essay about blogging

Writing an Effective Blog Post

Use the guide below to learn about the elements of a blog post and how to gain an audience.

What blog posts can do Elements of a blog post Why having an audience matters and how to get one

What blog posts can do

Blogging, or writing short entries on a website, can allow you to offer opinions, share ideas, or do independent reporting, but most importantly, blogging can help writers have conversations with readers. What makes blogs so different from journalism, as the authors of The Elements of Blogging: Expanding the Conversation of Journalism suggest, is the discussion between writer and reader. Blogs can be a forum for writers to get feedback on half–formed ideas and emerging stances, and through comments, readers can talk with and back to writers and build communities. But what draws readers in? Read through the material below to learn how paying attention to a range of blog elements (including clear headlines, engaging pictures, and distinctive ledes) will help you build an audience.

Elements of a blog post

In The Elements of Blogging, Mark Leccese and Jerry Lanson dissect blog posts in order to identify and examine their key parts. Below are some of the elements they highlight as well as some examples from local blogs.

Headlines (Titles)

A headline or title not only helps draw in readers’ attention with an interesting hook, but by containing keywords that Google and other search engines use, the right headline can bring anyone to your blog. As Leccese and Lanson note, search engines work by creating indexes of the words they find on the web. By using keywords in your headline, there is a greater chance that more browsers will find your blog. Headlines, however, are more than just keywords. They need to be short, 10 words or less, and intriguing. Look at the headline on this article from University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Limnology’s blog .

Through this blog, the Center for Limnology communicates with university colleagues, Madison residents, and students about current fresh water research and reflections. In this post center staff member Adam Hinterthuer writes about the presence of an invasive species in Lake Mendota. The post’s clear, engaging title uses keywords so that this post appears in the first several search results for anyone looking for information about “zebra mussels” and “lake mendota.” When possible, your headlines should be in the present tense, and you shouldn’t repeat the headline in the first lines of the post.

The first sentence of a post should have a conversational tone and articulate the main point of the blog post. Internet readers can easily navigate away from a post, so making your lede interesting and to the point is important. Look at the opening lines from University of Wisconsin–Madison Antrhopology professor John Hawks’ blog post “Bringing together climate and ancient DNA to look at a micro–instance of extinction”:

Ed Yong describes the results of a cool new study of mammoth extinction on Saint Paul Island, in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia: “The Lonely, Thirsty, Final Days of the Doomed Alaskan Mammoths”.

Hawks’ post opens with his main point: how scientists determined when and how mammoths went extinct on the island and why it is a interesting case study of extinction. The assessment of the study as “cool” is conversational, and immediately mentioning this study suggests to the reader that this post will both summarize and highlight the methods scientists used. The title of the study itself is intriguing, invoking a dramatic scene. Even though both the study’s title and the content of the post could easily be in hyper scientific jargon, Hawks’ opening sentence previews his particularly accessible approach for talking to the public about science.

Pictures not only break up text on a page, but they can also help make your point clearer. Pictures tell stories, but they need to be part of the discussion. Include captions by your images that explain how the image adds to the point you are making. For example, look at these two images from Professor Elizabeth Hennessy’s post “Global Visions: Rethinking the Globe and How we Teach it” published by University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Edge Effect digital magazine:

The blog post is an instructor’s reflection, summary, and analysis of an environmental humanities course and the resource website developed by the students as a final project. These images effectively communicate what the blog is saying about our knowledge of the world, which in greatest part is from maps. In teaching this class, Hennessy strove to have her students consider that “global space is a historical product rather than a planetary scale,” and thus, global space needs to be understood from the stand point that the “global” is produced by “histories of exploration and imperialism, uneven economic development, scientific inquiry, and environmental change.” The 17th century map that opens the blog and the telegraph cable map embedded further into the text emphasize history and imperialism’s role in thinking about what “global” means.

Hennessy’s caption for the telegraph map not only connects the image to her point, but it also provides copyright information. If you use photos on your blog you must give credit to the source. The Creative Commons on Flicker and Wikimedia Commons both have public domain images you can use while giving the photographer credit.

The photo on the above Center for Limnology post is interestingly composed and serves as an object lesson for the post as a whole.

Links give extra information to your readers. In Hennessy’s post, she often links to the site her students created and to the specific syllabi that encompass each of the four frames for understanding “the global” that her class analyzed. Having links that provide a direct route to information and resources allows your blog to make the most out of being on the web.

Block quotes

Block quoting gives readers’ eyes a break and bolsters the author’s credibility. Using a source’s words instead rephrasing shows that your points are well supported.

Final Words

Writing a good take–away can, as Leccese and Lanson point out, help readers remember and engage with your post. For the most part, Hawk’s blog summarizes and applauds the study of mammoths on Saint Paul Island, but he ends the post by saying:

However, I hesitate on one point. I would not so quickly assume there was never a short or intermittent presence of humans on the island, and that humans may have been involved in the mammoth extinction.

Questioning the study and the impact of humans is a provocative alternative view. It makes readers think more critically about the study and develop their own opinion, and in doing so, Hawk’s post invites a conversation.

A Note on Organization

Effective posts make at most two or three focused points and provide evidence to support them. Each of the three examples offered exemplify clear, brief points. “Global Visions” reflects on the class and the four frames of understanding “the global” the class used. Numbering in your post can help you as a writer limit your points and can help your reader understand the organization of your post. By clearly identifying what you want to analyze or argue and by providing support for your main points with research, anecdotes, or examples, you can establish a clear focus.

Why having an audience matters and how to get one

Blogs have the unique capability to allow readers and writers to interact. Thinking carefully about how to not only get readers to your blog, but also how to foster community and conversation are important elements of writing a blog. People often find blogs on the web through social media. UW–Madison student Ashley Hampton’s Raw in College lifestyle and food blog has reached nearly a million hits in part because it is linked to Hampton’s twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts. Once readers have found a blog, they might check it once a week to see what’s new, but posting on Facebook about recent entries will help establish an audience.

Allowing comments on your blog will bring readers back because by engaging in conversation you build a network of people who are interested in your blog’s topic and want to continue thinking about it with others. Sometimes it can be hard to build up your comment section, so don’t be afraid to ask friends or family members to comment and get the discussion going. You could also end your post in a question.

Happy blogging!

Works Cited and Consulted

Lanson, Jerry. Writing for Others, Writing for Ourselves: Telling Stories in an Age of Blogging. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011.

Leccese Mark, and Jerry Lanson. The Elements of Blogging: Expanding the Conversation of Journalism. Focal Press, 2016.

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How to Write a Good Blog Post: A Complete Step-by-Step Process

You pull up a blank document, ready to write a blog post, but the white emptiness stares back. How do you begin?

We’ve all been there, staring into that vast white space, wondering where to start. I’ve felt that subtle anxiety too. Yet, with the right approach, that daunting task can turn into a delightful journey. With an established process, writing becomes less about filling the space and more about connecting deeply with your readers.

Dive into the steps in this post and uncover the secrets to crafting a blog post that truly engages and resonates with your audience.

Table of Contents

How long does it take to write a great blog post?

Step 1: identify your topic, original research, topical research, competitive research, how-to guide, feature article, product review or comparison, link/article roundup, expert roundup, step 4: create an outline, introduction, body content, step 6: pen a headline, step 7: edit and proofread your content, step 8: add your meta data, step 9: publish your post, it’s all about practice.

As you get into writing blog posts, you might wonder how long you should take to write a good one. Are you taking too long? Should you spend more time?

Orbit Media Studios found that bloggers take an average of four hours and one minute to complete a blog post in their 2022 survey . For reference, these folks wrote an average of 1,416 words per blog post.

But think of this number as an estimate. It takes everyone a different amount of time to write a blog post based on factors like:

• Personal writing speed: All bloggers write at a different pace, and they’re all valid.
• Subject matter knowledge : It’s faster to write about a subject you know over one you don’t.
• Topic complexity: Most people will need more time to write about piezoelectric ceramics than how to blow a bubble with gum.
• Research requirements : It’ll take longer to put together a blog post that weaves together original interviews than one with a few online sources.

Plus, Orbit Media Studios discovered that bloggers who spend more time on their blog posts get more success. Thirty-three percent of respondents who spent six or more hours per blog post reported “strong results.” Compare that number to the 22% benchmark.

You’ll see that the first steps to writing a blog post involve careful preparation. Start by choosing a topic to write about.

Get as specific as possible when you pick your subject. Specificity lets you differentiate your content from blog posts on similar topics and helps you cover an idea in-depth. Let’s say you want to write about how to cook a steak — you could narrow that down to how to cook a T-bone steak on a grill.

After you decide on a topic, establish the angle you want to take. Going back to our example of how to cook a T-bone steak on a grill, you could come from a scientific angle. For your blog post, you could consult a scientist on why certain techniques make a better steak.

Step 2: Do your research

Now that you know what you want to write about, you can research your topic . Blog post research falls into three categories:

Original research comes from data you generate yourself by consulting other people. Not every blog post needs to have original research to have high-quality content, but it can contribute to truly unique writing.

Try these tactics to get one-of-a-kind sources for your post:

• Surveys: Use a free tool like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to ask people questions on a large scale. Find people who know about your topic at your organization, subscribed to your mailing list on the subject, or in an online community.
• Polls: Polls work well for asking a broad audience a single question. Many social media and communication apps have built-in poll features, such as Twitter and Slack.
• Interviews: Ask experts on your subject for an interview over email, on a video call, or in person. Reach out to your colleagues and network to see if they know anyone. You can also use a service like Help a Reporter Out to get expert quotes.

Topical research is the research you conduct around the internet. Use your preferred search engine to find online sources with these traits:

• Authoritative: The author or website should have plenty of experience or credentials on the topic. When applicable, they should use solid research to back up their claims.
• Recent: Aim for resources written three or fewer years ago when possible.
• Helpful: When your reader clicks through to your source, they should get value out of it and understand how it connects to your article.

This type of research often flies under the radar for newer blog post writers. Competitive research involves evaluating other articles on your subject. By understanding the other content out there on your topic, you can find ways to improve upon it.

Don’t just look for what ideas the other blog posts include. Instead, think about what they’re missing. Maybe they don’t cover a point you feel is important, or you could format your content more clearly than them.

Step 3: Choose the type of blog post you’ll write

With knowledge of your topic on hand, it’s time to decide how you’ll present it. Some popular blog post genres include:

List blog posts organize information into a list with headings naming each item. They often come in the form of numbered lists with a title featuring the number of items, such as “5 Ways to Fold a Towel.”

When you write a list blog post, you don’t have to make your list the only content. HelpScout’s 13 Best Practices for Improving Online Customer Service introduces online customer service, then digs into its items.

A checklist blog post provides a checklist for readers to follow to perform a task.

These posts often provide a simplified checklist to follow and then provide more details for each item, like our blog post checklist .

A how-to guide walks the reader through the steps it takes to perform an action.

These blog posts rely heavily on lists and images to help readers understand each part of the process. Melly Sews’s how-to guide to sewing a flat-felled seam uses both.

An interview blog post showcases an interview the author has with someone who has insights to share about the article topic.

You can go about one of these blog posts in two ways. Either list out your questions and answers in a Q&A format or use your interview answers to tell a story. Notion did the latter in Three-time YC founder and first-time mom finds flow in Notion .

A feature article brings together original research and interviews to explore a subject. Since features often involve interviews, they can overlap with interview blog posts.

Some blogs take a feature-first approach to posting, such as Microsoft’s Unlocked blog. One example of one of their features is Can an alphabet save a culture?

In the context of blog posts, an essay presents the author’s argument or opinion. The writer uses research and evidence to back up their points.

Media Strategies Aren’t as Crazy as They Seem from the Animalz blog features real-life examples that back up a unique perspective.

News posts share news from your community or company.

On business blogs, a lot of news posts relate to company and product updates, like SparkToro Now Has 50% More Podcasts from SparkToro.

A case study tells a success story about a product or service. It generally focuses on one event or customer.

This type of blog post requires original interviews with the customer involved so you can get their perspective on your work. With some products, you can share the results of how you helped the customer. Take Buffer, a social media scheduling tool, sharing posts from its customer in this case study as an example.

Product reviews and comparisons evaluate the usefulness of products for the reader. Reviews focus on a single product, while comparisons compare the features of multiple products.

Some of these product posts come in the form of a list ranking the best products in a category, like Zapier’s email newsletter software roundup .

Link and article roundups bring together links to online resources or articles on a specific subject.

Some of these roundups are more purchase-focused, such as Good On You’s roundup of eco-friendly fashion deals .

Expert roundup blog posts present opinions on a topic from multiple subject matter experts.

This format can overlap with other formats, like in Databox’s blog posts that synthesize expert opinions into lists. The Heroes of Business Transparency is one example.

Many people skip or rush through this step even though it’s just as important as the actual writing. A detailed blog post outline gives your article structure and lets you evaluate your overall argument before you write out the full post.

It also helps combat writer’s block. At the outline stage, you only have to get a basic idea down, taking off the pressure of writing a complete idea. Then, when you get to the writing stage, you’ll have your outline to reference when you don’t know what sentence to write next.

Follow these steps to write an outline:

• List each section and subsection of your blog post. Each section could cover a list item, a point in your argument, a step in a process, etc.
• Add up to three main points per section. Here’s where you’ll start forming the ideas you’ll cover. As you practice making outlines, you might find it helpful to get even more detailed at this stage.
• Include any links and examples you want to include for your points. Place your sources where you plan to reference them so you can add them easily in the writing stage.

Here’s a hypothetical outline for a blog post by my cat on why I should feed her a second dinner:

You can go more in-depth with your points in your outline, but here’s how the formatting should look.

I recommend writing your outline in a separate document and copying any headers and links over to your draft document. It can be tempting to write your outline and fill out your draft from there, but your document will get disorganized quickly with this approach.

Step 5: Write your post

Onto the writing itself!

Make sure to follow web writing best practices when you write your content.

People read 25% slower onscreen, and they skim rather than read. Web text should be short, scannable, and structured as linked, topical pages. Nielsen Norman Group

Shortening or “chunking” your content helps readers skim, so try to keep your sentences to 25 words or fewer and paragraphs to three sentences or fewer. Make sure to follow the style guide for your blog if you have one as well.

A blog post consists of three main sections that require different approaches:

Integrate your blog post’s angle and an emotional hook into your introduction. This technique establishes what makes your post unique from the start and draws in the reader.

For example, in this blog post, I’m trying to provide a comprehensive process so you never feel lost when writing. I explained that angle in the second paragraph of my intro.

As for the emotional hook, try putting yourself in the reader’s shoes or telling a story. I used the example of staring at a blank page wondering what to do next because I’ve been there and know others have, too.

You could also use the Animalz technique of using an unexpected hook and referencing it throughout your blog post. This method takes practice and careful thought, but that hard work really pays off.

Whichever hook you use, keep your introduction concise — about three paragraphs or fewer. An intro that goes on too long can lose the reader’s interest.

A quick side note: You don’t have to write your introduction first if it comes easier to you after you write the rest of your post. Mark it for later and revisit it when you have more context to work with.

Your body content consists of all the words between the introduction and conclusion.

As you write this part of your post, try to cover all the information important for your reader to know. If you have a word limit to stay within, consider linking out to resources on complicated sub-topics.

Speaking of linking, include links to other posts on your blog and trusted sources throughout your body content. Search engines prioritize websites that link relevant pages to each other. Plus, it works as a way to cite your sources when you use outside information.

Just make sure that any site you link to is relevant to your post. Adding links for linking’s sake will make it harder to establish authority and search engine performance.

Lastly, make sure your writing is crisp, clear, and concise by keeping paragraphs three sentences or less, and each sentence 25 words or less .

Here’s an example of a well-structured post’s body content.

Time for the grand finale. You have multiple ways to go about writing a conclusion, such as:

• A summary: Summarize the key points you covered in your post.
• A takeaway: Provide a takeaway from the ideas you presented in your post. You could go back to the angle you established at the beginning, for example.
• A redirection: Connect your blog post to another post on your blog and direct your reader there for further reading.
• A bonus tip: Offer one final tip for the reader to use as they apply the knowledge in your post.

When it feels appropriate, you can also add a call to action to subscribe to your newsletter, try your product, or perform another transactional action. Connect your call to action back to the rest of your conclusion so it doesn’t feel pigeonholed.

After you finish writing your first draft, give it a headline . You can write the headline before your post if you like — there’s no hard and fast rule. For this blog post, we’re writing the headline after the content so you have your draft on hand to inspire your headline.

Follow these steps to craft a top-notch headline for your article:

• If you write blog posts with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, grab the top keyword for your article. This keyword should have a direct relation to your subject.
• Write down 25 versions of your headline to give yourself plenty of choices to consider. Make sure your keyword feels like a natural part of each headline if you include it.
• Narrow those 25 options to your five favorites.
• Choose a “winner” from your five finalists.

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer Studio can help you identify what headlines will hook readers and work for SEO. It has a Google Chrome extension and WordPress plugin. If you don’t have a plan that supports plugins, the extension provides a prompt alongside your WordPress headline.

Every blog post needs editing to shine, no matter how talented the writer is. Give your content plenty of this TLC to create quality results.

Start with a basic spelling and grammar check using your word processor’s tools. Then, you can use a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway for more in-depth fixes. While Grammarly performs an advanced spelling and grammar scan, Hemingway checks sentence structure, like so:

After you perform these checks, you should still read through your writing manually. Your human eyes will catch mistakes the computer misses. Plus, your editing should focus as much on the quality of your ideas as it does on your spelling and grammar.

We provided some tips to make the manual editing and proofreading process easier in an earlier WordPress blog post. I also suggest asking yourself these questions as you go through your content:

• Do my logic and arguments make sense?
• Did I use my SEO keywords? Did I insert them naturally?
• Do I notice any words being used frequently that I can mix up with adjectives?
• Did I vary my sentence structure for more dynamic reading?
• Will my blog post be readable for my average reader?
• Did I follow my blog’s style throughout the post?

Your blog post’s title tag, meta description, and URL all influence how people find and understand it.

The title tag and meta description are the title and description you see for a page in search results. By default, WordPress uses your headline as the title tag and your excerpt as the meta description. But, if they aren’t the proper length for search results, they can get cut off.

It’s best practice to write a separate title tag and meta description so you know they’ll look good. In WordPress, you can edit this data by changing your post’s code or using a plugin .

Yoast and All in One SEO are two popular plugin options. These plugins add a box below your content in the WordPress editor where you can manage your title tag and meta description. They also guide you through writing those search specs well.

Your URL slug is the unique string of words that appears at the end of your URL.

For example, this blog post’s URL is:

Its slug is:

That’s the part of the URL that’s different for each blog post.

WordPress pulls your URL slug from your headline, but that slug usually isn’t optimized for search results. According to Ahrefs , a good slug follows keywords and summarizes the essence of the blog post.

No need for a plugin or fancy coding to edit your URL slug. Go to the Block tab in the right-hand menu, then edit your URL using the URL option. Save your draft or update your blog post to save your new slug.

Now that you have your meta data set up, you can finalize your content for publishing. Copy and paste your blog post from your word processor to your WordPress post. The formatting will carry over to the block editor.

Or, you may have written your blog post within the blog post editor. I generally don’t recommend this approach in case you accidentally click “Publish,” but I know some writers get by just fine doing it. You do you.

If you paste your content from a Google Doc or another online text editor, go through your post and re-upload your images from your computer. The images you paste from another source are kept on your editor’s website, and you’ll want them on your WordPress site for safekeeping.

Once you establish a solid process for writing your blog posts, the next step to mastery is practice. As you adjust your system to your workflow, you’ll know what to do next instead of hoping words will magically appear on your blank page. And we’ll be with you as you practice. Just use this guide to help keep you on track.

Pair your airtight writing process with a good topic generation system , and you’ll become an unstoppable blogger. We can’t wait to see what you write!

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About the author, melissa king.

Melissa King writes actionable blog posts about content, marketing, and productivity for tech companies. Find more of her work at melissakingfreelance.com.

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Blogging is the New Persuasive Essay

by Shelley Wright | Jun 22, 2012 | Making The Shift , The How of 21st Century Teaching , Voices , Web Tools That Deepen Learning | 49 comments

I spend three years teaching my high school students how to write a persuasive essay. For many students, it takes that long. (And I’m lucky to have them that long in my school.)

Part of the problem is that our current school systems — and not just in Canada — aren’t great at producing independent thinkers.  Without this ability, it’s hard to create a great thesis statement, anticipate the arguments against it, and then compose your own argument in light of what you understand about the pros and cons of an issue.

So for three years, I write for them, and with them. We talk about opening paragraphs, and they learn how to write them with their thesis statement either as the first or last sentence. (The latter requires more skill.) They learn to use transition words, embed quotations to support their argument, consider the advantages of active vs. passive voice, vary their sentences, and many other skills, all in the hope of creating a strong argument.

The truth is lately I’ve come to question the point of much of this. Does the average person, once they leave school, spend a lot of time composing academic essays? Is this the best way for our students to show their learning?  In some places, the academic 5 paragraph essay is hailed as the Holy Grail of non-fiction writing achievement. Yet even if a student can become a great persuasive essay writer, they’re still only semi-literate , at least according to the definition of 21st Century Literacies .

Blogging is a different beast

While traditional essay writing may not help alleviate this situation, I think blogging can. Here’s the problem; Blogging is an entirely different beast. And one of the things I’ve learned about my students is that they don’t necessarily transfer a skill they’ve learned in one area to another without difficulty, or even prompting.

For one, the paragraphing is different.  The large, solid paragraphs of prose that can be found in a typical persuasive essay, can feel arduous and cumbersome to all but the most determined reader.

Instead, blog paragraphs tend to be shorter. It allows the piece to feel fluid and speeds up the rate at which your reader reads (often through the glare of a computer monitor or on a phone or tablet screen). And while the effective blogger still uses transition words, as many aren’t necessary to provide the piece with a feeling of fluidity and coherence.

Sometimes a paragraph is one simple sentence, used for emphasis.

Another thing is the thesis statement. Its placement, in a blog, is up for grabs. Did you catch where mine is? Actually, I haven’t written it yet. Huh?!

Double-dog daringly different

In a formal essay, I would never use a sentence fragment. Ever. In a blog, it provides emphasis. Nor would I use slang in an essay.  But here? Yep. In one of my posts , I double-dog dared my readers.  Could you imagine double-dog daring anyone in an academic essay? If you try it, let me know the result.

Another thing that changes is providing your reader with evidence to support your points.  In teaching the typical formal essay, I show my students how to quote directly, indirectly, and using individual words. Blogs still use direct quotes, but an indirect quote can be as simple as a vague mention and a link.

We discover my thesis statement…

I think blogging is the new persuasive essay -my thesis, finally.

Truth is, I love writing essays. There’s something satisfying about rendering the chaos of thoughts into an elegant form. But I love blogging more. It feels like playing.

I also find it more useful. While our students will need to know how to write essays to get through university, many won’t use it after that, unless they remain in academia. I think writing and persuasive thinking skills are important. However, I question the current products we require of students as proof of their learning. Most of the essays written by our students likely end up in the garbage or the computer trash can. And most are for an audience of one.

Blogging has the potential to reach and influence many. Furthermore, it has greater potential for being a life-long skill. And isn’t that our goal in education? People from all walks and professions blog for the purpose of teaching, creating, and informing. A number of my recent Masters courses didn’t require papers; instead, they required blogging. Why?

Because blogging is the new persuasive essay.

If we’re trying to prepare our students to think critically and argue well, they need to be able to blog. It allows for interaction. It allows for ideas to be tested. And the best posts anywhere in cyberspace tend to have a point that can be argued.

I think blogging across the curriculum, not just in Language Arts, allows for both formative and summative assessment. Blogs allow us to see the progression in the development of both thinking and writing. It may actually take more talent and skill to create an interesting persuasive post (or series of posts) on the French Revolution than a traditional essay.

We need to teach blogging as a skill

Students definitely need to understand how and why the mechanics (and style) of blogging are different.

Grade One blogger (Kathy Cassidy)

The solution? Blogging needs to start earlier, much earlier. I read recently of a kindergarten teacher who blogs with her students. Great idea. There’s a teacher in my division who does amazing things with her grade one class.

I’m not proposing that you need to do things radically different. Teach whatever you teach for Language Arts, or other subjects, but include a blog component.  So if you’re teaching sentence structure, teach your students to create complete sentences while blogging. Blogs, like traditional writing, need great structure.  If you’re focusing on capitalization or punctuation, transfer this skill to blog writing as well.

If you’re teaching paragraph structure, teach students the paragraph structure required for traditional essays and that for blogs.  They’re different.  Explain why. It’s likely they won’t be good at it at first.  But there is merit to the quote, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly.”

A middle years teacher at my school used to stress out when we talked about student writing. She wanted to know if she was teaching them enough. My reply: “All  I need them to do is write solid paragraphs. If they can do that, I can teach them all kinds of things.” Really, everything I teach is either an addition to, or a subtraction from, a solid paragraph. My work builds on her work. I don’t need her to teach what I teach.  That’s my job.  But without her previous work, mine becomes much more difficult.

The same is true with blogging.  Starting from scratch with blogging in grade 10 isn’t impossible. But we could do so much more if they already had the basics. In order to write well, you need to write a lot.

If you don’t currently teach your students to blog, please start. Our students need you to. And if you already teach your students to blog, keep it up. Because blogging is an important 21st century skill. It’s the new persuasive essay.

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Shelley Wright

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49 Comments

Shelley, I love this!! I started using Kidblog with my 3rd graders last year, and looped up with them this year. Their 4th grade blogs were much improved, and I enjoyed watching them begin to develop their own blogging “style”.

I did get some negative comments from both parents and other teachers that this was not “writing.” They felt it was too casual and too unstructured. (I’ll admit, the Grammar Nazi in me gasped when I saw sentences in your blog beginning with “and.”)

In lieu of a research paper this year, my students created Glogs that contained text boxes with information (well written paragraphs), but also allowed links, images, and a personal design. They loved it!

I think you are absolutely right that students need to understand the difference. There are times when more formal writing is necessary, so I’m sure to teach it and require it on certain assignments. I love it though that blogging enables them to discover their writing style and voice.

Blogging does feel like playing, and kids love to play. If blogging makes them love to write, I think we’re fools not to encourage it! Thanks for a great post!

Thanks, Patti. I think, unfortunately, there are many people who don’t see the point or value of blogging. My students, for the most part, have always enjoyed it. What I disgree with is teaching only academic writing in schools. I think there are many formats our students need to learn — blogging being only one. I think there’s value to academic writing, but most of our kids aren’t going to become academics, and that’s a good thing 🙂

Throughout high school I was taught that you couldn’t start a sentence with because or and. Then I went to university and was told you could. Boy was that a shock!

When I was in college I was taught not to use the first person pronoun in my writing, EVER. Then I went to graduate school (Harvard) and everybody did it! Shocked again.

Patti, thanks for posting links to keep me updated. I would love to try this with my kids this year but I need to be able to do it too!

Great blog post on writing. I’m constantly trying to find more and various ways to have students write in my Grade 8 US History class. Part of my task is to prepare them for the persuasive essay format on the ACT and the MME (Michigan Merit Exam). Your blog was helpful. Thanks.

Shelley, As I started reading your blog I was thinking, I teach some of those things to my fourth graders. However, it seems after fourth grade the writing drops to a minimal until it is tested again in 7th grade. (Or at least that’s the way it appears to me).

I introduced blogging to my students 2 years ago and they loved it! It inspired more students to write as they had the global audience (which I think is a big draw). This year my students enjoyed it as well.

However, I never really thought about the difference between writing in a blog and writing formally – but will be discussing it with this year’s class.

Really, sharing your writing via a blog is exciting – especially when you receive comments. I’ll be sharing your post around as I would love to get more teachers to see the importance of blogging!

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Nancy! Students having an authentic audience is important. That’s why we normally write. We have something to communicate to someone, and we choose the best medium for it, as well as an appropriate style. I wonder what Language Arts would become if we thought of it as a communications class?

This rings true for me in every paragraph. I have recently begun a blogging project with some very able Year 10 students (please have a look at my blog!) and there has been quite a lot of resistance along the lines of “What’s the point?”

Your emphasis on moving with the times instead of stubbornly sticking to tradition strikes a resonant chord with my own teaching. Please keep this up, you have just made my day!

I think, sometimes, kids don’t see the point. They’re not really used to having any of their work having a point or a real audience. I found that once my students got used to doing work that was authentic and meaningful, the “what’s the point?” stopped.

While I agree with much of the fine print of your argument, specifically notions of voice and your ideas about what good writing should feel/sound like, it seems to me that your premise is false. The blog/ persuasive essay duality is a false dichotomy. Certainly, students should consider form and purpose when they write, but they shouldn’t learn, and we shouldn’t teach, that blogs are all short paragraphs richly voiced. Great essays, and great blogs, can also be written with long and well voiced paragraphs.

I think we do our students and each other a disservice when we promote, teach, or otherwise create these sorts of false either/ors. (The same is true of the grammar policing we do often at school, evidenced by Patti’s mention of using a conjunction at the beginning of a sentence in a comment above.)

Good writing works. We can explore and explain why it works, but it’s never as simple as following all the rules for the particular container or mode or genre. It’s in the playful fiddling with all of those that good writing emerges.

Thanks for engaging my brain here.

