you to actually stop and think for a second. Suddenly, you’re not just a passive reader but an engaged part of the conversation.

Keep it Short and Sweet 

Short sentences are snappy. They kick you in the eyeballs. They make an impact.

They’re also a normal part of everyday conversation. Long-winded sentences and huge blocks of text are a turnoff because they appear overwhelming. Take advantage of white space and shorter sentences and you’ll appear more engaging to the average reader.

Cut the Vocab Words 

Don’t use words like “utilize” when “use” will do. Don’t use “million-dollar words” for the simple reason that nobody talks like that. Simpler words make your writing a little more natural and captivating. They’re unimpressive, but they get the point across without sounding pretentious.

Break the Rules

Stop worrying about ending sentences in prepositions. And don’t worry about starting a sentence with “and” or “but.” Formal writing rejects contractions but they’re used all the time in everyday speech. Rules are important because they give structure, but they can make your writing unnecessarily rigid. Take some selective liberties and break the rules to give your writing some personality.

Don’t Write to the Masses

Your email or post may reach thousands of people, but you’ve got to write to the individual to keep it personal. Nothing turns a reader off more than hearing “Thanks to all of you who…” Write your content to the individual (“Thank you for your…”) and it’ll feel more casual and heartfelt.

Closing Note

Of course, you must always remember your audience. Conversational writing will be more appropriate in some cases and less appropriate in others. The best thing you can do is develop an engaging tone and stick with it consistently across your mediums. Read your writing aloud -- if it doesn’t fit with your brand, cut it and start over!