How do you write a blog post? How do you get it from concept to published, promoted piece? Here’s my 30-step process for getting your ideas in front of the world! The Writing Process Step 1: Whip up an idea for the blog post. Generate your own idea or select a ready-to-go concept. Step 2: Do your research. Gather information from reliable sources, interview experts, and more. (Be sure to cite your sources!) Step 3: Create an outline. Sift through your research, see how it aligns with your overall concept, and put the pieces in place. Step 4: Flesh it out. Don’t start at the beginning. (T ..read more

You’ve done it. You’ve come up with an incredible idea for your audience.  You’ve chosen the perfect eye-catching images.  You’ve created social media-friendly title graphics.  And you’ve used your SEO Jedi skills to make Google love you. In short, you’ve crafted an amazing blog post.  And you want the world to see it! But just how do you get the world to take notice? Get the word out with these 22 ways to promote your blog post!   Place social share buttons directly on your blog post page.   Link to your blog post internally to make your blog sticky.   Sha ..read more

Want to demystify Google?  Here you go:  Google wants to know exactly what your blog post is about so that it can show it to people who are looking for exactly what you deliver. Enter SEO, or search engine optimization. If you want your amazing content to be read, you need to be found.  And to be found through Google, it’s essential that you devote some energy to your search engine optimization. SEO sounds as though it takes a lot of time and a ton of technical knowledge.  And while there’s plenty to learn about the fine points of SEO, tackling the basics couldn’t be easie ..read more

Are there tumbleweeds blowing through your blog’s editorial calendar? You’ve been able to come up with your own blog post ideas, but you don’t have enough to fill your calendar. You need more content ideas! If you’re suffering from writer’s block and need 30 days of blog post ideas right now, you’re in the right place.  No matter what your industry or niche, you can use all (or most) of these blog post structures. These tried-and-true formats are just what your readers need. 1. The Classic How-To One of your blog’s primary purposes should be to educate your readers or clients ..read more

Finding an amazing freelance writer is hard work. You’ve got to know where to look.  You’ve got to know how to choose just the right person.  And you’ve got to make it happen quickly.  After all, you’ve got a business to run! So what’s even better than finding an amazing freelance writer? Finding a writer who can handle your content needs single-handedly. An incredible freelance writer offers more than just a once-and-done blog post for you: She expertly manages your content creation process so you don’t have to deal with the details. She even offers you additional s ..read more

You needed to find yourself a freelance writer, but you didn’t know where to find her.  Now you know exactly how to connect with a pool of quality, professional writers. So it’s time to choose your writer! You want a professional who can give you exactly what you need for your business.  Someone who’s a joy to work with and who goes the extra mile to understand your audience. How do you find that perfect person? Here’s your action plan for sifting through a pool of candidates to find an amazing partner for your writing needs: Check out her online presence. Serious writers ..read more

You know what you want — an amazing, professional freelance writer who will be a joy to work with and who knows her stuff. You have no idea where to find her. Don’t panic. Awesome freelancers want to be found . . . and they make it easy for you to find them. Here are six easy and incredibly effective ways to track down freelance writers who are worth their weight in gold: Ask someone you trust in the business. If you’ve got a friend in the industry who works with freelancers, take him out for a cup of coffee.  Ask him to recommend some writers he’s worked with who are awesome. Do you wan ..read more

Is your blog not feeling the love? Sure, you have visitors, and you’ve got some bloggers cranking out content . . . but there’s no excitement.  Your readers aren’t passionate about your content.  Your writers aren’t enthused about working with you. Give your blog the shot of adrenaline it desperately needs!  If you’re looking for an insanely easy fix to people’s lackluster response to your business blog, just do this: Slap a writer byline on every blog post. Sound too good to be true?  Here are some seriously invaluable, nearly immediate consequences of attributing your bl ..read more

Images are critical to your blog’s success. In his blog on QuickSprout, online marketing guru Neil Patel hammers home the importance of images: Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without. Tweets with images on Buffer receive 150% more retweets. Images are the number 1 most important factor in optimal social media content. Photos in particular attract attention, set a tone, and evoke emotion in your audience.  You can use them to enhance your blog’s formatting or create shareable blog post title images. When it comes right down to it ..read more

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