How To Write High Quality Blog Posts

Sitting down to write high quality blog posts can seem like a daunting task; especially when you have to do it over and over again. Better make sure whatever you’re writing about, you’re passionate about it.

When I first started blogging, I would just throw some words on a page and hope someone liked them and left a comment. Sadly those comments only came in the form of keywords and “great post dude” which are very well known spammer comments. I actually thought they were real comments at first; didn’t take me long to see something spammy going on.

I studied other pro bloggers and read their material like my life depended on it. Took me a while but I soon caught on to techniques that they were using.

I’m going to share with you a simple 6 step process I use to write high quality blog posts.

What Do You Want To Write About (main points)

In my first step I put all my points down that I want to talk about. My main points will be turned into the sub-headers once I iron them out and figure out how I want to word them.

Example:
main point 1
main point 2
main point 3

This step simply helps put everything in front on you. I have self-diagnosed adhd with bad short term memory so when I think of something, I need to put it down as fast as possible before I forget it. You wouldn’t believe how many blog posts and main points I’ve forgotten just because I didn’t take this step.

This single step also works great (I did it for this post) when you want to create a draft and come back to it later. I typed up the main points of this post at StarBucks, added a few keywords and SEO and boom; 50% done.

Arrange Main Points In Order Of Importance (& Leave Some Mystery)

Putting your main points in a good readable order is what makes a blog post good. If I was talking about “making money online through affiliate marketing for newbies“, my first point should not tell them to go and sign up for Clickbank. I would first need to explain affiliate marketing to them.

My rule for this is to look at all the main points and think as the reader. What would I need to know first? Then second and so on. This helps me put my points in perfect order.

Now you can’t just go throwing your best points in the beginning. I like to lead up to the best points which almost force the reader to read my blog post. Some may feel different about this and put the best points first. This doesn’t guarantee that visitors are going to read the full post. This is why you must take steps to cater to every reader. I’ll explain in greater detail in the **Bonus Points**.

High Quality Blog Posts Have Great Pics (sometimes)

Putting nice pictures in your blog posts is a great way to connect to readers. I love to put a picture that will bring the humor out.

In my blogging world, it’s mandatory to have a picture in a blog post. I get this from my youth I believe. I would flip through a book looking for pictures. No pictures, no attention from me. It’s not that way now but I just like to warm my readers up with pictures.

Add Your Affiliate Links If Any

Putting affiliate links is a must if you want to make money from your blog but everyone hates those ugly long spammy looking links. Along with that, I’ve been on blogs and bloggers are doing it all wrong. I’ll talk about that next.

For hiding those ugly affiliate links, I use a free wordpress plugin called Pretty Link Lite. I wrote about this and other must have wordpress plugins in a recent blog post. It allows you to create new redirect links that hide those ugly affiliate links. This is great too because the link can be set to permanent which allows you to use it everywhere. It will come out like

This is a huge step from my days of logging into Hostgator and creating a redirect for every affiliate link. Boy was that a pain.

Now for the mistake that I see many bloggers making. When you post a link, you should set it to open on a new window or tab; especially an affiliate link. I do this for 99.9% of links on my site. The .01% happened to slip through my spidey senses.

I don’t care how many times a week you write high quality blog posts; if you’re readers are leaving off to other sites, you’re giving away your shine time.

You want to keep visitors on your blog as long as possible. Even if you send them away to a new page, you can have your page open in the background. When they close the new page, there your page is waiting for them. “Oh yea. Back to reading this article” <= I’ve said this many times; that’s why I know it works.

Do A Thorough Spell Check!

Have you ever read a blog post and come across a mistak? Of course you have. It’s almost like you’re a human spell checker when you’re reading someone else’s post because their mistakes seem to just jump out at you.

I’ve had people reply to my emails just to tell me I spelled something wrong. People love to correct your mistakes and get that feeling of their smarter than you. I don’t like to give them that feeling.

You must spell correctly to write high quality blog posts. This makes you look more professional.

If you’re using WordPress, you shouldn’t be spelling anything wrong. They have the most amazing spell checker. I love that new feature; and I did that on purpose by the way. Did you catch that spelling error? Notice how you felt? Yea! That’s the feeling I’m trying to keep readers from having. 😉

Release Your Blog Post To The World!

After all the above is done, it’s time to release your work to the world. This simple 6 step process will leave your blog posts spotless; and feel free to add your own points. These are steps that I take in-order to write high quality blog posts.

**Bonus Points To Write High Quality Blog Posts**

Here are some points that go within every point mentioned above. These are steps I take to make my blog readable for everyone.

Spacing Out Content – It’s good practice to space out your posts. In this lazy society we live in, people are straying away from reading more and more. Instead of hating the fact that this is happening, if we want to succeed, we must adapt.

You should always space out your content so it’s easily readable. I like to hit the return key after 3 lines. Gives the reader a chance to rest their eyes between paragraphs.

The last step I’m going to share with you is something I do and most other pro bloggers also. Always put sub-titles. This is for the skimmers.

Some people don’t like to read everything but may take a few points from your posts. You have to cater to the reader because you need them more than they need you. Make it easy for them to read and if they took something from your post, they may feel compelled to leave a comment.

Well I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful. I use to write posts just to get pass the 600 words mark but as I developed a passion for creating good content, I simply can’t do it. I can’t even remember the last blog post I wrote that was less than a thousand words.