We're going to learn how to write a blog post outline template. This is essential for anyone looking to build and grow an online blogging business.
Creating a structured system is critical for crafting engaging, helpful content and making the writing process more efficient.
This guide will provide a comprehensive walkthrough of creating a compelling blog post outline - from selecting the ideal topic and title to constructing a detailed list as the foundation for your content. Starting with choosing the perfect topic and working title, we'll then dive into creating a detailed bulleted list that serves as the backbone of your post.
Furthermore, we'll explore practical techniques for drafting blog post formats for your content plan while staying true to your initial plan.
Finally, you'll learn about editing and proofreading strategies before hitting publish on your masterpiece.
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Choose a Topic
By picking the right topic for your blog post, you'll have an essential step in building and growing an online blogging business and the beginning of a blog outline. By joining Blog Growth Engine, you’ll learn to understand how to leverage the authority flywheel.
This will help you create engaging, informative, and original content that resonates with your target audience. We give you a few blog post outline example options that will help you create a great blog post outline for your business.
To choose a suitable topic, consider the following steps:
Determine Your Target Audience: Identity who you want to reach with your blog posts. Knowing their interests, needs, and preferences will help you tailor your content accordingly.
Analyze Popular Content: Research what's trending in your niche by visiting popular blogs or using tools like Google Trends or BuzzSumo. This can give you insights into topics that resonate well with readers.
Create a List of Potential Topics: Based on your research findings, brainstorm potential topics that align with both the interests of your target audience and the goals of your blogging business.
Evaluate Each Topic Idea: Assess each idea based on its relevance to current trends within the industry as well as how it contributes to achieving long-term objectives for growth and engagement.
In addition to these steps, performing thorough keyword research is crucial when choosing a topic for SEO purposes. Utilize tools such as Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to identify high-traffic keywords related to potential topics while also considering search intent behind those queries (Moz guide on keyword research). Incorporating relevant keywords throughout headings and body text helps improve visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Selecting Evergreen Topics
Focusing on evergreen topics is another effective strategy for building a sustainable blogging business. Evergreen content remains relevant and valuable to readers, driving consistent traffic to your blog. Examples of evergreen topics include how-to guides, listicles, case studies, and in-depth analyses of industry trends.
Addressing Pain Points
To further engage your audience and grow your online presence, consider addressing common pain points or challenges readers face within your niche. By providing actionable solutions through informative blog posts, you can position yourself as an expert resource while also fostering trust with potential customers.
Create an Outline
Organizing your ideas into a well-structured outline is crucial for writing an engaging and informative blog post. An outline helps you arrange the main points, sub-points, and supporting evidence logically, ensuring that your content flows smoothly from one idea to another. Once you have identified the main points, creating an outline to organize them is essential for writing a successful blog post.
Identify Your Main Points
As you're getting started in your journey here, your first step for creating an outline is identifying the main points you want to cover in your blog post. These should be the key takeaways or essential information that readers need to understand about your topic. As an example, If you're going to write about SEO topics, some main points might include keyword research, on-page optimization techniques, and link-building strategies.
List Sub-Points Under Each Main Point
Once the main ideas of your blog post are figured out, it is time to create relevant sub-points for each one. Sub-points provide additional details or explanations related to their corresponding main point.
Continuing with our SEO basics example above:
Keyword Research
Importance of long-tail keywords
Tools for finding relevant keywords
On-page Optimization Techniques
Proper use of header tags (H1-H6)
Meta description optimization
Link-Building Strategies
Guest posting on relevant blogs
Creating shareable content for social media
Add Supporting Evidence and Examples
The final step in creating your blog post outline is to add supporting evidence and examples under each sub-point. This can include statistics, case studies, or expert opinions that help validate your presentation information. By providing credible sources of information, you enhance the value of your content and build trust with your readers.
A well-structured outline is essential for crafting an engaging and informative blog post. It helps ensure that your ideas flow logically from one point to another while covering all necessary details related to your topic. So before diving into writing your next blog post, take some time to create a solid outline - it will make the entire process smoother and more enjoyable.
