No Experience! How Do You Write Your First Article or Blog Post?
Hello friend,
By the time you reach this exciting and yet confusing stage of writing YOUR blog’s first post, you have already done great; I mean, you already have created your blog.
Read also; The Detailed Step By Step Guide Of Setting Up YOUR Blog On Blogger
Waoh, welcome
Whenever someone thinks of opening up his or her own blog, the first thing they ask me about is; I am not a writer, how can I write posts or articles for my blog?
And yes, neither am I.
When I started blogging at The Complete You Ministry (now, Miklah) about 3 years ago, I really didn’t know the guides or what to consider as I write up my first blog’s post, but I wrote it anyway.
As I look back, I see there are many mistakes I did that I shouldn’t have done, but thank God I did them for it is only through them that I perfected my writing skills.
But you are lucky, how? Because you don’t have to make the same mistakes; I have learnt blogging the hard way and it is my pleasure to help others with what I have practically experienced.
So how do you write your first blog’s post?
There is no mathematical or scientifically approved formula out there to make you write your first post to perfection, but some important considerations can only guide you as you explore your potentials.
All I wanna say is that none is born a writer; we all grow in it as we practice it daily. Believe me when I say; sooner or later you shall look back to your writings and you won’t believe it’s you!
So let’s jump into it, what are the steps?
- Preparing YOUR post
Preparing your material or topic should not be hard especially after choosing your niche.
Read also; How to Choose Your Niche for Your Blog the Easiest Way (For Miklah members, you already have what to write about)
Here are some few things to do as you prepare your first blog’s post;
- Think about the topic and creatively jog down your ideas, thoughts or perceptions regarding it.
It is always a great practice to always start any topic with what you think about it. This enables you to creatively bring out the best of you; you knowledge, skills and experiences regarding various issues before biases from other sources.
You see, sometimes, you may think you really don’t know much. However, that is only because you aren’t focused and your head seems running up and down or around, catching up with everything and missing up everything. But if you already have a topic, one single idea to talk about, chances are you already have some thoughts or sentiments about it. Grab them!
- Read about the topic or niche on other people’s blogs
Yeah, many authors point out different tools on internet that can help you decide on the trending topics, but I personally don’t encourage that for only two reasons;
One; when you let tools guide YOUR writing, topics, and ideas, it simply means you are not controlling them but they are instead controlling you. Yeah, instead of bringing new ideas and topics on board and enrich knowledge, you are actually maneuvering and twisting around the already existing knowledge. I don’t believe this is genius.
Of course, many bloggers have convincing reasons why you should follow the trend but I think this may not be necessary, at least not always.
Two; Blogging, I mean serious and life changing blogging should not be about followers, shares, likes and money, the same reasons so many bloggers ask you to look for trending stories. I personally believe that a professional blogger should focus on bringing new and helpful ideas on board irrespective of whether such ideas are known and liked by many or few.
Of course, the irony is; great and unique ideas always find clients. Yeah, it may take you a day, two, a month or a year before the public learns about your existence and your unique version of ideas, but they will definitely find you out and when they do, man! traffic is gonna overwhelm you.
Let’s go back to the point;
Reading about the niche or topic gives you a wide view and opens you to the existing knowledge about the same topic, gaps in information that is already out, what you can fill in, and how you can do that.
Wait! Am I not confusing you? No, you should not be.
When you let tools guide you, you are giving them control over your niche, topic, and what to exactly write about. But when you do a deep search on your topic, you are simply exploring knowledge and existing data on a topic of your choice.
NB: If you are critical enough, you can use tools to determine what to write about and then still be as unique as possible compared to other millions of writers who might be talking or writing about the same topic (we will come back to this).
Practicability: Assume your niche is parenting; your topic could be about special tips on how parents can breastfeed twins. In this case, you can visit Google and read other people’s work on taking care of twins, challenges when breastfeeding twins, how to manage twins without getting worked out, and so much more about parenting twins. In this case, your knowledge about twins and parenting them becomes wide and helpful.