I agree that good writing is good writing, and I don’t believe that blogs or the persuasive essay is an either/or thing. I think both should happen, but where I currently work, it doesn’t.

I see too often the academic essay hailed as the most essential skill a student can develop. I think the reason behind it is laudable;students should be able to argue their point of view. But too often there is no authentic audience or task attached to it, and it becomes for students another hoop to jump to get the “A”.

I think the thing that bothers me the most about it is the heirarchy that develops around kids who are considered “academic”, those who can write the essay, and those who are not. This is bad for kids and teachers, so lately I’ve come to ask why are we doing all of this, and aren’t there more important skills they can learn?

I’m not sure I agree with you on the long paragraphs in a blog. I think you have to be a great writer to pull it off, and I haven’t read a lot of those. But that’s also what I tell my students. I don’t tell them they can’t do it. Instead, I tell them they have to be a strong writer to make it work. And for some of them, that’s the challenge they need. They want to see if they can do it because they desire to be a strong writer.

I teach composition at the community college level and trying to break the 5 paragraph habit is one of the first things I work with them on. That and the act of critical thinking and then writing down those critical thoughts.

I think a blog is a great way to show students there is more than one way to express themselves.

I am also a firm believer in blogging with my students! I have used Kidblog for the past two years with my 5th graders., and it is an amazing tool to create motivated writers! “Write On!: Why I Love Kidblog!” http://oldschoolteach.blogspot.com/2011/10/write-on-why-i-love-kidblog.html

I like and appreciate the fact that you made your points and also demonstrated them.

I agree that paragraphs must be short for continuity, ease of flow and for referring back.

I would add that you can include pics, vids, links, graphs, etc. to add flair and information to your persuasive blog/ opinion post.

Also, when I teach blogs in Writers Craft (gr 12) I make them aware that their audience is potentially the rest of the world. Daunting. And it makes them want to proofread a lot more and to consider the attractiveness of their blog and their writing style.

Think about this: It is incredible that we as teachers can teach writing in such a way that the teacher isn’t the only one whoever sees their writing.

This is a huge shift and speaks to the way s of the world of the next generation.

Until someone comes up with an “The Elements of Blog Style” that Bud and Tom and Shelley and others agree deserves respect, we don’t have a real standard to go by. Shelley describes what makes sense to her — Bud Hunt, a respected National Writing Project proponent demurs. No doubt others do as well.

Tom says that “paragraphs must be short for continuity, ease of flow and for referring back.” I’m not sure it is a “must” but in nearly a decade of editing group blogs and online diaries with a hundred or more educators, my sense is that this is *generally* a good rule of thumb. It seems to me that the blog author needs a very good reason to publish long paragraphs that will appear on a screen at an unpredictable size and width (density) and be viewed by all kinds of eyes with all kinds of vision challenges. Certainly the writing will need to be compelling!

I don’t know the history of the long paragraph (chances are I’ll be researching it this week to satisfy my demon), but I’m guessing that long paragraphs are the residual of several thousand years of writing on smooth flat rocks and hides and papyrus and hard-to-get pulp paper printed a sheet at a time. Humans crammed as much as they could into the scarce space. Nothing scarce about cyberspace. Why not change the rules? Nostalgia for writing styles is okay – I certainly have some myself. But nostalgia is not a good basis for contemporary rulemaking.

Here’s an excellent way to create an authentic audience for your students! “Quadblogging:Creating a Global Connection!” http://techlovesmyclassroom.blogspot.com/2012/06/quadblogging-making-global-connections.html

Very interesting food for thought. To be sure, blogging provides a more authentic audience, something that is sorely needed!

I also agree that when it comes to writing, there is no “form” with blogs. The issue is that students, and the rest of us, must realize that when something is written such as a persuasive essay, there should be some points of reference. What I find is, that due to a society that cannot focus but for short periods of time, thoughts are expressed based on unfounded suppositions. Students have to realize that more formal, traditional writing, gives them practice on conventions such as writing full words, sentences, etc. and some other standards of grammar. Not old fashioned, but keeps things from becoming a free-for-all.

I think blogging should provide students with the opportunity to practice using conventions and form — in an authentic context. I don’t think that only formal writing can, or should, do this.

I think one of the things we often forget when teaching writing is that we’re teaching them to communicate, and that in writing there is a “code” of communication that has developed over the centuries between reader and writer. There are reasons we write and punctuate as we do. Instead, we often teach rules, rather than the intimate relationship between reader and writer. I think the latter is much more persuasive for students and creates better thinkers and writers in the long run.

Thank you for that article. I’ve been perusing articles on education for about three hours now, and I am glad I came across yours.(catching up on my education articles)

Not only do we need to move toward the realities of our students experiences, but there is room for interpretation on how we teach to it.

We can argue all day long on the who’s and how’s , but at the end of the day is your writing effective. In whatever form or voice you choose. peoples response to your blog will be the best indicator.

Now, how about those poorly constructed e-mails. Would someone please blog on the voice and content of e-mails. If I’m not written into your will, I’m not reading a long drawn out e-mail.

Peter, no one is suggesting that blogging should become a ‘free-for all”, it’s all about creating enthusiasm for longer pieces of writing that create and sustain a point of view. Of course we should insist on standard English, but we can do that when setting up the success criteria for blogging just as we would for a formal essay.

If blogging gets students to engage with and develop their process of writing, I’m all for it, especially if it helps students understand that they may express themselves in writing through a variety of structures. As a high school teacher I spend an enormous amount of time and energy trying to convince students that not every idea they have needs to be one that can be expressed in five paragraphs.

I do worry, however, that the informality of blogs may encourage vague and formless expression of feelings and suppositions. Though the academic essay is only one mode of written expression it does teach students important skills that transfer to other modes: the structuring of ideas, the presentation and rigorous analysis of evidence, the effects of sentence structure and voice on meaning, to name but a few.

Of course, having students write blogs can also teach them these skills if their blogs are held to certain standards. The five-paragraph essay may be some dirty bathwater that needs to be tossed, but let’s make sure to save the baby, the hallmarks of good writing.

I absolutely agree that blogging is an excellent platform for writing and provides the with an authentic audience. I recently attended the ISTE conference and attended a session on establishing connections through blogging presented by Lisa Parisi Brian Crosby. Your blog just reaffirms everything that I took away from this session. Lisa and Brian’s students’ writing is truly amazing because, as you mentioned, they have the opportunity to use their own voice to take on issues that matter to them, then when they receive responses to their posts, they are further inspired to write even more.

I have the opportunity to coordinate a Teaching American History Grant,, primarily targeted for fifth grade teachers who lay the foundations of American History in their instructional program. One of our grant goals is to utilize Web 2.0 technology as an instructional and collaboration tool. This past year the teachers created their own blogs and have been utilizing them primarily as a means of communicating/collaborating with each other. The goal for this next year is to have each of the teachers create a blog in their classroom (or utilize one they have already created) so that students can utilize this platform for writing, with the goal of having others responding to their blogs. Since persuasive writing is one of the types of writing taught in fifth grade, I believe there will be several opportunities for the students to utilize these persuasive writing techniques in their blogs.

Hi Shelley! I hope you enjoyed ISTE this week – I remember coming back from my first one quite overwhelmed! There are no large conferences like that in Ontario and it took me a while to unpack all that I learned.

Although I have only been blogging for 6 years, I’ve noticed big changes. Blogs or ‘weblogs’ used to be places where folks shared their travels and learning on the web so that others could follow their links and have some understanding of where they received inspiration, new connections or knowledge.

Now, you’re lucky to have any links at all shared, and if they are, they are often links back to the writer’s own work!

Don’t get me wrong, I love that blogs give students an authentic audience (especially since persuasive writing is a part of our curriculum here in Ontario as early as the primary grades) and I’m not a ‘purist’ about them. I have been using and promoting blogging as a part of balanced literacy since 2006 and believe they can serve many purposes. I just hope that we do let blogs stand apart from some of our traditional forms of writing so that we aren’t trying to do old school things with new tools.

Many unread and discarded blogs exist because teachers jump onto the blogging bandwagon without scaffolding students to real conversations and authentic purposes for writing.

Thanks for bringing up some important conversations here. 🙂

I completely agree with what you’ve said, especially your point, “Many unread and discarded blogs exist because teachers jump onto the blogging bandwagon without scaffolding students to real conversations and authentic purposes for writing.”

I think this is one of those “21st C. skills” that students need. What does it mean to speak and blog authentically? This will be an especially difficult thing for many high school students to answer since they’ve often had few authentic writing experiences in their academic career. But this ia an important discussion!

This is great! I worked with 4th and5th graders this past year on blogging. They did an amazing job! Really only since Jan…came so far. Thanks for this thinking! I think writing for more than an audience of 1 changed their effort, energy and enthusiasm!

It’s amazing what kids can do in such a short time. Thanks for sharing!

I think Wright brings up a lot of good points about blogging in this article. I remember writing persuasive essays and feeling stuck to pick a topic. When I did settle on one it felt so typical of a persuasive argument. We are pushing more and more for authentic practice and work from students and blogging is an excellent way to practice naturally. There are blogs about everything under the sun that you could allow students to use in order to start with and practice blogging. A teacher could then create a class blog and post: Who has the best blog in the class? Hook, line, and sink her! What better way to get kids into it then going right to what they are passionate about. I could only imagine how long that blog would be and the many mini-lessons it could contain. Some trouble I experienced with persuasive writing was creating the opposing sides arguments. Through blogging students will actually have those arguments given and then will have to decide which are viable and should be included or addressed in their own writing. Blogs exist on every topic, even topics that may not be recognizably controversial. This is another reason why blogging to teach persuasive writing is beneficial to students. Blogs are less intimidating because they are short bits of information and the reader has preference over which ones to give more attention to and which to ignore. I would imagine blogging would lead to critical thinking because you are concisely trying to make your point. No one wants to read a long blog post. That’s part of why people blog in the first place. Blogging is also able to reach far more people and cause action than an academic essay whose audience is far less accessible.

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Hey Shelly, I think this is an excellent blog, I really enjoy your outlook on education and your core beliefs that teachers need to move forward with the 21st century. I’m a Grade 10 English teacher in the Middle East and I was wondering if you had any suggestions for websites that would be ideal for getting my students excited about blogging?

I think it’s really important when students first start blogging that they research and write about things that really matter to them. It might be one way to infuse student choice into the classroom. Here are some resources that you might find helpful to get started:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/quad-blogging-technology-classroom-suzie-boss

http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/10/08/implementing-blogging-in-the-classroom/

And this link has pretty much everything you could ever need!

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/12/26/the-best-sources-for-advice-on-student-blogging/

Hope this helps!

Dear Shelley, Thank you so much for your blog post – it was a gift that Carol Mayne sent me as I have had a huge investment in blogging with my classes. I’m constantly learning and revising the process, but love how it has transformed my class and the writing (and reading) my kids are doing. I look forward to more posts by you! Cheers, Pamela Hunnisett (Calgary)

I just wanted to let you know that this post inspired me in the beginning of the year, and my students are now blogging on an (almost) weekly basis. It’s transforming their writing and my classroom. Thank you!

That’s terrific to hear! Thanks for sharing your success it helps to propel me forward in my own journey 🙂

Can I just say what a comfort to find a person that truly knows what they’re talking about over the internet. You definitely realize how to bring a problem to light and make it important. A lot more people must look at this and understand this side of the story. It’s surprising you’re not more popular given that you definitely possess the gift.

Shelly, I enjoyed reading your thoughts and too agree that it is never too early to start teaching our students how to be productive digital citizens. In the age of IM and text messaging I was afraid writing in complete sentences with thought was going to increasingly become a lost art. Children at an early age are thirst for knowledge and just as they are able to more readily learn another language, digital literacy should be considered one of importance.

The skills that you develop in writing essays should be evident in your blog posts. In fact, these skills should be evident in all of your writing exercises. Beautifully structured paragraphs and concise sentences are always a joy to read.

My brother suggested I may like this blog. He was entirely right.

This publish actually made my day. You can not imagine simply how so much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!

Thanks for the post. It clarifies my thoughts on the matter, as I sooo agree with your points. (Grammar police on the ‘so’).

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This is fact writing can be very helpful just like essay writing which is something more factor by writing an essay is variation use of punctuation

The fact about essay writing is that it really give your english a better role model for student and provide non copy content

Blogging has greater potential for being a life-long skill.

http://www.writingresearchwork.blogspot.com/

Shelley! Thank you for writing this. We’ve started a new project-based academy at The American School of Lima and students are constantly blogging. Best of all, they’re loving it and enjoying writing again. Here’s one of many great examples: http://gisellasilva.weebly.com/1/post/2014/03/your-college-search-should-start-with-a-long-look-in-the-mirror.html .

Through their blogs, the Innovation Academy students get to reflect on their learning, find their voice as writers, experiment with organization, play with words, and begin to think more clearly and critically. You’ve put into words what I’ve been discovering through this whole year. THANK YOU!

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I am now a huge fan of blogging and see the real value of sharing ideas and resources as a professional and hope to develop my writing skills through new and interesting blogs I create myself. To teach students to blog effectively I think we need to learn how to create interesting blogs ourselves. http://www.dissertationwizards.co.uk

Hi Shelley, I’m a Grade 4 Teacher in Singapore, and this year we transformed a Persuasive Essay unit into a Blogging Unit. I thought it was engaging for students to powerful for them to think of themselves as writers who could access a wider range of readers, rather than just their classroom teacher and classmates. There was some resistance from some of the teachers in the grade level, but your argument sums it up nicely. Thank you. I enjoyed this excerpt and support your thinking!

A very informative post! I agree with you on the fact that blogging should be given more emphasis in our schools as opposed to writing academic essays. This is especially true given that technology is changing things and blogging can actually be a career choice for some students down the road. Excellent post, thanks!

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• You Should Read… (June 24, 2012) - [...]  Blogging is the New Persuasive Essay – I have said this before, but Shelley Wright is my favourite blogger.…
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617 words of Essay on Blogging for bloggers

A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website. It is usually maintained by an individual and will have regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

The word “blogging” means maintaining or adding content to a blog. People blog for many reasons. Blogs may provide commentary or news on a particular subject while others are like personal online diaries. In most cases, a blog includes text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs have an interactive format to leave comments.

Some blogs may focus on art (art log), photographs (photo blog), sketches (sketch blog), videos (v log), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Micro blogging is another type of blogging. It features blogs with very short posts.

Image Source : becomeablogger.com

The personal blog is the most common kind of blog. Personal bloggers spend a lot of time on their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by others. Blogs offer a means to reflect on life or works of art. Few personal blogs gain widespread fame and attention but some personal blogs do manage to win a good following. Some bloggers even land book contracts like the journalist Meenakshi Reddy who wrote the book, “You Are Here”.

Micro blogging seeks to capture a moment in time. Sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family. It is much faster than e-mailing or writing. This form of social media is very popular with an online generation which is too strapped for time to keep in touch.

There are corporate blogs as well which are maintained for business purposes. Such blogs are either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes. Question blogging is a kind of blog that answers questions. Questions can be submitted in the form of a submittal form, or through email or other means such as telephone or VOIP.

A blog which comprises links is called a link blog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumble blogs. Blogs that are written on typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs. A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Ph log.

Blogs may focus on particular subjects, giving rise to political blogs, travel blogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (also referred to as blows) or dream logs. A blog used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Sp log but it is not a legitimate one.

The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. It is not unusual for the media to use discussions in the blogosphere to discover public opinion on various issues. There are blog search engines to search blog contents. These include Blog lines, Blog Scope, and Technocratic. Technocratic is one of the most popular blog search engines. It provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings.

There are many, online communities that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers. Some of these are Blog Catalog, My Blog Log, and YUL BIog. Many blogs also carry advertisements which financially benefit the blogger or promote the blogger’s favourite causes. Blogs have become so popular that they have led to the rise of “fake blogs”. In such blogs, a company may create a fictional blog as a marketing tool to promote its products.

Related Essays:

• 192 Words Essay on Save Trees for Green Earth
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• 1362 Words Essay on Contribution of Cinema to Indian Society

Privacy Overview

Essay on Blogging

Students are often asked to write an essay on Blogging in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Blogging

What is blogging.

Blogging is like keeping an online diary. It’s a place where people share their thoughts, ideas, or experiences on the internet. It’s like writing a book, but instead of paper, we use websites. People who write blogs are called bloggers.

Types of Blogs

There are many types of blogs. Some people write about their day-to-day life, while others focus on specific topics like food, travel, or fashion. There are also news blogs and business blogs. The type of blog depends on what the blogger wants to share.

Why Blogging is Important

Blogging is important because it lets people express themselves. It’s a way to share knowledge and experiences with others. For businesses, blogs can help connect with customers. They also help in improving writing skills.

How to Start a Blog

To start a blog, you need a topic, a blogging platform (like WordPress), and a plan. The topic should be something you’re passionate about. The platform is where you’ll post your blog. The plan will guide what and when you write.

The Challenges of Blogging

Blogging is a fun and creative way to share your thoughts and ideas. It can be a hobby or even a job. It’s a great way to connect with people around the world. So, why not give it a try?

Also check:

250 Words Essay on Blogging

Blogging is like keeping an online journal or diary. In a blog, you write about your thoughts, experiences, or share information about a topic you like. The word ‘blog’ comes from ‘weblog’, meaning a log on the web. Anyone with an internet connection can start a blog.

There are many types of blogs. Some people write personal blogs, where they share their daily lives or hobbies. Others write about specific topics like food, travel, fashion, or technology. Businesses also use blogs to share information about their products or services.

Why Do People Blog?

People blog for many reasons. Some do it to share their passion or knowledge with others. Some use it to connect with people who have similar interests. Businesses blog to attract customers. Blogging can also be a way to earn money. If a blog gets a lot of visitors, the blogger might earn money from ads or sponsored posts.

How to Start a Blog?

Starting a blog is easy. There are many free platforms like Blogger or WordPress where you can create a blog. You choose a name for your blog, pick a design, and start writing your first post. It’s important to write regularly and share your posts on social media to attract readers.

In conclusion, blogging is a popular way to share your thoughts, connect with others, and even earn money. It’s easy to start a blog, and there are many topics you can write about. So, if you have something to say, why not start a blog?

500 Words Essay on Blogging

Blogging is a way to share your thoughts, ideas, and experiences on the internet. It’s like having your own online diary or journal. But instead of keeping it private, you’re sharing it with the world. Some people blog about their daily life, while others blog about specific topics they are passionate about, like food, fashion, travel, or technology.

How Does Blogging Work?

Blogging starts with a website. You can create your own website or use a blogging platform. These are websites that make it easy for you to start a blog. Once you have a website, you can start writing posts. A post is like an entry in your online diary. You can write about anything you want. Once you publish your post, anyone on the internet can read it.

The Benefits of Blogging

Blogging can have many benefits. It can help you improve your writing skills. It can also help you learn more about a topic you’re interested in. If you blog about something you’re passionate about, you’ll likely do a lot of research and learning along the way. Blogging can also help you connect with people who share your interests. And if you’re blogging to make money, it can be a good way to earn extra income.

Blogging also has its challenges. It takes time and effort to write good blog posts. You also need to update your blog regularly to keep your readers interested. This can be hard if you have other responsibilities, like school or work. And if you’re blogging to make money, it can take a while to start earning a decent income.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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How to Write a Blog Post in 2024 (Beginner-Friendly Guide)

by Liz Careathers

on Aug 22, 2024

Freebie: Ultimate Editing Checklist

There are many tutorials that can teach you how to write a blog post.

They can educate you on the mechanics of blogging, what to do, and what not to do.

Read through them and you can learn how to craft a perfectly serviceable blog post. Heck, you might even write something that wins you an adoring fan or two.

But if you dream bigger, if you want to know how to write a successful, engaging blog post that cuts through the noise and wins you legions of fans , you need something better than a run-of-the-mill tutorial.

You need an ultimate guide.

In this post — this ultimate, step-by-step beginner’s guide — we’ll share tips used by professional freelance writers to create spellbinding posts that are adored by thousands. You’ll learn the secrets to crafting irresistible headlines, seducing introductions, captivating advice, and motivational closings.

You’ll even learn how the pros refine and polish their posts once they’re finished writing them.

These are secrets many bloggers would gladly pay real money to learn, but it won’t cost you a thing — other than a few minutes of your time.

Table of Contents

• Craft a Great Headline That Readers Can’t Resist
• Write an Introduction That Grabs and Seduces
• Deliver Advice That’s Easy to Consume and Impossible to Ignore
• Close with a Motivational Bang
• Polish Your Post So It’s Smoother Than a Slip ‘n Slide

Let’s dive in.

1. Craft a Great Headline That Readers Can’t Resist

Want to know one of the biggest mistakes bloggers make?

Writing blog posts before the headlines (aka the post title).

Without a headline, they have no roadmap to follow. And so their post goes in multiple directions, leaving readers feeling dizzy, confused and disoriented.

And then they try to create a headline that embraces all that madness. Bloggers, have mercy!

If you want to write a great blog post full of clarity, conciseness, and conviction, it’s a good idea to spend some time crafting a blog title that sets a clear destination, lures readers in, and leaves them eager for your advice.

Your blog title will be your map, your writing navigation system, letting you know which literary roads to choose and which to avoid so that readers reach the intended destination as easily and efficiently as possible.

Follow these 8 rules to craft your killer headline:

Headline Rule #1. Pick a Mouth-Watering Topic

Want your blog post to get opened?

Then your headline must promise readers the very answer to whatever is tormenting them. The thing that keeps them up at night.

Your headline should not promise them a trip to the moon and back — readers are way too swift for such shenanigans. Keep the benefit specific and narrow, and readers will feel compelled to click and get the solution to what’s bugging them.

How do you find out what’s bugging your readers? How do you know which of your many blog post idea (we know, you have many) should be pursued?

• Review comments on your posts and on posts of other sites in your niche.
• Send your subscribers surveys asking them what their greatest struggles are.
• Use tools like BuzzSumo to find out what the most popular posts in your niche are (which gives insight into your target readers’ needs).
• Read the reviews of books in your niche on Amazon (you’ll find a gold mine of feedback to explore).

You have one responsibility as a blogger — yup, just one. And that is to serve your target audience . The better you know them, the better you serve.

Before you know it, you’ll know them so intimately they’ll feel like you’re reading their minds, and your headlines will reflect that.

Let’s say you’re in the self-improvement space and you wrote the headline below:

How to Create an Amazing Life

This headline is so broad it’s unlikely to grab readers’ attention. No one loses sleep over “wanting to create an amazing life.” They lose sleep over specific aspects of their lives that have left them unfulfilled.

So you are better off narrowing in on something specific that’s bugging your readers, such as:

How to Boldly Pursue Your Dreams Even if You’re Scared and Insecure

Narrowing in on something specific makes readers feel like you have the answers they’re looking for.

Headline Rule #2. Steal from the Pros

Okay, you’ve done your research and you know exactly what your readers need. Now it’s time to turn your topic into a killer headline.

Want a pro tip for mastering the art of writing headlines?

Not in the unethical way. In the smart and efficient way.

Decades of copywriting and advertising research have revealed the types of headlines that have proven to be successful. The types of headlines that zap readers out of their info-overload comas and compel them to open. Why mess with that research?

If you want your headlines to grab readers, stick with what works.

No, your headlines don’t need to sound like they came straight from BuzzFeed. They can reflect your voice and style.

But until your writing skills match Jon Morrow’s, let the proven templates be your guide (how do you think he got so good at writing headlines?).

Blogging is hard enough, so if you have templates at your fingertips, why not use them?

The easiest templates to start with? “How to” headlines and list post headlines. They are classics and they work. In fact, 75% of Smart Blogger’s most popular posts use these formats.

Here are a number of Smart Blogger headlines that follow the “how to” and list post templates.

“How to” Headlines:

• How to Start a Blog: Easy, Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
• How to Make Money Writing: 5 Ways to Get Paid to Write in 2024
• How to Make Money Blogging (Free Guide for 2024)

List Post Headlines:

• 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your First E-book
• The 5 Best Free Blogging Platforms in 2024 (100% Unbiased)
• Writer’s Block: 27 Ways to Overcome It Forever
• 8 Best Free WordPress Themes of 2024 (Chosen by Experts)
• 12 Blogging Tips for Beginners (+ Lots of Free Resources)
• 4 Best Gifts for Writers: Ideas to Fit Any Budget (Even Yours)

Headline Rule #3. Engage Your Senses

Vague headlines leave readers feeling empty. Tangible headlines leave them feeling understood.

How do you create tangible headlines?

Put yourself in the shoes of your potential reader.

How do they feel? What do they see, taste, or smell? What do they hear?

Engage all of your senses by using sensory words . The more your headline gives voice to their exact experience, the more they’ll feel like your quality content was written for them.

Let’s say you blog about health and wellness, and you wrote a headline called:

5 Steps to Take When a Migraine Hits

This headline follows a proven list post formula, and it narrows in on something that’s bugging readers. All in all, it’s not too bad.

But it could be even more concrete.

To step it up a notch, put yourselves in the shoes of your readers. Think about exactly what they’re experiencing.

Perhaps that would lead you to the following:

5 Ways to Soothe Pounding and Blinding Migraines

If you suffer from migraines, there’s no way you could resist clicking such a headline.

Headline Rule #4. Tease, Don’t Satisfy

A common mistake you may not even realize you’re making?

Giving away too much in your headlines.

Your headlines should lure readers in like a literary temptress. They should catch readers’ attention and invoke their curiosity, not give a solution.

Give a solution in your headline and readers feel no need to go any further — they’re bored by the very thought of your post.

When this happens, not only do you lose but your readers lose as well, as they trade the richness of your perfect blog post’s advice for the quick fix offered by the headline.

Let’s say you blog about personal finance and you write the headline below:

How to Save for Retirement by Creating a Monthly Budget

Sadly, readers will see this and think they’ve got all the advice they need — if they want to save for retirement, they must create a monthly budget. No need to read more.

On the other hand, a possible revision could be:

How to Save for Retirement When You’re Living Paycheck to Paycheck

For anyone living paycheck to paycheck, this headline would pique their curiosity. Nothing is given away, it speaks to an audience with a very specific problem, and it promises a solution they’d love to get their hands on.

Headline Rule #5. Honor the Headline Commandment

When it comes to headlines, there is only one commandment you can never break:

“Thou shalt not deceive.”

This may seem obvious, but writers inadvertently do it all the time.

They over-promise.

Big no-no. The content of your post must fully deliver on exactly what the headline promises.

If the post only delivers part of the solution, readers will feel misled and lose their trust in you.

Let’s never do that to them, yes?

Let’s say you write a post called:

How to Live a Happy and Peaceful Life

But then the post only talks about following your dreams, which is really only one aspect of living a happy and peaceful life. Even though you didn’t intentionally deceive them, readers will feel shortchanged.

You might as well have written an over-the-top “clickbait” headline — your readers would have been as equally disappointed.

Another example…

Perhaps you write a post called:

5 Killer Ways to Attract New Clients to Your Coaching Business

But then the fifth way contains no useful advice and instead leads to a sales page to get the solution … no bueno.

Headline Rule #6. Trim the Fat

Want to overwhelm readers right from the start?

Fill your headline with weak and flabby words.

What are weak and flabby words? Empty, unnecessary words that add no real value. Instead, they create clunky phrasing and leave readers scratching their heads in confusion.

The mistake many bloggers make is writing headlines the way they speak. While that’s okay when you write the post (to a certain extent), when you write headlines that way, it waters them down.

You want your headlines to be as ruthlessly concise and powerful as possible. So chop out weak words and throw in power words (if appropriate).

Let’s say you draft the following headline:

How to Find It In Your Heart to Forgive Someone Even if They’ve Hurt You Really Badly

There are just so many words! We can cut them down as follows:

How to Forgive Someone Who Hurt You Badly

We can then add some power to it:

How to Forgive a Soul-Crushing Betrayal

Much better.

Another Example:

Here’s a mouthful:

How to Stop Being Overly Doubtful of Yourself So You Can Finally Begin to Pursue Your Wildest Dreams

My head is spinning. This can be cut down to:

How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Pursue Your Wildest Dreams

We could even make it more tangible and powerful:

How to End Paralyzing Doubts and Conquer Your Wildest Dreams

Nice and trim, but packs a punch.

Headline Rule #7. Don’t Be a Smarty-Pants

Your headline should make sense to all readers no matter where they’re coming from or in what context they’re approaching your post.

They shouldn’t have to guess what the benefit is. After all, you’re supposed to be reading their minds, not the other way around.

So you’ll want to avoid using metaphors (unless their meaning is painfully obvious), jargon , rhymes , made-up terms, or anything that tries to be overly clever or complicated when drafting your headlines.

Where to begin with this one:

How to Be Happy Without Acting Sappy

A headline like this tries to be too clever — readers don’t give two hoots about not acting sappy, obviously. Don’t prioritize cute tactics like rhyming (or even alliteration ) over-delivering clear benefits in your headlines.

How to Raise a Child That Is the Apple of Your Eye

A headline like this is also trying to be too clever. “Apple of Your Eye” is a common metaphor readers are likely familiar with, but there’s no concrete benefit being offered here. A headline must always contain a strong benefit, not a cute phrase.

How to Follow the Path of Glory to Your Success

No clue what this means … and I just wrote it. If there isn’t a singular and clear interpretation of what the headline’s benefit is, it’s trying too hard. So save the metaphors for the actual post where they will (hopefully) make more sense.

