- May 7, 2014
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30 Minutes to a Better Blog Post
Do you have 30 minutes to spare? Then you have enough time to write a better blog post, according to Mel Carson, a digital marketing consultant.
Writing for The Hub, Carson outlines three simple steps you can use to develop a topic to entice readers, outline your content, write your post and edit it for publication — all in as much time as it takes to watch a TV sitcom (which probably won’t build your business!).
Brainstorm Some Topics
What do your customers want to learn? What questions do they ask you frequently? Where is your industry heading? During the brainstorming step, Carson advises you create a content calendar for your blog submissions.
“This is where you create a content calendar for your submissions to a blog,” he writes. “It also helps to have a calendar alert three days before the piece is due to nudge you into starting to write.”
Think about It Early
This step is not as obvious as it sounds. Carson is talking about formulating content in your head before you sit down in front of your computer to write. You can do this while cooking dinner, exercising or networking with industry colleagues.
This method saves time, especially when you ponder questions that could generate blog posts:
- What’s the business problem you’re trying to solve for people?
- What data is out there to back up your thinking?
- Where can you link externally to help flesh out your story to the reader?
- What’s the action you suggest readers take to benefit from your post?
- What kind of image do you want embedded in the post to enhance it across social networks?
Start Writing and Refresh
When you sit down to write your blog post, you know your topic already, and you’ve identified research to cite because of the previous two steps.
Carson puts it this way: “You know what you’re going to open with, you know where you’re going to link to, and you know what your conclusion is going to be, so get on with it.”
It never hurts to ask a peer to review your post to ensure your message is clear, and your post is free from typos and grammatical errors.
To save even more time, read “Two Fast Ways to Write Better Email Headlines.”