- Ask friends to guide you.
Yes, the best posts I have ever written are those following a constructive argument with friends or simply brain storming about them. Yes, introduce your topic in your group of friends and hear what they think about it. Challenge them with the same ideas you wanna include in your post and let them challenge you back.
YOUR article can be so brain-intriguing if it answers and challenges the common ideas and perceptions of people on the same issue; that is what makes you unique.
Alternatively, you can first write the post down and give it out to friends for critical review and analysis before publishing it. I don’t know how many friends can be available to help you every time you wanna post something, but this can work too.
So ask friends for help, guidance and comments especially those you think are more experienced with writing than you or have serious, constructive and greater experience about the same topic you wanna write about.
Sometimes I read my posts to Winnie, but rarely do I read them to others before posting. However, I usually write posts about topics that I have had arguments about with other friends either at school, on social media, and other meeting places. These posts always do well because they are challenging and answering the points raised up by my friends.
- Do outlines of your points in your notebook, phone notebook or any other place of choice
When I start my taps on the keyboard, I am crazily flowing. And some of the times, it is possible to even go off the real topic and get lost into some sweet narrative or unending introduction. This is when having your points outlined really makes you smart.
For example, assume your topic is; practical tips of how a nurse can handle difficult patient (or nurse’s practice tips to handle a difficult patient), then you may have your outlines as below;
- Introduction
- Who is a nurse
- Who is a difficult patient
- When is a difficult patient an issue
- How to tell a difficult patient
- Steps to handling a difficult patient
- Advantages of having a difficult patient handled well
- Summary and conclusions
- Take home (call to action)
- References if needed
NB: We shall have time to highlight on some of these main points or parts of any post. For now, I just wanted you to appreciate the value of having your points outlined.
Here, you can revisit your personal thoughts regarding the topic and scrutinize them against evidence (the one you came across through reading or arguments) on each of the above outlines.
The general value of this summary in your notebook is to help you keep focused during the real writing so that you don’t lose the course of your article and get lost in stories or any other distractions.
- Writing the post
Oh dear, thanks for making it this far. After preparing yourself for your first blog’s post, it is time to do the real writing. And this is the real deal man!
Before we dig deep into this, there are few things I wanna make clear;
- Do your writing in Microsoft Word, WordPad, or any other word software, and not directly into the blogger’s editor or that of WordPress or whatever website platform you are using. This serves two main purposes; you get to have a copy of whatever you post on your site and also you are safe from accidents that could happen when you type directly into the website’s text editor tool, including losing your work.
When done writing, do copy and paste into blogger or WordPress editor. Do some editing if needed (for example, adding links, photos, videos and more and you are done!-of course, we will have time to look at how to publish/post your post).
- Write about what you know. Oh yes, we highlighted something about increasing your knowledge about a topic in the article ‘Why You Must Have A website or blog” (link). Of course, you don’t have to be born with this knowledge, I simply mean you should have done good study about it or simply it is out of your experience or daily life.
Listen;
This is your deal. Whatever you have read, prepared, and hoped to put on paper comes out now. And believe me; it is possible to have prepared well and lose out on presenting your content or during the real writing. Below are few of the many tips to make a good post;
- Give it an eye and mind-catching title.
Some great bloggers like Neil Patel, Micheal Hyatt, and Jon Morrow shall be your good examples on this. My general advice is that your title should reflect very well the exact topic you are writing about and catch people’s eyes and mind by just rephrasing or word arrangement.
For example, in our example of nurse’s tips for handling a difficult patient, how about we wrote our title like this; “Difficult patients: Can they be successfully handled by a nurse?”. Of course, this title seems long now! Oh my God! How are we gonna rephrase it?
Personally, I care less about the length of the title but special bloggers for money emphasize that it should not be too long. So let us go over it again; “Handling difficult patients: nurse’s Tips”.