How to Stop Treating Love Like a Captive Animal

Perhaps you effectively explain in the post how people treat love like a captive animal, and it may make for a great analogy , but readers scanning headlines will have no clue why they should stop to read this, and so they likely won’t.

Headline Rule #8. Rock Your Style

The more consistent you are with your audience, the more trust they’ll feel for you.

If you generally keep your headlines pretty simple and then suddenly write one jam-packed with power words, your readers will feel confused.

The more you write, the more of a writing style you’ll develop. Once you determine what that style is, use it consistently (or make slow and gradual changes to it if necessary) so your audience learns and trusts your brand.

If most of your headlines read like this:

• How to Live With Courage
• How to Overcome Social Anxiety
• How to Confidently Embrace Uncertainty

Then you might not want to suddenly write a headline that reads:

• How to Brazenly Squash the Agonizing Anxiety That Is Plaguing Your Life

Your readers will think your blog got hacked!

How to Write a Headline: Bonus Tip

When writing a headline, try crafting 5–10 different versions of the same headline.

The more you play with the words, the better you will get at creating clear, concise, and curiosity-invoking headlines that readers cannot resist.

Editor’s Note:

I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss a question we hear often:

“How long/short should my headline be?”

Ever notice how some headlines in SERPs (search engine results pages) are truncated?

It’s based on your headline’s width in pixels (a free tool like SERPsim will show your headline’s width), but as a general rule:

At right around 60 characters, Google will cut off your headline.

Since a truncated headline can result in fewer people clicking your link in the search engine results, it’s a common SEO practice to keep your headlines 60 characters or less.

Of course, things are never that easy.

In a recent study , Brian Dean of Backlinko found that longer (14-17 words) headlines generated more shares on social media than shorter headlines.

(76.7% more social shares, to be exact.)

As with all things, your mileage may vary.

2. Write an Introduction That Grabs and Seduces

You’ve lured readers in with your headline. Now you’ve got to keep them.

No easy task, my friend.

Readers are fickle. Known to take a quick glance and then vanish from your online sanctuary, lickety-split!

You must fight to keep them there, and the way you craft your introduction plays a huge role in their browsing commitment.

Follow these rules to craft an introduction that captivates your readers:

Introduction Rule #1. Slip into Their Shoes

A common mistake that reeks of amateur blogging?

Trying to sound too academic in your blog openings.

You know, those posts that start like this:

“Research has proven that 92% of people fail to achieve their goals because they are unable to create and stick to habits that support those goals …”

Don’t get me wrong — as a lawyer, I value solid research. But in the blogging context, this approach bores readers. If you want to captivate instead of bore, you must make readers feel like you’re reading their minds.

A powerful way to achieve this?

Step into the shoes of your target audience and write from their perspective. Show them you understand exactly what they’re going through.

After all, you likely struggled with the very topic you’re writing about and learned how to overcome it. We teach what we most wanted to learn, right?

So show readers that you “get it.” You’re not some corporate slog, you’re in it with them, fighting the good fight and sharing the tools that brought you to the other side.

This introduction is a masterclass in empathy:

Do you feel that? That little tugging sensation on your heart? You’re not sure what, but something is pulling you to change. Not in a confess-your-sins-oh-ye-sinners way, but to shift directions, to embrace your calling, to finally do what you were put here to do: Write. You feel the ideas inside you. You sense them straining to escape. You know your job is to set them free, firing them like a cannon into a world in desperate need of them. But you’re afraid. You’re afraid of quitting your job and living without a safety net. You’re afraid of the concerned, disapproving looks your friends will give you when you tell them you’re giving it all up to write for a living. You’re afraid of not having enough money for food, of the power being cut off, of watching your family shivering and hungry, all because of your “selfishness”. And most of all? You’re afraid you’re wrong about yourself.

As writers, we all share the deep longing to embrace our calling and express our ideas, but we also share the fears that so often sabotage those longings — the fear that we don’t have what it takes, that we’ll crash and burn, and that our dreams are just that — dreams.

In his introduction, Jon addresses all those longings and fears and immediately makes you feel like he gets you so intimately, it’s almost creepy.

Creepy, but effective.

Introduction Rule #2. Get into Character

If you want to captivate readers, you must trigger their emotions.

So as you sit down to write, think of the feelings you want them to experience:

Fear, anger, sadness, hope, joy, disgust, shame, comfort, love, courage, and so on.

Then get into character and feel them yourself as you write, and your words will read with undeniable authenticity.

When Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the heartbreaking lyrics in Hamilton that have left tears on the faces of millions, it was his eyes that first shed tears as he put his pen to paper.

So play with your emotions. Map out the emotional journey you’re taking readers on, and infuse those feelings into your writing. Feel what you want your audience to feel and your words will exude those emotions.

This tip applies to your whole post, but in no place is triggering your audience’s emotions more important than your introduction.

You feel me? 🙂

I once wrote an emotional post about my two little girls which addressed how delicate their emotions are, as well as my own vulnerabilities and my longing to give them the patience, presence, and love they deserve.

Here’s a portion of it:

I told my three-year old daughter as we stood outside the car in her school parking lot, the rain pouring down on us as she sobbed breathlessly in my arms. She didn’t want to go in the car. She just wanted me to stand there, holding her. And I didn’t want to rush her, or tell her to stop crying. “I’ll hold you for as long as it takes.”

I felt that longing intensely and definitely shed some tears as I wrote the introduction. The feedback I got from readers was that they felt the same intensity, and even cried as well.

When we write, our feelings seep into our words.

Introduction Rule #3. Lure Readers Down the Page

Want readers to commit to your post?

Accelerate their experience. Lure them down the page.

The faster they get pulled down, the more committed they’ll feel.

Too many bumps in the road early on, and off track they go, never to return.

Here are three writing tips to use in your intros to lure readers down the page:

#1. Open With a Short Sentence or Question

Kind of like how I opened this section. 🙂

This is how all of Smart Blogger’s posts open, and for good reason. It’s a copywriting technique proven to pull readers in.

Start a post with a long clunky paragraph and they’ll feel exhausted just looking at it.

#2. Take a Knife to Your Words

Slash as many words as possible.

If the first draft of your introduction is 200 words, try cutting it down to 100. The more you practice this, the more efficient your blog writing process becomes.

And when you write efficiently, your words have power. That power will grab your readers.

#3. Set the Rhythm

All writing has a pace and rhythm.

You want your introduction’s pace and beat to be somewhat quick. You can slow things down later.

How do you achieve this?

• Use short sentences. Even sentence fragments (totally okay).
• Write short paragraphs. Make your paragraphs no more than one to three sentences long.
• Use delayed transitions to weave sentences together.
• Make each sentence and paragraph lure readers into the one that follows.
• Read the post out loud to check the flow. Are things moving forward smoothly or stalling?

The best writers, like the best music composers, take readers on a journey. Fast and slow, loud and soft, urgency and ease.

The more you pay attention to this, the more rhythm you’ll infuse into your words.

Shane Arthur sends readers’ eyes flying down the page by using crisp sentences and short paragraphs to create a fast rhythm:

You’re not stupid. You know what writing is truly about. It’s a never-ending battle for your readers’ attention. Every sentence is a link in a taut chain that connects your headline to your conclusion. And you are just one weak sentence away from losing your reader forever.

He then appropriately slows things down in the section that follows with longer sentences. A masterful composition!

Introduction Rule #4. Make Them Beg

Want readers begging for your solutions?

Add a little fear to your opening.

What are readers worried about? Do they know what will happen if they don’t solve the problem the post is addressing? What is the worst-case scenario?

Bring those fears to the surface. Expose them.

By doing so, not only will readers feel a camaraderie with you (because you understand their fears, so clearly you’ve tip-toed through the dark side yourself), but they’ll feel more eager than ever for the solution you present.

We all have fears. We think we need to hide them, but the more we give voice to them, the easier they are to set free.

Do that for your readers.

In his introduction, Glen Long brilliantly taps into the fear of failure all writers experience by addressing the dream of making a living as a writer and then quickly smothering that dream with the doubts that creep up at the mere thought of it:

So, who knows? Maybe the doubters are right. Maybe you are naive to think you could earn a living doing something you love, instead of something you just tolerate.

The fear of failure is painful, yes. But giving voice to it is validating and makes readers eager for the solutions that will set that fear free.

Introduction Rule #5. Hint at the Promised Land

Finally, as you wrap up your intro, hint at the promised land.

The place readers will get to when they master your methods. The destination your post promises to take them.

But whatever you do, do not give it all away. Just one sentence that says too much satisfies your readers enough to send them clicking away.

Because readers bore easily. You must keep them on their toes.

And the key point of an introduction is not to give answers, it’s to set the stage for all the hearty advice your post will provide.

In the introduction to Meera Kothand’s post, she addressed a problem all new bloggers face: How do you get to know your audience when you don’t have one yet?

She goes on to talk about the big mistake many of them make (making assumptions) and why that’s ineffective. Then, she uses the simplest phrase to hint at a solution:

That kind of guessing is like throwing darts blindfolded and hoping you hit the bull’s eye. Sometimes it works. Usually, it doesn’t. Fortunately, there’s another way…

How could anyone not want to keep reading?

How to Write an Introduction: Bonus Tip

When writing an introduction, try drafting two completely different versions approached from different angles and triggering different emotions.

Doing so will highlight the techniques and emotions that work best for both your audience and the content of your post.

A word of caution:

No matter how eloquent your words…

No matter how powerful your prose…

If your introduction doesn’t satisfy search intent, readers will click the “back” button and never return.

What’s search intent?

It’s the purpose behind the Google search.

If someone searches for “how to lose weight” in Google, they’re expecting search results that will help them lose weight.

If they click a headline that reads “7 Easy Tips For Losing Weight Fast”, and the post begins with an amusing Nicolas Cage anecdote, there’s a good chance they will leave — never getting to read the rest of the post, which is filled with weight loss wisdom.

And when they leave, what they’re essentially telling Google is this:

“At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

And Google will respond by ranking your post lower in its search results.

Search intent is a big part of SEO (search engine optimization). When we do keyword research here at Smart Blogger, figuring out the relevant keyword phrase’s intent is one of the first things we do. It shapes our headline, meta description, introduction, word count, and more.

The ins and outs of mastering it would be an article all by itself, so we’ll simply say this:

Taking the time to analyze the results in Google so you have a solid handle on why people enter the particular query your blog post will be targeting is time well spent. Figure out the intent, and then make sure your intro matches it.

3. Deliver Advice That’s Easy to Consume and Impossible to Ignore

Okay, you’re doing great.

You got readers to click on your headline, you lured them down the page with your intro, and now it’s time to deliver on all that you’ve promised.

If you want readers to love you and look forward to every good blog post you write, you’ll over-deliver.

If you want them to take a quick look and vanish for good, you’ll under-deliver.

The choice is yours.

Use the guide below to deliver valuable and easy-to-consume advice:

Content Rule #1. Add Pitstops

Subheads — use them.

Why? Because readers are scanners.

They have no choice. There’s a behemoth amount of content at their fingertips, and not all of it is good.

And so they scan (as do you, I’m sure).

Subheadings are your chance to prove to readers that you have valuable content. To keep luring them back into your post, when their instinct is to leave.

Blogging is a battle, remember?

Keep these four tips in mind when drafting your subheads:

#1. Add a Subhead Every Few Paragraphs

Sprinkle subheaders throughout your post.

Why? Because they gently guide readers along the route your post is heading, making their experience feel clear, easy and enjoyable.

And never forget, your blog posts are all about your readers’ experience.

If readers see too much text when they’re scanning without enough pit stops, they’ll feel overwhelmed. It’s like getting on a bus tour and being told there will be no bathroom breaks … oh, the anxiety!

Every single post on Smart Blogger.

That’s how important this is.

#2. Avoid the 3 Subhead Blunders That Make Readers Bounce

Subheads have the same function as headlines; they must make readers curious so they keep reading. So you should follow similar rules when drafting them and avoid the following common blunders:

• The Plain Label Subhead:  In case it bears repeating, never bore your readers. Labels are boring. Treat your subheads like mini-headlines and make sure they invoke curiosity.
• The Spoiler Subhead: Don’t give away too much in your subhead. If you do, readers will feel no compulsion to read the rest of your text.
• The Cryptic Subhead: Don’t try to be too clever. Readers don’t like to play guessing games. Adding curiosity should never come at the expense of clarity.

Let’s say you’re writing a post about the impact sleep has on anxiety levels and you include the following subheads:

• The Importance of Sleep
• Creating a Steady Sleeping Routine Will Reduce Anxiety
• Refuse the Roast and Catch More Z’s

See how the first subhead is way too plain, the second gives too much away, and the third, well, it probably made no sense to you, right?

The subheads below would do a better job at grabbing readers:

• The Easiest Way to Reduce Daily Anxiety
• How to Beat Anxiety Without Resorting to Medication
• The One Thing You Must Avoid to Sleep Better

#3. Compare Each Subhead to Your Main Headline

Each subhead should clearly deliver on the overall headline of your post.

Again, if you’re viewing subheads as pit stops, they must all lead to the ultimate destination — what was promised by your headline.

If the subheads get off track and move away from that destination, readers are left feeling lost and confused.

In that case, either the subheads need to change or the headline needs rethinking.

Say you’re writing a post called “How to Silence Your Nagging Inner Critic” and you include the following subheads:

• Observe Your Thoughts
• Prove Yourself Wrong
• Ask Yourself This Powerful Question
• Bravely Quit Your Day Job

The fourth subhead’s sudden twist in topic is jarring. It does not deliver on the overall headline, which had nothing to do with your day job.

Perhaps you intended all along for the post to be about not letting doubts stop you from following your dreams and quitting your day job, but readers scanning subheads will not understand that.

They will simply feel confused.

#4. Follow a Format

If you are listing various “ways,” “steps,” “methods,” “signs,” etc., to achieve what the headline of the post promises, keep the format consistent.

If you don’t, the post comes across as unpolished. Bloggers overlook this all the time, but it’s easy to fix once you’re aware of it.

If you separate your subheads from the post and list them back to back, you can see if any stray from the course.

Say your post is called “12 Ways to Cure Insomnia” and you have a subhead for each of the 12 ways. You’ll want those subheads to follow a consistent format.

Let’s say your first few subheads read as follows:

• Exercise Every Morning
• Avoid Caffeine Like the Plague
• Wake Up at the Same Time Everyday
• There is Nothing More Sleep-Inducing Than Nighttime Meditation

Something there feel a little off?

The first three subheads start with an action verb instructing readers what to do. They are also fairly consistent in length.

But then the fourth subhead suddenly changes the format and breaks the flow. It doesn’t start with a verb and it’s much longer than the others.

This inconsistency may seem fairly innocent, but it’s distracting to readers.

Content Rule #2. Unleash the Unexpected

Let’s face it, readers today are info-holics. We all are.

So tired old advice isn’t going to cut it. Your post must be unique, bold, and eye-opening.

My advice? List each main point and see if you can add a unique perspective, experience, or twist to them. Something readers aren’t expecting.

What belief systems have you learned to challenge? What do you know that most people don’t? How can you shed new light on an old problem? What methods do you use that others won’t know about?

You don’t want to go overboard just for the sake of adding shock value. Your advice must be authentic and truly helpful. But regurgitating old advice doesn’t challenge you as a writer, nor does it enlighten your audience.

So pour your readers a little espresso for their info-hangover by delivering the unexpected.

Countless articles have been written about blogging, but how many have called you out for being dumb or told you to replace your friends?!

Jon does just that by knocking you over the head with some hard truth bombs about what it takes to make it as a blogger .

Content Rule #3. Follow a Formula

Notice how this post follows a pretty consistent formula?

Each section is relatively similar in length. Every subhead follows a pattern. Each section ends with an example.

The more consistency you weave into your posts, the better the reader’s experience.

Let’s say you write a list post covering five steps to achieve something. If the first step is 500 words, the second and third steps are 100 words, the fourth step is 200 words and the fifth step is 400 words, it looks sloppy. As though you didn’t bother to proofread it before hitting publish.

Your readers deserve the best, and minor details like this matter as they affect the fluidity of their experience.

Want to go even more pro? Look at the beginning, middle, and end of each section you write, and create a guiding formula. Perhaps you start each section with a bold statement or personal experience. Then you flesh out your advice in the middle. And then you end each section with a one-sentence call to action.

The more formulas you add to your posts, the easier they are to write and the more they look like polished works of art.

In his post on getting traffic from Twitter, Brian Honigman uses hashtags for each subhead, each section is consistent in length, and each includes a graphic.

Readers know exactly what to expect from each section, making for a fluid reading experience.

Content Rule #4. Be Ridiculously Generous

Many bloggers worry about giving away too much in their posts. After all, they want readers to sign up for their paid coaching calls or products.

So they hold back, barely skimming the surface of their advice.

Truthfully, if you’re not generous with your readers in your posts, they won’t get a good impression of your paid products.

Don’t hold back on your readers.

Fully work through the problem with them. Give them complete solutions and powerful advice. Wow them with your generosity and they will stick around as loyal readers and customers.

Want to learn everything there is to know about affiliate marketing ?

Holy smokes. At 10,000 words, that insanely generous post by Leanne Regalla is basically a textbook on the subject, and reader comments praise it as such. (Let’s all bookmark this one, yes?)

A post of this magnitude is quite an undertaking, but don’t let it scare you. You can also wow your audience with your generosity and thoughtfulness in a 1,000-word post.

Content Rule #5. Start and End Strong

Just as your introduction and conclusion should grab readers, you want the main body of your post to start and end strong as well.

Of course, every section should have great content , but if you’re offering five ways to achieve something, save your absolute best tips for the first and fifth ways. The first way will grab your readers’ attention, and the fifth way will leave them feeling fully satisfied.

On the other hand, if each tip successively decreases in value, readers will feel like your post is deflating. And their excitement will deflate with it.

Let’s leave readers feeling pumped when they finish your post.

Linda Formichelli gives ten crafty ways to write 1,000 words per hour .

While all ten ways are excellent, I’d argue that the first (about writing under the pressure of a full bladder) and last (about gambling with your reputation) are the most bold and attention-grabbing (bathroom break, anyone?).

Writing a Blog Post: Bonus Tip

Before writing the main sections of your post, flesh out a blog post outline to nail each key point.

The clearer and more simplified your blog post outline is, the more clarity and conviction your post will have.

4. Close with a Motivational Bang

We’re almost at the finish line! It’s time to close your post with a bang.

This is where you rally behind your readers. Show them that you believe in them.

Make them believe they can achieve the goal promised by your headline (because after reading your generous advice, they certainly can).

Follow these rules when crafting your motivational conclusion:

Conclusion Rule #1. Give Your Readers a Pep Talk

Motivate your readers.

Show them how far they’ve come, what they’re capable of, and what life will look like once they’ve implemented your advice.

Give them the pep talk you longed for when you were struggling with the topic your post presents.

Empower them by raising your expectations of them. They can’t just read your post and pretend it never happened — they must take action. Immediately.

Make them see that no matter what they’ve experienced or how hard they’ve struggled, their time is now.

In this post’s conclusion , Jon uses all he’s had to overcome in life to show readers that they have no excuses: no matter hard things get, they can accomplish anything they set their minds to.

He encourages readers by letting them know that he believes in them and then he raises his expectations of them by telling them they need to get started … “right freaking now.”

By the time you’re done reading the conclusion, you feel like you can conquer just about anything!

Conclusion Rule #2. Avoid New Information

A common mistake many bloggers make?

Suddenly inserting new information or tips in their conclusions.

It’s like reaching the last ten minutes of a spellbinding movie. You’re on pins and needles waiting to see how it ends, and suddenly a new character is introduced. What the … ?!

It’s jarring. Don’t do that to your readers.

In his conclusion, Robert van Tongeren motivates you to repurpose old blog posts by comparing them to epic musical classics; if they disappeared into obscurity simply because they’re old, we’d all be at a great loss.

Imagine if in the midst of such a conclusion, Robert quickly threw in one more way to repurpose content, or one small caveat to his post’s advice, or one more general tip to keep in mind?

It would throw the whole closing off and leave readers feeling ruffled instead of jamming to Bohemian Rhapsody.

How to Write a Conclusion: Bonus Tip

When writing your conclusion, put yourself back in the shoes of your potential readers.

What will their lives be like if they accomplish the advice in your post? How will they feel?

The more you can hone in on your readers’ point of view, the more you can motivate them to take action.

Too many bloggers put too little thought into their closings.

That’s a shame.

Let’s face it…

Most people don’t read 100% of our posts. Heck, most people don’t even read half .

So how do we reward the precious few who read and absorbed the words we poured our heart and soul into?

With a closing we whipped together in 20 seconds.

Someone who makes it to the end of your post is primed.

They trust you. They like you. They want you to tell them what to do next.

So tell them.

Don’t waste this opportunity.

5. Polish Your Post So It’s Smoother Than a Slip ‘n Slide

Phew! You’ve written your post . Next up?

Take a well-deserved break. Step away for a day or more so you can come back to it with fresh eyes.

Once you’re ready, it’s time to do some editing. I know, the mind reels that there’s more work to do!

But editing your post is essential. If your post doesn’t provide a smooth reading experience, your reader will lose attention and bail.

Use this checklist when you’re ready to edit your post:

• Take a Knife to It. Slash all unnecessary words, sentences, paragraphs, stories, etc. Include only what is absolutely essential to convey your message. Nothing more.
• Motivate, Don’t Lecture. Tweak any statements that hint of being the condescending professor. Make readers feel like you’re on their side and dedicated to their success (because you are).
• Add Emotion. Infuse your writing with passion , energy, and enthusiasm. If you’re bored by your blog topic, readers will be too.
• Make it Easy on the Eye. Break up any large paragraphs (2–5 sentences maximum is your goal) and run-on sentences.
• Break it Down. Clarify overly complicated wording. If you can’t say it simply, don’t write it. You don’t want to confuse your readers.
• Speak Their Language. Add examples or metaphors to make complex ideas feel more tangible and easier to digest.
• Check Yourself. Remove any contradictory statements or repetitive ideas (trust me, they’re there).
• Don’t Yo-Yo. Ensure each sentence, paragraph and section drives the post forward toward the destination promised by the headline (no side routes or backtracking).
• Be Smooth. Make each sentence and paragraph flow seamlessly into the next. Each sentence should be completely dependent on the ones before and after it or the transitions will feel choppy.
• Avoid Sharp Turns. Adjust any abrupt changes in topic. They’re jarring to readers.
• Keep It Real. Don’t mimic styles that don’t come naturally to you. The more you write, the more you’ll find your authentic writing voice.
• Add Highlights. Use bold and italics to add stress where appropriate (but do so sparingly).
• Shoot Bullets. Use bullet points to group related topic ideas and make them more digestible.
• Spark the Senses. Be specific and concrete (describe things readers can see, feel, hear, smell or taste). Avoid abstract statements.
• Be Firm. Avoid words like “might,” “may,” “possibly” and “perhaps” when delivering your advice.
• Give Some Eye Candy. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Add relevant images, screenshots, and infographics to your blog content.
• Respect Nature. Put things in their natural order (e.g., past to present, young to old, small to large, breakfast to dinner, etc.).
• Be Consistent. Make sure all points in a list belong to the same category; a list of steps should only list steps, a list of things should only list things, etc. This might sound like common sense, but this rule gets broken often.
• Don’t Be Lazy. Ensure all the necessary information is contained within the post itself. (External links should only provide supplemental information. A reader shouldn’t have to click a link to comprehend your post.)
• Kill the Weak. Eliminate weak and flabby words. Replace weak verbs (e.g., “she went”) with more concrete, visceral verbs (“she walked”), replace passive voice (e.g., “he was pushing”) with active voice (e.g., “he pushed”) and replace weak adjectives (e.g., “good”) with strong adjectives (e.g., “wonderful”).
• Feel the Beat. Be mindful of the pace and rhythm of each section. Speed things up or add some punch with crisp, short sentences. Slow things down with longer explanations. Good writing uses both .
• Do the Obvious. Fix any typos, spelling mistakes, or grammar mistakes (you can use grammar checkers like Grammarly and Hemingway App ).
• Be Honest. Give credit where due.

How to Edit a Blog Post: Bonus Tip

A great way to self-edit your posts is to read them out loud.

Doing so will help you catch many of the issues listed above, particularly things like overly complicated wording, run-on sentences and choppy rhythm.

Win the Battle for Your Reader’s Attention

Blogging is a battle.

A war to get your ideas the attention they deserve.

Your enemy? The dizzying array of online distractions that devour your readers’ attention.

This battle is not for the faint of heart.

Along your blogging journey, there are so many learning curves. Blogging platforms and plugins you’ll need to install. Social media networks you’ll need to employ. Content marketing techniques you’ll need to try.

But none of that stuff matters if you’re drowning your ideas in amateur writing. You might as well lay your sword down in defeat. Readers don’t have time for amateurs.

So before you venture any further down the blogging rabbit hole, you better make sure you know how to write a blog post like a pro.

Skip that step, and nothing can save you. Your battle is lost.

The good news is, writing good blog posts is a skill you can learn. And it’s one you must learn.

You have powerful words and ideas that can transform readers’ lives. Those ideas are worth fighting for.

So when you’re ready to enter the arena, arm yourself with this ultimate guide and fight the good fight.

Your readers are counting on you.

Blogging , Content Marketing

Liz Careathers

The ultimate toolkit for becoming one of the highest-paid writers online. Premium training. Yours for free.

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Blogging: Reasons and Kinds Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Reasons for blogging, kinds of blogs, blog identity, how to blog, works cited.

Blogging is often defined as the method of creating, maintaining, and updating an online journal or log. Blogging involves reading, writing, reading, and commenting on such journals as well as other aspects such as submissions, public forums, and posts (Rettenberg 4).

Individuals blog for several reasons; the most common reason is that people want to publish their writings so that others may read them.

The freedom from editors and/or screeners allows bloggers to convey their thoughts without fear of censorship or evaluation. The ease of blogging allows individuals to express themselves and submit their thoughts with the click of a button.

Bloggers can reach millions around the world at any time they see fit. Many bloggers express that the reason they blog is that they love to write (Walsh 3).

An estimated seventy percent of the blogosphere consists of personal or non-public blogs. Personal blogs are where bloggers write about their personal lives, as opposed to niche blogs—such as those found on Huffington Post and other sites of categorical nature. Personal blogs serve as a window into the lives of bloggers and deliver voyeuristic satisfaction to the reader as well as an exhibitionist pleasure to the writer.

The readers of personal blogs attach an identity with the blogger by his or her posts. However, each blog entry can be interpreted in many different ways.

Because of different interpretations, the minions of readers may attach different identities to the same blogger; and, without the blogger’s knowledge, many different identities develop and exist.

At the same time, identity development begs the question: would any identity exist if it weren’t for the multiple identities created by readers?

Analysts have compared blogging to pornography. Blogging allows writers to strip away their layers piece by piece similar to an exotic dancer. Blogging can become addictive to both the writer and the reader as it allows a peek into the lives of those who blog. Bloggers generally begin with an alias under which they write and typically only reveal the country of his or her origin. As readers and commentators increase, bloggers typically begin to reveal more personal facts—such as names, current activities, interests, etc…

Analysts have surmised that after about six or seven months of blogging, bloggers typically begin to reveal the very intimate details of their lives once they are comfortable publishing their personal information. Bloggers feel well received by their readers and the fulfillment of their published exhibitionism feeds their desire to continue publishing (Piersall 301).

There are other forms of blogging as well.

General Blogs and niche blogs are written about particular topics and are generally public. Sites such as Huffington Post offer categorical blogs and articles written by a handful of contributors who research particular topics and develop their personal opinions around those topics. General Blogs do not always include categories but rather are used as public forums for the formation of opinions regarding whatever topic may arise. The problem with such blogs is that the readers are unable to identify with the writers because there is a lack of personal information revealed—other than opinions about the particular topics that are discussed.

A comparison of identity development between two social networking sites shows that there are different processes of identity development. In India, Orkut is a site comparable to Facebook that allows bloggers to create profiles for blogging. However, with Orkut, when creating your profile you must either put everything you intend to reveal on your profile from the beginning or reveal very little—whichever option you choose remains for the duration of the usage (Open Source Center 1).

The terms of revelation on Orkut exist only through a chat system—which does not allow for many revelations to many at one time. Facebook, however, provides many different means of communicating with the public through published photos, videos, chat, and newsfeeds—which include status updates, check-ins, and even game scores for games played on the site. Facebook allows the option of profile editing and can be used to reveal as little or as much as the user desires. Facebook begins with creating a profile and expands through different applications, such as personality tests, so that a user may reveal different aspects of their lives through posting (Newson, Patten, and Houghton 43).

The ability to layer and edit your revelations through Facebook gives it an advantage over Orkut. However, Facebook and blogging cannot be easily compared because Facebook is controlled by the user as to who may view posts. Though there are applications on Facebook that can be used to publish writings (such as notes), published writings on Facebook are subject to report and removal as well as account freezes if the user does not adhere to the terms of usage. Blogging is more for writers who have a passion for writing and the willingness to do so whereas Facebook demands time. Facebook, with its applications and ads, serves as a distraction to those wishing to publish their works (Hudson and Marzilli 10).

