When people talk about starting a blog, mostly they talk about finding a niche, choosing a blog name and domain, setting up the blog with WordPress, etc. All great topics and super important too. But the most important thing is usually left out and I have no idea why: How to actually write a blog post.

I think people take it for granted that everybody knows how to write. So, so wrong! In fact, plenty of bloggers make the mistake of not taking the writing part seriously, and they suffer because of it.

So, today I wish to remedy that and talk about why knowing how to write a blog post is so damn important.

But first, let me share with you how writing a blog post is different from, say, writing an essay or a research article, or anything else you may have learned to write in college.

What Exactly is Blog Writing

Writing for the internet is a different kind of beast for a lot of reasons. And even then, depending on where you’re writing, things can be different. For our discussions, let us assume a few things to put the topic of this post into context.

Let us assume then:

• We’re writing on our own platform (not Medium or Newsbreak or any other third-party content mill; they often come with their own set of rules.)
• We’re writing to grow our business, and not just share personal stories.
• Speaking of business, we’re writing in order to grow traffic and build an audience so that we can sell something: either an affiliate product, a service we’re offering, a product we’ve created ourselves (such as an eBook or an online course or digital products like graphics or templates, etc.)

So, with these assumptions in place:

Blog writing is a solution to a problem.

Think back on the times you had opened a browser in the past few days. Did you search for something? What did you search for? Did you ask a question? Were you looking for an answer to a question?

You’re not alone, my friend. Everyone is doing that. We’re all on the internet because we need answers! So, if you’re not answering a question or solving a problem, what’re you even blogging about?

Blog writing is technical.

Just writing whatever we want to write isn’t enough. Remember, we assumed that you’re writing to grow your readership and audience—be that email subscribers, social followers, etc. These are not just random people. Many of these subscribers and followers are also your future customers or clients. And in order to get these customers and clients, you need to take steps:

• People who read blog posts are not necessarily readers. They don’t care about your mastery over language or the breadth of your vocabulary. Remember, they’re searching for a solution to a problem. So, how do you make sure many of these non-readers are actually reading your blog post? There’s an art to it, and science behind it.
• You need to make sure people can find your blog post (an answer to a question or a solution to a problem) when they search for relevant information on Google or Bing or something similar. Otherwise known as optimizing your blog posts for search engines, a.k.a., SEO.
• You need to know how to get people to not just read and leave, but also become your subscribers or followers. And you have to do that with your writing. Not beautiful writing (at least, not only) but with your audience-building skills and techniques. You have to ask yourself: What’s in it for the readers? What do they get if they opt-in to your email list? Whatever it is that you’re offering, is it worth it for them?

Blog writing is selling.

Going back to our assumptions, you’re trying to sell something with your blog.

Now please, don’t think this is cringy or something dumb like that. Selling is only cringy if you’re selling the wrong things. But if, in your heart, you know that what you’re selling is actually good for your audience, then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and in fact, you’re likely doing something good.

If you think selling is “bad,” then perhaps you shouldn’t be a blogger in the first place. Or a writer for that matter because guess what? Every single writer is a seller. At the very least, they’re selling their words to make money.

So, blog writing isn’t just writing, but it is also selling. The closest thing to blog writing is actually copywriting. Ring a bell? Copywriting is used to sell things. And that is precisely what we do with blog writing too.

And that, my friends, takes some skill.

A Common Reason People Fail at Blogging

A lot of people fail at blogging. Do you know why?

Well, there are a lot of reasons, but one of the most common reasons is a lack of traction. People write and write and yet nobody seems to read! So they lose interest and motivation and give up on blogging altogether.

A lack of traction may be fine, normal even, for a brand new blogger, but if you’ve been blogging for six months and people are still unwilling to sign up for your email list or come back to your blog for more, then you’re likely missing something.

And that missing piece isn’t your blog’s theme or design (unless it’s butt ugly or takes forever to load or is slathered with advertisements) but what you’re writing. And more important, it’s likely HOW you’re writing.

I’m not suggesting that by the sixth month you should expect to make thousands of dollars. However, you should see growth. There has to be an upward shift in the number of people reading your blog or subscribing to your email list. If you don’t see that, then check how you’re writing your blog posts. Because most likely, that is where you’re failing.

OK, now that we’re clear on what blog writing is, let’s talk about the benefits of learning proper blog writing.

