If you want to learn how to start a blog, one that replaces your current income – you’re in the right place.
If you are tired of the 9-5 trap, sacrificing what you love for a buck then I can help you spring that snare and turn your passion into a cash flow.
Pay close attention.
This article is your ground zero for starting a successful blog.
Everything from this point onward will outline the exact blueprint to give you the knowledge, skills, and confidence to create a profitable blog and scale it infinitely.
Over the past 15 years I’ve learned what to do and what not to do.
Most importantly, this has forged the exact process – rinse and repeat – to monetize your passion and craft a 7-figure lifestyle.
With the right business techniques and strategies, you’d be pleasantly surprised at the money sitting on the table just waiting for you to grab it.
90% of the blogging advice out there is outdated. The industry changes frequently and often drastically, if the information is not current it’s basically useless.
What I teach is current and will always reflect the recent shifts in the industry.
I genuinely want you to succeed. Therefore my mission is to provide you with up-to-date content and the best digital marketing practices and tactics.
No more timeclock surviving; it’s time to start financially thriving with freedom and enthusiasm.
The Ultimate Guide to Starting a New Blog from Scratch in 2021!
I want to be clear that I designed this guide with the beginner in mind. I will walk you through every essential step and leave no stone unturned.
Additionally, I will use plenty of visuals for clarification purposes.
If you get snagged at any point or have questions, simply leave a comment below, and I will do my best to help you out!
The following guide for beginners will cover choosing the right niche and domain name, launching your blog on WordPress, optimal hosting and themes, and how to generate traffic and monetize your site.
The goal is to move you quickly and effectively from the 9-5 snag and get you blogging full-time!
Caveat: The information presented here may be different than others you find on Google. I’m not merely appealing to a vast audience; I’m not just writing for clicks.
I want to show you what works!
So… here’s what you’re going to learn:
- Why choosing the right niche out of the gate is crucial
- The importance of choosing a great domain name
- The types of blog posts that actually make you money
- The significance of outreach and building backlinks
- The vital nature of systems and processes
STEP #1 - How to Choose Your Niche - [Go Narrow]
You may be wondering, “what’s a niche exactly?”
And, you may be wondering, “how the heck do I pronounce that?”
Seriously is it neech, nish, nitch?
Nobody knows! 😲
But fortunately, we do know a definition:
A blog niche is a specific topic you’ll write (or create other types of content) about on your blog.
It’s crucial to emphasize the word “specific” when selecting your topic, if you go too broad, you’ll spread your audience thin.
No audience equals no traffic; this means no money, which is obviously the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.
For example, going into the health niche and just writing on every possible angle in the health industry will likely fail to grow unless you produce thousands upon thousands of pieces of content.
To avoid that very difficult and strenuous task, go specific – go narrow!
Below you’ll find some of my favorite guidelines for niche selection.
First, conquer a very specific niche, maybe its “vegan recipes”, for example, and then you can use that authority (aka search engine clout), to expand and grow to other areas of the health niche.
Now you’re likely wondering, “how do I find the perfect niche – how do I hit that sweet spot?”
According to both my results and most experts, the sweet spot is balanced between four quadrants:
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- How passionate are you about the topic?
- How skilled and experienced are you with it?
- How passionate are other people about the topic?
- Can you make money from the topic?
Right smack dab in the center of passion and profit is a host of problems.
To become an authority in your specific niche, you need to answer these problems with various types of content – types we will be covering shortly.
FAST TRACK TIP: — Focus on monetization.
If your passion doesn’t provide ample profit opportunities, it likely will quickly go from passion to pain.
There is nothing worse than pouring your heart and soul out and getting no audience and zero profit. Avoid this heartache and pay attention to money-making options.
“Make that first dollar – first.”
Once you have a steady residual check, then you go to work on your passion project.
— The Ten most-popular niches —
- Money
- Financial Advice
- Investing
- Lifestyle
- Health & Fitness
- Fashion
- Food & Recipes
- Pets
- Travel
- Parenting
As I mentioned, when selecting your niche, you need to make sure it’s ripe for the picking.
Most businesses fail, in my opinion, because they rush in with passion and leave wisdom at the door.
Research, research, and research. This cannot be stressed enough!
