How to write a blog post in 2022 that captures audience attention

How do you write a blog post?

Whether it is 2021 or 2022, writing doesn’t change with years. If you ever wonder how top-performing bloggers publish unique content, this guide to writing a blog post is for you. 

If you are someone

Who sits to write with a blank screen opened,

With multiple tabs opened to find words to start ,

Then you need to know that

Talented writers have a process in writing a blog post. It is the secret behind their work efficiency and their content production. 

For most writers, writing without a precise workflow wastes time and takes all your energy. 

To produce quality content in a long row, you need a blog writing process to create more content in a brief span.

Whether you are a blogger who wants to build a blogging business or a content writer in a marketing team, this method can get you results with little planning.

This process is simple and easy to follow, 

Here’s how to write blog posts that stand out and drive audience attention.

If you are looking for a template to write blog posts, click on the link below to sign up and get my content writing tool kit.

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Elements of a perfect blog post:

Over the last five years of blogging, I have read blogs and understand eminent bloggers and realize something important for every blogger.

They all have a structure for writing a blog.

While the blog post structure may vary from one person to another, I am confident that they follow a pattern in writing the blog posts.

They all follow a blog writing process that helps them to stand out from the crowd. Grab the reader’s attention and resonate with them. 

Writing a good blog post is understanding the various elements of a blog post. Once you know, you can reproduce them with your unique style. 

Every writer, maybe a new writer or you are writing for years, to tackle writer’s block, here are the few essential things that I want to share:

Plan your time to:

• Discover the ideas
• Sketch them into a structure
• Write a draft that lets the readers travel in a flow. 

These tips ensure that you are writing for the readers. I use this process to write every blog post. 

Here are the nine elements of a blog post: 

1. The Content calendar preparation
2. Keyword Research and matching with the search intent
3. Preparing an outline for your blog post
4. Writing headlines that grab the attention of the readers
5. Introduction that hooks the readers
6. A captivating story that energies readers to read
7. A crafty closure
8. Adding images that convey the essence of the blog
9. Editing and proofreading like a pro.

Let’s learn one by one. You can find the exact process and tools that I use every day to write. 

I here assume that you have chosen a niche that you are passionate about writing about. If you haven’t chosen a niche, then here is the link to my profitable niche guide.

Don’t forget to pin this blog post template. 

Get to know your audience:

“Write to please just one person”- Kurt Vonnegut.

Of course, every blogger wants thousands of readers for their blog posts. I may limit to thousands; you can imagine a million readers for your blog. 

Okay, does every reader feel that you have written a blog for them? 

That never happens, 

The real essence of a blog post is to enchant the reader. Your target audience wants to know that,

• You empathize with them; you want to help them 
• Make them feel that you write for them.
• You understand their fears, dreams, and roadblocks. 

Visualizing one reader makes your blog posts more vivid and more personal. This connects with them and brings them back to your blog. 

It’s a mission wherein the reader must long to read your blog posts. 

To deliver value to your readers, you want to provide what they want to hear, not what you want to say. 

Do you know what your target audience is curious to know? 

No?

Then it’s time to stop here and find out what your target audience wants.

Anyone can do keyword research and find out the trending content online and write. But not everyone can tap and connect with the readers. So if your journey is like a marathon to influence your readers, you need to understand them. 

Here is the list of questions to brainstorm what your ideal readers are looking for: 

• What is the most critical roadblock that is preventing my readers from what they want to achieve? 
• What are the long pressing questions that run on their mind? 
• What goals do they have?
• What are they focusing on right now?
• What satisfies them more? 
• When opening this blog post, what will they look for? 

Below is the template, I personally use to note down about my audience. I use a three step method

Need-Help-Solution.

Ask yourself these seven questions and take some time to figure out your sketching a plan for your blog post. 

