The Internet destroyed most of the barriers to publication

You also need to be able to accept that not every post is going to get your motor running. Some posts will feel like a chore, but if you have editorial control over what you write about, then choose topics you’d want to read – even if they relate to niche industries. The more excited you can be about your topic, the more excited your readers will be when they’re reading it.

Great blog posts don’t just happen. Even the best bloggers need a rough idea to keep them on-track. This is where outlines come in. An outline doesn’t need to be lengthy, or even detailed – it’s just a rough guide to make sure you don’t ramble on and on about something tangential to your topic.

There’s an old maxim that states, “No fun for the writer, no fun for the reader.” No matter what industry you’re working in, as a blogger, you should live and die by this statement.
  • Section 1 – Planning a Blog Post
  • Things bloggers should do before putting pen to paper – outlining, research etc.
  • Section 2 – Writing a Blog Post
  • Tips on how to focus on writing, productivity tips for bloggers
  • Section 3 – Rewriting/Editing a Blog Post
  • Self-editing techniques, things to watch out for, common blogging mistakes
  • Section 4 – Optimizing a Blog Post
  • How to optimize a blog post for on-page SEO, social shares/engagement, etc.
  • Section 5 – Conclusion

The purpose of this outline is to make sure I know what I plan to cover, in what order the various sections will appear, and some bare-bones details of what each section will include. Outlines keep you honest. They stop you from indulging in poorly thought-out metaphors about driving and keep you focused on the overall structure of your post. Sometimes I’ll write a more thorough outline (and sometimes I won’t bother with one at all), but most of the time, something like the outline above is perfectly acceptable. Whether you write your outline in your word processor, on a piece of paper, or even scribbled on a bar napkin, do whatever works for you to keep you focused.