You may not want to hear it, but I’m going to shoot straight with you – you need to do your homework.
The following points need to be considered prior to your final blog selection…
STEP #2 - Determine Your Monetization Options
Two factors should be considered when evaluating the revenue potential of your audience.
- How big is the audience?
- Are they willing to spend?
This can easily be uncovered by looking at Google trends, an indispensable tool for understanding specific markets and target audiences, or by identifying keyword volume related to your niche.
You can also use various keyword research tools to achieve this.
Some are paid tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush; others are free such as UberSuggest (3 free searches), Keyword Generator, or Keyword Surfer.
Now that you’ve identified the size of your audience, you’ll want to identify the pain point.
Pain Point: the problems you’re going to answer that are wedged between passion and profit.
AnswerThePublic.com is an excellent resource for discovering search inquiries related to specific pain points.
When you peruse the questions to these specific problems, you need to ask yourself a few very valuable questions:
- Is the audience willing to spend money to solve it? How much?
- What products are available? Are the products trending? What does the variance look like? Is there seasonality?
- How many specific problems can you uncover? Are they mostly commercial or informational?
- What’s the competition look like? Are Average Joe blogs on the first page of Google answering these specific issues, because that means you can too.
It’s vital to do your market research and intimately understand your target audience.
Consequently, you’ll be able to offer them precisely what they need.
If what they need is what they’re willing to spend money on, then jackpot!
So... —What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a subtle type of online advertising. We live in a world where one’s immediate response to a need is to turn to Google.
To illustrate, I recently purchased a Jungle Gym for my kids.
In the good old days, you’d either buy some lumber and start swinging hammers or go to a local store and browse for options.
Not today!
I first became aware of my need (kids not venting enough steam during the day – my pain point!) and then started to consider my options by typing into Google “what are the best Jungle Gyms for kids?”
Eventually, after enough research, my jungle gym quest narrowed down to “what are the best Climbing Domes?”
The search query resulted in a comprehensive article that reviewed 13 of the best outdoor climbing domes.
From that blog list, I clicked a link that took me over to Wayfair to complete my purchase.
That right there, my friends, is the affiliate marketing journey.
The blog owner who reviewed the climbing domes made a commission when I clicked that “affiliate link” and purchased the product.
Even in this article, you’ll notice I have affiliate links all over the place.
This allows me to provide you with valuable resources and, in doing so, my efforts are valued and rewarded. It’s a win-win.
Furthermore, this method is always a win-win for online retailers.
During the buyer’s journey, it is unlikely that they’ll remain on the retailer’s website the entire time, which results in possibly losing that sale for the retailer.
The solution for these retailers is to have other websites drive traffic back to them. Voila!
This is where you come in.
As logn as you have a website, it’s SUPER EASY to form a relationship with an affiliate network.
FAST TRACK TIP: 🚗 🚗 🚗
The Business-To-Consumer (B2C) blog model tends to be defined by a shorter decision-making process, such as snap decisions or impulse purchases. Usually the relationship is less involved and brief.
This type of blog can take quite a few years to create consistent passive revenue. The reason being it requires volumes of content and traffic to produce significant revenue.
On the other hand, the Business-To-Business (B2B) blog model is usually defined by high-ticket purchases and long-tail investments.
This type of blog often creates passive revenue fairly quickly because due to the high-ticket products, it takes fewer conversions to produce significant revenue.
Realistically, it wouldn’t surprise me if you replaced your income within a year of employing this model.
Of course, your audience can consist of B2C and B2B. In this fashion you’re only increasing your reach and potential.
To be honest, traffic is not easy to come by and can take quite some time to accrue large numbers. Without the traffic, you have a slim chance of creating any revenue via display ads or affiliate marketing.
Therefore, offering services such as informational products (courses, coaching, consulting) can help you to bring in revenue, quickly.
TIP: If you go after big businesses with large budgets that are willing to spend – and they are! – your services can begin to create serious revenue with minimal traffic.
This is the brilliance of B2B blogging.
But, this isn’t really passive income.
You are providing a product to meet a specific need, which changes and evolves. Additionally, in the B2B world, the relationships are more complicated and nuanced. You’ll often need to provide top-notch support and assistance.