Let’s deepen finding your target audience with the following techniques:

• Survey your readers: Every blogger nowadays is using social media to build their influence. You can ask your followers direct questions on social media. If you have a separate FB group, you can start polls, ask questions, etc. On Instagram, you can use stories to ask what your readers are looking for from you. Below is how I connect with my readers on Instagram and find out the topics for my next blog post.
• Find from Google Auto suggestions: It is the best way to identify the readers’ needs. When you type your query on Google, it suggests what people are searching for. Look at the images below, and here are the steps to find google autosuggestions. Few tools that you might use in finding the related questions are Also asked and 
• Find from FB groups: Find the top groups in your niche. Deep dive into the insights and find out what your readers are most likely looking for. Take a list of things that you need to cover in the article and finally use them in your content. 
• Explore Quora and Reddit for the trending questions: You can find many questions in different formats here. Before writing every article, look at Quora for additional questions and the top-rated answers to dig into the reader’s mind. Same you can use for Reddit. 

The closer the connection with your audience, the more authentic and vivid your blog post is.

What is your goal of writing the blog post:

BY now, you know the importance of finding readers. Say you have identified the readers, 

You want to share investing tips for Entrepreneurs of age 30(Your audience), or you may wish to share retirement tips for people of age 50(Your Audience). You can’t match the expectations of both the people on the same blog. Even though there is an interconnection between the investment at the age of 30 and the retirement at the age of 50, the expectations don’t meet the end. 

Now it’s time to figure out the purpose of your blog.

You are objective of blogging Maybe to Get more sales for your products.

Get website traffic, increase brand awareness. Or to showcase yourself as an authority in your niche.

If your blog is just a sales pitch, it will be hard to reach your audience, and your blog may remain a lonely voice while no one pays attention to it.

Most people aren’t interested in your sales messages. They don’t even want to know what business you are doing. They are interested in what is there for them.

To build a business with your blog, you have to stop thinking like a salesman using a witty sales technique and start helping your readers and becoming their mental mentor.

In promoting your business essentials, such as growing your email list or promoting your products or service, you need to make sure you are educating/helping your readers.

How to define the purpose of the blog post?

To clearly define the purpose of the blog post, ask yourself these questions.

• Why am I writing this blog post? When defining your why, the answer must come from your heart. Clearly, in the perspective of a mentor or an inspirer. Your why statements can be like this – 
  • I want my readers to understand the email marketing basics so that it helps them to choose a better email service provider.
  • I want my readers to realize the importance of keyword research to amplify their SEO efforts. 
• What I want my readers to do after reading the blog post? So you have written a lengthy blog post of 2000 words or more. Do you want your readers to exit the blog? You might have spent 5 hours writing; what is your ROI that you want? Your what statements are like 
  • I want my readers to sign up for my email list to get my Free email marketing checklist and increase my subscribers. 
  • I want to make my readers buy my affiliate product-xxxx
• How do I want my readers to feel after reading the blog post? In the end, your readers should have a specific feeling that makes them want to return for more. So how you want your readers to feel at the end of the blog post. Your How statement can be like this. 
  • I want my readers to feel they have upgraded their knowledge of email marketing. 
  • I want my readers to learn about various products.

9 Step process for writing a blog post:

With the knowledge in understanding the target audience and matching with the business goals, we will see the actual process of writing a blog post. 

Understanding only the blog post structure can’t help you create more authentic content in the long term. 

You are going to learn from the very basic brainstorming and research process to write a blog post. 

Let’s begin,

Step 1: Create your content calendar:

How do you brainstorm and research to write a blog post?

You may have a bucket list of blog post ideas. If you are someone new and have no idea about creating a content calendar, then this is the first thing that you should do. 

Begin with what you know about your audience: 

Before you start researching, there are few questions that you have answers for. When you have them in mind, you have a clear sense of search. 

• What are the most trending topics in your niche? Find where you can place your content and fit in. For example, My Audience is Instagrammers, and they are always looking for ways to beat the Instagram algorithm. So I wrote a blog on this.
• Are you an introvert, and you feel like you are being under-discussed? You start the conversation in your community. Start talking to your followers in social media to find their burning questions.
• What is the past response to your blog posts? Find out if your readers are enjoying your writing? Find out which content performs well and which isn’t. Reproduce more of what is working well. 

For now, I have shared the quick ideas on creating a calendar; 

For example,

You are writing 8 different articles on Foundation creams.

How does google know which content to rank for the keyword?