Key Takeaway
A well-structured outline is crucial for writing an engaging and informative blog post. To do this, identify the main points, list sub-points under each one, and add supporting evidence and examples to validate your information. Doing so ensures that your ideas flow logically from one point to another while covering all necessary details related to your topic.
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- 100,000+ people have gone through our masterclass
- 2,600+ students in our active community
- Unlimited support and accountability from coaches
- Multiple 6-figures in student earning
- Many students at $10K+/month in earnings
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Start Writing
It is time to compose your blog post using the outline you created. Writing in an active voice and using explicit, concise language will make your content more engaging and more accessible for readers to understand.
Start with an Engaging Introduction
Grab the reader's attention and make them curious to learn more by presenting a problem or query linked to your subject matter while indicating how your post will tackle it. One of the best ways of doing this is offering a problem or question related to your topic and hinting at how your post will address it. For example:
Use Clear Language and Active Voice
Write in simple sentences using everyday words whenever possible. This makes it easy for readers of all levels to comprehend your message without getting lost in jargon or complex sentence structures.
- Avoid passive voice: Instead of saying "John threw the ball," use "John threw the ball."
- Be specific: Instead of saying "many people," say "42% of respondents" if the data supports it.
- Cut unnecessary words: Remove filler phrases like "in order" or adverbs such as "very" when they don't add value.
Break Up Your Content into Readable Sections
To make sure that readers can easily digest the information presented in your blog post, break up long paragraphs into shorter ones (around three lines) and use subheadings (<h4>) within each section for better organization.
Demonstrate Expertise through Research & Examples
Backing up your claims with research and real-life examples adds credibility to your content. Be sure to link to reputable sources, such as Forbes, The New York Times, or industry-specific publications like Search Engine Land.
Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)
Conclude your blog post with a clear CTA, motivating readers to do something such as subscribing to your newsletter, sharing the content on social media, or buying what you suggest.
Following these guidelines, while writing your blog post'll you'll want to create engaging and informative content that helps your audience and helps you grow your online blogging business.
Edit and Proofread
After writing your blog post, it's essential to edit and proofread the content for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity of thought. By thoroughly editing and proofreading, you can ensure that your readers can comprehend the content clearly and have faith in its accuracy.
Use Grammar Checking Tools
To help with editing, consider using Grammarly or a similar grammar-checking tool to catch common errors automatically. These tools can save time by identifying subject-verb agreement problems or incorrect word usage.
Read Your Post Aloud
Another effective technique for editing is reading your post aloud to yourself or someone else who can provide feedback on its readability and flow of ideas. This process helps identify awkward phrasing or unclear answers for your readers to follow.
- Check Consistency in Formatting
- Title Case: Ensure consistency in capitalization throughout headings and subheadings (e.g., use title case).
- Bold Text: Using bold text rarely to highlight essential points without overdoing it.
- List Items: Make sure list items are formatted consistently (e.g., bullet points vs. numbered lists) within each post section.
- Punctuation: Double-check punctuation marks such as commas, periods, colons, and semicolons - especially around quotations or citations - for accuracy.
Verify Facts & Links
In addition to grammatical correctness and formatting consistency, fact-checking is integral to editing. Confirm that any facts, figures, or assertions featured in your post are exact and current. Also, verify that the anchor text accurately describes the linked content and that all links work correctly.
Seek Feedback from Others
Lastly, consider asking a friend or colleague to review your blog post for feedback on clarity and overall readability. They may catch errors you missed or provide suggestions for improving the flow of ideas within your content.
Taking these steps during the editing and proofreading process will help elevate the quality of your blog posts while ensuring they're engaging, informative, and original - crucial elements for building a successful blogging business with Blog Growth Engine.
Key Takeaway
When building a successful blogging business, editing and proofreading your content for clarity of thought and accuracy is crucial. Use grammar-checking tools like Grammarly or read your post aloud to identify awkward phrasing.
Check consistency in formatting such as capitalization, bold text usage, list items format, and punctuation marks. Verify facts and links before seeking feedback from others to improve the flow of ideas within your content.
