Stub
Writing a Blog Post
Pre-Production
Pre-Production is where we do our brainstorming and prewriting, or thinking of your topic. Sometimes you’ll be writing on assignment, from a content calendar, or as a reaction to current events. All of those things are solid ways to write.
- Pick Topic/ Audience: What are you going to write about?
- Write Outcome Desired: What do you want them to know, do or feel as a result of this work?
- Make an Outline: What are the main points that you mean to make because of this work?
- See how long the post will be and set a limit.
- Prioritize the most important point/points.
When we think in terms of outcomes we could be writing:
- To clarify our own thinking.
- To fulfill a promise we made to someone.
- To sell a product
- To build an audience.
Whatever we do we want to have one thing in mind when we do it.
An outline usually has 2-4 main points.
Production
- Write up the main points: I start in the middle because the intros take care of themselves, and starting in the middle takes the pressure off.
- Write conclusion
- See if there are opportunities for images and other media.
- Will there be a content upgrade?
- Write 3-5 headlines.
Packaging
We want to package our work so that it’s appealing to people. Our standard is as follows:
- Select and Perfect a VERY compelling Headline. The better the headline, the better the post. Spend time thinking this through.
- Have one image for every ~350 words.
- Create a featured image that is compelling (Viral Content Templates)
- Create same for Instagram.
- Create same for Medium, FB & Twitter.
- Visualize all data. If you have a claim of 67%, show us the pie chart.
- Build a header image & adapt for all social media posts.
Perfecting the Post (aka editing)
- Make sure the post serves the intended goal.
- Use a basic Grammarly or equivalent edit.
- Take the result through Hemmingway; disregard useless suggestions.
- Read the post aloud. Make sentences sing and dance.
- Repeat #1 and take suggestions.
- Create content upgrade if any.
Publishing
- Publish full posts & images on blog.
- Post them to your social feeds.
Promoting
- Write Medium Post
- Spend $20-30 on FB to promote post when appropriate.
- Email 6-8 people.
- Put in Buffer on social posting sequence: Write 6-10 tweets about the post (rewrite headline.