If your keyword is Foundation cream and your blog posts are

1.                Best Foundation cream for dark skin.

2.                How to apply a foundation cream.

3.                Top quality foundation creams within 1K.

4.                Best ever deals for foundation creams in amazon 2019.

5.                Is cream foundation better than liquid.

6.                What is the difference between foundation cream and cc cream?

7.                List of best foundation creams for oily skin.

8.                An ultimate guide for buying foundation creams.

With a good site structure, you will plan the articles in a great manner and you can interlink the articles one another so that you can make your site easy for google. This other way helps the reader to understand this in better. Let’s define this as a category and we call it Face Makeup

For creating your site structure, you have to define your categories. Our category is Face Makeup. 

I hope you got my drift.

One category must contain several linked blog posts.

These blog posts must be interlinked with one another. Now when you search for a single keyword, it will be easier for google to understand your site and it will rank higher and subsequently you will get traffic to your site. 

Step 2: Keyword Research for Bloggers: 

The reason I included keyword research in the process of writing a blog post is that you know what is most searched in your niche. 

When you understand the process of keyword research and do it for every blog post you write, your probability of reaching an audience is higher. 

This will help you to find topics that readers will want to read more about. 

You have a gist of free and paid SEO tools to do keyword research. 

I cover the quick winning tips here in this post to get started with keyword research.

• Step 1: Go to Google keyword planner– Click on discover new keywords and enter the list of keywords in your mind.

• Step 2: Export them to a CSV file, open it, and find out the keywords you can target. 

Now the questions arise, how can I determine the best keywords for my blog post, 

It requires the process of understanding two basic metrics in keyword research 

• Search volume 
• Search Difficulty

Search volume refers to how often a term(keyword) gets searched on Google. 

Search Difficulty measures how hard it is to rank a keyword. 

The below image shows you the output of Ubersuggest for detailed keyword research. 

A quick and winning rule in keyword research: 

Higher search volume means there is a demand for the topic, and more people are interested in it. You have a better opportunity to drive traffic. 

If the search difficulty is higher, then it is hard to rank for the particular keyword( which means more competitors are ranking and you need a decent number of backlinks to rank for)

When you start, always try ranking for keywords with high search volume and low search difficulty. Here is where you can find your low-hanging fruit.

Step 3: Write your blog post outline: 

Every blog post is like framing a story. A story needs a start and a finish with a compelling message in the middle. So now it’s time to consolidate what you are going to share in the blog post. 

Outlines help you cover every detail you wish to hide in the blog post while ensuring you are not covering too much. Without the outlines, you will 

• Miss the destination
• You might lose your time in unnecessary sections

Outlines can be like a gist that encompasses the content you want to share. 

It can be like this structure below, wherein you write the main heading and with every main title the concept you want to cover in few points. 

So that you know what you want to cover in every section. 

By now, you have created the basic structure of the blog post, and now it’s time to detail every part of the blog post. Let’s discuss how you can write every element of a blog post. 

Step 4: writing an attention-grabbing headline: 

Every headline’s goal is to grab the scrollers’ attention, stop them scrolling, and make them click and read your post. 

The headline should capture the intention of your readers and powerfully communicate the essence of your blog post. 

With the importance of headlines said, you understand the essence of writing headlines that increase the CTR( click-through rate ). As you learn to write a blog post, write a quick headline and start writing your blog post. Later on, at the end of writing the blog post, you can finalize the headlines. 

“Spending too much time on writing headline with all the tools without writing the content is like killing yourself.”

Before I share writing headlines, I request you to write the headlines at the end of the blog post. 

How to write attention-grabbing headlines for your blog post? 

Before you begin, ask yourself these questions: 

• Is your headline shareable? Does it have that curiosity factor that makes people shareable? 
• Will it stand out in the noisy social world( I mean in Twitter and Facebook ) 
• Does your headline have powerful words or the words that run in your reader’s mind? 

I always write my headlines at the end of the blog post. If I take 5 hours to complete the content, I will be exhausted at the end. I write a simple working title and leave it overnight. The next day when I open for editing, I use the tools for analyzing the headlines and craft 3 to 4 working titles for my blog post. 