Suppose your goal is not necessarily to make money with lightning speed but rather invest in an industry that is truly passive. In that case, you’re talking affiliate commissions – the greatest side hustle in modern history.
The following list is 8 of the best affiliate networks that you can use when first starting your blog:
- CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction)
- eBay Partner Network (EPN)
- Rakuten Marketing (formerly LinkShare)
Once you register at any of these affiliate networks, you’ll get a unique identifier to include in your links, and then you’re off and running!
When someone clicks on your link, the tracking cookies within the consumer’s browser tell the retailer that this visitor came from your website.
Then, if the consumer purchases something on the retailer’s website, you’ll get a commission of the sale price.
Pretty easy, eh?
But can this be profitable?
Yes. Yes. AND, Yes.
To put it simply… TRAFFIC = MONEY.
Additionally, you can monetize your blog with display ads.
You’re probably familiar with Google AdSense (its basically half the ads you see everywhere/anywhere; it provides a way for publishers to earn money from their online content.
AdSense works by matching ads to your site based on your content and visitors.
The ads are created and paid for by advertisers who want to promote their products.
A good rule of thumb for Adsense is that you’ll make about $15 per 1,000 page views.
You can make more money through other ad networks (Ezoic, Mediavine, etc.), but they have traffic requirements, for example, to work with Mediavine, you first need to get 50k monthly viewers.
You need a lot of content, traffic, or both to make money with display ads.
However, you’d be surprised how the traffic grows exponentially… In my experience, many of my sites start doubling in traffic for every month I continue to work on them.
So, for example, 100 visitors, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, etc… which explains why many people say at about one year – they really started to make GREAT MONEY.
FAST TRACK TIP: 🚗 🚗 🚗
If you go after long-tail keywords, you can exponentially speed up the monetization of your blog.
A long-tail keyword is ultimately a keyword phrase composed of multiple words.
For example, “shoes” is a one-word phrase, “men shoes” or “men’s running shoes” is a 2-3 word phrase, and a long tail is anything more descriptive, such as “Nike men’s running shoes.”
Anything other than a long tail tends to be higher cost, higher competition, and lower probability of conversion, in other words, high cost and high risk.
Conversely, the long tail yields an average of 36% conversion rate, so a much higher probability of conversion.
Additionally, the long tail (low competition, low traffic) accounts for 70% of the traffic!
Sure, it might be appealing to try and rank for those high competition, high traffic keywords. But it’s equivalent to playing a scratch-off lottery ticket.
You’re better off chasing tail. (longtail, that is)
A longtail keyword is a phrase comprised of several words that and is generally used when a searcher is further along in their research.
For example, someone may start their search process with a phrase like "blue widget", but the longtail version would be "large navy blue widget discount code". The longtail keyword implies a much higher level of buyer intent.
STEP #3 - Choosing A Great Domain Name
Before we tackle hosting, I want you to consider your domain name.
Researching for the right domain name can help you refine your niche research and narrow your target audience down even further.
Now, the chances of choosing the perfect niche right off the bat are pretty unlikely. As you write and research, you’ll likely need to pivot.
Many bloggers, therefore, opt to use their name as their domain name.
This certainly gives you maximum freedom to try new ideas, mold your niche as you go, and continue to pivot until you find that sweet spot.
You also have a personal element.
The argument is that people buy from people.
They trust information that comes from a person.
It reeks of authenticity, a huge trust factor that will result in sales.
You become the product, and the ability to create real influence can be rapid.
Additionally, your blog becomes your digital storefront showcasing everything that’s you.
Some would say just to choose your name as the domain and move on.
HOWEVER…
If you’re looking to sell your site in the future, it will become much more difficult.
It’s not super uncommon for sites to sell up to 30-40x monthly revenue.
If your site is pulling in $4000 a month, you could be looking at a 6 figure payday!
That’s pretty stinkin’ amazing.
A typical multiple for selling a website is between 20x and 35x your monthly profits. Factors that influence your price include your backlink profile, age of the business, diversity of income streams & work required to maintain.
Some individuals simply create niche sites and sell them. That’s their entire gig. And it’s super lucrative if done right.
If this interests you, you may want to explore other options for your domain name.
Here are some recommendations:
A domain consists of two parts; the name followed by the extension.