Publish the Post
After determining the subject, constructing a plan, writing your post, and revising it for accuracy and readability, it's time to make your blog entry public. This step is crucial in building and growing your online blogging business because it's a content-driven business at its core. Publishing involves several essential tasks that ensure your content reaches its target audience.
Optimize Your Blog Post for SEO
Optimize your blog post using relevant keywords related to your topic to increase visibility on search engines like Google or Bing. Include these keywords naturally within headings, subheadings, meta descriptions, image alt tags (if applicable), and throughout the body text. Additionally, make sure to use internal links that connect readers with other valuable content on your website while including external links from reputable sources that support or expand upon points made in the article.
Choose an Eye-catching Title
An engaging title will entice potential readers to click on and read through your blog post; therefore, it should be concise yet informative about what they can expect from reading further into the piece. Copyblogger offers great tips on crafting effective headlines.
Select Appropriate Categories & Tags
Select categories: Assigning appropriate categories helps organize posts based on their topics so visitors can easily find similar articles within specific subject areas.
Add relevant tags: Including accurate tags allows search engines to better understand what each article covers, improving overall site indexing results while helping users locate specific information quickly when searching by keyword phrases or terms related directly back to individual postings.
Schedule Your Post for Publication
Consistency is vital in growing your online blogging business, so make sure you post regularly and at optimal times for your target audience. Many content management systems (CMS) like WordPress or Wix offer scheduling features that allow you to set a specific date and time for publication.
Social Media Channels: Post and Promote It
To maximize exposure, share the published post across the social media channels that you're active in such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Instagram, depending on where potential readers are most likely found within each network environment.
Additionally, consider sending out email newsletters highlighting recent articles and engaging subscribers through personalized messages offering exclusive insights into upcoming projects they won't want to miss.
Publishing your blog post effectively will help increase its visibility and reach while contributing positively towards building a successful online blogging business using the Blog Growth Engine strategy.
Key Takeaway
To build and grow your online blogging business, it's crucial to publish optimized blog posts with eye-catching titles, appropriate categories and tags, scheduled publication dates/times, and promotion on social media channels. Consistency is key in posting regularly at optimal times for your target audience while using internal/external links to support or expand upon points made in the article.
Summary
If you're looking for a successful post, starting with a well-structured outline is essential. Outlines will always help you organize your thoughts, stay on topic, and ensure your post is easy to read and understand.
We put together some tips for an effective blog post outline:
Step 1: Choose a Working Title
Start by choosing a working title for your blog post. By doing this, it will help you stay focused on a topic and ensure that your outline is relevant to your chosen subject matter.
Step 2: Brainstorm Main Points
Next, brainstorm the main points you want to cover in your blog post. You should use this as your key content to compile your article out of. Write them down in a bulleted list.
Step 3: Organize Your Points
Once you have your main points, organize them in a logical order. This will help you create a flow for your post and ensure that your readers can follow your thought process. Use headings and subheadings to structure your content.
Step 4: Add Supporting Details
Under each main point, add supporting details, examples, or case studies. This will help you flesh out your ideas and provide more context for your readers.
Step 5: Write Your Introduction and Conclusion
Finally, write your introduction and conclusion. Your introduction should grab your reader's attention and provide a brief overview of what they can expect to learn from your post. A conclusion will need to summarize your main points and provide actionable takeaways for your readers.
If you follow these steps, you can create a well-structured outline for your blog post that helps you stay on track and make sure your content is engaging and informative.
Conclusion
In conclusion, creating a blog post outline is essential in the blogging process. By choosing a topic and creating a system, you can organize your thoughts and ensure your post flows logically. Writing the post itself is only one part of the equation; editing and proofreading are crucial to ensuring that your content is of high quality.
Remember, posting your blog isn't the finish line - boosting it via social media or email campaigns can help direct readers to your website. By following these steps to write a blog post outline, you can create an effective platform for your online business.
For more tips on building a profitable blogging business, sign up for our masterclass and get started today.