“Oh no, not now; I need this written and finished up in just two days, and I don’t have an idea what will work best”.
How do I arrange this?
Where do I put that?
Certainly, this applies to many writers.
Getting the flow for your article can sometimes be difficult.
As a writer you need to pour out those words as fast as possible without compromising quality.
One easy way to do this is to create a template.
“A template for an article?” you might ask; yes, a template.
This is not just an ordinary template.
It is a template that outlines all the vital things needed to create informative articles.
It starts with listing elements that will bring your article alive, give it credence, save you time, and make life a lot easier for you.
When you sit to write an article, all you need to do is fill the gaps earlier created in your template, and this will cut down the time spent on the actual research and writing.
So let’s cover the steps on how to write a blog post.
A basic template should serve as a guide for you, and if you wish to outsource your article writing, you already have an established pattern for the writer to follow. This is useful in cases where you are using a guest writer or ghostwriter for your article.
It should have the following outline:
Attention Grabbing Title
This is an essential part of your write-up. If your title does not grab the readers’ attention, then no one will read what you have spent so much time writing.
Here, you need to find out if your proposed title has potential or if it is what people will be interested in reading.
How do you do that? You might ask.
There are tools and websites that make this easy.
But first, you need a title that answers the readers’ question or solves a particular problem for the reader with an explanation of how this can be achieved.
For example, “Creative Ways To Monetize Your Website with a Blog” or, better still “5 Creative Ways To Monetize Your Website with a Blog”.
Over time, it has been noted that list articles and how-to’s make a good title. When you have chosen the title, the following tools will help you decide on what approach to use or what areas to focus on.
Google Trends
This is a great tool by Google to help you what is trending. You need to put your topic or keyword into the Google trend search to develop ideas or topics people will love and then use it to refine your title. You can base the search on specific locations to help you target a particular audience in that location.
LinkedIn Pulse
This feature on LinkedIn shows posts that have generated lots of views, likes and comments. If you have a topic, you can use this to check if something similar is on LinkedIn Pulse. This will tell you if the title is a good one. Another option to try out, if you do not have a topic is to modify one you find or add more details to a particular post that is doing well, rewrite it and then expand it.
Buzz Sumo
This wonderful site analyses the topic you search for and displays articles that people have shared a lot, including the number of shares and the social media on which they were shared. This helps you modify your title or rephrase it to a better shareable one.
Infographics
Infographics are a great way to share content, and a good place to get inspiration on a good article title is at Infogram. They host infographics and you can search for your keyword or related title and check for those that are popular. If the infographics have not been covered in an article yet, you can transform it into an article and choose an appropriate title as well.
Forums
Forums related to the topic you wish to write about. This will help you figure out hot topics or topics that need to be covered. They would often generate lots of comments and unanswered questions. One great site to find such is Quora, a site where people ask questions and get them answered by other members who are knowledgeable.
Eye-catching Image
A good image is a powerful tool that can draw in the target audience and want them to read more. Always use eye-catching images and make sure that they are free to use or that you acknowledge the source.
In between the subheads, you can also add images to make reading a lot less boring for the reader.
Places where you can find both paid and free images include:
- New Old Stock: Black and white vintage images that are free.
- Little Visuals: They stock landscape, industrial, abstract and urban images.
- Stockvault: Designs and graphic images for free.
- Pixabay: Creative Commons images are free to use.
- Unsplash: A Tumblr image site mostly about nature.
- Canva: Easy to use for designing your own images.
- Dreamstime: A large collection of images with free and paid versions.
- Freerangestock: Free to use with high-quality images.
- BigFoto: A royalty-free photo gallery.
- Gratisography: A collection of images by Ryan McGuire.
- Ancestry Images: Free historical photos and artefacts.
- Refe: Quality images taken with mobile devices.
- Death to the Stock Photo: Free-to-use images are delivered to your email monthly.
- Hubspot: Free stock of images.
- Free Images: Sign up and access thousands of images.
- PicJumbo: Several image categories to choose from.
- Free Photos Bank: Free downloadable photo bank.
- iStock: Both free and paid options are available to access images.
- Morgue: Register to access images by artists, but remember to give them credit.
- Public Domain Images: Images from both amateurs and professionals for free.
- 123rf: They have a collection high quality pictures at affordable prices
- Pikwizard: A huge collection of high-quality images with an image editor attached.
An Introduction or Lede
This is the opening paragraph of your write-up. The essence of this section is to draw in the reader and make them curious enough to want to read more.
The introduction should also be something that the target audience can relate to so that from the beginning, they are hooked.
One great way of writing an intro is to use a story. Your story should, however, relate to the content of the post and pave the way for the actual information you want to send across to the reader.
Next, you should back up your write-up with data or facts to add credibility to the article. Figures from research or statistics are great for achieving this.
You might not necessarily quote as statistics; you can add it to your sentence as a part of it.
For example, instead of saying, “10% of writers earn up to $200 per blog post”, you can say, “Ten out of every hundred writers earn $200 per blog post”.
This gives a more visual feel to your writing and melts away numbers, which does not usually go down well with most people.
Subheads
These are short sub-titles that should have a description of what is covered in that heading. It should also be scannable and still benefit the reader because not all those who get to see a write-up will have the time to read it.
If it is scanable then they can quickly go over it and still pick out some points.
You should know that not every person who opens your post will be able to read the entire post. So this makes provision for short-term visitors.
Conclusion
This should be a summary or round-up of what the article is all about and a closing paragraph for the write-up.
Call to Action
This is the last but most important part of your article. This is why the article was written in the first place. At this point, you need to tell the reader what to do such as commenting on the topic discussed, sharing the article on social media, making a purchase or signing up for your mailing list.
There you have it, a six-step working template on how to write a blog post. This will definitely make your write-ups faster. Customize it to suit your needs and have it ready for referral purposes each time you want to write your article.
Have you ever used a template before? What other method do you use to make your writing faster? Share it with us in the comment section.