For example, BrandonWalsh.com – BrandonWalsh is the name, and .com is the extension.
Your domain name will be your brand, so it’s a critical component. If you decide not to use your name, you’ll likely use a name associated with the niche you’ve chosen.
This can be tricky because you want to start with a narrow niche, but the domain name should be broad enough to incorporate pivots where necessary and expansion and growth.
FOR EXAMPLE:
If we chose the name wirelessroutersforgamers.com – we could probably rank for that phrase, bring in a thousand visitors per month, and maybe sell it for 10k within one year. – and it wouldn’t be all that hard.
But, that’s as big as it can get.
Rather… you could choose the name techshark.com – and you could create an entire category focused around routers – using the same strategy as wirelessroutersforgamers.com
Then, after 6 months, you could create another category for video game consoles.
Then after 6 months, you could create another category for computer monitors.
You get the idea.
And, THEN, maybe you sell it for 500k in a couple years….
You can make your domain focused, but not too broad and it’ll be easier for someone to take over, and still not limit your potential.
And before you jump the gun and just starting buying up domains, check out this handy list of 9 tips…
9 Tips to Jumpstart Your New Domain
-
Aged domains can help you lessen the time it takes to get out of the Google sandbox (a term used for the first 4 to 6 months it takes for the search engines to start indexing your website).
This can be costly upfront and not necessary, but I wanted to give you all available options. - Avoid hyphens because it's a Google spam indicator (for example: pool-planet.com)
- The ideal length is under 15 characters (not including .com)
- Never go beyond 20 characters (Backlinko did a study that showed the smaller the URL the higher the google position).
- Keywords in domain name rarely influence rankings so don’t get caught up on that
- Only use extensions .com, .org, or .net (an exception being country extensions outside of the US (example: co.uk).
- Stay away from trademarked words (example: mindcraftcodes or facebooktips), it will result in legal action. A general rule of thumb: stay away from brand words and copyrighted stuff when possible.
- Short and memorable is preferable.
- Double-check and make sure the name looks right. You don’t do what these folks did inadvertently.
STEP #4 - Choosing The Right Platform & Host
As a beginner, you’ll need a platform that is user-friendly, easy to setup, and doesn’t require any coding skills or high-tech mumbo-jumbo.
Additionally, you want to begin with the end in mind. You need a platform that can grow with you, so you need flexibility and high functionality and variety.
Choose the wrong platform and switching can be a colossal pain.
You’ll have to hire developers, spend loads of money, time, and likely develop an ulcer.
This is why I recommend WordPress.org.
For starters, it powers more than 30% of all websites on the internet. That’s insanity.
It’s by far the most popular blogging software in the world and for a good reason.
NOTE: I’m not talking about WordPress.com. It’s easy to confuse the two, so be mindful of the .org extension because even the logos look similar. It was created by one of the co-founders of the real WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a hosting platform, not a content management system (CMS), which you need.
IF, for some CRAZY reason, you aren’t a fan of WordPress, I’d recommend Wix or Squarespace.
Nevertheless… lemme explain WHY I love WordPress.
5 Reasons You Need WordPress in Your Life
- It's open-source. This means freedom in terms of function and flexibility of the software - you can modify anything & everything
- It has an infinite number of plugins. Ok, that's an exaggeration. But WordPress has by far the most diverse selection of plugins.
-
It has a ridiculous amount of templates (premade elements for site) and themes (premade sites) to literally build your site in half a minute.
Other CMS platforms have these benefits, where WordPress annihilates the competition is the sheer volume of templates and themes - so much so that unless you have the patience of a saint, you will never browse them all. And to add a little icing to your cake, most of them are entirely free. - The cost is unsettlingly low to startup - it's free. Ultimately you must pay for your domain and hosting.
-
E-commerce. If you decide somewhere down the road to stack your revenue marketing and start selling your products, integrating this into your WordPress system is as easy as breathing.
Usually little to no cost of your own, and your site is a fully functioning e-commerce business.
WordPress.org is the ultimate CMS, a professional blogging platform that enables you to not only make your site in a matter of minutes (I’m not kidding) but gives you complete control over damn near everything.
Is there a learning curve with WordPress?
Yes.
