How to Effectively Plan a New Blog Post
You know, planning a new blog post can be one of the most common problems for a new or recurring blogger. At the same time, the quality of one’s content can dwindle if you don’t take the proper time to consider what it is you want to write about, and stay on task. So how do you go about creating that perfect post idea?
Write When You’re Most Productive
To start, you should try writing when you’re the most productive. If you really want your content to sizzle, you need to be on top of your game, ready to outperform. For example, sitting in a comfortable chair and listening to music might be the best writing environment, while a silent library works for others. Naturally, it’s impossible to be able to sit down and be in perfect writing form 24/7, but being prepared to write is important to developing exceptional content.
Before you begin writing, why not try arranging your desk area in a way that suits you? Make your environment as comfortable as possible to get yourself into the writing mood. Try opening a window. Sounds crazy, right? Whatever you might think, creating an atmosphere that you feel at ease in will make you that much more productive.
Choose a Compelling Topic
If you really want to make an interesting post, you need to begin with an interesting idea. Generating ideas is as simple as considering a solution your readers might need, or a new product that has come out within your market. Let me show you some more ideas you might use for a blog post:
- 5 Ways to Do [Something]
- 20 [Market name] Professionals to Follow on Twitter
- How to Grow in [Your Choice]
- How I [Achievement] in [Timeframe]
One little suggestion might be to build upon previous posts that you’ve done for your blog. What areas have you covered that you can grow and develop more? Building upon your blog’s past content will make your new post even stronger. What’s more, it will give you a place to start when structuring your new blog post.
Structuring Your Post
Normally, bloggers will jump right into writing before deciding upon the layout of their blog post. But let’s be honest – considering the structure of your blog post will ultimately make it more effective. Taking one to two minutes to simply lay out your ideas in order will result in a much more professional post, which flows more seamlessly to your readers. However, you should not spend endless amounts of time on the arrangement on just one post. Figuring out the acceptable layout and moving on is perfectly fine. The bottom line is: spend some time arranging your ideas to avoid turning your posts into a reader’s nightmare.
Learn When to Publish
If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.
Why wait? Or why hurry, for that matter? The most important factor in planning a new blog post is when you’re going to publish it. Rhythm is especially critical in the development of a blog, and posting your new article online at a time of peak visiting hours will help raise subscribers and readership. In the past, new bloggers would simply post and let traffic take care of the rest. However, analytics software makes it easy to determine when people are reading your blog. Posting your new entry an hour or so before peak visiting time will help to improve visibility and exposure. Posting on a day when people are more apt to read your blog is also important.
You might be thinking that planning blog posts is for the more organized or elite bloggers, however, learning to plan out new posts is a skill that will help you to build your blogging experience and authority. Your content will excel with a little extra help.
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In general without looking at the analytics, when is the best time to publish a blog post Alex ?
My preferred time and day is Tuesday morning, not especially because of analytics reasons, but rather because on Tuesday, people seem to be more focused than on Mondays, after the weekend. I also like to publish again on Thursdays or Friday mornings.
I’ve also read that it’s best to post around 11.00am so that you will have time to promote the post on social media.
Social media traffic normally peaks right after lunch at 2.00pm.
I’m not sure how far true this is as I can’t experiment much with my timezone, that’ll be 2.00am.
I’m an early sleeper
Thanks for sharing Alex.
Social media traffic can easily be observed and studied in the statistics. As I’m rarely actively promoting my posts on SM (other than Twitter that is) a cannot say how much time you should take before, and when you should expect this traffic.
My observations are mostly from a reader’s perspective as I’m trying to keep the posts closer to the top when most users will open their feed readers and also capture the moment when they are more likely to pay attention to what is written.
Is purely a personal observation, what works best for me. But again, as I always say, experiment and see what works for you.
Great post. I like the idea of writing when you’re most productive that’s always good.
Good article
Some useful tips.
Learn when to publish. This is very much difficult than I thought. I’m unable to find the best time in a day but I’m able define that before Monday is the best. It’s difficult to figure out the best time to publish because it also depends on where your readers mostly from. If you’re getting readers from all over the world then perhaps any time is the best time. So rather going for best time, why not best day?
For me I think any time is the best time to post. Obviously like is said in the post that you should find when the best time for yourself is. Whether you do at night or during the day. Maybe you have a day job and can only post at night time or on weekends. I post mostly during the night and on weekends, occasionally during the day when I get a chance.
Guyter, the time when you write an article can be different from the one you publish it. WordPress allows scheduled posts, and if your creative time does not overlap with your blog’s most visited hours, this should be of great help.
Nice Article and great tips for new bloggers.