Here is a list of tools you can use to write captivating headlines for your blog post:

1. Coschedule’s headline studio and the chrome extension.
2. Portent’s title generator.

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Step 5: Writing an introduction that hooks your readers: 

After clicking on the title, what is the one sentence that will lead them to read the entire blog post? 

Ask yourself the above question. 

This is the importance of an introduction. Your blog post introduction is the first impression that says the gist of your content.

People don’t read every blog post. They just scan and scroll through your content. So in the introduction part, you have to say what is there in the blog post. 

As you are learning to write a blog post, here are the few do’s and don’t write an introduction. 

Try doing these things:

• Try different types of hooks in the starting paragraphs
• Use statistics or numbers that make them understand the importance of the context. 
• Start with a story that unleashes something at the end
• Begin with a quote. 
• Show them the result initially and reveal the path of the work later on in your blog post.

Don’ts:

• Bland, dull opening with hard-to-read sentences. 
• Avoid cliches that keep them rolling their eyes. 
• Too many repeated words and long sentences are very sticky, and readers feel as if the post is annoying. 

The attention span of people is decreasing day by day. Instead of trying to clickbait your readers, try not to persuade them with no value. 

To establish a connection with your readers, provide them with the important reasons to read the post to make them read the post and share it with their friends. 

Step 6: Tell them an enchanting story:

People are coming back to your blog to be entertained or to learn something valuable.

Imagine yourself as a dull teacher who teaches only the context. What is the use of teaching? As a teacher or a mentor, your work is to enhance and uplift your students’ lives. How can you encourage someone with just a text? You need emotions, a way of conveying the text, that brings life to the context. 

The same is the case here; you can portray the information like a newspaper. Think about how you can make a difference in your writing to glitter like a bar of gold.

The same information in an article can be better conveyed as a story that travels along with the readers. 

How can you portray the information in a story?

• Answer the most asked questions in the community: One of the most important things you should include in your content is your community’s most asked questions. To find the most asked questions, Type in your query in google and find the relevant questions for your blog post and address them in one of your subheadings. 
• Include the lessons from your learnings: Instead of simply asking the readers to do things, including your studies, like how you did and how to do. Cover every roadblock that you face and show them how they can overcome them. 
• Use visuals wherever needed: Images convey better than the text. Use screenshots or images of the process. 

Here are a few tips that will help you to come up with a better copy.

• Write for Readers First- use “you” instead of mentioning “reader.”
• Organise your sales messages inside the copy. Let them be hidden behind the information you are sharing. 
• Make sure to use shorter paragraphs. Check the readability of the blog posts in the Hemingway app. 
• Neil Patel recommends using one-sentence paragraphs, which is easy for the readers to consume.
• Write in a conversational style.
• Make bullet points and lists when and wherever required

I usually write the main theme headings in the outline. So, while coming to the writing process, all I need is to fill in the context for the particular paragraphs. I suggest you spend some more time outlining your blog post. That is the excellent time-saving tip.

Now that with an idea of what to cover in your blog post. When you address your readers personally with a personal touch everywhere, the blog post feels personal. 

The best thing you can do to build a business blogging is to learn how to write a blog post. There are many courses available, but the most valuable lessons are learnt with writing and practicing it every day. 

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Step 7: Write a crafty Closure:

Like the opening statements, the closing triggers are most important. 

You have written a headline with a great headline score, and your headline is persuading me to click. Following the headline, you write an introduction that flows nicely, and the content is heavy and powerful with loads of information. 

Now just a few final lines to write and end your blog post. What to do and what to write?

Your final lines are the final gist, and it must make your readers take the desired action you want to. 

Now that we will see, How to make them act without asking them to. 

What makes closing paragraphs so emotional and inspirational?

Most of the bloggers don’t write a heart-warming final paragraph. They share the tips, tutorials, or ideas; that’s it. They finish their blog post. 

Think of this for a second, as a blogger, is simply sharing the tips is your task? 

My answer is undoubted NO. 

Every blogger has to encourage the readers, make them feel good, initiate an action… to be a good mentor. 

How do mentors inspire people?

