Writing blog posts is an important way for business owners to connect with customers and promote their brands. However, regularly publishing fresh content can be time-consuming. The good news is that you can learn how to write a blog post in under 60 minutes without sacrificing quality.
Follow this step-by-step guide to write and publish blog posts efficiently for your small business website or blog.
Choose a Blog Post Topic
Coming up with ideas is often the hardest part of writing a blog post. To choose a topic quickly:
- Write down 5-10 ideas related to your products, services, or industry. Think about what your customers care about.
- Check Google Trends, Buzzsumo, or social media to see current popular topics.
- Consider trending news or seasonal events you can tie in.
Brainstorming for a few minutes can give you several good topic options to choose from. Pick the one you’re most excited to write about.
Research and Outline
Now spend 15 minutes researching the post topic and organisation:
- Search online and take notes on key information, facts, statistics and examples to include.
- Jot down an outline with 3-5 main headings about what you will cover in each section.
This upfront work makes the actual writing much easier.
Write a Draft
With your research and outline completed, you’re ready to write. Set a timer for 30 minutes and start drafting.
If you’re writing a 500-word piece, aim for around 100 words per section. Use your outline to guide the flow, filling in paragraphs with your notes and additional commentary.
Remember to:
- Break up walls of text with headings, lists and images.
- Keep sentences short and vocabulary simple.
- Insert keywords naturally to help with SEO.
- Link to internal blog content or external references.
Stay focused and keep writing until your timer goes off. Thirty focused minutes should produce a draft of 500+ words.
Edit and Format the Post
Now, you can take a short break and then come back to polish up your draft blog post. Spend 10-15 minutes on editing and formatting:
- Read through and fix typos or grammar issues. Break up paragraphs that are too long.
- Add images, graphics, or YouTube videos to reinforce key points.
- Format the text properly using heading tags, bold, italics, bullet points and text colours.
- Insert metadata descriptions, tags, and hyperlinks.
This fine-tuning prepares your post for publishing.
Publish and Promote
You’re in the home stretch now! Take any last steps needed, then get your blog post live:
- Publish the finished piece on your website or blog.
- Share the post link on social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
- Add CTAs inviting readers to comment or share the article.
Consider repurposing the content into a YouTube video or thread on Quora or Reddit to expand the reach.
Track Performance
In your first week after publishing:
- Monitor traffic sources and visitor metrics in Google Analytics.
- Watch for social shares, backlinks, and comments.
- See which sections draw the most readers.
Use these insights to refine your next blog post to improve engagement.
If it all seems too hard… outsource
Writing quality blog content on tight deadlines can be challenging to sustain long-term. If your schedule doesn’t allow for regular posting, consider outsourcing your blog writing.
Contact us today to learn about our small business blog writing service. We can produce SEO web content based on your requirements to take this task off your to-do list, and can even publish the posts for you too!