The identity of the reader is defined by which blogs the reader follows. These identities are similar to the identities developed for the blogger. The identity of the blog rubs off on the reader. Blogging identities, both online and offline are shaped through the process of blogging. These identities embody the blogger, the reader, the commentator, and therefore, the blog itself (Anon 1).

Some bloggers create or have created for them, and ego. Bloggers’ egos are developed by their readers based on how the blogger treats his or her readers. Bloggers who are also readers tend to receive preferential treatment when serving as commentators. Those who are passionate about blogging are treated more seriously and with higher response rates than those who skim through blogs and post random comments even though readers are an essential part of the blogging process.

It seems to suggest that bloggers group themselves with fellow bloggers through a feigned sense of camaraderie. This “brotherhood” of blogging creates egotistical blogging personalities. This ego additionally plays within the levels of seniority of the blogger and helps to shape the identity of the blogger and, inadvertently, the blog itself. In blogging, non-bloggers are viewed with indifference or are viewed as newcomers whose opinions are of little worth to serious bloggers.

Bloggers also try to define their identities by forming communities. Such blogging communities, over time, become highly institutionalized. These communities develop trendy websites, names, logos, group blogs, conferences, and catchphrases…as well as many different forums in which bloggers may publish. Bloggers like to establish themselves within such communities and influence how the communities grow. This concept shows that bloggers like to create an impact on not only their community site but also on the offline world. Serious communal bloggers take their online identities out into the offline world and try to influence it just as they do the online community—that is, they try to act in a way they feel is expected of them outside the blogosphere. Interestingly, bloggers try to maintain an equal organization without leaders but these attempts often fail. There may not be an established leader, but there is always a power play taking place (Anon 1).

Bloggers maintain a list of links to different blogs and these lists are called blog rolls. The blog rolls contribute to the development of the blogger’s identity. The list typically consists of blogs that the blogger reads and also may include links to many reputable bloggers. The more lists a blogger is added to, the more reputable he or she becomes. The notion that “knowledge is power” comes to light in this situation and bloggers receive more followers through this method (Gardner and Birley 73).

By these factors, a blogger tries to define his or her online and offline identities, however, some bloggers have expressed that they will continue to blog with or without a readership. The blog cycle is composed of four elements: blogger, blog, reader, and comments—however, some bloggers are satisfied with maintaining their blogs without the last two factors of the cycle.

Thus, the blog itself is attaining an identity about the blogger. The blogger creates an association with the blog and considers the blog the end product rather than a means to an end.

The blog is thus considered a sort of diary—a public diary—a paradox because diaries are meant to be personal.

Thus the blogger associates personal values with the blog while exposing these personal values to the public to examine.

For the readership, commenting itself can be considered a type of blog publicizing.

A reader’s comments are not just to express concerns or address the blog itself, but also to publicly express these opinions to the blogger and the rest of the readership. Commenting allows the reader to define an identity for him or herself—thus establishing the reader as a semi-blogger (Stone 3).

Anon. 7 things you should know about Blogs. Educause, n.d. Web.

Gardner, Susannah and Birley, Shane. Blogging for Dummies .3ed. New York: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

Hudson, David and Marzilli, Alan. Blogging. New York: InfoBase Publishing, 2007. Print.

Newson, Alex., and Patten, Justin Houghton, Deryck. Blogging and other social media: exploiting the technology and protecting the enterprise. New York: Gower Publishing Ltd., 2008. Print.

Open Source Center. Media Aid. FAS, n.d. Web.

Piersall, Wendy. Mom Blogging for Dummies. John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Print.

Rettenberg, Jill. Blogging Digital media and society series, polity. New York, Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.

Stone, Biz. Blogging: genius strategies for instant Web content . New York: Cengage, 2002. Print.

Walsh, Bob. Clear blogging: how people blogging are changing the world and how you can join them : Apress Series Books for professionals by professionals . Apress, 2007. Print.

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How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors

Note from Jane: This post was first published in 2012. I continue to update and expand it so that it remains relevant for today’s author.

This will be a strange way to begin a guide to blogging, but I want to save you time, trouble, and heartache.

The average author does not benefit much from blogging.jo

Yet blogging continues to interest authors, and be discussed, as a way to market and promote. Why? Because blogging does work, if certain conditions are met. The problem is that few authors meet those conditions. This post will delve into what it means to blog successfully and in a meaningful way for an author’s long-term platform and book marketing efforts.

For clarity: I define “blogging” as publishing material to a site that you own and control—usually your author website. Blogging is sometimes conflated with writing for other websites or blogs, but that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.

Another complication : “Blogging” has become a somewhat dated term. Some people use it to describe a practice that isn’t all that common now: keeping a rather personal “log” or diary of one’s thoughts and experiences. Blogging as discussed here is best described as online writing you do for free, or—better yet—an online content strategy where you create interesting articles, columns, interviews, etc. that get shared on social and discovered through search.

What it takes to become an effective blogger

If you approach blogging as something “lesser than” your book writing or published writing, you’re more likely to fail at it. While blogging can be less formal, less researched, and more geared for online skim-reading or social sharing, to do it well requires the same kind of practice and skill as crafting a novel. You get better at it the more you do it, but I see many authors give up before they’ve put in enough hours to understand the medium.

Furthermore, to stick with blogging long enough for it to pay off, you have to actually enjoy what it means to blog, and how online writing can be different from print.

If you treat the practice seriously, all the content that you generate for your blog can have another life, in another format or within another publication. For example, the best of my blog content is condensed into a book, Publishing 101 . That required a lot of editing and reformulation (online writing can’t be dumped into print without a lot of work), but it reflects the value and depth of what appears on my blog.

Blogging is often straightforward for nonfiction writers, less so for novelists

Nonfiction writers and experts have it easy: their subject matter lends itself to blogging, especially if they’re teaching workshops or regularly interacting with their target readers. Such writers probably know off the top of their head the questions that get asked most frequently, the topics that are most popular, and the problems that surface again and again. This is invaluable starting fodder for a successful blog:  knowledge of one’s audience . 

Fiction writers can have successful blogs as well, especially if they’re able to focus on a specific topic, theme, or subgenre. But it can be most difficult for unpublished novelists to gain traction with a blog; only  after the novelist has built a name for herself does a blog readership tend to develop. With nonfiction authors, the opposite is the case: blogging can help build a platform that leads to a book deal.

This is why advice about blogging can be so contradictory and confusing: much depends on what genre you’re writing in and who you’re writing for.

Consistency is critical for effective blogging

There are two types of consistency: frequency and subject matter.

Frequency: To gain any kind of momentum, you should commit to 2-4 posts a week. Some people may be able to get by on one post a week, but it’s a struggle to gain traction without volume. Ideally, starting out, you should shoot for several times per week. The longer you blog, and the more of an audience you build up, the more you can ease back on frequency.

Subject matter:  Think about this in terms of your headlines for your blog posts. If you look at a month’s worth of your blog headlines, they should convey a strong message about what you cover on your blog and who it’s for. A potential reader should be able to easily tell if they’re going to benefit from or enjoy reading your posts on an ongoing basis.

Unfortunately, authors have trouble staying focused and disciplined on one topic or subject matter, often because they get bored or they think readers will get bored. But again, it’s hard to gain traction if you’re switching it up all the time and not consistent in what you offer.

If you’re interested in blogging, but worry about the time commitment, then consider creating a multi-contributor blog, where several authors in the same genre (or targeting similar audiences) band together. That helps reduce the burden as well as increase the size of your audience starting out—since more people will be marketing and promoting the blog.

It takes patience to build a readership unless you’re already well-known

It may take people months before they even become aware that your blog exists. This isn’t necessarily through any fault of your own; there’s an incredible amount of noise around us, and enormous demands on everybody’s attention.

But if you make a continual series of impressions over a long period of time on the same topic, then it starts to click: “Oh, this person is blogging, and they’re regularly covering this topic.” Some writers assume, “Oh, everybody knows I’m blogging because I posted about it,” but no. That’s not the case, and that’s why consistency is so important.

Only about 10% of your readers (or even fewer) will make themselves known to you or engage with you on your blog, so it takes a while before you reach a tipping point, where there’s a concrete indication of growing activity or interest.

What should you blog about?

The chain of events goes something like this:

• An author’s book nears its publication date (or perhaps the author is attempting to secure a traditional book deal). She knows she needs to market and promote the book and/or build a platform.
• She finds (or hears) advice that blogging is a good way to accomplish #1.
• She wonders: What do I blog about?

My unproven theory: We have many authors blogging poorly because of this series of events.

So how does this answer the question, “What do I blog about?”

Well, if you have to ask, maybe you shouldn’t be blogging. In that, my position is somewhat stubbornly Zen: if the action is too forced or contrived, the blog may be doomed from the start. The best bloggers have rarely been told to go do it. It isn’t an activity authors should be dragged into, kicking and screaming. Nor should you feel like it’s a burden to come up with ideas; ideally, your problem is  too many ideas.

However, I don’t want to be totally defeatist here! I want to encourage experimentation. If you can approach blogging because it kind of does sound like fun, then let’s spark your imagination as to what you might blog about.

Here are several models to consider, based on how challenging I think they are (assuming you want your blog to “pay off”).

Easy: The literary citizenship model

If you’re not familiar with literary citizenship, you can read more about my views on it here . It basically means celebrating and bringing attention to authors, writing, and books—the things you presumably love and want to support. This model is ideal for unpublished novelists, memoirists, and poets.

Blogging with the intent to promote literary citizenship opens up a lot of post possibilities, including:

• Informal book recommendations or reviews
• Q&As or interviews with people in the community (usually authors)
• “What I’m Reading Now” types of posts and other “media consumption” lists where you talk about what stuff you’re watching, saving, listening to, collecting, etc.

Key benefits: You’re building a great network of contacts as you build some excellent content at your site. Every author loves to get attention (or find a new fan) for their work.

Where the difficulty lies: Lots of literary citizenship activity exists online, in many forms. To get a large readership will require a unique angle or spin—although this is true of any blogging effort.

Easy-Medium: Write for other writers

This is what I do. Many authors have considerable advice and insight for others in the field—and the audience of aspiring writers and established authors is massive. The downside: Connecting with other writers doesn’t necessarily grow your readership; you end up in an echo chamber with other writers.

Key benefits: If you already teach writing or mentor other writers, you probably have some content you can re-purpose to fuel your early blog posts. Initially, you’ll have no shortage of ideas, and your first readers will share your insightful advice on social media and help you build a traffic base.

Where the difficulty lies: In my experience, burn out. After a few years, it’s tough to keep things fresh and interesting. Your readers, as they advance, may also outgrow your blog.

Easy-Medium: Write in your field of expertise

This is the best option for anyone writing and publishing nonfiction. It works beautifully with how-to or prescriptive nonfiction categories, and it can also work with memoir as well. For example, if you’re writing a memoir about addiction or caring for aging parents, your blog can offer information and advice (and stories) for people going through the same thing.

Key benefits: You’ll likely be intimately aware of your readership’s needs and can quickly come up with content that interests them. If you teach or speak, you’ll also have content that can be readily repurposed for a blog.

Where the difficulty lies: Some categories are fiercely competitive, such as travel and cooking. You may have to do some work in coming up with an angle or voice that stands out.

Medium: Behind the scenes

You can write about the research, news stories, or current events that play a role in the construction of your books or other work. You might also develop competitions and events that focus on reader engagement, such as having readers name your novel’s characters, choose the best cover, etc. Presumably, readers will enjoy knowing more about the context and ideas that affect your writing and being involved in your future work.

Key benefits: For most writers, it feels natural to discuss the things that influence their work, and you will likely uncover and engage your most important fans.

Where the difficulty lies: You may run out of material quickly, or not have a very high frequency of posts. Or you may despise the idea of involving readers in your work. For unpublished novelists, this approach is challenging since people aren’t familiar with your work and may not care about your process (yet).

Difficult: Personal essay or daily life

Some writers are successful with informal missives that comment on what’s happening day to day or that reflect on their personal life. This could also involve regular posting of specific media, such as photos or videos.

Key benefits: It can be a good creative outlet or practice, especially if you’re committed to blogging on a schedule. Fans of your work may enjoy the intimacy (though some authors prefer to have an air of mystery).

Where the difficulty lies: Not everyone can write entertainingly about themselves (and some don’t want to). For writers who aren’t yet known, it will be hard (if not impossible) to interest other people in the details of your personal life, unless you’re a superlative writer.

This is not an exhaustive list of what you could blog about, but it gives you an idea of the most common options.

Do think through how can you bring your own voice  or perspective to a topic, theme, or subject matter without repeating what’s already out there. This is easier said than done. It took me 18 months to find the right angle—to realize I do best when I focus on business advice and digital media topics for authors.

The most successful blogs have a very focused angle and appeal to a very specific audience. This makes it easier to attract attention and build a community around common interests or perspectives.

No one should blog in a vacuum

Before you start a blog, identify the other key people already blogging in your area—the influencers. Start reading and sharing their content, and comment at their blog. Eventually, if possible, you should guest blog for them. See the other bloggers not as competitors, but as community members who may eventually become supporters of your work. If your blog is high-quality, and generates conversation, they’ll be likely to recommend you or send you traffic. So identify the notable community players, or the people who you’ll want to build relationships with over time.

Choose the right blogging platform

The best platform to use is whatever you use for your author website—do not be tempted to build your blog somewhere else. You want everything under the same umbrella for search engine optimization and long-term marketing strategy. So, for example, if you have an author website on SquareSpace, then start your blog there; don’t start one over at WordPress or Blogspot.

If your website platform does not support blogging, then it may be time to switch platforms. I talk about the basics of author websites here.

If you don’t have an author website, or if you’re doing a multi-contributor blog, then I recommend using WordPress. It’s well-supported, continually developed, and runs about 20% of all websites today. Here’s my  step-by-step guide to hosting your own website or blog , which doesn’t take longer than 10-15 minutes.

Before you launch the blog

Before you start, consider the following.

• Blog title and tagline.  There are no hard-and-fast rules here, but it should be clear to new visitors what your blog is about and what they’re going to get from it. If your blog title is metaphorical, clever, or not clear about the blog’s subject matter (or if it’s just under your name), add a tagline that tells and sells the angle. Even Michael Hyatt, who is very well-known at this point, has a tagline: “Your Leadership Mentor.”
• Readability. If your blog is meant to primarily be read, then don’t hamper readability by making the text too small, too tight or (worst of the worst) white type on a black background. Be aware that ads or a hard-to-navigate layout can also hamper readability and drive readers elsewhere.
• About page or bio. If your blog content is interesting, people will want to know more about the person behind it. Don’t make them search for this. Create a separate page, and be sure to include a way to contact you.
• Comments.  You should develop a policy for how you’ll handle or moderate discussions. Will you approve every comment before it goes live? Will comments be automatically published if they’re not spam? An open commenting policy that doesn’t require sign-in helps you get more comments, but you’ll want to make sure you’re receiving email alerts when new comments are posted, just in case you need to delete anything spammy or inappropriate that gets through. Fortunately, major blog platforms (like WordPress) help you streamline your comment system to automatically eliminate spam activity. If you have any trouble, then install  Akismet , the industry-standard plugin to eliminate spammy comments.

How to craft quality posts that get read and shared

Quality can be a squishy term; much depends on what your audience or readership considers “quality” or what kind of content is engaging to them. The better you know your audience, the better your posts will be.

However, here’s how to ensure that your posts are more likely to be engaged with and shared.

• Don’t be afraid of length. For some strange reason, people started thinking that ideal blog posts are 500 words, even less. That’s simply not true. In fact, when it comes to search ranking, Google looks at the substantive nature of the content and will rank your content lower if it appears shallow. Social media is typically better for quick shares, brief commentary, or short statements—or anything that doesn’t merit more than a few hundred words. The most successful posts at this site are regularly longer than 2,000 words. However, the longer the content, the more readable it needs to be, which brings us to the next point.
• Improve scannability.  Most people skim online content and make a very quick judgment call as to whether it merits closer attention. If so, your content may be saved for later, or readers will slow down and read the content from beginning to end. To make your content easily scanned, add subheads, plenty of paragraph breaks (one-line paragraphs are acceptable), bulleted lists or numbered lists, bold lead-ins—whatever it takes to make your posts more easy to grasp and see if it’s valuable.
• Add at least one image. You’ll notice that I always begin posts with an image. Psychologically, this typically improves the perceived value of the post—plus these images get pulled and used when the post is shared on social media. It’s OK if the image isn’t directly related to the content; it can be metaphorical, as long as it’s attention-grabbing or colorful. Blending in is the opposite of what you want.
• Ask a question at the end. If you want to get people active in the comments, you’ll do better if you end the post on a question, where you ask people to share something specific about their knowledge or experience. Active comments are generally seen as a good thing because it increases the time people spend on your content, which is a signal of engagement for search engines and thus contributes to better search ranking for your blog.

Your post headlines are critical

If people saw only your post headline (e.g., on Twitter), would they feel compelled to click on it? Remember, the headline is often the only thing people see when they’re surfing online and looking at search results, so it’s one of the biggest factors in whether your post gets read. Here are a few considerations:

• Is the headline specific and clear? There’s very little room to be clever, cute, or abstract with blog post headlines. Plus, for search engine optimization, you need to be thinking of keywords that belong in that headline that will help people find your post.
• Is the headline intriguing or provocative? I’m not advocating clickbait headlines, but it doesn’t hurt to create mystery, intrigue, or play on people’s curiosity. You cross the line into clickbait when the headline doesn’t deliver on the promise made, or if the headline is overly sensationalized to get clicks.
• Does the headline offer a benefit? All of us have limited time and energy to consume content online, so we’re always thinking WIIFM? (What’s in it for me?)

Here are some actual blog post headlines that I helped an author improve, to be more specific and attuned to keyword search.

• Original headline: Total Randomness, Mostly Related To Books That Aren’t Mine
• Improved headline: My Summer Reading List: Books I’ve Loved (and Books Still Waiting)
• Original headline: Turn, Turn, Turn
• Improved headline: What If You’re Dreading the Change of Seasons?
• Original headline:  Wanna Have Coffee?
• Improved headline: Overcoming the Obstacles That Prevent You From Meditating

Create cornerstone content

Cornerstone content refers to any article, post, or page at your site that draws new readers to your blog consistently, usually through search or by referral from other sites. Cornerstone content often is a comprehensive, definitive piece that tackles a frequently asked question, issue, or problem—or features a very popular author or  thing in popular culture that is searched for often.

The cornerstone content on this blog can be seen right under “Most Popular Posts”—each one points to my 101 posts on how to get published.

Sometimes, cornerstone content might be a manifesto or download in PDF form. Chris Guillebeau is well-known for 279 Days to Overnight Success that drew thousands (if not millions) to learn about his blog and his message.

If you’re a nonfiction writer, then this probably comes naturally: Put together a 101 guide, FAQ, or tutorial related to your topic or expertise—something people often ask you about. (My most visited resource on this site is Start Here: How to Get Your Book Published .)

If you’re a novelist, this strategy may take some creative thinking. Consider the following:

• If your book is strongly regional, create an insider’s guide or travel guide to that particular region. Or think about other themes in your work that could inspire something fun: a collection of recipes; a character’s favorite books, movies, or music; or what research and resources were essential for completing your work.
• Create a list of favorite reads by genre/category, by mood, or by occasion. Tie into current events or “look-alike” media whenever you can; for example, if you write romance and you know your readers love  The Bachelor , create a list of books that fans of the show would enjoy reading.
• If you have a strong avocational pursuit (or past profession) that influences your novels, create FAQs or guides for the curious.

Having even one piece of cornerstone content greatly reduces your burden to attract readers to your site through brand-new content. If it does its job, the cornerstone piece will bring a steady stream of new readers over a period of weeks and months, some of whom will become loyal followers.

If you’re very serious and strategic about this, I recommend reading How to Increase Website Traffic .

Make it easy to browse and share your posts

Some blogs have such a minimal design that it’s difficult to see the bigger picture of what the blog offers. Even though there are benefits to a minimalist design, I get more engagement by having a sidebar that offers tools to navigate the history of my blog and the hundreds of posts that live here.

• Calendar/archive. People new to your blog may want to dig around in your older posts. Make it easy for them to do so by offering a post calendar or archive.
• Category search.  Blog content should be organized into 5-10 different categories that are of high interest to your audience. For example, if people read an interview or book review on your site that interests them, they may want to browse all previous interviews or book reviews. Make this easy by categorizing the posts correctly and making the categories visible with posts.
• Most popular posts. For new readers of your blog, it’s helpful to have a consistent box or sidebar that tells readers what your most popular posts are.
• Sharing functionality. Make it easy for people to share your posts on Facebook, Twitter (or just about anywhere else) by adding sharing buttons to the bottom of your posts. This functionality is usually built-in to most blogs.

Improve your content’s discoverability through search engines (SEO)

Search engine optimization really requires its own post. However, you’ll be doing a good job with your SEO if:

• You use WordPress or Squarespace, which are already optimized for search.
• You make sure each post is categorized and tagged appropriately.
• You think about how readers would search for your content, and incorporate those search keywords into your post headline, post subheads, and more. If your site is self-hosted, then install WordPress SEO by Yoast , which will give you both the tools and education you need to optimize your content for search.

If your site is self-hosted , then you should have Google Analytics installed. If not, get started today—it’s a free service and easy to set up. After Google Analytics has collected at least 1 month of data, take a look at the following:

• How do people find your blog? Through search? Through your social media presence? Through other websites that link to you?
• What search words bring people to your site?
• What pages or posts are most popular on your site?

By knowing the answers to these questions, you can better decide which social media networks are worth your investment of time and energy (at least as far as blog promotion is concerned), who else on the web might be a good partner for you (who is sending you traffic and why?), and what content on your site is worth your time to continue developing (what content will bring you visitors over the long run?).

Create lists or round-ups on a regular basis

A very popular way to make people aware of your blog is to link to others’ blogs. If you can do this in a helpful way, it’s a win for you, for your readers, and for the sites you send traffic to.

In the writing and publishing community, weekly link round-ups are very common. (See  Elizabeth Craig for one example.) You can create such lists or round-ups on any theme or category that interests you enough to remain dedicated, enthusiastic, and consistent for the long haul—at least six months to a year, if you want to see a tangible benefit.

Run regular interviews with people who fascinate you

Believe it or not, it’s rare to come across an informed, thoughtful, and careful interviewer and interview series.

Think about themes, hooks, or angles for an interview series on your site, and run them on a regular basis—but only as frequently as you have time to invest in a well-researched and quality interview. Such series also offer you an excellent way to build your network and community relationships, which has a way of paying off in the long run.

Be a guest on other sites

Whenever you guest or appear on other websites, that’s an opportunity to have multiple links back to your own site and social network accounts.

A meaningful guest post means pitching sites that have a bigger audience than you, but they should also have a readership that’s a good match for your work. If you need a strong introduction to guest posting how-to, visit this excellent Copyblogger post.  If you’re not the type to write guest posts, then consider proactively offering yourself up to be interviewed as part of other bloggers’ interview series.

Whenever you make an appearance on another site, always promote the interview on your own social networks and create a permanent link to it from your own website.

Above all: You need patience

Here’s what my blog traffic looked like in its early years.

• December 2009. This is when I started using WordPress on this domain. I posted 3-4 times per month.
• Mid-2010.  This is when my traffic reached about 100 visits a day.
• January 2011:  I began a weekly series at my site, unrelated to writing and publishing, that featured mother-daughter interviews.
• July 2011:  This is when I began regularly blogging about writing and publishing at JaneFriedman.com (rather than at Writer’s Digest).

After about two years of consistency, I reached about 60,000 visits per month.

Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet , the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.

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Great piece, Jane, and no surprise from such an experienced hand at this as you, thanks.

I’d like to add clarity of byline as something that’s far more important than many bloggers realize.

A blogger wants her or his work spread around the communities, per your smart comments above about sharing functionality and improving discoverability. But that blogger also deserves credit for that content. Some of us, in fact, work very hard to #CreditWriters (a Twitter hashtag), even in the tight confines of tweets, to be sure our authors get the recognition they deserve.

When you’re blogging, burying your identity in an “About” section is a mistake.

And making us search Twitter or click over to Twitter’s page on you simply to get your @Twitter handle (your @name in the code-language of Twitter) is also a mistake.

The smartest efforts I’ve seen so far, create a byline–always at the top of a post–that includes both the author’s name and @Twitter handle.  This gives “feeders” (people who use social media to move good content around) an immediate chance to credit a writer without wasting time digging around.

Some good examples of different name + @Twitter handle bylines: http://ow.ly/i/e184 http://ow.ly/i/e188 http://ow.ly/i/e18b  http://ow.ly/i/e18c http://ow.ly/i/eovq http://ow.ly/i/eouR

Professional journalists live by their bylines and they know how important it is to own their work, right up top, on every piece. Good bylines aren’t about bragging. They’re common courtesy and pragmatic communication. When you meet someone, you tell him or her your name, right? And in a world in which your Twitter presence is important, you offer your @Twitter handle, as well. Many of us add our @Twitter handles to our business cards. Bloggers, many of whom have no background in formal journalism, can miss out on recognition, distribution, and visibility on the assumption that “everybody knows who I am, it’s my blog.”

Awful lot of blogs. Awful lot of posts. The world really doesn’t know one from another, and we’re all busy. Bloggers who help us get their names and @Twitter handles at “electric speed” show us that they get what’s going on in the world of fast-twitch distribution, game on.

Thanks again-

Thanks for that great insight I’ll definitely apply that to my blog

[…] Get Started Guide: Blogging for Writers | Jane Friedman This post is for writers totally new to blogging, about to start a blog, and/or feeling dissatisfied with their current blog. Source: janefriedman.com […]

This is great. What I wish I’d had when I was starting out. I’ll spread the word. Thanks, Porter for the great idea of putting your twitter handle front and center on the blog!

Well, Anne, I bow to YOU in so many things related to blogging, so it’s really nice of you to pick up on the @Twitter handle issue. And thanks to Jane for getting us all sorted so well. I’ve been totally lucky to have met her early so I’ve had the benefit of her wisdom before getting too far in, myself. Cheers – 

Totally loved this post, Jane. I agree with Porter that one of the worst things a blogger can do is hide his/her identity and handles on other social networks. That’s why I always suggest using your name as a handle on other social networks (if not taken). In fact, I use you as THE example for why folks need to act now on claiming their name online.

🙂 Thanks, Robert! Means a lot coming from you.

Robert: Would you mind helping a fellow blogger? When I clicked on my name in my comment, instead of going to my blog, which for me is the point of having a profile, it took me to something called Yahoo Plus, which is less than useless for me. It gave my full name, my age and what state I live in, which I don’t want people to know, but didn’t go to the blog, which I did. When I clicked on your name, it went directly to your blog the way it’s suppose to. (By the way, it’s  a cool blog.) How do I get mine to do the same thing?

You can change these settings when you make the comment. There are all kinds of options for this “profile” info—e.g., you can offer just your name & URL, or use an established profile. In this case, it appears you chose the Yahoo-based profile (whether consciously or not).

Thanks, Robert — couldn’t agree more about the importance of using your name as your social-media handle (rather than blog title, etc.), if for no other reason so that you get continuity of community from one project to the next. I love how when we arrive at Jane’s page here, what’s right up top is JANE FRIEDMAN. Her wonderful McLuhan-powered “electric speed” line is the tag, not the center of her universe, which is excellent. I use her as my best example for folks, too. 🙂

I’ve had my blog for a couple of years but this has really helped focus my thoughts about it! 

[…] Get Started Guide: Blogging for Writers | Jane Friedman […]

Thank you for these great tips! My regret is that when I started my blog, I didn’t use my name. I’d change that if I could do it over again.

Shoot! Well, if you’re using Blogger, you could always (rather easily) import everything onto a new WordPress platform if/when you’re ready for a fresh start.

Thank you Jane (and Porter for your extremely helpful addendum) this is truly blogger gold! I’ve had my blog on my website for about a year and still feel as if I’m crawling through the trenches. To say I needed this post doesn’t even begin to cover how much I NEEDED this post 🙂

Awesome! Thanks for commenting.

My pleasure, Barbara, Jane did all the heavy lifting. 🙂 

This was a very informative post. Because I’m relatively new to blogging, I need all the help I can get and this article provided a lot of important information. Thanks, Jane! I’ve written two women’s mystery suspense novels and I’m in the early planning stages of a third. I’ve recently created my own writers forum, a blog for writers and avid readers. I’d like to invite everyone to visit my site. http://pat-writersforum.blogspot.com

This is just the kind of comprehensive information I was looking for a long time, forwarded to me by another fellow writer. I needed to learn more about WordPress, as I currently have a blog with Bloggers, and thanks to you, I can understand WordPress better now!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for taking time to comment!

For centuries, writers have experimented with forms that evoke the imperfection of thought, the inconstancy of human affairs, and the chastening passage of time. But as blogging evolves as a literary form, it is generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that’s enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, and its ethos collective and messy. Yet the interaction it enables between writer and reader is unprecedented, visceral, and sometimes brutal. And make no mistake: it heralds a golden era for journalism.

T he word blog is a conflation of two words: Web and log . It contains in its four letters a concise and accurate self-description: it is a log of thoughts and writing posted publicly on the World Wide Web. In the monosyllabic vernacular of the Internet, Web log soon became the word blog .

