15 Blog Writing Tips For Beginners
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Do you have all these ideas swirling in your mind that you struggle to get onto paper? There's a lot of value in blogging, and this applies to so many goals. Whether you are looking to create a monetized blog, start sharing your story, get more eyes on your business, or even explore ideas as a hobby for now, blogging is for you.
Getting started is not always easy, but just like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it gets. Get ready to discover some timeless blog writing tips for beginners.
Get to Know Your Audience (One of The Most Important Blog Writing Tips for Beginners)
While this may seem easier said than done, knowing who you are writing for is going to help you build structure and maintain a consistent tone in your blog post. If you plan on writing blogs on various topics, your tone and writing style could vary, and that's ok.
If you are starting from zero, you'll want to build personas, define your niche, do competitor research, and talk to people who fit your persona (or personas) to get feedback from them.
Below are some questions to help you in this process.
What topics do I want to write about? This question will also help you define your niche. For example, if you answered "travel", you now know your overall niche.
Can you get more specific about the topic you want to write about, or do you want your blog to cover various topics?
Who would benefit from your blog posts? Get as specific as you can. Are you writing for solo travelers, retired couples, or solo female travelers, or do you want a general travel blog?
Don't be afraid to talk to people. You want to know what would be valuable to them. Eventually, you may also get comments on your blog and emails from readers with questions, and this type of information can help fuel new content ideas.
Change Things Up
Everyone loves consuming content a little differently; with that being said, don't be afraid to be different and try new things with your writing.
Even if you have a very specific person you are writing for, your ideal readers could prefer different content styles.
Let's take the travel blog example. Let's say you decided to niche down and focus on solo female travel tips. One of your readers may prefer educational blog posts, while the other may prefer to read your personal travel stories, and this is where your storytelling skills come in.
You can write different blogs in different styles and easily create blog categories to accommodate the various writing styles.
Always Include SEO-Friendly Keywords
Even if you have a big audience on social media, you can't put all your eggs in the same basket. In fact, if you want to monetize your blog in the future, you want to put a big emphasis on SEO.
One of the most important blog writing tips for beginners that I share with my clients is that all search engines will go through changes that we need to adapt to, but no matter what the changes are, if you give your readers a good experience, you will be ok.
What does that even mean? Giving your readers a good experience means giving them context, giving them factual information, and writing blog content that will teach them something or inspire them. In that process, you also want to include keywords.
In simple terms, this means that in your blog post, you will add search phrases that they would be searching for. If we go back to our travel blog example. A keyword could be "solo travel tips." There are both free and low-cost tools available to help you with this process.
Answer The Public is a great place to find out what people are searching for to inspire your future blog posts.
Image source: Answerthepublic.com
The same goes for Keysearch.co. I am not affiliated with these tools; I just like recommending them as my clients have seen incredible results when using either or.
In addition, if you use Pinterest, knowing how to do keyword research on the platform will help. I have a FREE masterclass that you can register for below.
Use Simple Language
I know many of you may disagree with this one, but using simple language can keep your readers happy and reading because they will understand what you are trying to say.
For example, as much as possible, I try to leave marketing jargon out of my content because I know that those who need me may or may not understand the jargon.
And by the way, I know there are countless of readers in my audience who probably have way more advanced skills or vocabulary than I do, but I try to make my content as accessible as possible for all of my readers. Coming from a corporate training background, this is something that's always been important to me.
Always Answer This Question
One tip I always share with my clients, whether it's for blog writing or other content writing, is to ask yourself how you want your audience to feel.
How do I want my audience to feel after reading this blog post?
Do I want them to feel empowered?
Do I want them to feel curious?
Do I want them to feel confident?
Answering this question really helps set the tone for your overall blog no matter if you are writing an educational piece, storytelling, a collaborative Q&A, a review, etc. Knowing how you want your readers to feel always helps.
Always Break Things Up
Gone are the days when readers want to read pages upon pages of text without graphics or anything to break up the text. Graphics, videos, quotes, bullet points, infographics, and whitespace are all things that can help your readers have a better experience.
If you have freebies, courses, or other offers, don't forget to include them in relevant blog posts. Blogs make incredible top-of-funnel content and can even help readers in the entire funnel, depending on your content. Not offering your products or services in your blogs is a mistake.
Embrace Your Unique Style
Is my writing good enough? Most bloggers and writers have asked themselves this question at one point or another. I have news for you. The reality is that we can't please everyone; on the flip side, your readers will love you for your unique writing style.
It took me a long time to feel confident since French is my first language, but over the years, after getting feedback from my readers and my clients, I've learned that I am appreciated, the right person who needs my content appreciates what I have to share.
I am only competing with myself. I want you to know that while we can improve a lot of the technical aspects of our writing, don't ever feel like you have to change what makes you unique. Sometimes, that one thing that's so imperfect can be what our readers love about us.
