Ch. 18: The First Blog Post Secret No One Tells You

Chapter 18. Write Your First Blog Post

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In this episode, Jonathan Milligan guides you through the process of writing your first blog post. He addresses common fears and provides a simple four-step formula to create engaging and valuable blog content. The main steps include creating a catchy headline, outlining your post, editing the draft, and promoting it. Tips on converting personal content to audience-focused material and different headline strategies are also discussed.

00:00 Introduction
00:44 Chapter Overview
03:15 Step 1: Create a Catchy Headline
03:02 Step 2: Write The Outline
09:56 Step 3: Edit Your Blog Post Draft
11:06 Step 4: Promote Your Blog Post
12:46 Day 18 Exercise
14:07 Key Takeaways

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Transcript

Speaker 37: 0:40

Hello and welcome to the Market Your Message show. I'm your host, Jonathan Milligan, an author of the Your Message Matters book series. We are currently going through book number two in the series called Launch Your Platform, a 21 day launch plan to build your personal brand and share your story online as a writer, coach or speaker. And as a special thanks to you, my podcast listeners, I'm releasing the audio book. One chapter at a time. If you'd like to grab any of the books in the series, just go to platformgrowthbooks. com. Okay. Let's jump in to today's reading.

1:24

Chapter 18. Day 18. Write your first blog post. Back in 2009, with finger shaking, I hit publish on my very first blog post. I was fearful of what people would think. Would I get a negative comment? Would anyone like my writing? Do I have any value to add? That left me with many questions. It was hard enough figuring out how to start a website. But now, I had to find a way to share my thoughts consistently. Would anyone find what I had to say valuable? Was I just contributing to the noise online? Did my message matter? Maybe you have some of those same fears and doubts. If so, you're in the right place. In this chapter, I have a simple blog post template you can use to write your first post. Follow these four simple steps and launch your blog to the world. Day 18, write your first blog post. Most new bloggers make the mistake of using their blog solely as a personal journal or diary. They write post after post about their own thoughts, opinions, and daily events. They do this without asking if this content helps readers. The result is self centered writing that may feel therapeutic to the blogger, but fails to offer value to anyone else. The key is to shift the focus from me to them early on. Before writing each post, reflect on what questions and needs your target audience likely has. Ask yourself the question, would my audience search Google to find this post? Shape content around being useful first, rather than aiming to showcase your own stories or perspectives. As you intentionally serve readers, you will attract and engage community over time. Churning out posts just to document your own life may be easy, But it results in shallow content. Readers can sense when a blogger publishes only to indulge themselves rather than to inform or help. This comes across as self promotional rather than adding value. The good news is there is a simple four step formula you can follow to write engaging posts your audience will love. Four steps to writing your first blog post. After working with thousands of new bloggers, I've created a simple four step template to help you write your first blog post fast. Those four steps are step one, create a catchy headline. Step two, write the outline before you start writing. Step three, edit your blog post draft. Step four, promote your blog posts to the world. Let's take a closer look at each step. Step one, create a catchy headline. Step Post titles are super important for any blogger. Treat them like newspaper headlines. A headline in a newspaper makes or breaks the sale of that paper. Your headline should be catchy and interesting and leave just a bit of curiosity. When it comes to deciding on a headline, choose one of the following three strategies. The magic of list posts. The power of how to posts. The blog announcement post. The magic of list posts. It's been proven over time that we love lists. We want to know not only what's on the list, but what didn't get included. We click on the headline because we know the article is scannable, and we can see what is included in the list. Here are a few examples you can use to create your own headline. Five quick tips for fill in the blank. Ten things you should never do when fill in the blank. Five ways to fill in the blank without being pushy. Five great things to do with fill in the blank. Seven ways to be a fill in the blank ninja. Ten reasons not to fill in the blank. Seven fill in the blank danger signs. Seven things fill in the blank should never do. 21 secrets the fill in the blank experts don't want you to know. 10 fill in the blank facts you need to know. The power of how to posts. Another strategy that will give you tons of blog post ideas is to cover the most important how to's in your niche. Readers love practical posts that lead them to action. It feels like time well spent if I can take concrete action on something I just learned. A few examples might be how to recover from a fill in the blank. How not to get fill in the blank. How to get fill in the blank. How to beat the fear of fill in the blank. How fill in the blank will save you time, money, and stress. How to clean fill in the blank. How to maintain fill in the blank. How to take care of fill in the blank. How to repair the fill in the blank. The blog announcement post. The last strategy I want to share with you is a post you would typically only write once. This post will be a foundational article you will refer back to for years to come. The two early strategies, list post and how to post, are the formats I use 90 percent of the time, week in and week out. You're welcome to start with one of them to get your first post published if you would like. The blog post announcement post is easy enough to write because it doesn't require much guesswork. In a moment, I will share with you a simple writing outline you can use.