This form of instant and global self-publishing, made possible by technology widely available only for the past decade or so, allows for no retroactive editing (apart from fixing minor typos or small glitches) and removes from the act of writing any considered or lengthy review. It is the spontaneous expression of instant thought—impermanent beyond even the ephemera of daily journalism. It is accountable in immediate and unavoidable ways to readers and other bloggers, and linked via hypertext to continuously multiplying references and sources. Unlike any single piece of print journalism, its borders are extremely porous and its truth inherently transitory. The consequences of this for the act of writing are still sinking in.

A ship’s log owes its name to a small wooden board, often weighted with lead, that was for centuries attached to a line and thrown over the stern. The weight of the log would keep it in the same place in the water, like a provisional anchor, while the ship moved away. By measuring the length of line used up in a set period of time, mariners could calculate the speed of their journey (the rope itself was marked by equidistant “knots” for easy measurement). As a ship’s voyage progressed, the course came to be marked down in a book that was called a log.

In journeys at sea that took place before radio or radar or satellites or sonar, these logs were an indispensable source for recording what actually happened. They helped navigators surmise where they were and how far they had traveled and how much longer they had to stay at sea. They provided accountability to a ship’s owners and traders. They were designed to be as immune to faking as possible. Away from land, there was usually no reliable corroboration of events apart from the crew’s own account in the middle of an expanse of blue and gray and green; and in long journeys, memories always blur and facts disperse. A log provided as accurate an account as could be gleaned in real time.

As you read a log, you have the curious sense of moving backward in time as you move forward in pages—the opposite of a book. As you piece together a narrative that was never intended as one, it seems—and is—more truthful. Logs, in this sense, were a form of human self-correction. They amended for hindsight, for the ways in which human beings order and tidy and construct the story of their lives as they look back on them. Logs require a letting-go of narrative because they do not allow for a knowledge of the ending. So they have plot as well as dramatic irony—the reader will know the ending before the writer did.

Anyone who has blogged his thoughts for an extended time will recognize this world. We bloggers have scant opportunity to collect our thoughts, to wait until events have settled and a clear pattern emerges. We blog now—as news reaches us, as facts emerge. This is partly true for all journalism, which is, as its etymology suggests, daily writing, always subject to subsequent revision. And a good columnist will adjust position and judgment and even political loyalty over time, depending on events. But a blog is not so much daily writing as hourly writing. And with that level of timeliness, the provisionality of every word is even more pressing—and the risk of error or the thrill of prescience that much greater.

No columnist or reporter or novelist will have his minute shifts or constant small contradictions exposed as mercilessly as a blogger’s are. A columnist can ignore or duck a subject less noticeably than a blogger committing thoughts to pixels several times a day. A reporter can wait—must wait—until every source has confirmed. A novelist can spend months or years before committing words to the world. For bloggers, the deadline is always now. Blogging is therefore to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.

You end up writing about yourself, since you are a relatively fixed point in this constant interaction with the ideas and facts of the exterior world. And in this sense, the historic form closest to blogs is the diary. But with this difference: a diary is almost always a private matter. Its raw honesty, its dedication to marking life as it happens and remembering life as it was, makes it a terrestrial log. A few diaries are meant to be read by others, of course, just as correspondence could be—but usually posthumously, or as a way to compile facts for a more considered autobiographical rendering. But a blog, unlike a diary, is instantly public. It transforms this most personal and retrospective of forms into a painfully public and immediate one. It combines the confessional genre with the log form and exposes the author in a manner no author has ever been exposed before.

I remember first grappling with what to put on my blog. It was the spring of 2000 and, like many a freelance writer at the time, I had some vague notion that I needed to have a presence “online.” I had no clear idea of what to do, but a friend who ran a Web-design company offered to create a site for me, and, since I was technologically clueless, he also agreed to post various essays and columns as I wrote them. Before too long, this became a chore for him, and he called me one day to say he’d found an online platform that was so simple I could henceforth post all my writing myself. The platform was called Blogger.

As I used it to post columns or links to books or old essays, it occurred to me that I could also post new writing—writing that could even be exclusive to the blog. But what? Like any new form, blogging did not start from nothing. It evolved from various journalistic traditions. In my case, I drew on my mainstream-media experience to navigate the virgin sea. I had a few early inspirations: the old Notebook section of The New Republic , a magazine that, under the editorial guidance of Michael Kinsley, had introduced a more English style of crisp, short commentary into what had been a more high-minded genre of American opinion writing. The New Republic had also pioneered a Diarist feature on the last page, which was designed to be a more personal, essayistic, first-person form of journalism. Mixing the two genres, I did what I had been trained to do—and improvised.

I’d previously written online as well, contributing to a listserv for gay writers and helping Kinsley initiate a more discursive form of online writing for Slate , the first magazine published exclusively on the Web. As soon as I began writing this way, I realized that the online form rewarded a colloquial, unfinished tone. In one of my early Kinsley-­guided experiments, he urged me not to think too hard before writing. So I wrote as I’d write an e-mail—with only a mite more circumspection. This is hazardous, of course, as anyone who has ever clicked Send in a fit of anger or hurt will testify. But blogging requires an embrace of such hazards, a willingness to fall off the trapeze rather than fail to make the leap.

From the first few days of using the form, I was hooked. The simple experience of being able to directly broadcast my own words to readers was an exhilarating literary liberation. Unlike the current generation of writers, who have only ever blogged, I knew firsthand what the alternative meant. I’d edited a weekly print magazine, The New Republic , for five years, and written countless columns and essays for a variety of traditional outlets. And in all this, I’d often chafed, as most writers do, at the endless delays, revisions, office politics, editorial fights, and last-minute cuts for space that dead-tree publishing entails. Blogging—even to an audience of a few hundred in the early days—was intoxicatingly free in comparison. Like taking a narcotic.

It was obvious from the start that it was revolutionary. Every writer since the printing press has longed for a means to publish himself and reach—instantly—any reader on Earth. Every professional writer has paid some dues waiting for an editor’s nod, or enduring a publisher’s incompetence, or being ground to literary dust by a legion of fact-checkers and copy editors. If you added up the time a writer once had to spend finding an outlet, impressing editors, sucking up to proprietors, and proofreading edits, you’d find another lifetime buried in the interstices. But with one click of the Publish Now button, all these troubles evaporated.

Alas, as I soon discovered, this sudden freedom from above was immediately replaced by insurrection from below. Within minutes of my posting something, even in the earliest days, readers responded. E-mail seemed to unleash their inner beast. They were more brutal than any editor, more persnickety than any copy editor, and more emotionally unstable than any colleague.

Again, it’s hard to overrate how different this is. Writers can be sensitive, vain souls, requiring gentle nurturing from editors, and oddly susceptible to the blows delivered by reviewers. They survive, for the most part, but the thinness of their skins is legendary. Moreover, before the blogosphere, reporters and columnists were largely shielded from this kind of direct hazing. Yes, letters to the editor would arrive in due course and subscriptions would be canceled. But reporters and columnists tended to operate in a relative sanctuary, answerable mainly to their editors, not readers. For a long time, columns were essentially monologues published to applause, muffled murmurs, silence, or a distant heckle. I’d gotten blowback from pieces before—but in an amorphous, time-delayed, distant way. Now the feedback was instant, personal, and brutal.

And so blogging found its own answer to the defensive counterblast from the journalistic establishment. To the charges of inaccuracy and unprofessionalism, bloggers could point to the fierce, immediate scrutiny of their readers. Unlike newspapers, which would eventually publish corrections in a box of printed spinach far from the original error, bloggers had to walk the walk of self-correction in the same space and in the same format as the original screwup. The form was more accountable, not less, because there is nothing more conducive to professionalism than being publicly humiliated for sloppiness. Of course, a blogger could ignore an error or simply refuse to acknowledge mistakes. But if he persisted, he would be razzed by competitors and assailed by commenters and abandoned by readers. In an era when the traditional media found itself beset by scandals as disparate as Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and Dan Rather, bloggers survived the first assault on their worth. In time, in fact, the high standards expected of well-trafficked bloggers spilled over into greater accountability, transparency, and punctiliousness among the media powers that were. Even New York Times columnists were forced to admit when they had been wrong.

The blog remained a superficial medium, of course. By superficial, I mean simply that blogging rewards brevity and immediacy. No one wants to read a 9,000-word treatise online. On the Web, one-sentence links are as legitimate as thousand-word diatribes—in fact, they are often valued more. And, as Matt Drudge told me when I sought advice from the master in 2001, the key to understanding a blog is to realize that it’s a broadcast, not a publication. If it stops moving, it dies. If it stops paddling, it sinks.

But the superficiality masked considerable depth—greater depth, from one perspective, than the traditional media could offer. The reason was a single technological innovation: the hyperlink. An old-school columnist can write 800 brilliant words analyzing or commenting on, say, a new think-tank report or scientific survey. But in reading it on paper, you have to take the columnist’s presentation of the material on faith, or be convinced by a brief quotation (which can always be misleading out of context). Online, a hyperlink to the original source transforms the experience. Yes, a few sentences of bloggy spin may not be as satisfying as a full column, but the ability to read the primary material instantly—in as careful or shallow a fashion as you choose—can add much greater context than anything on paper. Even a blogger’s chosen pull quote, unlike a columnist’s, can be effortlessly checked against the original. Now this innovation, pre-dating blogs but popularized by them, is increasingly central to mainstream journalism.

A blog, therefore, bobs on the surface of the ocean but has its anchorage in waters deeper than those print media is technologically able to exploit. It disempowers the writer to that extent, of course. The blogger can get away with less and afford fewer pretensions of authority. He is—more than any writer of the past—a node among other nodes, connected but unfinished without the links and the comments and the track-backs that make the blogosphere, at its best, a conversation, rather than a production.

A writer fully aware of and at ease with the provisionality of his own work is nothing new. For centuries, writers have experimented with forms that suggest the imperfection of human thought, the inconstancy of human affairs, and the humbling, chastening passage of time. If you compare the meandering, questioning, unresolved dialogues of Plato with the definitive, logical treatises of Aristotle, you see the difference between a skeptic’s spirit translated into writing and a spirit that seeks to bring some finality to the argument. Perhaps the greatest single piece of Christian apologetics, Pascal’s Pensées, is a series of meandering, short, and incomplete stabs at arguments, observations, insights. Their lack of finish is what makes them so compelling—arguably more compelling than a polished treatise by Aquinas.

Or take the brilliant polemics of Karl Kraus, the publisher of and main writer for Die Fackel , who delighted in constantly twitting authority with slashing aphorisms and rapid-fire bursts of invective. Kraus had something rare in his day: the financial wherewithal to self-publish. It gave him a fearlessness that is now available to anyone who can afford a computer and an Internet connection.

But perhaps the quintessential blogger avant la lettre was Montaigne. His essays were published in three major editions, each one longer and more complex than the previous. A passionate skeptic, Montaigne amended, added to, and amplified the essays for each edition, making them three-dimensional through time. In the best modern translations, each essay is annotated, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, by small letters (A, B, and C) for each major edition, helping the reader see how each rewrite added to or subverted, emphasized or ironized, the version before. Montaigne was living his skepticism, daring to show how a writer evolves, changes his mind, learns new things, shifts perspectives, grows older—and that this, far from being something that needs to be hidden behind a veneer of unchanging authority, can become a virtue, a new way of looking at the pretensions of authorship and text and truth. Montaigne, for good measure, also peppered his essays with myriads of what bloggers would call external links. His own thoughts are strewn with and complicated by the aphorisms and anecdotes of others. Scholars of the sources note that many of these “money quotes” were deliberately taken out of context, adding layers of irony to writing that was already saturated in empirical doubt.

To blog is therefore to let go of your writing in a way, to hold it at arm’s length, open it to scrutiny, allow it to float in the ether for a while, and to let others, as Montaigne did, pivot you toward relative truth. A blogger will notice this almost immediately upon starting. Some e-mailers, unsurprisingly, know more about a subject than the blogger does. They will send links, stories, and facts, challenging the blogger’s view of the world, sometimes outright refuting it, but more frequently adding context and nuance and complexity to an idea. The role of a blogger is not to defend against this but to embrace it. He is similar in this way to the host of a dinner party. He can provoke discussion or take a position, even passionately, but he also must create an atmosphere in which others want to participate.

That atmosphere will inevitably be formed by the blogger’s personality. The blogosphere may, in fact, be the least veiled of any forum in which a writer dares to express himself. Even the most careful and self-aware blogger will reveal more about himself than he wants to in a few unguarded sentences and publish them before he has the sense to hit Delete. The wise panic that can paralyze a writer—the fear that he will be exposed, undone, humiliated—is not available to a blogger. You can’t have blogger’s block. You have to express yourself now, while your emotions roil, while your temper flares, while your humor lasts. You can try to hide yourself from real scrutiny, and the exposure it demands, but it’s hard. And that’s what makes blogging as a form stand out: it is rich in personality. The faux intimacy of the Web experience, the closeness of the e-mail and the instant message, seeps through. You feel as if you know bloggers as they go through their lives, experience the same things you are experiencing, and share the moment. When readers of my blog bump into me in person, they invariably address me as Andrew. Print readers don’t do that. It’s Mr. Sullivan to them.

On my blog, my readers and I experienced 9/11 together, in real time. I can look back and see not just how I responded to the event, but how I responded to it at 3:47 that afternoon. And at 9:46 that night. There is a vividness to this immediacy that cannot be rivaled by print. The same goes for the 2000 recount, the Iraq War, the revelations of Abu Ghraib, the death of John Paul II, or any of the other history-making events of the past decade. There is simply no way to write about them in real time without revealing a huge amount about yourself. And the intimate bond this creates with readers is unlike the bond that the The Times, say, develops with its readers through the same events. Alone in front of a computer, at any moment, are two people: a blogger and a reader. The proximity is palpable, the moment human—whatever authority a blogger has is derived not from the institution he works for but from the humanness he conveys. This is writing with emotion not just under but always breaking through the surface. It renders a writer and a reader not just connected but linked in a visceral, personal way. The only term that really describes this is friendship . And it is a relatively new thing to write for thousands and thousands of friends.

These friends, moreover, are an integral part of the blog itself—sources of solace, company, provocation, hurt, and correction. If I were to do an inventory of the material that appears on my blog, I’d estimate that a good third of it is reader-­generated, and a good third of my time is spent absorbing readers’ views, comments, and tips. Readers tell me of breaking stories, new perspectives, and counterarguments to prevailing assumptions. And this is what blogging, in turn, does to reporting. The traditional method involves a journalist searching for key sources, nurturing them, and sequestering them from his rivals. A blogger splashes gamely into a subject and dares the sources to come to him.

Some of this material—e-mails from soldiers on the front lines, from scientists explaining new research, from dissident Washington writers too scared to say what they think in their own partisan redoubts—might never have seen the light of day before the blogosphere. And some of it, of course, is dubious stuff. Bloggers can be spun and misled as easily as traditional writers—and the rigorous source assessment that good reporters do can’t be done by e-mail. But you’d be surprised by what comes unsolicited into the in-box, and how helpful it often is.

Not all of it is mere information. Much of it is also opinion and scholarship, a knowledge base that exceeds the research department of any newspaper. A good blog is your own private Wikipedia. Indeed, the most pleasant surprise of blogging has been the number of people working in law or government or academia or rearing kids at home who have real literary talent and real knowledge, and who had no outlet—until now. There is a distinction here, of course, between the edited use of e-mailed sources by a careful blogger and the often mercurial cacophony on an unmediated comments section. But the truth is out there—and the miracle of e-mail allows it to come to you.

Fellow bloggers are always expanding this knowledge base. Eight years ago, the blogosphere felt like a handful of individual cranks fighting with one another. Today, it feels like a universe of cranks, with vast, pulsating readerships, fighting with one another. To the neophyte reader, or blogger, it can seem overwhelming. But there is a connection between the intimacy of the early years and the industry it has become today. And the connection is human individuality.

The pioneers of online journalism— Slate and Salon—are still very popular, and successful. But the more memorable stars of the Internet—even within those two sites—are all personally branded. Daily Kos, for example, is written by hundreds of bloggers, and amended by thousands of commenters. But it is named after Markos Moulitsas, who started it, and his own prose still provides a backbone to the front-page blog. The biggest news-aggregator site in the world, the Drudge Report, is named after its founder, Matt Drudge, who somehow conveys a unified sensibility through his selection of links, images, and stories. The vast, expanding universe of The Huffington Post still finds some semblance of coherence in the Cambridge-Greek twang of Arianna; the entire world of online celebrity gossip circles the drain of Perez Hilton; and the investigative journalism, reviewing, and commentary of Talking Points Memo is still tied together by the tone of Josh Marshall. Even Slate is unimaginable without Mickey Kaus’s voice.

What endures is a human brand. Readers have encountered this phenomenon before— I.F. Stone’s Weekly comes to mind—but not to this extent. It stems, I think, from the conversational style that blogging rewards. What you want in a conversationalist is as much character as authority. And if you think of blogging as more like talk radio or cable news than opinion magazines or daily newspapers, then this personalized emphasis is less surprising. People have a voice for radio and a face for television. For blogging, they have a sensibility.

But writing in this new form is a collective enterprise as much as it is an individual one—and the connections between bloggers are as important as the content on the blogs. The links not only drive conversation, they drive readers. The more you link, the more others will link to you, and the more traffic and readers you will get. The zero-sum game of old media—in which Time benefits from Newsweek ’s decline and vice versa—becomes win-win. It’s great for Time to be linked to by Newsweek and the other way round. One of the most prized statistics in the blogosphere is therefore not the total number of readers or page views, but the “authority” you get by being linked to by other blogs. It’s an indication of how central you are to the online conversation of humankind.

The reason this open-source market of thinking and writing has such potential is that the always adjusting and evolving collective mind can rapidly filter out bad arguments and bad ideas. The flip side, of course, is that bloggers are also human beings. Reason is not the only fuel in the tank. In a world where no distinction is made between good traffic and bad traffic, and where emotion often rules, some will always raise their voice to dominate the conversation; others will pander shamelessly to their readers’ prejudices; others will start online brawls for the fun of it. Sensationalism, dirt, and the ease of formulaic talking points always beckon. You can disappear into the partisan blogosphere and never stumble onto a site you disagree with.

But linkage mitigates this. A Democratic blog will, for example, be forced to link to Republican ones, if only to attack and mock. And it’s in the interests of both camps to generate shared traffic. This encourages polarized slugfests. But online, at least you see both sides. Reading The Nation or National Review before the Internet existed allowed for more cocooning than the wide-open online sluice gates do now. If there’s more incivility, there’s also more fluidity. Rudeness, in any case, isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a blogger. Being ignored is. Perhaps the nastiest thing one can do to a fellow blogger is to rip him apart and fail to provide a link.

A successful blog therefore has to balance itself between a writer’s own take on the world and others. Some bloggers collect, or “aggregate,” other bloggers’ posts with dozens of quick links and minimalist opinion topspin: Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit does this for the right-of-center; Duncan Black at Eschaton does it for the left. Others are more eclectic, or aggregate links in a particular niche, or cater to a settled and knowledgeable reader base. A “blogroll” is an indicator of whom you respect enough to keep in your galaxy. For many years, I kept my reading and linking habits to a relatively small coterie of fellow political bloggers. In today’s blogosphere, to do this is to embrace marginality. I’ve since added links to religious blogs and literary ones and scientific ones and just plain weird ones. As the blogosphere has expanded beyond anyone’s capacity to absorb it, I’ve needed an assistant and interns to scour the Web for links and stories and photographs to respond to and think about. It’s a difficult balance, between your own interests and obsessions, and the knowledge, insight, and wit of others—but an immensely rich one. There are times, in fact, when a blogger feels less like a writer than an online disc jockey, mixing samples of tunes and generating new melodies through mashups while also making his own music. He is both artist and producer—and the beat always goes on.

If all this sounds postmodern, that’s because it is. And blogging suffers from the same flaws as postmodernism: a failure to provide stable truth or a permanent perspective. A traditional writer is valued by readers precisely because they trust him to have thought long and hard about a subject, given it time to evolve in his head, and composed a piece of writing that is worth their time to read at length and to ponder. Bloggers don’t do this and cannot do this—and that limits them far more than it does traditional long-form writing.

A blogger will air a variety of thoughts or facts on any subject in no particular order other than that dictated by the passing of time. A writer will instead use time, synthesizing these thoughts, ordering them, weighing which points count more than others, seeing how his views evolved in the writing process itself, and responding to an editor’s perusal of a draft or two. The result is almost always more measured, more satisfying, and more enduring than a blizzard of posts. The triumphalist notion that blogging should somehow replace traditional writing is as foolish as it is pernicious. In some ways, blogging’s gifts to our discourse make the skills of a good traditional writer much more valuable, not less. The torrent of blogospheric insights, ideas, and arguments places a greater premium on the person who can finally make sense of it all, turning it into something more solid, and lasting, and rewarding.

The points of this essay, for example, have appeared in shards and fragments on my blog for years. But being forced to order them in my head and think about them for a longer stretch has helped me understand them better, and perhaps express them more clearly. Each week, after a few hundred posts, I also write an actual newspaper column. It invariably turns out to be more considered, balanced, and evenhanded than the blog. But the blog will always inform and enrich the column, and often serve as a kind of free-form, free-associative research. And an essay like this will spawn discussion best handled on a blog. The conversation, in other words, is the point, and the different idioms used by the conversationalists all contribute something of value to it. And so, if the defenders of the old media once viscerally regarded blogging as some kind of threat, they are starting to see it more as a portal, and a spur.

There is, after all, something simply irreplaceable about reading a piece of writing at length on paper, in a chair or on a couch or in bed. To use an obvious analogy, jazz entered our civilization much later than composed, formal music. But it hasn’t replaced it; and no jazz musician would ever claim that it could. Jazz merely demands a different way of playing and listening, just as blogging requires a different mode of writing and reading. Jazz and blogging are intimate, improvisational, and individual—but also inherently collective. And the audience talks over both.

The reason they talk while listening, and comment or link while reading, is that they understand that this is a kind of music that needs to be engaged rather than merely absorbed. To listen to jazz as one would listen to an aria is to miss the point. Reading at a monitor, at a desk, or on an iPhone provokes a querulous, impatient, distracted attitude, a demand for instant, usable information, that is simply not conducive to opening a novel or a favorite magazine on the couch. Reading on paper evokes a more relaxed and meditative response. The message dictates the medium. And each medium has its place—as long as one is not mistaken for the other.

In fact, for all the intense gloom surrounding the news-paper and magazine business, this is actually a golden era for journalism. The blogosphere has added a whole new idiom to the act of writing and has introduced an entirely new generation to nonfiction. It has enabled writers to write out loud in ways never seen or understood before. And yet it has exposed a hunger and need for traditional writing that, in the age of television’s dominance, had seemed on the wane.

Words, of all sorts, have never seemed so now.

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How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free Blog Post Templates]

Review a step-by-step guide plus useful templates to learn how to write an effective blog post for your target audience and customers.

6 FREE BLOG POST TEMPLATES

Save time creating blog posts with these free templates.

Updated: 08/29/24

Published: 10/15/13

If you’ve ever read a blog post, you’ve consumed content from a thought leader that is an expert in their industry. And if the post was well written, chances are you came away with helpful knowledge and a positive opinion about the brand.

Anyone can connect with their audience through blogging and enjoy the benefits. If you’ve heard about blogging but don’t know where to start, the time is now.

I’ll cover how you can write and manage an SEO-friendly blog with templates to help you along the way.

What is a blog post?

How to start a blog.

What Makes a Good Blog Post

Writing Your First Blog Post: Getting Started

How to write a blog post, blog format guidelines, blog post examples, quick blog writing tips.

6 Free Blog Post Templates

• "How-to" Post
• "What is" Post
• Listicle Post

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A blog post is any article, news piece, or guide that's published in the blog section of a website. A blog post typically covers a specific topic or query, is educational in nature, ranges from 600 to 2,000+ words, and contains other media types such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts.

Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on your website about any topic. They can help you boost brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue.

And most importantly, they can help you drive traffic to your website.

• Understand your audience.
• Check out your competition.
• Determine what topics you’ll cover.
• Identify your unique angle.
• Name your blog.
• Create your blog domain.
• Choose a CMS and set up your blog.
• Customize the look of your blog.
• Write your first blog post.

I’ll share a little more on buyer personas with an example (because they’re that important).

Let’s say your readers are Millennials looking to start a business. You probably don't need to provide them with information about getting started on social media — most of them already have that down.

You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their social media approach (e.g., — from casual to more business-savvy). That kind of tweak is what helps you publish content about the topics your audience really wants and needs.

Don't have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started:

• Create Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Template]
• Guide: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
• [Free Tool] Make My Persona: Buyer Persona Generator

2. Check out your competition.

What better way to draw inspiration than to look at your well-established competition?

It’s worth taking a look at popular, highly reviewed blogs because their strategy and execution is what got them to grow in credibility.

The purpose of doing this isn’t to copy these elements, but to gain better insight into what readers appreciate in a quality blog.

When you find a competitor’s blog, take the following steps:

• Determine whether they’re actually a direct competitor. A blog’s audience, niche, and specific slant determine whether they're actually your competitor. But the most important of these is their audience. If they serve a completely different public than you, then they’re likely not a competitor.
• Look at the blog’s branding, color palette, and theme. Colors and themes play a huge role in whether you seem like part of a niche. For example, a blog about eco-friendly products should likely use earthy tones instead of loud, unnatural colors.
• Analyze the tone and writing style of the competition. Take note of your competition’s copywriting. Is it something you feel like you can successfully emulate? Does it ring true to the type of blog you’d like to create? What do readers most respond to? Be aware of what you can feasibly execute.

3. Determine what topics you’ll cover.

Before you write anything, pick a topic you’d like to write about. The topic can be pretty general to start as you find your desired niche in blogging .

Here are some ways to choose topics to cover:

• Find out which topics your competitors often cover. After you determine your competitors, go through their archive and category pages, and try to find out which topics they most often publish content about. From there, you can create a tentative list to explore further.
• Choose topics you understand well. You want to ensure you know the topic well enough to write authoritatively about it. Think about those that come most naturally to you. What has your professional experience been like so far? What are your hobbies? What did you study in college? These can all give rise to potential topics to cover.
• Ensure the topics are relevant to your readership. Del Principe suggests checking in with sales and service teams as well. "What kinds of things do they wish customers already knew? What kinds of questions do they get asked a thousand times?” If you’re not serving their needs, then you’d be shouting into a void — or, worse, attracting the wrong readership.
• Do preliminary keyword research . Search for topics using a keyword research tool , then determine whether there is search demand. If you found the perfect topics that are the perfect cross between your expertise and your reader’s needs, you’ve struck gold — but the gold will have no value unless people are searching for those terms.

Pro tip: If you need help brainstorming ideas or lack inspiration, you can use HubSpot’s blog topic generator. It can generate title ideas and even outlines based on a brief description of what you want to write about or a specific keyword.

4. Identify your unique angle.

What perspective do you bring that makes you stand out from the crowd? This is key to determining the trajectory of your blog’s future, and there are many avenues to choose in the process.

Here’s how you can find your unique selling proposition in crowded blogging niches:

• Write a professional and personal bio . Knowing your own history and experience is essential to determine your unique angle. What unique experience makes you a trusted expert or thought leader on the topic? Use this information to populate your “About me” page on your blog and share more about yourself.
• Determine the special problem you will solve for readers. As you try to find your angle, think about ways you can help your audience surmount challenges typically associated with the topics you’ve chosen for your blog. For instance, if you’re creating a blog about sustainability, then you might help readers learn to compost.
• Choose an editorial approach. Will you share your opinions on trending debates? Teach your readers how to do something? The editorial approach you choose will in part be informed by the topics you cover on your blog and the problems you’re helping your readers solve. Like if your goal is to keep marketers up-to-date on the latest changes, then your editorial approach should be journalistic in nature.

5. Name your blog.

This is your opportunity to get creative and make a name that gives readers an idea of what to expect from your blog.

Some tips on how to choose your blog name include:

• Keep your blog name easy to say and spell. No need to get complicated here. While choosing a unique name is essential, it’s also important to choose one that is easy to memorize for readers. It should also be simple to remember as an URL (which will come into play in the next step).
• Link your blog name to your brand message. The more related your blog’s name is to the topics you cover, the better. For example, DIY MFA is all about writers doing their own Master of Fine Arts in writing at home. Try to allude to your blog’s message, value proposition, and covered topics in one sweep.
• Consider what your target audience is looking for. Your blog name should tie directly into what your readers want to achieve, learn, or solve. DIY MFA is for writers who don’t have the money for graduate school, but want to develop their writing skills. The HubSpot Marketing blog is — you guessed it — all about marketing.

Pro tip: If you help choosing a blog name, try using a blog name generator . And make sure the name you come up with isn’t already taken, as it could lessen your visibility and confuse readers looking for your content.

6. Create your blog domain.

A domain is a part of the web address nomenclature someone would use to find your website or a page of your website online.

Your blog‘s domain will look like this: www.yourblog.com. The name between the two periods is up to you, as long as this domain name doesn’t yet exist on the internet.

Want to create a subdomain for your blog? If you already own a cooking business at www.yourcompany.com, you might create a blog that looks like this: blog.yourcompany.com. In other words, your blog's subdomain will live in its own section of yourcompany.com.

Some CMS platforms offer subdomains as a free service, where your blog lives on the CMS, rather than your business's website. For example, it might look like this: yourblog.contentmanagementsystem.com.