Research has shown that post titles that start with ‘how’ (either in statement or question form) or ‘list’ have high view and open rates. Basing on this, we could rephrase our title as “How Can A nurse Handle a difficult patient?” Wait! Some more studies emphasize that you need to have ‘you’ word in the title to make it personally appealing to the reader. In this case, we write this: How can You as a Nurse Handle a Difficult Patient? (No, you don’t have to always capitalize!)
Oh waoh! We have made it. Like I earlier highlighted, I don’t like to be so much instructive on how to write by these other rules and guidelines; I love it when it just flows. So please, be at ease as you phrase your title the best way you think it sounds.
- Have an intriguing first paragraph
Wait brother! You cannot have a great topic, title, and then a horrible or boring paragraph! That would be so bad.
NB: Some authors advice us that the first blog’s post should be about us and not the exact niche or topic we have created the blog for, but I personally don’t like this.
Instead, I believe there are #two things you need to do on your first day of your first blog; write the ‘About’ page and then the first blog’s post (we will have time to share how to write and arrange blog’s pages on blogger and WordPress).
And so during your first post, you may introduce yourself briefly, share the address to your “ABOUT” page, and then continue with your post.
For example, let us use our topic here again and make some introduction;
“Have you ever nursed a patient who is more irritating and troublesome than actually his disease? I mean, have you ever come across a patient who is nagging? Oh I see; maybe you haven’t but your fellow nurse might have. And so you wonder! What Tips can I use as a nurse to successfully handle a difficult patient? Here is your way out;
Before we dig deep into this, shouldn’t you know who is really talking to you? Oh yes, I am Nemeyimana Vicent (you can even call me nemvicx), a professional nurse and public health officer and I intend to have more time bringing you interesting health information and helpful skills, tips, and resources right here on this blog.
Back to our topic today, who is a nurse?
When I first joined nursing school….”
The above would be my first and second paragraphs. Actually, they don’t represent how best you can go; it’s just a guide. You can do much better than me and many more others. Kudos.
- Build YOUR post with good grammar & creative writing
One of the characteristics of personal blogs is that nobody shall come to grade your English, no one. Actually, it’s on your blog that you are free to use any words in any way of your choice. But don’t take it for granted; blogs with good English and that are grammatically perfect look more professional, authentic, and respected. And this means a lot to your blog and business.
Frankly speaking, blogs written well attract more visitors, build confidence among clients and speak volumes about your profile or company’s seriousness and integrity.
Remember to use tags, idioms, and quotes from famous speakers, anecdote (short stories), metaphors, analogies, and other sorts of creativity where necessary. Tags are special key words you would love search engines to consider while grading your site (whatever seems new to you today shall come to light soon, just relax and do what you do best; leave what you are not familiar with for now).
Posts or articles that feature shocking statistics, wise sayings and great quotes from greatest world leaders and speakers tend to score high in terms of open and view numbers and usually convert more (we shall have time for each and every word here someday). Also, add links (both internal and external) where possible.
We use links when we want to refer the readers to other places for detailed information about the same thing we could be sharing (for example, in my example that I shared above, I referred my readers to where they can read more about myself, about the site, and even contact me).
When we link internally, we are simply directing our clients to our former articles that have more details about a similar or closely related topic as we are sharing. When we do external linking, we are directing our readers to other powerful and respected websites and blogs that might have much information about the topic we are sharing.
Links are very important; they also make search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others pick up your blog as a serious one with authentic information and authentic links (of course you should only link to those other blogs that are powerful and respected). Also, links add value to your content by satisfying your readers’ needs about every question regarding that same topic.
NB: As you explore the blogging world, you will hear of one phrase; content is king. What does it mean? It means that whatever you do as a good writer to attract readers and followers, the information you actually share in your post is what counts most. Yes, people should find answers, helpful insights, and real –practical solutions to their problems.
For example; I don’t think I have left anything uncovered in relation to writing your blog’s first post. That is what we call the value in the content.
Oh wait! Did I highlight something to do with #keywords?
