Attempting to write and plan a blog post can be overwhelming. It seems like there are so many things to remember and plan. Don’t give up yet if you can’t seem to find your footing. We have created seven steps to help you with the process of blog writing.

 1. Know Your Audience

The first step is to establish your audience. Knowing your audience comes before everything else. It is important for you to always be thinking of a specific persona or group of people when writing your blog posts.

 A persona is the ideal person that you want to reach with your blog content. The goal of a persona is to personalize your blog content based on that individual group. We do this because if we know who we are targeting then it will be easier to reach them.

 Make knowing your audience your job. Know their needs, questions, concerns, hobbies and interests. If you know all you can know about your persona it will be easier for you to generate content relevant for that specific group.

 2. Establish A Topic

The next step is to establish a topic that your audience or persona wants to read about. It would be a waste of time to write something you know they don’t care about. Do your research and find out what will interest them. What problems are they trying to solve? Always remember that you are working to generate content to please a specific group of people.

 3. Research

Now that you have picked your topic, it is time for you to do a little research.  Research the topic, research your persona, research keywords that relate to your topic. It is important that you spend significant time on this step. You have to know what your audience is searching for and the words they are using in search queries. They will not listen if you are not discussing their interests. Research is one of the most important steps when creating quality content for a blog post.

 4. Brainstorm & Plan

Through your researching efforts you should establish long tail key words. These keywords will be included in your blog post. Long tail key words are very specific to what you are talking about. Keywords help search engines understand your blog post better. Picking your long tail key words out before you start writing can help you plan what you will talk about in your blog post.

 Next, you should create subtitles for planning what topics you want to cover. Make notes or write your ideas down under each subtitle section while brainstorming. Write what you know and what you have found through your research. Try to write down everything that you want to include in your outline. The goal is to get all your ideas down on a piece of paper or in a word document.

 5. Organized Outline

Now, it is time to make an organized outline. Making an outline with all of your brainstorming notes makes it easier to stay on track. Outlines are very important for the structure of your blog post. They help you see where you are going next and help you stay organized.

 Once you have established your audience, topic, long tail keywords, sub titles and created an organized outline, it is time to start writing!

 6. Start Writing

I know, it took us a while to get to this point, but it will be worth it when you have a structured and organized blog post. Start by following your outline. Write as much as you can then take a break. Don’t be afraid to take breaks, skip around and go back to sections. Writing comes easier when it is not forced.

 7. Proofread

You are not done yet! You must proofread your work. After you have read it a few times, have someone else proofread it. The more eyes you have look at it the better of a blog post it will be.

Writing a blog post doesn’t have to be a painful process. These seven steps were created for you to follow and learn from. If you keep writing and practicing these seven steps each time you write it will get a little bit easier. The goal is for you to eventually find blogging rewarding and fun!