However, to create a subdomain that belongs to your company website, register the subdomain with a website host .

Most website hosting services charge very little to host an original domain — in fact, website costs can be as inexpensive as $3 per month when you commit to a 36-month term.

Pro tip: You can connect your custom domain to free hosting with HubSpot’s free CMS or in premium editions of Content Hub . This includes access to built-in security features and a content delivery network.

Here are five other popular web hosting services to choose from:

HubSpot's Free Website Builder

Create and customize your own business website with an easy drag-and-drop website builder.

• Build a website without any coding skills.
• Pre-built themes and templates.
• Built-in marketing tools and features.

7. Choose a CMS and set up your blog.

A CMS (content management system) is a software application that allows users to build and maintain a website without having to code it from scratch.

CMS platforms can manage the following:

• Domains – where you create your website
• Subdomains – where you create a webpage that connects to an existing website

HubSpot customers host web content via Content Hub . Another popular option is a self-hosted WordPress website on a hosting site such as WP Engine .

Whether you create a domain or a subdomain to start your blog , you'll need to choose a web hosting service after you pick a CMS.

Pro tip: You can get started for free with HubSpot’s free blog maker . Our free CMS offers everything you need to get started– including hosting, a visual editor, and hundreds of free and paid themes to choose from.

Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably “blogging.” Then the working title may have been something like, “The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic.” And the final title ended up being “How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post.”

See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title?

Even though the working title may not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.

Pro tip: I’ve also enlisted the help of ChatGPT to generate sample blog post titles by inputting a prompt like, “Write a list of blog titles about [topic].” Even if it doesn’t give you exactly what you want, it can still get ideas flowing.

8. Create an outline.

Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information — for the reader and the writer.

The trick is to organize the info in a way so readers aren‘t intimidated by length or amount of content. This organization can take multiple forms (e.g., sections, lists, tips), but it must be organized.

Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

There‘s a lot of content in the piece, so it’s broken up into a few sections using descriptive headers. The major sections are separated into subsections that go into more detail, making the content easier to read.

Remember, your outline should serve as a guide to make writing your blog post easier, so make sure you include all the important points you want to discuss and organize them in a logical flow.

And to make things even easier, you can download and use our free blog post templates , which are pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!

9. Write an intro (and make it captivating).

We've written more specifically about writing captivating introductions in the post " How to Write an Introduction ," but let's review, shall we?

• First, grab the reader‘s attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs — or even sentences — of the introduction, they’ll stop reading (even before they've given your post a fair shake). You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grip the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.
• Then, describe the purpose of your post. Explain how it will address a problem the reader may be experiencing. This will give the reader a reason to continue reading and show them how the post will help them improve their work or lives.

Here‘s an example of an intro I think does a good job of attracting a reader’s attention right away:

“Blink. Blink. Blink. It's the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers — amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.”

10. Start writing your blog post.

You‘ve already done the work on the frame, so now’s the time to add the body. The next step — but not the last — is actually writing the content. We can't forget about that, of course.

Now that you have a detailed outline and solid intro, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information.

Use examples and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. And when you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.

This is also your opportunity to show personality in your writing. Blog posts don‘t have to be strictly informational, they can be filled with interesting anecdotes and even humor if it serves a purpose in expressing your ideas.

It also factors into creating and maintaining your blog’s brand voice.

Oh, and if you‘re having trouble stringing sentences together, you’re not alone. Finding your “flow” can be challenging for a lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help you improve your writing.

Here are a few to get you started:

• HubSpot's AI Blog Writer : Tools like HubSpot's AI Blog Writer can be a valuable asset for beginners and seasoned bloggers alike. It simplifies the process of creating SEO-friendly and engaging blog content, which is crucial for connecting with your audience and enjoying the benefits of blogging.
• Power Thesaurus : Stuck on a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides users with a number of alternative word choices from a community of writers.
• ZenPen : If you're having trouble staying focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen creates a minimalist “writing zone” designed to help you get words down without having to fuss with formatting right away.
• Cliché Finder : Feeling like your writing might be coming off a little cheesy? Identify instances where you can be more specific using this handy cliché tool.

You can also refer to our complete list of tools for improving your writing skills .

And for even more direction, check out the following resources:

• Copywriting 101: 6 Traits of Excellent Copy Readers Will Remember
• How to Write Compelling Copy: 7 Tips for Writing Content That Converts
• How to Write With Clarity: 9 Tips for Simplifying Your Message
• The Kurt Vonnegut Guide to Great Copywriting: 8 Rules That Apply to Anyone
• Your Blog Posts Are Boring: 9 Tips for Making Your Writing More Interesting

11. Proofread your post.

The editing process is an important part of blogging — don't overlook it. I tend to self-edit while I write, but it’s essential to get a second pair of eyes on your post before publishing.

Consider enlisting the help of The Ultimate Editing Checklist and ask a grammar-conscious co-worker to copy-edit your post.

I also really enjoy free grammar checkers, like Grammarly , to help proofread while I’m writing.

Here are some more tips to help you brush up on your self-editing skills:

• How to Become a (Better) Editor: 13 Editorial Tips
• How to Become a More Efficient Editor: 12 Ways to Speed Up the Editorial Process
• 10 Simple Edits That'll Instantly Improve Any Piece of Writing

12. Add images and other media elements to support your ideas.

When you're finished checking for grammar, shift your focus to adding other elements to the blog post than text. There’s much more to making a good blog post than copy, here’s some following elements to add in support of your ideas:

Featured Image

Choose a visually appealing and relevant image for your post. As social networks treat content with images more prominently, visuals are more responsible than ever for the success of your blog content.

Visual Appearance

No one likes an unattractive blog post. And it‘s not just pictures that make a post visually appealing — it’s the formatting and organization of the post, too.

In a well-formatted and visually-appealing blog post, you'll notice that header and sub-headers are used to break up large blocks of text. And those headers are styled consistently.

Here's an example of what that looks like:

Do People Still Read Blogs in 2023? We Asked Consumers [New Data]

How to Write a Blog Post Outline: A Simple Formula to Follow [+Tips from Our Blog Team]

What HubSpot's Highest Performing Blog Posts Have in Common & Why These Elements Work

5 Blogging Trends to Leverage in 2023, According to HubSpot Leaders

How to Create a Perfect Blog Post Template in Google Docs

Which Format Is Right for Your Next Blog Post?

9 Ways to Crush the End of a Blog Post

Can You Really Drive Traffic With Clickbait Articles?

7 Tips for Making Dull Blog Topics Interesting, According to Our Blog Team

August Social Media News: Facebook Watch, YouTube Messaging & More

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• What’s Minimalism?
• 30-Day Minimalism Game
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• Popular Essays

How to Start a Blog

How to Start a Successful Blog in 2024

Learn how to start a blog in less than an hour. Become a blogger today by following the steps we used when starting our blog, which now has reached more than 20 million people and has been seen in the New York Times , TIME magazine, and on the TODAY show.

You can start a blog in just 5 simple steps.

• Choose your blog name and hosting.
• Build your blog with WordPress.
• Pick your design to make it your own.
• Add SEO and track stats.
• Write compelling content.

Do you want to start a blog fast?

This is a long essay and you may want to start your blog without all the detail.

This is the first how to quickly start a blog guidepost.

To start a blog fast simply:

• Look for these boxes.
• Follow the brief steps.
• Click the link to jump to the next box.

Click here to go to the first step.

How We Started This Blog

Want to create something meaningful? Why not start a blog? Why not become a blogger? Creating this blog is one of the best decisions Ryan and I ever made. After all, our blog is how we earn a living . We make money blogging, but more important it’s how we add value to other people’s lives.

So you’re thinking about starting a blog, but you don’t have any idea where to start, right? Guess what—neither did we! Before we became “The Minimalists,” we wanted to start a blog to communicate our thoughts and express our feelings, but we were overwhelmed with options.

Clueless, confused, and confounded with choices, we had no idea how to start a blog or how to be a blogger. When should we start? How do we register a domain name? What is hosting? Which blogging platform should we use? How do we choose a blog theme? What should we write about? Heck, we could hardly spell HTML, let alone build a blog!

But good news: it turns out that starting a blog is much easier than you think. We’ve learned a ton of lessons during our ascent to millions of readers, and now you can learn from our pain and suffering to avoid much of the tedium involved in setting up a blog.

How to Become a Blogger: Video Tutorial

If you prefer to watch our process for setting up a blog, we’ve created a step-by-step start a blog video, How to Become a Successful Blogger Today , which shows the entire starting-a-blog undertaking. Otherwise, read on.

How to Start a Successful Blog in 5 Steps

• Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting.
• Start your blog by adding WordPress.
• Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own.
• Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats.
• Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love.

While there are other blogging platforms out there like Blogger, Squarespace, and Wix, nearly every serious blogger uses a self-hosted WordPress site because of its creative freedom and flexibility.

It’s not only because it’s the easiest blog to set up. The Minimalists uses WordPress because it gives us greater control over the look and feel of our blog—more creative control than any other platform. Oh, and WordPress itself is free !

These are the exact steps we took when we created this website. If you follow these five steps, you will learn how to set up a blog in less than one hour.

Step 1 Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting

The first thing we did when starting our blog was go to Bluehost and register our domain, which is free with hosting. We’ll explain hosting in a moment, but let’s talk about your domain name first.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 1

In this first step you will choose your blog name (domain name) and buy your blog hosting.

• Go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button.
• Select the Basic plan .
• Pick your domain name and enter it into the New Domain box.
• Create your Bluehost account.

Click here to jump to the next step.

Choose your domain name

Your domain name is an important part of your blog because it creates a first impression—it is the name of your blog. Also known as your URL, your domain is also your address on the web. For example, our domain name is www.theminimalists.com.

So, what do you want to call your blog? Maybe it’s YourName.com. Maybe it’s YourBusinessName.com. Or maybe it’s a creative brand name you thought up. If you’re having a hard time thinking of a good domain name, try Wordoid , a wonderful naming tool that will give you plenty of great options. Just make sure you don’t buy the domain from them since Bluehost will give you a free domain. (If you’ve already purchased a domain elsewhere, that’s okay, too, because Bluehost will make it easy to transfer your existing domain during the setup process.)

Set up blog hosting

Once you’ve decided on a domain name, you’ll need to set up hosting for your blog. While WordPress itself is free (see Step 2 below), you need a reliable place to host your WordPress blog (your blog needs to be on a server somewhere on the Internet).

For hosting, we recommend Bluehost for several reasons:

• We Use Bluehost. We personally use Bluehost to host The Minimalists . If you recommend a company, you better be willing to use their product yourself. We also use them to host several other websites of ours.
• Great Pricing. TheMinimalists.com is a Bluehost affiliate partner, which means that in addition to using their service, we also receive a commission for referring new customers. To be fair, though, we would still use Bluehost even if we weren’t an affiliate—we’ve used them for a long time. Ergo, we don’t recommend Bluehost just because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar affiliate program); we recommend Bluehost because they are the best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, Bluehost offers a more than 50% discount for The Minimalists readers: only $2.75 a month for the first year.
• Free Domain. When you sign up for hosting, Bluehost will give you a free domain name, which allows you to avoid the upfront and recurring fees associated with purchasing a domain on your own. If you’ve already purchased your own domain name, don’t worry; you can still use your domain with Bluehost (it’s just one extra step).
• Money-Back Guarantee. Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk if you change your mind.
• Reliability. Bluehost’s facilities are world class. They have their own custom-built 20,000-square-foot datacenter with enough backup generators to power a city.
• Friends & Family. Many of our friends and family also use Bluehost to host their blogs.

Now that you’re ready to get started, go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button.

Next choose your hosting plan.

You’ll see that prices range from $3 to $6 per month, depending on whether you want a basic, single blog hosting plan or a more robust plan that allows you to create multiple blogs.

Once you select your plan you’ll choose or enter your domain name.

If you don’t own a domain name simply enter your desired blog name into the New Domain box.

If you’ve already own a domain name simply enter that into the I have a domain name box.

Click Next .

Finally create your blogging account.

And click Create your password to complete your blog hosting setup.

Just like that you’ve nearly become a blogger!

How to Start a Blog Ebook

Pressed for time? Learn how we started our successful blog using this free ebook.

Step 2 Start your blog by adding WordPress

Next you will install WordPress, which is free. Don’t let the word “install” intimidate you, though. It’s much easier than it sounds and Bluehost does all the work for you.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 2

Next you’ll install WordPress.

• Click the Log In button.
• Click Skip This Step on the Pick a theme screen.
• WordPress is now installed, click Start Building to go to your dashboard.

To begin simply click Log In .

Bluehost provides several blog design options, but simply scroll to the bottom and click Skip This Step (you’ll see why in a moment).

WordPress is now installed. Simply click Start Building to go to your new blogging dashboard and continue to Step 3.

Step 3 Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own

A theme allows you to pick a design for your blog without the need for coding expertise or design knowledge. In other words, a good theme helps you to design your blog exactly how  you  want it to look. If you’re not a coder (I’m certainly not a coder), then a theme makes the design work a million times easier.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 3

Next you’ll choose and install your blog’s WordPress theme.

• Go to BYLT .
• Purchase the theme that fits your style (we use the tru Theme).
• Download and save your theme’s .zip file to your Desktop.
• Return to your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Themes .
• Click Upload and then Upload Theme .
• Click Choose File , select your theme .zip file, and click Install Now .
• Click Activate .

Our blog design is from BYLT, a platform created by our good friends at SPYR. They have several beautiful, simple WordPress themes to choose from, and, in fact, you can purchase the same theme we use if you like.

Simply go to BYLT and find the minimalist WordPress theme that best fits your desired aesthetic. Their themes are feature-rich; plus, once you buy your theme, you will have the same team supporting your work that we trust to support ours.

Once you purchase your theme you’ll be able to download your WordPress theme (a .zip file) from your BYLT Dashboard . Save this file to your Desktop because you’ll need to upload it to WordPress in just a moment.

Remember how easy it was to install WordPress? Well installing your blog theme is just as simple.

First return to your WordPress Dashboard.

You should already be logged in, but whenever you are signed out go to my.bluehost.com , enter your new domain name (or username), your password, and click Submit .

From here, go to My Sites and click on Log in to WordPress .

Next, in your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes .

Next, click the Upload button.

Then, click the Upload Theme button followed by the Choose File button.

Find the .zip file you downloaded from your BYLT Dashboard (this is your theme file) and click Install Now to install your new simple blog design.

Finally, click Activate and your blog theme is installed.

Step 4 Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats

Plugins are third-party appendages that add additional functionality to your blog.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 4

In the final setup step you’ll install two plugins that will improve your blog’s features.

• In your WordPress Dashboard go to Plugins > Add New .
• Search for Yoast SEO . Click Install Now followed by Activate .
• Click the Add New button to add one more plugin.
• Search for MonsterInsights and click Install Now followed by Activate .
• Click the Launch the Wizard! button to configure MonsterInsights.

It’s best to keep your number of blog plugins to a minimum and install only the best ones, because too many plugins—as well as unreliable plugins—can slow down your site. We use very few plugins at The Minimalists .

In this section you’ll install and activate the following free plugins:

• Yoast SEO  is the defacto standard SEO plugin for WordPress. For details and everything you’d ever want to know about WordPress SEO read  Yoast’s Definitive SEO Guide .
• Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights  allows you to track your blog’s traffic easily and with lots of interesting data: overall traffic, traffic sources, views per author & category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews.

In your WordPress dashboard go to  Plugins > Add New .

Search for Yoast SEO .

Then click Install Now followed by Activate and your blog will immediately have improved SEO.

Next search for MonsterInsights .

Then click Install Now followed by Activate .

Next click Launch the Wizard! and follow the steps to complete the MonsterInsights setup.

Finally, so people can receive our blog posts via email, we have an email newsletter. For a feature-rich email-subscription service we recommend ConvertKit (affiliate link). (By the way, if you don’t already, subscribe to  The Minimalists’ blog via email .)

Step 5 Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love

Congratulations! You started a blog, and now it’s time to start blogging. This is where the fun begins.

Now that you have your own blog, you get to make it yours ; you get to turn your vision into a reality.

• Content . Start writing and publishing the content for your basic pages: create an About Page, Contact Page, Start Here Page, and any other page you want in the header of your new blog.
• Photo . Add a photo of yourself (pro tip: you can start with a well-lit selfie, but when you get a chance, get some professional photos taken; they’re well worth the cost because people identify with other people more than they identify with logos).
• Logo . Create a basic logo using a program like InDesign, Photoshop, or a text editor (note: even though we have no design skills, we were able to use Apple’s Pages application to create our simple logo after downloading some free vector art  and choosing the typeface that best suited our aesthetic). Or you can find someone on a site like Fiverr or hire a designer like SPYR to create a professional logo.
• Images . Spice up your blog posts with high-quality stock photos and images: Unsplash (free), Library of Congress (free),  iStock  (fee-based), Shutterstock (fee-based).
• Comments . Determine whether or not you want comments on your blog; they are often a useful way to receive feedback and directly engage with your readers.
• Social . Establish a social media presence on X (Twitter) , Facebook , or Instagram (or all three).
• Publish . Start writing new blog posts. Publish at least once a week, especially when first starting a blog, so you can build an audience. Below you’ll also find 20 blogging tips to improve your writing in the How to Blog section, as well as 15 reasons you should start a blog and 3 reasons not to start a blog.

We hope you have loads of fun expressing yourself on your new blog. We’re certain it will be a huge growth experience for you during the coming months. You have now officially become a blogger. Wherever you’re going, make sure you enjoy the journey ahead.

How to Blog: 20 Blogging Tips to Improve Your Writing

We receive many emails asking how to blog, about blog topics, and about creating meaningful content. The bulk of this essay explained how to start a blog, but that’s just the initial step. Now it’s time to start writing and publishing your content.

Here, to answer the frequently asked “How can a beginner start blogging?,” are 20 tips for beginners on how to blog .

• Find Your Niche . You needn’t have a niche, but it helps. When learning how to be a blogger, it’s important to ask yourself what you’re passionate about. Running? Cooking? Being a parent? Have you found your passion? If so, whatever it is, write about that. If not, then you must first find your passion . Note: We generally recommend that people don’t start a blog about minimalism or keto or any other heavily saturated topic. But what we really mean when we say this is: don’t create a blog about something unless you have a unique perspective. If you’ve embraced simple living and have a unique perspective, then by all means have at it.
• Define Your Ideal Readers . Once you’ve found your niche, you need to know who will be reading your blog. For example, we blog about living a meaningful life with less. Thus, our ideal readers are people who are interested in exploring minimalism so they can clear the path toward more meaningful lives. If you want to write about your newborn baby growing up, that’s wonderful: your ideal readers are probably your friends and family. If you want to write about restoring classic cars, that’s cool, too. Tailor your writing to your readers (whether it’s your family or local community or whoever else will read your blog).
• Add Value . Your blog must add value to its readers’ lives. You want to help people solve problems. This is the only way you will get great quality readers to your site (and keep them coming back). Adding value is the only way to get someone’s long-term buy-in. We both learned this after a decade of leading and managing people in the corporate world. With everything you write, it’s worth asking: Is this adding value?
• Be Original . Yes, there are other blogs out there about the same thing you want to write about. Question: So why is your blog different? Answer: Because of you . You are what makes your blog different. It’s about your perspective, your creativity, the value  you add.
• Be Interesting . Write interesting blog posts. Especially if you want people to share it with others.
• Be Yourself . Part of being interesting is telling your story. Every person is unique, and your story is an important one. The important part of storytelling, however, is removing the superfluous details that make the story uninteresting. A great storyteller removes 99% of what really happens—the absorptive details—and leaves the interesting 1% for the reader.
• Be Honest . Your blog needs to be authentic—it needs to feel real—if you want people to read it. You can be your blog, or your blog can be you. That is, do you really embody the stuff you write about? If not, people will see through it.”Be the change you want to see in the world,” is the famous Gandhi quote. Perhaps bloggers should build the blog they want to write for the world.
• Transparency . Being transparent is different from being honest. You needn’t share every detail about your life just for the sake of being honest. Always be honest, and be transparent when it adds value to what you’re writing. (Because everything we write must serve the greater good, you won’t ever see pictures of us using the restroom—that’s simply not relevant.)
• Time . Once you’ve learned how to start a blog, you’ll learn that blogging takes a lot of time, especially if you’re as neurotic as we are. That said, once you have your design set up, don’t tweak it too much. Instead, spend the time on your writing.
• Vision . The reason our site design looks good is because we have a great host , we have a great theme , and, most important, we had a vision of how we wanted our blog to look. Once we had the vision, we worked hard to make that vision a reality. (Note: neither of us had any design experience before starting a blog.) It’s hard to create a beautiful blog if you don’t know what you want it to look like.
• Find Your Voice . Over time, good writers discover their voice and their writing tends to develop a certain flow, one that is appealing to their readers. Finding your voice makes your writing feel more alive, more real, more urgent. For additional reading, check out our blog post about Finding Your Voice .
• We Instead of You . Use the first-person plural when possible. Statements of we and our are more powerful than you and your , especially when talking about negative behaviors or tendencies. The first person comes off as far less accusatory. Think of it this way: we’re writing peer-to-peer—we are not gods.
• When to Post . Question: When is the best day and time to publish a blog post? Answer: It doesn’t really matter. We don’t adhere to a particular time-of-day schedule, but we do publish at least once a week because consistency is important. You needn’t get bogged down in the details, though.
• Social Media . Yes, we recommend using X (Twitter) , Facebook , and Instagram to help connect with your audience and other bloggers, but don’t get too caught up in it. Focus on the writing first, social media thereafter.
• Ignore Negative Criticism and Stupidity . Sure, we get a lot of negative comments and stupid questions from ignorant people who aren’t really our readers (“You’re not real minimalists!”). We call these people seagulls : They fly in, crap on your site, and fly away. But we pay them no mind, because we didn’t start our blog for them. Delete their comment and move on.
• Research . Spend time researching what you’re writing about. The reason we are able to use so many helpful, relevant links in our essays is because we put in the time to research our topics.
• Keep It Simple . This is where minimalism can be applied to starting any blog, irrespective of its genre. No need to place superfluous advertisements or widgets all over your site. Stick to the basics and remove anything you don’t need—remove anything that doesn’t add value.
• Picture . Put a picture of yourself on your blog. People like to see the face of the person who’s writing the blog. If two goofy guys from Dayton, Ohio aren’t too afraid to put their pictures on their site, then you have nothing to worry about.
• Comments . If you’re going to have comments on your site, then read The Five Words That Kill Your Blog by Scott Stratten.
• Live Your Life . You’re starting a blog about your life (or about certain aspects of your life, at least), so you still need to live your life. There are things that we always put before blogging: exercise, health, relationships, experiences, personal growth, contribution. Simply put, live a life worth writing about.

15 Reasons You Should Start a Blog

We were inspired to research and write this blog post after reading Joshua Becker’s 15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog , in which he discusses 15 great reasons why you should start a blog.

Why is the keyword here. Crucially, Becker writes about the purpose of blogging, not just how to start a blog. That’s what many of these other “blogs about blogging” seem to miss: they miss the purpose— the why behind starting a blog.

Here is a summary of our three favorite reasons from Becker’s list:

• You’ll become a better writer . “At its core, writing is communication. It is about recording thoughts on paper and compelling others to agree with them,” writes Becker. “To that end, writing (just like every other form of communication that has ever existed) improves with practice. Blogging will not force you to become a better writer, it’ll just happen as you do it. And becoming a better writer holds important benefits for the rest of your life—whether you are creating a book, a presentation, a resume, or an anniversary card for your spouse.” Spot on! Writing blog posts is not only a great way to improve your blog writing, it’s a wonderful chance to improve everything you write—from business emails and text messages to that novel you’ve been dreaming of penning.
• You’ll meet new people . “Whether it be through comments, emails, or social media, you may be surprised at how quickly you meet people online,” writes Becker. That’s true! The Minimalists’ blog is responsible for many of the most important relationships I’ve developed over the past decade—long-term business and personal relationships birthed from this very blog
• You’ll become more confident . “Blogging will help you discover more confidence in your life,” writes Becker. “You will quickly realize that you do live an important life with a unique view and have something to offer others.” So true! Writing helps us better understand the lives we live and the consequences of our actions.

3 Reasons You Should Not Start a Blog

So now you have 15 reasons why you should start a blog, and we’ve shown you how to start a blog, step-by-step, based on our personal experience.

But after giving you those detailed instructions, which could save you hundreds of hours of wasted time, we also want to give you some good reasons why you should not start a blog. (Keep in mind that these reasons are just our opinions, and we do not pretend to offer them up as a collection of empirical blogging maxims.)

• Money . You should not start a blog to make money. We need to get that out of the way first. If your primary objective is to replace your full-time income from blogging, forget about it. It doesn’t work that way. Do you think that Jimi Hendrix picked up his first guitar so he could “supplement his income”? No, he didn’t. Rather, he did it for the love of it, for the joy and fulfillment he received, and the income came thereafter—much later actually.
• Notoriety . Don’t plan on getting “Internet famous” right away. Not every site grows as fast as ours did, but that’s okay. The truth is that we kind of got lucky. We found a great domain name, we cobbled together a logo and site design that people liked, we write fairly well, and our content connected with people in a unique way. We didn’t start this site to become “famous,” though. That’d be ridiculous. We started this site to become bloggers and share a message. Our popularity came as a surprise to us, and it was a result of a little luck and a lot of hard, passionate work.
• Traffic . Not all traffic is good traffic , so don’t worry about getting thousands of readers right away. Spend your time producing meaningful creations and eventually the audience will show up if you are helping people solve problems. In other words, focus on adding value, not increasing traffic.

The funny thing is that all these things can happen. You could make a full-time income from building a blog. We do it and so do many others. And you could become an Internet famous blogger like Leo Babauta .

But if these are the sole reasons you start blogging, you’ll be miserable because it will seem like a job. And if it feels like a job, you won’t be passionate about it, so you’ll either hate it or fall flat on your face (or both).

Instead, become a blogger and write because you’re passionate about it…

4 Blogging Resources

If you want to learn more about blogging, publishing, writing, and SEO, then check out these additional resources:

• What Kind of Media Counts?  (Seth Godin)
• How to Publish an Indie Book (Asymmetrical Press)
• How to Write Better: Online Class (Joshua Fields Millburn)
• Some Funny Thoughts on SEO (Exile Lifestyle)

How to Start a Blog Infographic

FAQs When Starting a Blog

How do bloggers get paid do bloggers make a lot of money are blogs still profitable in 2024, how many hours do bloggers work, is blogging hard to do what do bloggers actually do, what does blog stand for what does blog mean, which blogging platform should i use squarespace vs wordpress: what is the best site to write a blog, how do i become a blogger, what’s the difference between a blog and a website, are blogs dead, does anyone read blogs anymore is blogging a waste of time, are blogs still relevant in 2024 is it worth starting a blog in 2024 is it too late to start blogging, should i start a blog or should i start a podcast, do i need a business to start a blog, is blogging a realistic career do careers in blogging have a future is blogging a good career, what has replaced blogging, which blog content is best what should i blog about, what does a good blog look like what is a blog used for what makes a good blog, what makes a blog successful, what kind of blog is most popular which type of blogs are most searched what are popular topics to blog about, how do you start a blog with no money how do you start a blog for free, how often should i blog, what should my first blog post be about, how do you introduce yourself in a blog, why do blogs fail, does bluehost charge monthly or all at once, what is the difference between a blog and a vlog, what does the b in blog mean, do blogs or vlogs make more money, can you make money from a blog alone, what does a blog look like, do you need a license to run a blog do i need an llc to make a blog, do i need to copyright my blog, how do i protect my photos on my blog, how do i register my blog name, do i need to trademark my blog name, is it ok to use stock photos on my blog, can i use google images on my blog, should i use my full name on my blog, should a blog have a home page should my blog be on my homepage what should i put on the front page of my blog, can everyone see my blog, what is an attention grabbing sentence what is a hook sentence for a blog what is a good hook example.

• Do you have a question that we didn’t answer?

• Creations . By building an audience who finds value in our message, we’ve been able to offer our three books and our documentary, Minimalism , to an audience who is willing to support our creative work. Consequently, all three books have been bestsellers and are now translated into more than a dozen languages; and thanks to Netflix, our documentary is available in 190 countries. (For more information about our book-publishing process, read this blog post series: How to Publish an Indie Book .)
• Audience Contributions . Since we refuse to clutter our blog or popular podcast with ads, we depend on audience support to fund production of our podcast. With more than 5,000 supporters on Patreon and many others via PayPal, The Minimalists Podcast is fully funded with audience support, which means we’re able to pay for our podcast producer, filmmaker, and studio space without advertisements on our platforms.
• Speaking . As we built our audience, many organizations, universities, and conferences began contacting us about speaking at their events. At first, we starting speaking for free just to build a name for ourselves. Then, we started charging a few hundred dollars per event. Now, we’re able to charge significantly more money because the demand for our talks is high. So far, The Minimalists have spoken at Harvard, Apple, Google, Allstate, SAP, SXSW, TEDx, and many other organizations. We speak about a wide array of topics, from simple living and “simple work,” to health, relationships, writing, publishing, social media, personal growth, and contribution—and it all started because we started this blog. (Anyone who is interested in hiring us to speak can visit our speaking page for details.)
• Tours . Over the past eight years, The Minimalists, have embarked on eight speaking tours , including 2017’s 50-city “Less Is Now” theater tour, which attracted an average of more than 1,000 people a night, with considerably larger audiences in bigger cities. Our 2014 “Everything That Remains” bookstore tour spanned 119 cities in eight countries and attracted 75,000 attendees.
• Writing Classes . I get countless questions about writing, so I’ve been able to transfer that skillset to help hundreds of students improve their writing over the years. I teach a four-week online writing class designed to improve the writing of people at any skill level—beginner, intermediate, or professional.
• Amazon Links . If The Minimalists recommend a product like this photo scanner , and then a reader purchases that product, we receive a small commission for that sale at no additional cost to our audience. We’re careful about what we recommend, however, because, as minimalists, we want you to consume less and to consume intentionally.
• Affiliate Sales . When we recommend services such as Bluehost and ConvertKit , we receive a referral fee. Once again, though, that’s obviously not why we recommend these services. Virtually every hosting company has an affiliate program, so we think it’s best to recommend the companies we trust.

