How to Start a Profitable Blog Course
DAY FOUR
Now that you have a blog and installed a theme, you are ready to get started writing and brainstorming blog posts.
Blog posts are where you are going to monetize your blog, so they are super important.
Today, we are going to talk about:
Choosing a topic for your blog posts.
What to think about as you write your blog posts.
How often do you write blog posts?
How to make money from blog posts.
How to create a new post in WordPress & what to do to it.
Choosing a topic for your blog post.
Do you already know what you want to talk about? If not I would narrow it down to one or two things and then think about these things.
1. I start by looking at Pinterest and typing in what I want to write about and seeing what keywords are the highest ranking.
- I think, "What would I type in if I was looking for information on...." Then I look at the descriptions of the top five and see what keywords are ranking the highest.
-I look for phrases like: "How to..." and "The best..."
-I also look to see any if any, similar words to the ones I plan to use also came up. (Include those in your post)
2. After seeing if my idea would rank on Pinterest, I head over to Google and see what comes up when I type in my Ideal post title.
-I look to see what words are in bold that I didn't type in. (Include those in your post)
3. After I have a good idea of what I want to title my post and what keywords I want to use in it I decide if it is something that needs a new email opt-in or any special graphics.
-If it needs a new opt-in, I create it and create the email sign-up for it.
-If it needs any graphics, I wait until the end and insert them where they would best fit.
4. Time to get to writing. I write out my post then check it in Grammarly because we all make mistakes.
Things to consider when you’re writing your blog post:
Don't forget to include a pinnable image; you want a long, skinny image with descriptive and enticing text on it. Something people would want to click on. You can include this image at the top of the post or the bottom.
Length is important; a lengthy informative post will get you much further than a short post. People like to get information.
White space is important; large sections of text get boring, and people tend to skip through the post.
You want to link back to other things you have posted if this is not your first post. You can do this by talking about stuff you have also done and then say read about it here and lay a link over the "Read about it here" text.
Include an opt-in within the text to increase your email subscribers.
Break down lists with bullets or numbered lists.
Posts with titles like "7 cheap outfits for fall" and "8 great and healthy 30-minute dinners" do better than "Outfits for fall" and "Healthy Dinners."
How often should you write blog posts?
Food: If you write a food blog, I recommend posting once a week or once every two weeks because recipes are relatively short posts.
Fashion & Lifestyle: If you have a fashion or lifestyle blog, I recommend posting twice a week if they are outfit posts and once a week if there are other types of posts to increase profitability.
Business / Finance: If you have a business blog, I recommend posting once every two weeks if you are writing opinion posts (like how to budget), and if you are writing about current business events, I recommend picking one event a week to keep up with.
Specialized niche: I recommend writing once every two weeks.
What to do if you can’t find time to write blog posts?
If you have kiddos and have to be home: I recommend picking one day a month and spending as long as you can writing. I like to be a month ahead of writing blog posts so that my life can be as stress-free as possible.
If you have weekends to yourself: I recommend picking one weekend a month and writing one article on Saturday and one article on Sunday.
How do you make money from blog posts?
You make money from blog posts by people reading your blog posts and buying from affiliate links, scrolling past or clicking on ads, or buying your products.
You can also get brands to pay you to write entire blog posts about their company or a specific product or sale.
The way you get people to those blog posts is by using social media. I focus on Pinterest personally to get people to my blog, and I think that is the best and most consistent way to get people to your blog.
How to create a new post in WordPress & what to do to it.
Go to your WordPress dashboard.
Click on the Posts tab in the left-hand menu.
Click on the Add New button.
Enter a title for your blog post in the Title field.
Select a category for your blog post from the Category dropdown menu.
(Optional) Add tags to your blog post by entering them in the Tags field.
Add a featured image to your blog post by clicking on the Set Featured Image button.
Start writing your blog post in the main content area.
Use the toolbar above the content area to format your text, add images, videos, and other media, and insert links.
Publish your blog post immediately or schedule it to be published later by clicking on the Publish button.
Tomorrow:
Tomorrow, we will be talking about how to actually launch your blog.