Review Your Goals On A Regular Basis
Sooooo boring, I know! The cliche advice we always hear about business. This also stands true for blog writing. Being clear on your goal and reviewing it on a regular basis is going to help you stay accountable for the actions you need to take and also review your content to ensure you are staying on track to meet your goals.
All goals are valid goals when it comes to blogging. Some bloggers just want to share their stories and use their blogs as a hobby, while others want to monetize with platforms like Mediavine. Some bloggers sell courses, and others sell services.
All these goals are valid, and when I decided to share blog writing tips for beginners, I knew that my goal was to inspire bloggers to get started on Pinterest and learn how to do better keyword research. As you'll remember from earlier in the blog post, I shared a link to take my Free Pinterest Keyword Research class.
Always Create An Outline
Creating a blog brief or outline is going to help you stay on track and write content that's relevant to your blog topic. It's normal to feel like you want to expand on other topics as you write your blogs. If you want, you can use that opportunity to park that idea for later, and just like that, you have a new blog topic.
Start Your Introduction With a Hook
I started my blog post with, "Do you have all these ideas swirling in your mind that you struggle to get onto paper?" Writer's block and also not really understanding what to include in a blog post can be overwhelming for anyone getting started. That hook set the scene for my readers. Whether you want to use a hook or just set the scene in general, give your readers a glimpse of what to expect.
Create a Content Inventory
What is a content inventory? A content inventory is a place where you keep track of your content. Being able to visualize how much you have to work with is really helpful for planning future content, including blog content.
In my Notion Content Creation Template, I have a content planning section that includes a content inventory. This is where I list my blog titles and links. This helps me save time when I create content for social media or Pinterest and also helps me generate ideas. In that content management system, I also have four content repurposing frameworks that I follow with my clients.
The reality is that when you write one blog post. You set yourself up to have endless content because that one blog post can be repurposed into different content formats and that same blog post can inspire topics for future blogs. It's a ripple effect, the good kind...
Use Specific Calls to Action
The more we tell our readers to take action, the more likely they are to do so. This is also not just for blogging, it applies to your content on any platform. Where you sometimes fall short with CTAs is that you're not specific enough.
For example, if I tell you to register for my FREE Pinterest keyword research masterclass, I will not say, "Register to learn about keywords." I am going to say "Click here to take my FREE Pinterest keyword masterclass." Or "Learn how to do better Pinterest keyword research by registering for this masterclass."
The more specific you are with your CTAs, the better. I included a few more examples below to help you out.
Not specific enough: Click here to learn more.
Better: Click to learn about my solo travel journey in Mexico.
Not specific enough: Click here to read my latest about hotels.
Better: Read this latest blog, where I share my latest tips on finding affordable hotels.
Not specific enough: Get the guide.
Better: Get the guide to learn how to start your solo travel journey.
What about buttons? Obviously, some of these specific calls to action are too long for buttons. Don't worry about that, as long as you add your specific in the text before or on the image that you are using, etc.
Review and Edit
Editing your work really helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing. We all make mistakes, and if we didn't, we wouldn't know what we need to improve on. I always like using at least two tools to review and edit my work. Grammarly and Google Docs.
I write my blog posts in Grammarly, and I do a final spelling check on Google Docs.
Don't be too hard on yourself when you make mistakes. I've seen grammar and spelling errors in most major online publications, ad copy, social media posts, and the list goes on. Another tip I love sharing is to review your older content.
This is a great way to see how far you've come with your blog writing. Trust me, you'll notice your progress.
Link to Other Posts
This tip goes hand in hand with SEO. If you are creating these amazing blog posts, you want to ensure that you are helping them get reach on an ongoing basis. When you write future blogs that are relevant to the same topics, don't forget to link to some of your previous content. Internal links really help your SEO efforts.
If you have a blog post that's ranking in search engines and driving a lot of traffic, make sure you also continue linking to that blog post. If you have other bloggers in your community, see if you can partner with each other and give each other backlinks; in other words, include an outbound link to one of their articles in your blog and what can do the same for you. That's an amazing opportunity to grow your reach and get more readers.
Collaborate With Other Bloggers
Speaking of collaboration, this is not a blog writing tip for beginners; it's a general tip that can help you, but it's important. Even if you don't plan on opening up your blog to guest bloggers if you have fellow bloggers and friends in the industry, you can share and promote each other's blogs on social media, to your email lists, and so on.
I cannot stress this enough. Planning a few collaborations per quarter can really help you boost your reach. Aside from this blog that I use for my business, I have another "somewhat anonymous blog," and for that one, collaborations have really helped me grow my reach and traffic.
As you can see, there are so many simple tips that can help new bloggers or even seasoned bloggers looking for new ideas and perspectives when it comes to writing.
Thank you so much for reading! If you have any questions about blog writing, content marketing, or Pinterest, my DMs or inboxes are always open.
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