Through these various means, Ryan and I are able to earn a full-time income through blogging. But it’s worth noting that making money from your blog is not the best place to start.

While there’s nothing wrong with making money—which you can do through affiliate links , advertisements , and your own products and services—the best reason to start blogging is because you have something to express.

If you make money along the way, that’s great. In fact, if you help people solve their problems, you’re all but guaranteed to make money from your blog—eventually. Let’s just remember there are at least four resources that are more important than money: skills, time, energy, and attention.

That said, let’s not kid ourselves by acting as if making money is irrelevant—it’s not. Making money from our blog is simply not the primary driver for our creativity or why we became bloggers. Although people often think of money as the ultimate resource, it is the least important of the five mentioned above.

Money won’t necessarily improve your life, but it will amplify your existing behaviors. If you have bad habits, then more money will make your life considerably worse. And if you’re already a generous person, then more money can help you be more loving, caring, and considerate.

Personally, I write one or two blog posts per week, usually in the evenings, or on weekends, so it doesn’t get in the way of my other activities. That’s the nice thing about blogging: you get to write whenever you want-no one tells you what to do, when to do it, or how much must be done. Within five months of learning how to blog, you’ll find your own rhythm that works for you.

Writing a blog does not require a degree or special training. In fact, all you need is a desire to communicate with an audience. If you have that, then starting a blog is ideal for you.

According to Wikipedia , a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of “discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts).” The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog in 1999.

Today, blogs have many shapes and sizes. Many are public journals people use to express their feelings. Others, like this blog, exist to help people think critically and solve problems.

There are blogs that cover nearly every topic, ideology, and interest—from sports and politics to religion and travel and everything in between. Even the world’s largest news organizations—ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, and MSNBC—all have their own blogs.

Here are five reasons WordPress is better than Squarespace:

• Design (Themes) . Squarespace provides some beautiful templates, but they’re limited by the number of designs that are available. Since WordPress is a free, open-source blogging platform, there’s an ecosystem of tens of thousands of themes ready to satisfy every want and need. While this variety is a benefit, we know full well that too many options can lead to a paradox of choice. This is why we recommend starting with the premium themes designed and supported by our friends at SPYR. We’ve worked with SPYR since the early days of The Minimalists and continue to recommend their products and services. (This is not an affiliate link—SPYR just does great work.)
• Features (Plugins) . While Squarespace has a rich feature set, no blogging platform can compare with the immense scale of features that WordPress offers. WordPress has a library of over 54,000 free plugins that can handle any task. While we suggest that you keep the number of plugins on your blog to a minimum, the level of customization provided by WordPress is unmatched. Plugins aside, one key feature that’s built in to WordPress, but not Squarespace, is version control. Version control tracks your changes and allows you to compare revisions and revert back to a version of your Page or Post from any point in time. I use this feature all the time because I know that if I’m unhappy with anything I’ve changed, I can quickly revert back to the previous version. This feature provides a failsafe that allows bloggers to compose, draft, edit, and publish their posts within WordPress itself, making it a complete blogging solution.
• You Own Your Content . Owning your content means that you have full control over what you express on your blog—and complete access to take that content and use it anywhere that you wish. To enable the latter, WordPress provides tools to export your data for use on any hosting provider that you choose to use. With Squarespace you can never truly download a complete copy of your server files or database, but with WordPress you can create an exact replica of your blog, at any point in time. This is most valuable for maintaining backups or in case you choose to restart a blog with a new hosting company . With WordPress you have 100% ownership of your content, files, data, and design—and everything can be backed up.
• SEO . Out of the box, both WordPress and Squarespace are search engine friendly. But with a single plugin WordPress elevates your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). A plugin we recommend for every blogger is Yoast SEO . This free WordPress plugin allows deep customization of your on-page SEO, but, more impressive, it provides automated content analysis. This helps guide you to improve and optimize your content for better readability and improved reach in search engines. While SEO isn’t everything, we all start our blogs in hopes that people will read what we’ve written. Following proper SEO practices can be a differentiating factor in reaching new people.
• Growth . WordPress is extremely robust and customizable. It allows you to build a blog exactly as you’d like. But what happens as your new blog grows? If you outgrow the off-the-shelf option, maybe it’s time to work with a design partner to create a fully custom website that’s tailored to match your brand and image. Since WordPress provides you with complete ownership of the platform, it also provides a designer with the freedom to build and create your blog design without restriction. Nothing is off limits.

The answer is in the question: the only way to become a blogger is to start a blog. This might sound overly simplistic, but that’s because it’s not that complicated. If you follow these steps you’ll become a blogger and start blogging today.

There’s an old truism, “Writers don’t like writing; they like having written.” I think the opposite is true for bloggers: because of the instant gratification of the WordPress “Publish” button, I find that bloggers enjoy writing because they’re constantly sharing that writing with the world.

The barrier to entry is gone, so start blogging if you want to become a blogger. It really is that simple.

While the lines have blurred over the years, the simplest way to put it is that a blog is a type of website, one that catalogues, over time, the personal or professional thoughts and beliefs of a person or organization.

As your thoughts, beliefs, and ideas change, so will your blog. It’s nice to have a time capsule of our thoughts, as they’ve evolved over the past decade.

No, blogs are not “dead.” In fact, blogs are more alive than ever!

As a matter of fact, our blog has grown every year since 2010 and now boasts more than 3.78 million readers and an email list that continues to grow every month.

Millions of people read our blog every year-and our audience continues to grow because, thanks to our blog, new people find our work every day. But it’s not just The Minimalists who are successful. Blogs are popular all over the world, and they are the simplest way to publish content without middlemen or gatekeepers.

Blogging is the opposite of a waste of time. If you have a genuine desire to share your creativity with the world, then it’s one of the best “time investments” you can make. Our blog is simultaneously our practice space-where we share new ideas and writings with the world-as well as an announcement board that keeps our audience abreast of any new developments in the world of minimalism.

Starting a blog is arguably more important than ever. Whether you want to publish your writing, build an audience, open a business, or start a podcast , your blog is the home for your creative projects.

Once you’ve started a blog, you are no longer reliant on other people’s platforms. There’s nothing “wrong” with having an Instagram or TikTok account, but those platforms are ephemeral. If they fall out of relevance, then so do you (remember MySpace). That’s not the case with a blog, though. Because you own your blog, it stays with you no matter where the culture sways.

The best time to start a blog was a decade ago. The second best time is now . If you have an idea you want to share, get started!

You don’t have to pick one over the other. You can start a blog and start a podcast. That’s what we did. After starting our popular blog, which is now read by millions of people, we started a similar podcast, which, at the time of this writing, has more than 100 million downloads. Frankly, our podcast would not have witnessed the same success if we didn’t also have a blog. So if we had to pick one, we’d start a blog. But thankfully, you can choose both if you’re compelled by both creative outlets.

No, you don’t need a business license to start a blog. Even if you start earning money from your blog, you can claim that income on your personal taxes under your name and social security number. It was several years before Ryan and I turned The Minimalists into a limited liability company (LLC).

Blogging is still a career for many people, a great way to make supplemental income for even more people. But Ryan and I don’t look at blogging as a career. Rather, for us, it’s an opportunity to add value to people’s lives. Of course, if you add enough value, income tends to follow. Blogging has also enabled us to showcase our books, podcasts, films, social media, and other projects that add value to our audience.

While new forms of media continue to enter the picture-podcasts, newsletters, social media-nothing replaces having a home for your creative work. The Minimalists have a podcast, an email newsletter, and several social media accounts, but none of them could ever supplant our blog. Instead, we use our blog to point to these additional resources.

We often hear people say that you should blog about what you’re passionate about. That’s great advice if you know what that passion is. Maybe it’s technology, finance, baking, music, or rock climbing. If so, write about that!

If, however, you don’t know what you’re passionate about, don’t worry. Passion isn’t simply stumbled upon; it is cultivated.

Here are six questions to ask yourself to help you determine what you should blog about:

• What are your values? Whatever you write about, you want it to align with your values.
• What excites you? There will always be drudgery, but if you find something that excites you, you will be able to drudge through the drudgery.
• What makes you angry? If you aren’t excited by something, then anger is often a great motivator. If there’s something in the world you want to change, write about that. It will help inform and strengthen your values.
• How can you solve problems? You will feel fulfilled if you can provide solutions to people’s problems. Coincidently, if you write about solving your own problems, that will help other people solve those same problems, too.
• What if money wasn’t important? If money wasn’t a factor, what would you do with your life? Yes, you need to make money, but, just as important, you want to do something meaningful. Write about that.
• Who is the person you want to become? Your writing should help you become the person you aspire to be. Write as if you’re writing to make your future self proud.

A blog is used for two things: to express and to communicate . A good blog is able to marry communicative writing and expressive writing to create blog posts that are informative and entertaining.

When considering how you want to use your blog to communicate and express yourself, ask these questions:

• What message am I attempting to communicate?
• Does the writing express the emotions I want to the reader to feel? What are those emotions?
• Does this sentence serve a purpose?
• Can I cut this line and still preserve my message?
• How can I make this more concise?
• Do I need all these modifiers and qualifiers? (Hint: no!)
• If I killed the first two paragraphs, would this piece be better?
• How could I restructure this sentence/paragraph to make it more climactic?

You get to define what success looks like for your blog. Maybe your goal is to reach a thousand true fans, publish a blog post every day, or build a large audience so that you can sign a book-publishing contract with a major publisher. It is possible to accomplish any of these feats with your blog (I’ve done all three). Blogging has brought me more success than I ever expected: New York Times -bestselling books, millions of readers, international book tours, an Emmy-nominated Netflix film, speaking at Harvard, and much more. None of these achievements fit my original idea of success, but as I added value to an audience, I discovered what was possible.

While it is best to blog about subjects that interest you, these are some of the most searched blog topics:

• Relationships
• Career advice
• Local interests
• Food and beverage

In short, what do you find compelling? Blog about that! Your blog is more likely to become popular if you’re passionate about the topic.

The good news is that starting a blog is free with WordPress. All you need to pay for is hosting, as outlined in the step-by-step instructions above .

There are also other “free” amateur services like Tumblr or Blogger that allow you to start a blog on those company’s platforms. Just be careful, because you may not own your content if you’re posting it on someone else’s website. That’s one of the many reasons why we use WordPress.

When talking to my writing students, I recommend writing every day and publishing a blog post at least once a week. We usually publish two blog posts per week on this blog. Seth Godin blogs every single day.

Whatever you decide, we recommend you stay consistent. Setting a weekly schedule helps you create accountability partners (your readership) so you feel compelled to write even when you don’t want to write.

Avoid grandiosity. Avoid throat clearing. Your first blog post needn’t be a grandiose mission statement. And your first blog post doesn’t have to be a vapid, self-involved introduction to your blog.

Instead, find one thing that interests you today and write about that. Use the prompts in the “What should I blog about” section above.

For reference, you can read the first blog post on this blog, circa 2010: Be on the Mountain .

Don’t worry about introducing yourself in every blog post. Instead, create an “about” page that new readers can reference if they want to learn more about you, your life, and the projects you’re working on. See The Minimalists’ About page as an example. Our friend Derek Sivers also has a wonderful Now page that could work for you.

There are at least three reasons blogs fail:

• Some bloggers have poor expectations. If you start a blog today and expect a million readers overnight, you’re setting yourself up for failure. But if your motivation is sincere-if you want to add value to the world-then you’ll find your expectations shift.
• Some bloggers don’t add value. Instead of metrics like subscribers or follower counts, The Minimalists focus on adding value to our audience. If you help people solve problems, the success will spring from that-not the other way around.
• Some bloggers put money first. There’s nothing wrong with earning a living from your blog (we do), but it needn’t be the main objective. Good blogs make money; great blogs make a difference. Said another way: we allow money to have a seat in the car, but it’s never the driver.

Bluehost bills annually, so when you use our link to receive the discounted rate of $2.75 per month you will be billed for the entire first year.

That said, if for any reason you decide that it’s not right for you, Bluehost offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

A blog (short for “weblog”) is a written communication by an author or creator that is meant to communicate with an audience; a vlog (short for “video log”) is a video version of a blog.

Blogs and vlogs are both excellent ways to reach an audience. However, a blog has a lower barrier of entry (no cameras, lighting, or microphones required), which makes it easier to start blogging today.

The word “blog” is an abbreviation of the term “weblog.” So the B in blog doesn’t stand for anything specific; it is merely a shortened form of the original term.

I’ve made significantly more money from blogging. Yes, The Minimalists create both blog posts and vlogs, but the dynamic nature of our blog has allowed us to reach more people and retain an audience, which is significantly more difficult with vlogging alone because with vlogs you don’t have direct access to your audience like you do with your blog.

It’s worth noting that we also use this blog to share many of our YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok vlogs with our dedicated blog audience, which amplifies our creations much better than social media alone.

Yes, you can make money solely from your blog. There are at least seven ways The Minimalists make money with this blog .

A blog can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. Successful blogs mirror the personality of their authors. For example, this blog is aggressively simple because, well, we are “The Minimalists.” Other blogs deploy bright colors and elaborate designs that mimic the quirky character, style, and disposition of its author. Either way, a WordPress blog grants you and your blog the flexibility to be as ornate or austere as you desire.

You do not need a license to run a blog. However, when you begin earning money from your blog, it can make sense to set up a separate LLC (limited liability company) for your blog. Alternatively, if you don’t want to establish an LLC, you can also claim any earned revenue from your blog under your personal social security number (I did this for the first few years of this blog, before finally registering The Minimalists, LLC).

You do not need to copyright your blog because you already own the intellectual property of everything you create. Your blog and all of its contents, blog posts, photos, images, and written words are already considered “copyrighted” the moment they are published. As long as you can prove that you are the author of a piece of content, a copyright is granted by public law without the need to file additional paperwork.

Unlike other blog and social-media platforms, your WordPress blog allows you to download and save all of your blog contents so that you can protect your photos and written words. Personally, I keep a backup of all my photos and written content on a separate hard drive, as well as a cloud storage account (e.g., Google Photos or Dropbox) for double redundancy. This isn’t required, but it gives me a piece of mind that I can’t get from social media.

Registering your blog name is free and easy. In fact, registration is a built-in part of the simple setup process outlined in the instructions within this blog post.

When you use Bluehost to host your blog, you’ll receive a free domain registration, which allows you to choose any blog name you want. If you can’t think of a good blog name, Wordoid is a free tool that can help you pick an effective name for your blog.

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office , you are not required to register your trademark, but where or whether you decide to register your trademark can determine the scope of your rights. Specifically, you can rely on common law rights or file for state, federal, or international trademark registration.

Because of the monetary and time costs associated with filing a trademark, The Minimalists did not trademark our blog name for the first several years. Once we began selling products using our blog name (“The Minimalists”), it made sense to trademark that name because, according to the USPTO, there are several benefits of trademark registration, including:

• Trademark is listed in USPTO’s database of registered and pending trademarks. This provides public notice to anyone searching for similar trademarks. They will see your trademark, the goods and services on your registration, the date you applied for trademark registration, and the date your trademark registered.
• Legal presumption that you own the trademark and have the right to use it. So, in federal court, your registration certificate proves ownership, eliminating the need for copious amounts of evidence.
• Can use your registration as a basis for filing for trademark protection in foreign countries.
• Right to bring a lawsuit concerning the trademark in federal court.
• May use the federal trademark registration symbol, ®, with your trademark to show that you are registered with us. This may help deter others from using your trademark or one too similar to yours
• Record your registration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They can stop the importation of goods with an infringing trademark.

Yes, it is perfectly reasonable to use stock photos on your blog, as long as they are obtained lawfully from a creative commons website such as Unsplash or Pond5 . Just make sure you credit the photographer.

It is not acceptable to simply use Google Images on your blog; those photos are copyrighted. If you’re not careful, reusing photos from Google Images can lead to a costly lawsuit.

It is a good idea to use your full name and photo on your blog. Why? Because people connect with human beings, not faceless avatars. That’s why I use my full name—Joshua Fields Millburn—on this blog.

Alternatively, if you’re worried about maintaining anonymity because of your job, family, or the divisive nature of your blog’s content, then a pseudonym can be an adequate substitute for your real name. Just understand that blogging pseudonymously can make it more difficult to build trust with an audience. It’s not impossible to connect with others using a fake name, but it is an uphill battle.

While WordPress allows you to establish a home page for your blog, most blogs don’t need a home page because a home page creates one extra step for new readers to read your newest blog content. That’s why we removed our home page on this blog—we want readers to get right to the good stuff without any friction. Then, if a reader wants to learn more about our blog, they can always visit our about page.

Once your blog is public, anyone can see it. This is a good thing. As a writer, you want the opportunity to connect with new readers, even when you’re sleeping. A public blog is the best way to connect with a fervent readership.

However, readers can’t see your unpublished content (drafts, deleted posts, etc.); only your published blog posts are available for everyone to see.

Any sentence that makes the reader want to read the next sentence is a great sentence. The best opening lines force readers to ask questions. For example, how does the following sentence make you feel?

The average American household contains more than 300,000 items.

That sentence might lead to several questions and doubts in the reader’s mind:

Wait, what?

No way, that can’t be true!

Tell me more!

As soon as a reader is hooked, the sentence has done its job. I call this writing technique Narrative Urgency .

More Blogging Questions

Do you have a question about becoming a blogger that isn’t answered above? Post (Tweet) to @theminimalists with your question and a link to this essay.

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WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

What is a blog? Definition, types, benefits and why you need one

• Amanda Weiner
• 10 min read

With over 600 million blogs on the internet, you’ve likely encountered one or two blogs—you’re even on one right now. But you may still wonder what exactly is a blog? How does it differ from a website? Why does every business seem to have one? You may even ask yourself, how can I start my own blog?

In short, many individuals and businesses create a blog to share their ideas and expertise as well as boost their online presence. This article will answer your most pressing blogging questions and help you understand how and why blogs succeed, plus show how you can utilize them.

Ready to start blogging today? Get started with Wix .

What is a blog?

Blogs are a type of regularly updated websites that provide insight into a certain topic. The word blog is a combined version of the words “web” and “log.” At their inception, blogs were simply an online diary where people could keep a log about their daily lives on the web. They have since morphed into an essential forum for individuals and businesses alike to share information and updates. In fact, many people even make money blogging as professional full-time bloggers.

As the publishing world has evolved, and more of it has moved online, blogs have come to occupy a central position in this digital content world. Blogs are a source of knowledge, opinion and concrete advice. While not yet posed to replace journalism as an art form, people increasingly look to trusted blogs to find answers to their questions, or to learn how to do something.

Blogs are always evolving both in terms of how they're created and what they are used for. They can be a vehicle for creativity and for marketing. They're also increasingly created and read on mobile apps, as mobile blogging also comes into its own.

Learn more: Website vs blog , Website vs blog vs forums

What does a blog look like?

A blog consists of a series of articles or posts. While the appearance of your blog can vary depending on the platform and design choices made by you as the blogger, here are some common elements you may find in a typical blog and include in your own, keeping in mind the importance of user experience design and web design:

The top section of a blog often contains your blog's title or logo, along with a navigation menu that helps visitors explore different sections or categories of your blog. You might decide to categorize blogs from the same topic together, for repeat readers who are looking specifically from posts from that area of interest.

Content body

This is where the content of your blog posts is displayed. Each post usually includes a title, author name, date of publication, and the main content of the post, which can include text, images, videos, or other multimedia.

A blog may have a sidebar on one or both sides of the main content area. The sidebar often contains additional information or features such as a search bar, recent posts, popular posts, categories, tags, social media links, an about section, and advertisements. You can this part of your blog to help establish your blogs navigation, and site hierarchy to users and search engines.

Many blogs allow readers to leave comments on their posts. The comments section typically appears below the main content of each post and may include the ability for readers to reply to comments or upvote them. Before enabling comments on your blog, make sure you have the time and resources to manage comments effectively. You'll need to monitor them for spammy messages which should be deleted, or for messages from genuine readers who you'll need to connect with.

The bottom section of your blog usually contains copyright information, links to your privacy policy and terms of service, additional navigation links, and sometimes widgets like a subscription form, social media icons (social share buttons) , or related posts.

Blog designs can vary greatly depending on the theme, customization options, and personal preferences that you chose. These elements provide a general overview of what a blog looks like, but blogs may have unique layouts or additional features based on your chosen platform and your design choices.

Generally to create and manage a blog, you'll need a blog platform or CMS . Within this you'll also need a domain name and web hosting service like Wix hosting .

Types of blogs

Different types of blogs cover varying topics, from food and fashion to marketing. Blogs are composed of individual posts on more specific subjects within the blog’s field of expertise. To get started with blogs on social media, check out microblogging . These posts often serve as a platform for discussions, as many blogs have active comments sections. You can think of a blog almost as a newspaper that adds articles and continually maintains the archive.

Whether you’ve seen stand-alone blogs or blogs as website sections, you’ve probably encountered blog examples all over the internet. Some of the most popular types of blogs in the blogosphere include:

Travel blogs

Health blogs

Fitness blogs

Lifestyle blogs

Fashion blogs

Beauty blogs

Parenting blogs, Mom Blogs

Business blogs, Finance blogs , Tech blogs

Sports blogs

Art blogs , Poetry blogs

Music blogs

Gaming blogs

Coaching blogs

Interior design blogs

Want to learn more about blogging? Visit Wix Learn .

Website vs blog

As you now know, a blog often deals with a given topic and is updated with regular posts, mostly in the form of articles. Websites, however, are often broken down into inner explanatory pages, each with varying purposes. This can mean anything from an FAQ page to a welcoming homepage design. These pages are occasionally updated, making a website more static than a blog. Oftentimes websites have internal blogs, while other websites are entirely blogs without any additional pages.

When blogs are a section of a larger website, the website provides the bulk of the information and uses a blog feature to keep users updated and engaged. For example, think of an online store that also offers a blog about their various products and how to use them.

Blogs that make up the entire website usually rely on the content itself rather than sell a product or market a service.

Importance of blogs

Whether it’s personal or professional, a blog provides endless opportunities for a website’s traffic growth. Not to mention, the popularity of blogs hasn't diminished. In fact, the opposite is true: As Neal Shaffer, founder of the digital marketing consultancy PDCA Social says, blogging isn’t dead , “blogs are useful for a lot more than just sharing your thoughts. In fact, 60% of consumers will buy something after they’ve read a blog post on the topic.”

Blogging is still important today, for establishing your web present, and for the following reasons:

Relationship and community building

Much like social media platforms, blogs allow people to share their thoughts and experiences with others. Given the active comment sections, they enable people to interact with one another and build relationships based on shared interests that aren’t limited by geographic location. They're an impactful form of information exchange. Essentially, blogs have become a social platform unto themselves and a central part of online community building.

For this reason blogs are also a key part of brand management. Your content creation efforts, published via a blog can be used to represent your brand, its values and your products.

Monetization

Another reason why blogging has become so popular is that many people have started monetizing their blogs . Bloggers tend to make money off of advertisements in a couple of different forms. One of the most common types of advertisements is affiliate marketing . Since bloggers often discuss a given topic and experience in their field, they are reliable sources for those topics.

For example, if you've started a travel blog and write about your experiences and what you did in various destinations, your readers might follow your advice. Because you provide information about travel attractions and promote them to your readers, those travel attractions might be willing to pay you to increase their visitor count. Bloggers could also make money on digital ads through an advertising network (such as Google Adsense) or sell their blogs to larger media entities.

Easy to create

On a technical note, blogs have surged because it has become easy for individuals to create and update their own blogs regularly using a code-less website building platform. And because blogs are about any topic of choice, anyone can choose to create their own. Still not convinced? Let our blogging for beginners guide show you how.

Get your blog started with these totally customizable blog website templates

Blog templates

Personal blog templates

Food and travel blog templates

Fashion and beauty blog templates

News and business blog templates

Blogging for business, why it matters

Here are three ways blogging for business can help you promote your business:

Keep customers up-to-date

Most businesses have turned to blogging as an effective form of digital distribution to effectively keep customers or clients up-to-date. Since blogs are updated regularly, they enable businesses to share company changes, inform users about deals and provide the best tips possible for using their product.

Inbound marketing opportunities

Blogs also allow businesses to provide a wider breadth of content, thereby helping them attract a larger audience of readers. This tactic is called inbound marketing, and is the act of creating content to draw your audience to your brand.

Let’s say you sell flowers and your site offers various bouquets. Logically, anyone looking to buy flowers can find what they need on your site. But, if you come up with relevant blog content ideas with posts like, “How to Care for Your Flowers” then people who aren’t explicitly looking to buy flowers, but searching for similar keywords, could reach your site. You drive traffic to your site as a result.

A blog can be an important of wider marketing strategies and more specific content marketing efforts. Blog posts can be repurposed and shared on social media platforms too as part of your social media marketing work.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of improving a website’s position on search engine results, thus improving its visibility. When search engines like Google notice that more people visit a given site, they may consider their content more relevant. In turn, search engines might increase exposure of that website, allowing it to appear closer to the top of the results page. And, of course, the closer to the top of the results a site gets, the more likely people will click on it.

Additionally, search engines often look for fresh and timely content. While many websites have relatively static content, a regularly-updated blog provides the perfect forum for content changes. While SEO can feel a bit intimidating, these SEO for bloggers tips can help ease the process.

"Effective keyword research is a nuanced process of refinement and expansion. Start by eliminating irrelevant topics to focus on core themes with high relevance and demand. Then, delve deeply into these topics to uncover nuances in keyword types, user intents, and search queries. This detailed understanding allows for a more targeted and strategic content approach, maximizing the effectiveness of your SEO efforts."

Idan Cohen, SEO Growth Specialist at Wix

Why start a professional blog?

A blog is an excellent way to establish your professional expertise in a given field. When you include practical information and regularly updated guides, you present yourself as an authority in your line of work and a leader in your field.

Blogging as an expert can also open the door for potential monetization and turning your blog into a career.

Why start a personal blog?

Blogs allow individuals to share updates with friends and family. For example, if you're traveling somewhere exotic and want to share photos and info about your trip with a number of different people, you can direct them to a centralized blog.

How to start a blog?

Now that you’ve learned all about blog essentials, you’re ready to start a blog . First, head to a website builder and create an account in order to start making a website . Then, choose your favorite customizable blog template to fit the style and needs of your blog design . Finally, you add your authentic content, create blog posts and hit publish.

As you plan your blogging strategy you may be wondering, how much does it cost to start a blog ? You may encounter different expenses like domain name registration and web hosting fees. It's important to understand the potential costs of blogging so you can make a better informed decision about how to pursue your blogging goals. 

Looking to start a blog quickly? Consider using an AI website builder to get started.

What to include in a blog

Once you’ve created your blog, it’s time to think about your blog posts. When figuring out your content type, think about your target audience. Be sure to produce evergreen copy and regularly update your blog content.

Blog posts should be relatively easy to read and understand, but should nonetheless provide a complete summary of the topic at hand. Check out this article for a complete explanation of how to write a blog post and read through our best blog post templates for inspiration.

Writing a blog starts with knowing how to write a catchy blog title . The title is the first thing that readers see before they even reach your blog. Your title will appear on Google, and most potential readers will judge you by those few words alone. Consider what keywords people would search for to get to your blog or blog post. If you need guidance, a blog title generator can point you in the right direction.

By getting into your readers’ minds, you can optimize your blog and your writing to become a content powerhouse.

How to make your blog succeed?

After launching your blog, you can add elements to your blog to please both readers and Google. Those elements range from quick supplements, such as adding quality visuals to your blog posts, to doing intensive keyword research for SEO purposes. To get a full sense of how to boost your blog, check out these essential blogging tools .

You'll also want to understand more about your blog analytics - how it's performing in terms of how much traffic it generates and where that traffic is coming from.

How to promote your blog

You also need to know how to promote your blog to make it successful. There are many ways to promote your blog, but some of the most effective methods include:

Social media: Sharing your blog posts on social media is a great way to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your blog. Be sure to use relevant hashtags and tag other users to increase your reach.

Email marketing : If you have a list of subscribers, you can send them email newsletters with links to your latest blog posts. This is a great way to stay in touch with your audience and keep them coming back to your blog for more.

Guest blogging: Guest blogging is a great way to get your name out there and reach a new audience. When you guest post on another blog, you write an article for their site and include a link back to your own blog.

SEO : Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your blog so that it ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that when people search for relevant keywords, your blog is more likely to show up in the results.