However, rather than building everything from scratch, it’s like IKEA for blogging. No one said it’s not a pain in the butt at times, but almost all of the work is done for you, you just have to put the pieces together.
Yet, WordPress is a self-hosting solution, which means that you need to sign up with a WordPress hosting provider.
Part One — {Fantastic Four}
The host is like the landlord who owns a massive apartment complex (the server).
The host rents out space on the server to you, the website owner.
This space stores your website, which is ultimately just various files (HTML files, CCS files, video, images, etc.)
It's more or less called a server because it “serves” your website files to someone's browser when they request it.
The two main hosting types are shared and managed.
In our apartment analogy, shared hosting is the equivalent to a dorm room. All the resources are shared between all the various residents.
Each person fends for themselves and is given basic assistance if necessary.
The server provides resources and meets the needs of various content management systems and therefore is limited to delivering.
It further provides little security.
Moreover, due to the server's congestion, it tends to be slower and incapable of handling high traffic volumes to your website.
The only bonus is the price is dramatically lower - but you get what you pay for.
Managed hosting is more sophisticated and targeted.
Rather than a dorm-like setting of shared hosting, managed hosting is the high-end suite fully furnished with butler and all.
It's tailored specifically for your website.
6 Benefits of Managed Hosting
Faster Hosting
Without all of the congestion, mobility is easier, and the server has more breathing room (bandwidth) to increase load times, etc. The faster your page is, the better you’ll rank in Google. Even if it’s fractions of a second this will pay dividends.
With managed hosting, the software is specifically designed for your CMS (WordPress) to improve on page performance. This will increase its loading speed up to 1 to 2 seconds faster!
Rapid Expert Support
Rather than just have a few limited resources at your disposal, managed hosting caters to your every need.
Having technical difficulties? The host can assist you.
Struggling to get a plug-in operational? Professionals reside right in your corner who can log into your site and solve problems for you. And it’s usually lightning fast.
Don’t be like me and spend hours trying to resolve an issue that can be solved in minutes. Your time is worth more than that.
Additionally, the support can aid in optimizing your site – namely instructing you on which plugins to use and what to avoid etc.
Better Security
This is where managed hosting slays the competition, at least in my opinion. Why? Because the primary objective of managed hosting is to accommodate all the variables and nuances of WordPress.
That being said, managed hosting will amplify the strengths of the CMS and minimize its weaknesses.
WordPress is such a popular go-to for business owners, small wonder it’s also the go-to for low life hackers. The sheer volume of attempted hacks per day is nauseating.
It’s only reasonable to go with a system that will be acutely aware of the where and how this can happen and to specialize in making sure it doesn’t.
Daily Backups
Take my word on it – the more tech-savvy may not fall into this blunder, but the newbie most certainly will.
At some point, you will completely blow it. And if you don’t have backup data safe and protected, you will be in for a world of pain and frustration.
Luckily, with managed WordPress hosting, backups are constantly running. So experiment with no fear. Your site is always protected.
Traffic Management
Another massive benefit of managed hosting that you will unlikely consider until it’s too late and tons of business is lost is whether your hosting can handle huge volumes of traffic.
And, of course, if you’re going to do this, you want to go big, right?!
Staging for Maintenance
This feature is fairly new but appears to be included in most current managed WordPress hosting. On a separate domain an exact replica of your site is running at all times, yet on this duplicate site you can tinker and experiment without affecting your actual site.
Mess with code. Modify your theme. Play around with various plugins. Tickle your fancy in any way your imagination and WordPress permits with no fear of lost data or an excruciating recovery from a failed excursion.
For basically all blog endeavors, particularly regarding business, WordPress managed hosting is the way to go – it’s a no brainer.
FAST TRACK TIP: 🚗 🚗 🚗
Most of the best shared hosting providers such as WPX, Bluehost, and SiteGround also provide managed hosting features at a reasonable entry rate.
Bluehost is likely your best choice for starting off and saving money.
However, I personally use WPX. WPX has 24-hour INSTANT support via chat. Which I’ve come to LOVE.
⭐️⭐️ TIP: I suggest you purchase your domain through Namecheap or GoDaddy.
Keep the domain registrar and hosting on different platforms.
I don’t want you to feel tied to a specific host provider. It’s best practice to keep these items separated.