The Benefits of Learning How to Properly Write a Blog Post

Knowing how to write a blog post properly is a coveted skill. Because believe it or not, nobody’s born a great blog writer.

Sure, some people are born talented wordsmiths, but writing blog posts requires certain know-how that is not inherent but acquired.

The good news, however, is that it’s not difficult to write a good blog post with all the necessary technical elements. It’s not rocket science.

All you need is to know the steps you need to take. As long as you know what to do, the rest is simple, and you get better at it the more you practice.

But, what, in fact, are the benefits of knowing how to write a blog post?

1. A good blog writer is good at SEO

That’s just a given. You can’t be a good blog writer if you’re not also good at SEO. So, if you know how to SEO (search engine optimize) your blog posts, then chances are that you get a lot of organic traffic to your blog post.

For reference, organic traffic = traffic from search engines that are NOT paid ads. Basically, when people search for a specific topic using a question or a set of keywords, Google (or other search engines) shows your blog post to them, and you get loads of clicks that way.

Back when I first started blogging, naturally, I had almost no traffic. But then, around month-4 or 5, one of my blog posts started to show up on Google’s 1st page, on the top spot no less! That blog post alone brought a lot of traffic to my site, and also the first few hundred email list subscribers.

Today, that blog post and many more now, rank on the first page of Google’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Pinterest used to be my top blog traffic driving source, but now organic traffic has taken over. This is great because as awesome Pinterest is, there really is no better source of traffic than search engines like Google, for example.

2. A good blog writer is good at copywriting

As I’ve said many times before, bloggers are business owners. We’re trying to sell. We sell other people’s products (affiliate marketing) our own products, or a service. And as all bloggers know, blogging is part of selling.

And what is copywriting? It is using words to sell. So, essentially, bloggers are also copywriters. When you apply great copywriting skills to blogging, you increase your chances of selling a product.

When you write a blog post that is super valuable, helpful, and written in a way that makes reading easy and enjoyable—even if your audience is not a typical reader who just loves to read stuff—they spend a considerable amount of time on that page. And when people invest their time on a piece of content, they naturally start feeling attached to it and are more likely to take some kind of action; whether that’s clicking a button to subscribe, or clicking a button to a sales page.

The result?

More subscribers, and/or, more buyers!

For example, as many of you know, I have an online course—Side Income with Canva Templates—where I teach how to make at least $1K per month selling Canva designs as templates. However, most of my sales are actually generated through a blog post on the same topic. And, if you look at my Google Search Console insights, you’ll see that this blog post is not only one of the most popular content on  my website but also one with a high average duration (time people spend reading this blog post.)

So, given these stats, it’s quite natural that many of the people who read that blog post end up purchasing my online course on selling Canva templates too.

Oh, and also, that same blog post is the #1 result for quite a few keywords as well! (Recall: good blog writers are also good at SEO.) See image below: #1 spot and with a featured snippet too (see how Google has pulled a portion of my blog post to show those searching for the keywords—it’s called a featured snippet.)

3. A good blog writer knows how to make people read

There are people who’re good at reading things, and others who don’t like to read anything at all!

But a good blog writer knows how to make even those non-readers read.

Remember that people search for things on Google or other search engines because they’re looking for something: an answer, a solution. So, even if they hate reading, if you write in a way that’s easy to read, then they’ll read. Maybe not the entire text, but they’ll read the important bits.

That is, if you know how to draw their attention to the important bits.

And that’s key!

A good blog writer knows how to get people’s attention and keep them on their content; not just with their copywriting skills, but also with their blog formatting and styling skills. And guys, these skills have nothing to do with talent. They’re all about knowing what to do!

4. A good blog writer knows how to get email list subscribers

How do bloggers make money? Typically they sell a product or a service, sometimes both. And the best way (free to boot!) to get more people to buy whatever it is you’re selling? Well, sell it to the people who already love your stuff: your email list subscribers.

One of the most important functions of a blog post is to convert casual readers into email list subscribers. And sure, not all subscribers will necessarily buy from you, but they can still help in ways that affect your blog’s growth.

For example, every single time I publish a new blog post, I also send a newsletter to my subscribers notifying them of a new post. That instantly increases clicks and views of that post. And guess what? Google notices that! It tells search engines that people are interested in your content, and in turn, search engines start to pay attention to your pages too, ranking them higher and higher, driving even more traffic over time.