Paid advertising: Paid advertising can be a great way to reach a larger audience and drive traffic to your blog quickly. However, it's important to note that paid advertising can be expensive, so you'll need to set a budget and track your results to make sure it's worth the investment.

While social media is an accessible blog promotion channel for most, look at these highly recommended tips for how to promote your blog . Here’s to becoming the next viral sensation.

What is a blog? FAQ

What is a blog post.

A blog post is an article or entry that is published on a blog. A blog, short for "weblog," is a platform or website where individuals or businesses can share their thoughts, ideas, opinions or information.

What is a blog post used for?

Where to start with writing a blog post, what is blog writing, related posts.

How to make money blogging: the complete free guide

How to start a blog in 10 steps: a beginners guide

Why blogging for your business can make a huge difference

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Home > Blog > Descriptive Essay Examples and Suggestions for Top Marks

Descriptive Essay Examples and Suggestions for Top Marks

• Smodin Editorial Team
• Published: September 24, 2024
• Student Guide for Writing

Are you looking for descriptive essay examples to help you get some ideas? Then you’ve come to the right place. In our post, we will share a wide range of examples that you can take inspiration from. Furthermore, we’ll provide help with what to include in the descriptive essay introduction.

We’ll also share the top advantages of using AI tools for descriptive writing. You’ll see that it’s possible to save a lot of time and access new ideas with the help of artificial intelligence writing tools. They can be the difference between a low and high grade.

Keep reading to discover the top descriptive essay topics and examples of how to tackle them.

What Is a Descriptive Essay?

The descriptive essay definition is simple. This is a type of writing that focuses on providing a detailed and vivid portrayal of a person, place, object, event, or experience. The primary aim is to engage the reader’s senses and emotions. Ideally, it will make them feel as if they are experiencing the subject firsthand.

In a descriptive essay, the writer uses rich and sensory language with precise details to create a clear image in the reader’s mind. Unlike narrative essays or argumentative essays , descriptive essays prioritize painting a picture through words.

The structure of a descriptive essay typically includes an introduction that sets the scene and body paragraphs that explore various aspects of the subject in depth. Furthermore, there’s a conclusion that summarizes the main points or reflects on the significance of the description.

This style of writing is often used in creative writing, travel writing, and personal reflections. In this article, you can use a descriptive essay example to get a better idea of what’s expected.

How To Start a Descriptive Essay: Examples and Suggestions

Now let’s turn our focus toward the process of how to start a descriptive essay with examples to help you along. You’ll see that there’s a method to the process that will help you get started, prevent you from getting stuck, and help you produce a good descriptive essay.

Begin With a Vivid Scene

Start your descriptive essay by setting the scene with vivid and sensory details that immediately immerse the reader in the environment. This means you’ll need to describe the sights, sounds, smells, and textures to create a strong visual image.

For example, you might begin with a description of a bustling marketplace, the aroma of fresh spices in the air, and the vibrant colors of fruits and vegetables. This approach draws readers in and makes them feel as though they are experiencing the scene themselves.

Use a Memorable Quote or Dialogue

Starting with a memorable quote or dialogue can effectively engage readers and set the tone for your descriptive essay. Therefore, choose a quote or snippet of conversation that encapsulates the essence of what you are about to describe and use vivid language.

For instance, opening with a quote from a beloved family member can introduce a description of a cherished childhood memory. This method personalizes the essay and gives readers insight into the emotional or thematic focus of your description.

Introduce an Interesting Character

Opening with a brief introduction of a character can be an effective way to start a descriptive essay, especially if the character plays a central role in the narrative. Describe the character in a way that highlights their most distinctive features or habits, making them come alive for the reader.

For example, you might introduce a character by describing their unique way of speaking, their appearance, or a particular gesture that defines them. This approach raises the curiosity of the reader and sets the stage for the descriptive details that follow.

Begin With an Evocative Question

Starting your descriptive essay with a thought-provoking question can engage your readers by prompting them to think deeply about the subject. This approach works well if your essay revolves around a significant experience or emotion.

Let’s say that you are describing a place of personal importance, you could start with, “Have you ever walked through a place that felt like home, even though it wasn’t?” This kind of opening invites readers to reflect on their own experiences while preparing them for the descriptive journey.

Start With a Surprising Statement

Kicking off your essay with a surprising or unusual statement grabs the reader’s attention immediately. This approach works especially well if the subject of your description contrasts with common perceptions or expectations.

For example, you might begin with, “The most peaceful place I know is in the middle of a bustling city.” This creates an intriguing paradox that makes readers curious about how such a place could exist and encourages them to read on to find out more.

Use a Metaphor or Simile

Starting with a metaphor or simile can set a powerful tone for your descriptive essay by establishing a creative image right from the beginning. The technique of using figurative language allows you to compare your subject to something familiar and helps readers visualize it more vividly.

For instance, you could start with, “The library was a fortress of knowledge, its walls lined with ancient tomes that whispered secrets to those who dared to listen.” This approach not only paints a picture but also adds a layer of meaning, thereby setting the stage for deeper exploration in the essay.

Advantages of Using AI Tools To Write a Descriptive Essay

Many teachers and students use AI for college essays, according to a study conducted by Foundry10 . There are several benefits to using AI tools to write your descriptive essay. This includes coming up with a great thesis statement or descriptive essay outline. For instance, you can use the AI Writer tool at Smodin AI to craft the entire essay from start to finish.

Here are the top reasons for why this is a great idea:

• Better creativity: AI tools can boost creativity by generating vivid descriptions and imaginative language that might not come naturally. Furthermore, they offer diverse vocabulary suggestions, creative metaphors, and sensory details. This helps writers craft more engaging and colorful content in their descriptive essay writing process.
• Improved efficiency: AI tools significantly speed up the writing process by offering instant suggestions and automating time-consuming tasks. For instance, they conduct grammar checks, increase the word count , or structure enhancements. This allows writers to focus more on refining ideas and less on editing.
• Consistency in tone and style: Artificial intelligence software helps maintain a consistent tone and style throughout the essay. It does this by analyzing and adapting to the writer’s preferred voice. This ensures that the descriptive essay flows smoothly and remains coherent.
• Access a wide range of ideas: AI can provide a vast array of ideas and perspectives that writers might not consider on their own. Therefore, by suggesting different angles or approaches to a topic, AI tools help enrich the content of a descriptive essay. This is especially great for improving the writing flow from one idea to the next and preventing the content from going stale.
• Error reduction: Take advantage of powerful AI tools to effectively reduce errors by automatically checking grammar, spelling, and punctuation. They also offer suggestions to ensure the end result is polished and professional. This helps writers avoid common mistakes and focus on enhancing the descriptive quality of their writing.

What Is an Example of a Descriptive Essay: 7 Examples To Draw Inspiration From

Learning by example is the best approach for many students wanting to get the hang of descriptive essays. In this section, you’ll learn what is an example of a descriptive essay and how to write your own. Note that it’s a good idea to use these examples as inspiration instead of copying them.

1. A Walk Through Your Favorite Place

Describing your favorite place allows you to create an essay that vividly captures the essence of a location that holds personal significance. This might be a serene beach, a bustling city street, or a quiet forest trail. The topic invites you to explore the sensory details that make the place special to you.

You can delve into the sights, sounds, smells, and emotions you associate with this location. Ideally, you will provide readers with a rich and immersive experience that conveys why this place is meaningful to you.

2. A Memorable Childhood Memory

Using a detailed description of a memorable childhood memory offers an opportunity to reflect on a moment that shaped your early life. This topic is ideal for exploring emotions, relationships, and the passage of time. You can describe the people involved, the setting, and the events that took place. It’s a good idea to focus on using vivid imagery to bring the memory to life.

Furthermore, mention the small details that made the moment memorable. Sometimes it’s the small details that allow users to latch onto the image you are trying to create. However, make sure that you pick out the relevant small details to avoid adding clutter.

3. An Encounter With Nature

Describing an encounter with nature provides a chance to explore the beauty, power, and serenity of the natural world. Top examples include a hike through a dense forest, a day spent by the ocean, or a night under the stars.

Overall, the topic invites you to focus on the sensory details that made the experience memorable. You can describe the sights, sounds, and feelings that arose during this encounter. Also, try to highlight the ways in which nature can inspire awe, reflection, and a sense of peace.

This can be a short descriptive essay example if you use some compelling words to describe what you see.

4. A Significant Historical Event

Describing a significant historical event allows you to combine factual details with creative storytelling to bring a moment in history to life. This topic is perfect for exploring the atmosphere, emotions, and impact of an event that has shaped the world.

For instance, you can describe the setting, the key figures involved, and the emotions of those who experienced it firsthand. This creates a vivid portrayal that helps readers understand the significance of the event and its lasting effects on society.

5. A Day in the Life of a Fictional Character

Writing about a day in the life of a fictional character offers a creative outlet to explore imagination and storytelling. This topic gives you a chance to invent a character and describe their environment, routines, and interactions in detail. You can write a short descriptive essay to practice and see what you come up with.

Try focusing on a single day so you can delve into the small moments that reveal the character’s personality, desires, and challenges. This approach hones descriptive writing skills and also engages readers with a compelling narrative.

6. The Perfect Meal

Describing the perfect meal is an excellent topic for a descriptive essay since it allows you to engage the reader’s senses of taste, smell, and sight. You can detail the flavors, textures, and presentation of each dish. This includes anything from appetizers to desserts.

The topic also offers the opportunity to explore the ambiance of the dining experience. It can be an interesting narrative descriptive essay if you don’t usually give the topic much thought. Generally, get it right and you can make readers feel as though they are tasting the meal alongside you.

7. A Special Piece of Art

Writing about a special piece of art allows you to delve into the visual and emotional impact of a painting, sculpture, or other artwork that has left a lasting impression on you. Use the subject matter to explore the colors, shapes, and textures of the artwork.

Additionally, by focusing on the details that make the piece stand out, you can create an essay that describes the artwork in a way that shares its significance and the personal connection you feel to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i choose a topic for a descriptive essay.

Choosing a topic for a descriptive essay involves selecting something that you can vividly and deeply describe. Therefore, opt for a subject that you are familiar with and are passionate about.

Top examples include a memorable place, a beloved person, or a significant experience. The more you care about and know your subject, the more engaging and detailed your description will be.

What should be included in the introduction of a descriptive essay?

The introduction of a descriptive essay should introduce the topic and set the tone for the essay. It often includes a hook to grab the reader’s attention, background information to provide context, and a thesis statement.

Additionally, the introduction should intrigue the reader and encourage them to continue reading. This means you need to keep it concise and also include a transition sentence to move them onto the body of the essay.

How do I organize the body of a descriptive essay?

The body of a descriptive essay is typically organized into paragraphs that each focus on a specific aspect or detail of the subject. It may be structured chronologically, spatially, or by the importance of details.

Each paragraph should include vivid sensory details and examples that support the thesis. Having a strong outline helps you create a framework that assists with the process of writing the essay.

How should I conclude a descriptive essay?

A descriptive essay’s conclusion should reinforce the essay’s overall impression and provide a sense of closure. It often summarizes the main points, reflects on the significance of the subject, and leaves the reader with a lasting image or thought.

Furthermore, the conclusion should resonate emotionally with the reader by tying together the descriptive elements presented throughout the essay.

What common mistakes should I avoid in a descriptive essay?

Common mistakes in descriptive essays include overloading the essay with too many details, resulting in confusion. Another commonly found problem is using vague or cliche descriptions that fail to engage the reader.

Additionally, neglecting to organize the essay coherently or failing to create a clear thesis can weaken the essay’s impact. Hence, avoid using overly complex vocabulary that distracts from the essay’s clarity and vividness.

A Descriptive Essay Written With Smodin AI Can Be the Best Essay!

The descriptive essay examples in this article will help kick-start the creative process of your assignment. With so many options, you can choose a topic that gets your creative juices flowing. Ultimately, this leads to a better end result, and you’ll enjoy how the descriptive essay will turn out.

Now that you’ve had a look at the top descriptive essay examples come up with some of our own. It may take a few tries until you end up with a topic that you have genuine enthusiasm for.

Do you need additional assistance with your descriptive essay? Then consider using Smodin AI for a comprehensive toolset that will help with all aspects of the process. It can help you with everything from excellent introduction hooks to finding the right conclusion.

So what are you waiting for? Try the Smodin AI Writer today to get top marks in descriptive essays, expository essays, or any kind of essay for that matter.

• What is a Blog? – Definition of Terms Blog, Blogging, and Blogger

Do you know what a blog is?

If you don’t, then you’ve come to the right place. In 1994, when blogs began, a blog was more of a personal diary that people shared online. In this online journal, you could talk about your daily life or share about things that you were doing. Then, people saw an opportunity to communicate information in a new way online. Thus began the beautiful world of blogging.

What is a Blog?

Definition | meaning of blog:.

A blog (a shortened version of “weblog”) is an online journal or informational website displaying information in reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first, at the top. It is a platform where a writer or a group of writers share their views on an individual subject.

Today, there are more than 570 million blogs on the web. The number of bloggers in the USA alone is set to reach 31.7 million users by 2020.

What is the purpose of a blog?

There are many reasons to start a blog for personal use and only a handful of strong ones for business blogging. Blogging for business, projects, or anything else that might bring you money has a very straightforward purpose – to rank your website higher in Google SERPs, a.k.a. increase your visibility.

As a business, you rely on consumers to keep buying your products and services. As a new business, you rely on blogging to help you get to potential consumers and grab their attention. Without blogging, your website would remain invisible, whereas running a blog makes you searchable and competitive.

So, the main purpose of a blog is to connect you to the relevant audience. Another one is to boost your traffic and send quality leads to your website.

The more frequent and better your blog posts are, the higher the chances for your website to get discovered and visited by your target audience. This means that a blog is an effective lead generation tool. Add a great call to action (CTA) to your content, and it will convert your website traffic into high-quality leads. A blog also allows you to showcase your niche authority and build a brand.

When you use your niche knowledge for creating informative and engaging posts, it builds trust with your audience. Great blogging makes your business look more credible, which is especially important if your brand is still young and fairly unknown. It ensures presence online and niche authority at the same time.

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Blog structure

The appearance of blogs has changed over time, and these days blogs include a wide variety of items and widgets. However, most blogs still include some standard features and structures.

Here are common features that a typical blog will include:

• Header with the menu or navigation bar.
• Main content area with highlighted or latest blog posts.
• Sidebar with social profiles, favorite content, or call-to-action.
• Footer with relevant links like a disclaimer, privacy policy, contact page, etc.

The above example is the basic structure of the average blog. Each item has its own importance and helps visitors to navigate through your blog.

Blogs and websites

Many people still wonder if there is any difference between a blog and a website . What is a blog and what is a website? It’s even more challenging to differentiate between the two today. Many companies are integrating blogs into their websites as well, which further confuses the two.

What differentiates blogs from websites?

Blogs need frequent updates. Good examples of this include a food blog sharing meal recipes or a company writing about their industry news.

Blogs also promote reader engagement. Readers have a chance to comment and voice their different concerns and thoughts to the community. Blog owners update their site with new blog posts on a regular basis.

On the other hand, websites consist of the content presented on static pages. Static website owners rarely update their pages.

Key elements that identify a blog post from a static website page include a publishing date, author reference, categories, and tags within a byline. While not all blog posts have all of those byline elements, static website pages do not have any of these items.

From a visitor’s perspective, the content on a static site will not change from one visit to the next. However, depending on the blog owner’s publishing schedule, the content on a blog will offer something new each day, week, or month.

What is blogging?

In the early 2000s, blogging emerged in a variety of forms when several political blogs were born. Blogs with how-to manuals also began to appear. Established institutions began to note the difference between journalism and blogging.

Definition of blogging

Blogging is a collection of skills that one needs to run and supervise a blog. This entails equipping a web page with tools to make the process of writing , posting, linking, and sharing content easier on the internet.

Why is blogging so popular?

It’s important to mention that the popularity of blogging grows with each passing day! To answer the question ‘what is blogging’, we need to look at the factors behind its rise.

In the early stages, blogs became mainstream, as news services began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. They became a new source of information.

Through blogging, businesses saw a positive way to improve their customer’s level of satisfaction. Blogs assist companies in keeping clients and customers up to date. Also, the more people that visit your blog, the more exposure and trust your brand gets.

Personal and niche bloggers saw the potential to reach more people interested in specific topics. Through a blog, visitors can comment and interact with you or your brand which helps you to create a network of loyal followers.

Did you know that you could earn money through blogging? Once your blog receives enough attention and fans, you can investigate ways of monetizing your blog . Through the blog, you can offer your services and sell products.

Who is a blogger?

In recent times, bloggers have become famous for various reasons. Blogging has become an alternative career or side gig for many. Seeing this, even more, people are choosing to join the blogging ranks.

So who are bloggers? Bloggers are individuals who love sharing parts of their lives with you. They post on various topics from arts, home designs, carpentry, and finance articles. Bloggers are mobile and don’t need to be in one place. They live on the internet!

Definition of a blogger

A blogger is someone who runs and controls a blog. He or she shares his or her opinion and knowledge on different topics for a target audience.

Why are many people blogging today?

Would you want to have a blog of your own? Yes!

Most people today are creating blogs for a variety of reasons. Every human being has their own story to tell. Through the internet, bloggers can communicate with a massive number of people.

Blogs allow you to talk about any topic you are interested in and express your opinion. You’ll find some bloggers writing on every activity that took place during their day. These activities may range from small things like waking up to major issues like human rights and climate change!

Remember that as a blogger running your own blog, you need to focus on the topics that you are passionate about, and through that focus strive to become one of the best blogs on the web.

Are bloggers getting paid?

Our blogging industry survey proves that bloggers do earn money, but this is not a get-rich-quick kind of profession. Before you can start monetizing your blog, you need to build both your Google SERPs ranking and your niche influence. Those tasks take a lot of time and quality content.

Money-making opportunities won’t present themselves until you’ve gained some credibility in the field. So, get down to business.

Here’s how you can make good money as a top-ranked niche blogger:

• Selling ad space on your blog privately or via Google AdSense.
• Becoming an affiliate partner privately or through ads networks.
• Selling your own digital products such as eBooks and tutorials.
• Selling memberships for access to exclusive content or advice.
• Using your blog as a content marketing tool for your business.

If you’re starting a blog as a way to market and boost your existing business, you probably won’t be selling ad space or memberships. However, you can create and start offering exclusive digital products such as eBooks, guides, or online courses as a lead capturing tool in exchange for visitors’ email addresses. That way, you’ll nudge them one step further down your sales funnel.

Want to start a blog on your own?

Creating your own personal blog takes a few steps. First, you need to decide on a name for your blog, also called a domain name. Then, you need to choose the best blogging platform for your needs. We recommend going with a self-hosted platform. There are a few choices when it comes to self-hosted platforms, but the most popular is WordPress.org .

The next step is to choose a web hosting service . For new bloggers, we strongly recommend Bluehost . You will get a Free domain name when you sign up with them and if you don’t like their services, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee .

• Free domain name
• 63% off regular price
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Set up a blog with a one-click 

We hope that you’ve learned some helpful information about the world of blogging. If you’ve managed to start a blog, then your next step is to work on your blog content in order to keep your future readers satisfied and engaged. Feel free to check out our extensive list of blogging resources which will help you to run and grow your new blog!

115 comments on “What is a Blog? – Definition of Terms Blog, Blogging, and Blogger”

This was very helpful 👍🏾

Great article! I found the information really helpful and insightful. Looking forward to reading more posts like this in the future. Keep up the fantastic work!

Thanks so much! Be sure to check out our most recent post about how to use Pinterest for Blogging !

Very useful informations to us. I can clearly understand the concept of BLOG through this article.

We’re so glad we could help! If you need more information, check out this guide for a step-by-step to starting a blog.

Thank you for the information. As a beginner it was very helpful to me to know about this.

You’re so welcome! Glad we could help!

Thank you for the great and useful article.

Well written, thanks for the guidance.

Thanks for your comment.

Thank you for sharing this, Artem. This was very helpful and straightforward.

Really useful for beginners like me Thanks for sharing this

Very basic but useful stuff for beginners. Thanks for sharing this article. This will definitely be informative for beginners like me.

Thanks Bishnu! We’re glad that you find it useful.

Good post!!!

Thanks Jason!

I like this one:

“So, the main purpose of a blog is to connect you to the relevant audience. Another one is to boost your traffic and send quality leads to your website.”

Thanks for the article.

Outstanding post, well done! To me blogging is an art. The art of turning presentation into curiosity. To me, it is all about the ability to share, inspire and learn. But like many other bloggers I started off chasing the money. Big mistake! Because to have a profitable blog will take months and even a few years. No such thing as “quickly” with blogging because SEO takes time. I am however really glad I didn’t give up all those times I considered doing so! Blogging is not easy, but I can assure you it will be worth it!

Very good explanation.

Thanks Ajoy!

Thanks for the information. That was quite an insight for a beginner.

Thanks Nilesh…glad you find it helpful. Let me know if you need any further help!

Great and useful post. Maam could I use your thoughts about blogging in my class? Because I am handling Home Economics and Livelihood Education subject and I am very interested to integrate education in ICT.

Hi Vanessa, Feel free to use stuff from our article. All the best!

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13 ACCA Papers & Exemptions: Everything You Need to Know

Are you wondering what it takes to be at the top of the Accounting and Finance industry? Discover these 13 ACCA Papers covering critical areas of finance such as Accounting, taxation, and audit. In this blog, we will also learn about the exemptions and how they can impact your journey, helping you build a successful career in the dynamic field of finance.

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The ACCA qualification opens doors to a thriving career in finance. It covers 13 essential ACCA papers and crucial areas like financial accounting, management accounting, taxation, and auditing. This comprehensive programme equips you with the expertise needed to excel in the ever-evolving finance industry.  

Understanding potential exemptions can fast-track your journey to becoming a qualified professional. Join us as we explore the 13 ACCA Papers that will pave your way to success in the finance world. Let’s get started! 

Table of Contents 

1) The Importance of ACCA Papers 

2) ACCA Exams Structure 

   a) Applied Knowledge Papers  

   b)  Applied Skills Papers  

   c) Strategic Professional Papers 

3)  Conclusion 

The Importance of ACCA Papers  

The ACCA qualification is a highly regarded credential in the Accounting and Finance industry. It consists of 13 papers covering a wide range of topics. These papers provide a strong foundation for aspiring accountants to develop their skills. Candidates may be eligible for exemptions from specific exams based on their academic background. 

This qualification equips individuals with the expertise needed to excel in their careers and offers many opportunities for professional development and networking within the global accounting community. The ACCA qualification is a gateway to a successful career in Accounting and Finance, offering a detailed framework for professional growth and a chance to connect with a global community of like-minded professionals. 

ACCA Exams Structure 

The ACCA exams are divided into three primary levels: Applied Knowledge, Applied Skills, and Strategic Professional. As you progress through these levels, the exams become increasingly challenging, and pass rates tend to decrease. So, be prepared for a tougher journey as you advance. 

Applied Knowledge Papers 

The Applied Knowledge exams offer students a comprehensive introduction to finance, helping them build a solid foundation in accounting principles and techniques. These exams are designed to develop your essential understanding and skills in accounting. 

Exemptions 

Business and Technology (BT) 

This paper focuses on understanding the business environment, the role of accounting in business, and the influence of technology on business operations. 

Management Accounting (MA)  

This paper covers management accounting principles, including budgeting, costing, and performance measurement, which are crucial for internal business decision-making. 

Financial Accounting (FA) 

This paper deals with the fundamentals of financial accounting, including preparing financial statements and financial reporting principles. 

Applied Skills Papers 

The Applied Skills exams enhance your knowledge and understanding, equipping you with robust, comprehensive, practical finance skills essential for a future strategic professional accountant in any sector or industry.  

Exemptions: 

Corporate and Business Law (LW) 

This paper focuses on businesses' legal framework, covering contracts, employment, and company law. 

Performance Management (PM) 

It Covers Management Accounting techniques to help businesses plan, control, and make decisions, including budgeting and performance evaluation. 

Taxation (TX) 

It deals with the principles of taxation and its application to individuals and businesses, including Income Tax, Corporation Tax, and VAT. 

Financial Reporting (FR) 

This paper focuses on preparing and interpreting Financial Statements according to International Accounting Standards. 

Audit and Assurance (AA) 

This paper Covers the principles and practices of Auditing, including the Audit Process, Internal Controls, and Audit Reports. 

Financial Management (FM) 

It Deals with Financial Management Principles, including Investment, Financing, and Dividend Decisions. 

Strategic Professional 

The Strategic Professional exams are designed to prepare students for future leadership roles. They help develop a strategic vision by combining technical, ethical, and professional skills. Students can also specialise in areas that align with their career goals. To complete this level, students must pass both Essentials exams and select two from the Optional exams. These exams include: 

Strategic Business Leader (SBL) 

This paper Integrates leadership, strategy, and risk management to develop a strategic vision and lead organisations effectively. 

Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) 

It focuses on Advanced Financial Reporting, including interpreting and applying International Accounting Standards. 

Optional or Elective Papers:  

Advanced Financial Management (AFM) 

It covers Advanced Investment, Financing, and Risk Management Strategies to support long-term Financial Decision-making. 

Advanced Performance Management (APM) 

This paper focuses on strategic performance measurement and management, including Advanced Management Accounting techniques. 

Advanced Taxation (ATX) 

It Deals with complex tax issues and planning, including International Taxation and Tax Strategy. 

Conclusion 

Securing the right qualifications is extremely important in the fast-paced world of Finance. The ACCA qualification will equip you with the knowledge and skills to flourish in this field. These 13 ACCA Papers cover various Finance areas, including Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Taxation, and Auditing. Studying these papers will help you to build a robust foundation in essential regions, paving the way for a successful career in Finance. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Both are challenging. The difficulty of ACCA vs CA depends on individual strengths and preferences. ACCA is globally recognised and focuses on international standards, while CA is country-specific and focuses more on local laws and regulations.  

Completing ACCA in 1 year is highly challenging due to the number of exams and the depth of content. Most students take 2-3 years, depending on prior qualifications, study time, and exam success. 

The Knowledge Academy takes global learning to new heights, offering over 30,000 online courses across 490+ locations in 220 countries. This expansive reach ensures accessibility and convenience for learners worldwide.  

Alongside our diverse Online Course Catalogue, encompassing 19 major categories, we go the extra mile by providing a plethora of free educational Online Resources like News updates, Blogs , videos, webinars, and interview questions. Tailoring learning experiences further, professionals can maximise value with customisable Course Bundles of TKA .  

The Knowledge Academy’s Knowledge Pass , a prepaid voucher, adds another layer of flexibility, allowing course bookings over a 12-month period. Join us on a journey where education knows no bounds.  

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UPSC Mains 2024 Optional Question Papers PDF – Anthropology | PSIR | Sociology | Geography | Pub Ad | History

Current Affairs Classes Pre cum Mains 2025, Batch Starts: 11th September 2024 Click Here for more information

The UPSC Civil Services Mains 2024 exam has reached its crucial stage with the Optional Question Paper I and II today. Candidates across the nation appeared for their respective optional subjects, marking another key milestone in this year’s Mains examination. The optional subjects play a significant role in determining the final merit list, contributing 500 marks to the total score. In this post, we are providing you the UPSC Mains 2024 Optional Question Papers PDF of various famous subjects.

UPSC Mains 2024 Optional Question Papers PDF

Subject	Paper 1	Paper 2
Chemistry Optional Question Paper 2024		Download
Economics Optional Question Paper 2024		Download
Geography Optional Question Paper 2024
Philosophy Optional Question Paper 2024		Download
PSIR Optional Question Paper 2024
Hindi Literature Optional Question Paper 2024
Anthropology Optional Question Paper 2024
Agriculture Optional Question Paper 2024		Download
History Optional Question Paper 2024
Public Administration Optional Question Paper 2024		Download
Sociology Optional Question Paper 2024
Mathematics Optional Question Paper 2024		Download

We have already published the questions papers for essay and GS 1. Use the following links to download the same: UPSC Mains Essay Paper 2024 – UPSC Mains GS 1 Question Paper 2024 – Mains GS 2 Question Paper 2024 – UPSC Mains GS 3 Question Paper 2024 – UPSC Mains GS 4 Question Paper 2024 – Access all PYQs – Access all UPSC Mains 2024 Question at one place –

Basic Details of UPSC Mains 2024 Optional Question Papers

• Number of optional papers: 2 papers (Paper VI and Paper VII)
• Total marks: 250 marks per paper (500 marks total)
• Duration: 3 hours per paper
• Question format: Typically a mix of short, medium, and long answer questions
• Subject choice: Candidates select one optional subject from the list of available subjects in the UPSC optional list.
• Language options: Can be written in English or any scheduled language
• Syllabus: Detailed subject-wise syllabi available on the UPSC website or on this page

How to Download UPSC Mains 2024 Optional Question Papers

Candidates and aspirants can download the UPSC Mains 2024 Optional Question Papers from the official website of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Follow these steps to access the papers:

• Visit the official UPSC website: www.upsc.gov.in
• Navigate to the “Examinations” tab.
• Select “Previous Year Question Papers.”
• Click on UPSC Mains 2024 Optional Papers and choose the subject for which you wish to download the question paper.
• Download and save the PDF for future reference.

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Prelims 2024 current affairs.

• Art and Culture
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The Last Webinar on Mains 2024 | Session by Mr. Ayush Sinha