Bluehost is the most popular, and it’s fully managed to get you chugging along in the right direction.
STEP #5 - Create Your WordPress Blog!
Once you create an account with Bluehost, you’ll proceed to the blog creation process.
Basically, once you’re logged in you’ll notice an icon titled the “c-panel.”
If you click on this, it will bring to a host of options for site optimization and customization.
You want to start with WordPress – this is your starting point.
Find the icon and double click.
Now you can install WordPress with the click of your mouse. It’s easier than putting your pants on.
(Note: WPX and SiteGround have very similar processes. If you decide to go with these providers just follow their setup)
You can opt out of the creation process, but the questions you answer will help you in lay the basic structure for your site.
Bluehost will also give plenty of options to customize your blog.
You can always change things, so whatever you choose at this point isn’t a life sentence.
Part One — {Fantastic Four}
A WordPress theme is a tool to tailor the layout and design of your site to your wishes.
Themes allow you to customize your site's appearance, including layout, typography, color, and various other design elements.
Most of these themes are pre-built, somewhat like a prefabricated home. You just browse the catalog and pick the one you like.
These days, page builders like Elementor and Thrive Themes offer theme builders, where you can build your theme from a totally blank canvas.
⭐️⭐️ TIP: As a beginner, I wouldn’t worry too much about getting the perfect theme and customizing it right off the bat.
I would focus on loading the site up with content and getting your business off the ground. It’s important that Google sees your content and starts indexing you as soon as possible.
You can focus on making the site the most beautiful on the planet afterwards.
Crawl before you can walk, you know?
You can choose a theme from the WordPress control panel, loads of freemiums are available.
It’s best to find a freemium that has all the bells and whistles in terms of functionality and integration with page builders. You’ll likely want to build landing pages in the future.
That being said, you’ll eventually want a paid theme because most free themes don’t have any support, are light on features, and frequently result in static updates.
After your first run-in with bugs in a free theme, you’ll get a paid theme and never turn back.
Nonetheless…
Here are a few of the best freemium themes that offer paid themes once you’re ready to take that dive.
Moreover, they all offer support, features, continuous updates, and integration with page builders, so it’s the wisest route to follow.
Sure, the support is limited, but at least it’s there!
Here are a few free themes I’d recommend:
- ⇒ Astra Theme
- ⇒ MyThemeShop – Schema
- ⇒ Elegant Themes – Serene
⭐️⭐️ TIP: Elegant Themes has the famous multipurpose flagship theme “Divi.”
If you decide to get a paid theme this is my recommendation because it includes a powerful drag-and-drop page builder tool, literally hundreds of website templates, and seemingly infinite customization options and features.
Having a built-in page builder reduces the bloat of your website and boosts performance. The faster your site, the better it ranks.
STEP #6 - Choosing The Right Plugins to Optimize Your Site
A plugin is a bit of code that “plugs into” your WordPress site.
In other words, it is a piece of software that extends functionality or adds new features to your blog.
The plugin is the bee’s knees of WordPress. You can literally add any type of functionality without knowing even a single line of coding.
I’m not kidding. We even have a saying in the blogging community: “there’s a plugin for that!”
At any rate, some plugins are free others are offered for a fee. I’ve even hired developers to create a plugin to meet a need on my blog.
As I mentioned above, WordPress has over 57,000 plugins in the repository; with plugins the world is your oyster.
Whether you went with Bluehost or not, managed hosting will automatically add-in some plugins – these are designated as necessary by the host for any blog.
Nevertheless….
Too many plugins will bloat your site, slow it down, and kill its ability to perform well.
I recommend trying to keep it under 10 plugins, and constantly use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to track the performance of your blog.
Try to score an 80 or up, paying close attention to mobile.
10 of My Favorite, Must-Have Plugins for Starting Your First Blog!
RankMath SEO
MonsterInsights
NitroPack
Akismet
Contact Form 7
OptinMonster
Grow by Mediavine
Insert Amz Images
Shortpixel Image Optimizer
Table of Contents Plus
STEP #7 - How to Write Content & Promote Your Blog
At this point, you should have completed the following:
- You’ve researched and selected your niche – presumably, you were relentless in your research.