Oh my God! Oh yes, keywords are like tags (I highlighted about tags above) and they help search engines tell what exactly your topic or blog is about and so can rank your site in such categories.
Some authors stretch that we can always do keyword planning before even thinking of the title, but I personally do not think this is applicable for every post you wanna write (we shall have time to explore keyword planning in details). Briefly, it is all about finding out how common certain words have been used on internet by internet visitors.
Words that have been used often are usually good to use especially in your post’s title, first paragraph, once or twice in the middle, and then in your last paragraph. As Google scrolls through your post, it keeps noting the keywords that give total meaning or describe the topic and use them to rank you, direct users who have used the same words to your website and much more.
For example, considering our topic; how to write your first blog’s post, I had to make sure that ‘write first blog’s post’ appear in my first paragraph, in the middle and even here!
- Finishing up YOUR post
As highlighted above, make sure you finish in a style, including important keywords and tags. Below are few things to consider;
- Post’s length
For God’s sake, there is no specific length that your post should fall into, but words between 500-5000 would be fine depending on what you are writing about. Some blogger wrote and said, “The post’s length should be as that of a woman’s skirt; not too short to show all the goods, and still not too long to hide the goods” (paraphrased).
As you get used to the world of blogging and writing various articles and topics, you will automatically find yourself writing more content especially when writing detailed guides to help people solve some kind of problems. For example, this post of mine is detailed and has more than 3600 words.
- Summary (Recap)
It is not a guarantee to always include a summary of your points but it may be helpful in some detailed posts where you need the readers to grasp your points easily.
Also, summarizing your article gives the reader a good feeling about you. Why is this possible? Because we summarize for our readers not ourselves; we already know what we wrote.
And believe me; every reader shall fall in love with a writer that considers him at every stage. Yeah, for example, I seriously change my tone and writing style when I am reviewing scientific statistics and data for my readers at Life and Health blog. I also do the same when I am doing deep biblical expositions or bible verse studies at Word of Life.
I do those summaries in such areas because I have to make sure my readers are easily grasping the exact points I wanna deliver home, I mean, to their homes!
- Call to Action
This is a very serious and important way to finish up your posts. Usually, readers shall scroll to something else or even leave your blog minus doing anything helpful to their lives or even yourself. That is where the call to action comes in.
You need to simply tell your readers a specific action they should do after reading your post. Sometimes, this call of action is about them only, about you only or about you and them altogether.
For example, at the end of this post, I shall ask you to; #1. Immediately practice writing your first blog’s post; #2. Share this post with others; #3. Sign up (subscribe) with your email so you never miss on our other important offers and new helpful articles. Yes, you shall have to do the above actions.
Usually, including only one call to action converts well, but also multiple actions might perform equally well depending on how they are placed in your site, what they are about, and how easy they are to be fulfilled or met by the reader.
Congratulations brother and sister, you have made it!
Summary:
Writing YOUR first blog’s post or article is both a threatening and exciting activity (especially for new bloggers), but it can be successfully accomplished by almost anyone with ease.
For better results, you may need to prepare for your first post by reading about the topic, asking friends, and also making some outlines of the post’s main points or ideas.
During the real writing, use MS or any other document software and paste into your blog’s editor later. Make sure you have a great catching title, paragraph (s), tags and keywords, analogies and famous quotes and research evidences where necessary and seriously give valuable content.
And lastly, make sure your post is not too long or even too short, summarize your points, and specifically call your readers for any specific action. And ask them to share with others too.
There you go ka brother!
Thanks for your attention; it is now time to act. Please, do the following now;
- Right now, go to your tablet or phone or computer’s word software and start on your first post. For Miklah Staff, check your whatsapp for topics to write about. Send the article to me (for Miklah staff only); here is the email; thecompletey@gmail.com
- Please, you know there are thousands more people that need this guide, share with them the best way you can.
- Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and we shall make sure you join the team and all offers and new articles shall reach you.
God bless you
Nemvicx @ Miklah (formerly, The Complete You Ministry)