Start with asking or imagining your ideal reader. Try finding answers to these questions

• What is stopping him/her from executing your tips/advice? 
• Did your reader feel overwhelmed at the end of the blog post?
• Did they think they cannot do or achieve it?
• Did he think it was too much effort for a bit of gain?

When you can understand your favorite reader, you can help him with specific, actionable advice at the end of the blog post. Give a trumpet call that flourishes them with the benefits of implementing your advice. 

What could be the aim of your final paragraph?

It could be something like 

• Asking them to pin your infographics
• Share your blog post
• Sign up to your Email newsletter
• Buy your product
• Take your service
• Buy your affiliate product 
• Sign up to your webinar or course.

Once you have identified your final paragraph’s aim, write a plain draft and edit it with powerful words that invigorate your readers. 

Step 8: Adding visuals to your blog post:

Now you are about to finish learning to write a blog post. It is an image to emphasize in a blog post and its importance and how you can do it.

The human brain deciphers visuals much quicker than the text. The text takes a long and linear time to decode. 

Most of the content marketers here are using Images in their blog posts that summarises or portrays the essence of their content. 

What is the purpose of an image in a blog post?

Like how you cannot bake bread and add an image of a cake, the same way you cannot share any image you want to upload. The picture you are sharing must be relevant to the message of the story you are sharing. 

I read articles from top blogs everyday. Sometimes I take time to read lengthy blog posts to understand the writer’s mind—his way of conveying the content. 

I found that the visuals that appear in the blog posts have a specific goal. 

The goals of an Image can be 

• To explain a process[How you can do]
• To emphasize an important point[Stats, tips]
• Showcase their personality[Infographics]
• Build a brand experience[using storytelling arts]

Step 9: SEO your blog posts:

Once you finish writing, editing, and adding images, now it’s gthe time to optimize your writing for the search engines. There are several things you can do instantly. Even if you are not an SEO expert, You can use these simple tips to make sure you have done what is needed. 

It would help if you had a keyword targeting structure. 

Let’s see that.

Keyword Targeting structure for On-page SEO:

Just because your headline score is 90 doesn’t mean that you will rank No 1 in google. Your content quality plays a vital role in organizing your posts. 

1. Use primary keyword in Title: Use primary keyword in title and URL.
2. Use primary keyword in the first paragraph: Place your primary keyword in the paragraph’s first sentence. But sometimes, when you have to convey an interesting story or a hook in the introduction, you can skip this. 
3. Spread your secondary keyword in your content: Naturally, add the secondary keywords and LSI keywords in your blog post. This is how you can rank your post for multiple keywords. Use the secondary keyword in one of your subheadings.
4. Use Internal links: Link your old blog posts that are related to the post. 
5. Use keywords in Metadata: Think meta description as your sales copy. If you have written a 5000 words long blog post, you have to convince your readers and Bots in 2-3 lines. That is the meta description. Dont forget to include keywords in the metadata. 
6. Optimize your URL: If you are using an SEO plugin like Yoast or Rank Math, You can optimize your URL in the plugin. I mean the Permalink. Or else you can optimize your Permalink in the wordpress setup menu. 
7. Format and use alt tags in images: Use best images with small file sizes and add keywords in the photos’ alt text. You can rank for the keywords in the image search too. 
8. Write for Humans, not for Bots: After reading this, you may feel like you have to write with keywords in mind. You cannot create content if you are thinking about SEO. You can write only if you think your reader in your mind.

The below image helps you with the quick On-page SEO optimization for your blog post.

Read the blog – On page seo checklist.

How do you write a blog post?

Every time you sit to write something, you might feel annoyed or bored. It is because you can’t express your feelings in words. 

Researchers have found that the right brain is non-verbal, which means it senses the images, emotions, etc. The left brain is logical, which means the left can put feelings into words. 

To create a masterpiece, you need to integrate both the brains and achieve a writing flow. 

“You can’t make flow happen. All you can do is learn to remove obstacles in its way.”

This flow comes naturally with practice.

This entire blog post helps you in the blog writing process. You have to master this with the everyday practice of writing. 

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter, where I share the most unique and actionable tips for writing blogs. 

Leave in the comment section below, How do you write a blog post? Do you have a writing process, or where do you struggle a lot in producing content?