- You’ve chosen a domain name and registered it.
- You’ve picked a host provider and launched WordPress.
- You’ve customized your site with a stellar theme and optimized your blog with plugins.
- You’ve laid the foundation for turning your passion into profit and should be hearing the echo of the starting pistol.
Remember the useful information I discussed earlier in the article that answers the questions and solves the problems of your audience? This is the content.
You likely know this but are really wondering, “how the heck do I create quality content that satisfies the reader and appeals to the search engines?”
Fortunately, this process is easy. Yes, it can be tedious, but it’s very simple.
I use a fourfold approach for content creation. I call it
“The Fantastic Four”. 👇👇👇👇
Part One — {The Planning Phase}
The planning phase; sift through your topic, narrow it down to a specific problem or question, remember the Fast-Track Fact above: go after the long tail keywords!
Take the long tail keyword and plug it into Google, observe the pages that are ranking and use those pages as a criteria or framework upon which to create your outline.
⭐️⭐️ TIP: If a page targeting your keyword is already ranking, then Google is showing a preference for that page – so be like that page, only way better!
Part Two — {Your Headline & Hook}
Begin to craft a headline that is both informative and will also capture the reader’s attention.
Once more, look at the headlines that are already ranking on Google. This will give you a good idea of what your headline should look like.
FAST TRACK TIP: 🚗 🚗 🚗
Your keyword should be as close to the beginning of the article as possible.
Neil Patel in his Ultimate Guide to Copywriting noted that you should always keep in mind the “The 4 U’s of Writing Headlines”:
- Your headline should be unique.
- It should be ultra-specific.
- Make sure your headline conveys a sense of urgency.
- Your headline should be useful.
It’s also crucial to have numbers if possible, particularly odd numbers.
Additionally, [brackets] or (parentheses) can add value by emphasizing something in the headline.
Moreover, I suggest using power words and negative or positive sentiment. I know this sounds like overkill, but your headline is one of the most important components in your content.
Just reflect and think of ways to boost your headline, for example a booster in this article is the year “2021” and “7 steps.”
Part Three — {Readability}
As you start to write your post, consider these best practices…
- Use short sentences and short paragraphs – these aid in readability, and keep sentences to two or fewer lines. For paragraphs, limit yourself to three lines or fewer.
Nobody likes to see a block of information. It’s hard on the eyes. It’s blogging not graduate school. - Use tons of headings and multiple subheadings. Be intuitive with your hierarchy. Essential concepts should be larger (H2 tags), while subtopics should naturally cascade from the larger topic (H3, H4, and so on).
- Use bulleted or numbered lists because they are easy to write, they embrace white space (the more space, the better).
The scanability of an article is an artform nowadays, and one that you should work to perfect! - Use bold text for memorable phrases. Don’t be conservative with quotes – go all out! A nice way to not overwhelm the reader is to switch between bolding and underlining important phrases.
- Saturate your content with relevant graphics, images, videos, etc. (Pay special attention to the captions and use it to explain the photo and what idea it is conveying. Additionally, use the alt-text to plug in your keyword).
- Don’t be a stupid idiot. Use humor and personality. This will enhance the flow and help explain more intricate topics.
Part Four — {Editing}
⭐️⭐️ TIP: Make your URL an exact match for whatever keyword you’re trying to rank for. e.g. https://brandonwalsh.com/rank-for-this
Curating the static pages
It’s important to populate and fill out your sites static pages prior to launching your day-to-day blog posts. This is all the not-so-fun stuff like the about, contact, terms, etc.
But, you want these filled with relevant information, and if you want Google to rank your page, they’re a necessity.
Homepage: The homepage depends on the layout you choose. You can have the homepage populated by recent posts or you can use a page builder and design a custom landing page. If you’re looking for a great editor, check out Elementor Pro – it’s what I used for this site. 😎
About: Everyone is familiar with this page; it tells the reader who you are. I would pay attention to this page, be thorough, amiable, personable, and communicate what the site’s goal is and why you decided to start it. If you’re comfortable with it, add links to your social profiles – this will help give credibility to the reader (as well as Google).
Contact: This page allows visitors to your blog to communicate with you. It’s pretty straight forward. It usually consists of your email address and could also have links to your social profiles.