So, knowing how to grow an email list with your blog posts is a must-have skill for bloggers—one that I’ll be covering in my blog writing workshop.

And once you have a decent-sized email list, you can use it to launch your products and services and make sales. For example, my email list was only a little over 3.5K when I pre-sold my course on selling Canva templates. Not a huge list by any means, but I still made almost $4K just from pre-selling my course!

5. A good blog writer can land sponsored blog posts

One of the ways that some bloggers make money is through sponsored blog posts.

Basically, when someone (a brand/company) pays you to write about their product on your blog, it’s called a sponsored blog post.

People don’t pay money unless they know there’s something they’ll get in return; ideally, exposure, brand recognition, a good review, more leads, and sales. Not necessarily all of those, but at least some of those. And those things depend on SEO, copywriting, blog formatting and styles, audience engagement, etc.

At the expense of sounding like a broken record, allow me to repeat anyway: to be a good blog writer, you MUST have these skills! And if you have these skills, brands and companies will be more attracted to your blog, and thus more willing to pay you to write about their products or services.

6. A good blog writer gets featured by industry leaders

One of the perks of being a good blog writer is getting the recognition you deserve from industry leaders.

For example, one of my highest points as a blogger came back in September 2020 when the popular WordPress page-builder—Elementor—featured The Side Blogger on their blog.

And even though I loved how Elementor highlighted many of the design aspects of this blog, I felt super proud when they mentioned my writing. In fact, the header for the section featuring my blog read, “The Side Blogger: The Power of Words”

“The Power of Words.”

Needless to say, this was an extremely humbling experience.

7. A good blog writer can land guest-blogging opportunities

Now, I’m not the biggest proponent of guest blogging, however, there are a few exceptions to the rule.

When you can land guest-blogging opportunities on huge sites with high domain authority (70+) it’s totally worth it! For example, a guest blogging gig at HubSpot or Forbes or Inc. magazine? Those are not only super influential sites, but they just make you look uber cool too!

But landing a guest-blogging gig at one of these websites is no easy feat. They’re looking for someone who knows how to write for an online audience. They want folks with a good handle on SEO, copywriting techniques, blog formatting tricks, and basically everything I have mentioned so far.

Your own blog on your own platform can be a first step to landing those high-ticket guest-blogging gigs. If you can prove that you know how to write well for an online audience who may or may not be your typical reader, then naturally, your chances of working with them increase exponentially.

But why stop at guest blogging? I know of writers who started writing for big-name websites as guest bloggers and then were hired as retainers for monthly paid content.

Speaking of…

8. Good blog writers can monetize their blogging skills to get freelance clients

Sadly, not many writers and bloggers make the effort to learn how to write for an online audience. They never learn proper SEO or copywriting techniques. They don’t care about or pay attention to formatting their content.

But hey, you don’t have to be that blogger!

You can be the blogger that other people not only read but also want to hire!

As I have mentioned in the last section, I know of bloggers who freelance for clients. Some work as ghostwriters, others publish content under their own name.

The point is, if you master the blog writing skills I have mentioned thus far, you’ll not only be able to drive traffic and sales to your own blog, but those very skills can create opportunities to diversify your income as a freelance writer too. And good blog writers, my friends, are in high demand!

9. A good blog writer is a jack of many trades

As you can see, by the time you’re a good blog writer, you’re also, quite naturally, good at plenty of other things than just writing. As a good blog writer, you’ve now also become good at SEO, and copywriting, and possess a decent take on blog design and structure.

I have mentioned how becoming a good blog writer can help you to become a freelance blog writer. But, given the many skills that you’ve acquired, you can easily monetize them individually too. You can help people with SEO, you can offer copywriting services for landing pages, lead magnets, pitch decks, and more.

So, “blog writing” isn’t just writing blog posts. It’s a collection of skills and techniques that anybody can learn and become amazing bloggers who not only know how to attract human readers but also woo search engine algorithms.

As you can see, blog writing is comprised of many learnable skills, but they must be learned in order for someone to be a really good blog writer. You can scrap through many different online courses or blog posts to learn these skills, or you can join the blog writing workshop. Provided, of course, that you’re ready to learn and put in the work.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them in the comments below.