Speaker 24: 6:37

As far as a headline, go with something like, how name of your blog will help you insert the goal, promise, or purpose of your blog. Step two, write the outline before you start writing. Many aspiring bloggers are excited until it's time to sit down and write. Why does it feel like all of my energy and creativity gets sucked out about when it's time to write? Other bloggers say they just wait for inspiration to strike before they sit down to write. If that were true for me, I'd be waiting a long time. Don't wait till you feel like writing. Most writers I know don't like writing. They like having written. There's a big difference. Never forget the words of Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner. He said, You're more likely to act into a feeling than feel into action. If you've successfully accomplished the last step of deciding on a headline, it makes writing much easier. The headline creates the outline for you. Once you've nailed down the outline, all that's left is to fill in the text. Let's look at how to create an outline from each of our three examples above. Create an outline for your list post. If you've chosen a list post headline, then you must first decide how many make your list. You can do as few as three or as many as 101. It really comes down to the purpose of the post. I usually start by opening my writing tool of choice and brainstorming as many examples as I can think of. Once I've created the list, I have my number and my outline. You can also search your topic on Google to look through the topic articles for outline ideas. Create an outline for your how to post. If you go with a how to post, the process will be slightly different. First, start with a beginner's mind. It's easy to skip a few steps because you think they are assumed. We all have the curse of knowledge. We simply forget what it's like to be a beginner. When outlining a how to post, you want to think in terms of steps. What's the very first step I should take? Once I complete that step, what's next? Repeat the same process until all of the steps are out of your head and on paper, or screen. Now, you may end up combining steps, and that's okay. A how to post will have a minimum of three steps. The maximum number of steps depends on the topic you have chosen. Create an outline for your blog announcement post. If you chose a blog announcement post, then there is a specific format you should follow. First, be careful not to make your first blog post only about you. Yes, you will introduce yourself and maybe even share your story. But never forget that your blog is for others. You want to play the role of a guide who helps, serves, or inspires. The good news is that I already have an outline you should follow. The body of your blog post will include these sub headlines. State the goal of your blog. How this blog will help. The opening of your blog post should state the goal of your blog. Why did you start this blog in the first place? Is there a mission or cause behind your desire to start this blog? Next, discuss how your blog will benefit the reader. What are some specific ways you plan to help others? Will you publish a weekly blog post? Will you launch a podcast? Will your blog include videos? Finally, fully introduce yourself and your story. Always remember that you are not the hero of the blog. Your target audience. is the hero. You are just the guide. Because of that, we don't lead by touting our credentials or why we are qualified to help. Still, people will want to know who is behind the blog, so feel free to share your story. But lead with serving and helping first. Once your outline is ready, just focus on writing a paragraph or two for each point in your outline. Once you do, you have a rough draft ready to go. Now, it's time to edit. Step three, edit your blog posts draft. Blogging is a different way of writing than when you were in English class. It's more conversational for starters. Also, we break a few of the rules along the way. Follow this list of basic guidelines and you'll be a blogging pro in no time. Use bullets. My number one tip is to break up your content to make it easy to consume on the computer or mobile device subheadings. We already covered this in the outline section, but add lots of subheadings, short sentences. Keep your sentences short. Enough said. Short paragraphs. People scan content when they read online. You want to have two or three sentences per paragraph at most. Make your content easy to scan. Relevant images. Add images to your post to make it more engaging. Look for grammar errors. I like to use Grammarly to help me with my grammatical construction. Add a call to action. Add ways for readers to join your email list. Sprinkle throughout your blog post. Publish your post. Get your blog post out to the world. Don't worry about mistakes. You can always come back and fix them later. Step 4. Promote your blog post to the world.

Speaker 25: 11:49

Once your post is live, it's time to share your post with the world. I know this can be a scary feeling when first starting out. My best tip is not to focus on yourself, but on how your blog will help others. An ideal place to start is social media. What social media accounts are you already using? Share your blog posts there first. Remember, you can do it in a non pushy way. If you're not sure what to put in your social media post, I have a sample script below you can use. Hey friends, I've decided to start a blog with the goal of helping others. I've just published my first post. It would mean the world to me if you would click the link, read this post, and then come back here and share your thoughts with me. Thanks. Now, you don't want to bombard your social media newsfeed daily with messages to drive people to your blog post. We want to be helpful. Not annoying. You can also enlist some friends to help spread the word. Create a list of 10 to 20 supportive friends. Be sure this list includes friends and not just acquaintances. Otherwise, this exercise will not work. Send them a message on Facebook Messenger. Let them know you recently launched a blog and would appreciate it if they shared it on social media. To make this easy for them, you've already typed up a script they can post. It goes like this. Hey guys, my friend Sally just launched a blog designed to help overwhelmed moms claim back control of their lives You should check it out here. Link. The point of all of this is to get referral traffic to your site They have friends you don't have. They can reach people you cannot reach Day 18 exercise, create your blog post title and outline. One of the most important skills for bloggers is creating compelling headlines. The title is the first thing readers see and determines whether they'll click through to your content. Identify three to five potential blog posts topics. Be sure to tailor them to your target audience. These should revolve around common questions or problems faced by people in your niche. Next, for each identified blog post idea, brainstorm a variety of catchy headlines that would entice your personas to click. Use the headline types covered in this chapter like X ways to, or how to X without as starting points, create at least three to four alternate titles per topic. After you have headline options for all your post ideas, start an outline for the one headline you feel most excited about. Identify three to five pieces of practical advice. Steps or key information. You could provide readers under that headline resist the urge to start writing sentences Just use bullet points of value you'd share spend the last minute reviewing your outline ask yourself Will this be a helpful piece of content for the reader? Remember to always view your content through the lens of reader personas rather than writing for yourself day 18 key takeaways Resist the urge to publish blog posts too quickly at first Build writing skills and audience understanding before ramping up frequency. Shape content around serving a specific reader persona. Don't just document your personal thoughts. Reader value must take priority. Craft compelling headlines by leveraging proven formulas like x ways to and how to x without. Headlines determine if readers engage.