How to Write a Blog
As you know, I try to write a weekly blog post here. I write on a few different topics related to my field; brand photography tips, tips for small business owners, and sometimes I share my recent photography work, or talk about things I’m learning as a “mompreneur”. What you may not know, is that I batch plan these blog posts far in advance so that I rarely miss a week and never have to scramble to get something up! So how do I do that? Here’s the timeline for how I plan and write for my blog.
It all starts with an idea. Sometimes when I’m out on a walk or in the shower and my mind has time to wander. Sometimes out of frustration that I can’t find the resource I need (so I create it myself and share it here). Sometimes because I ask on a social media post and I get a request for a certain topic, or someone DMs me on Instagram to ask a question. Regardless, it starts with this idea of what needs to be created. I keep both a notes app on my phone with ideas (because it’s always on me) and a more formal document with a master list of ideas. Periodically I transfer any ideas from my phone notes into the master doc so that all my ideas are in one place.
When it comes time to plan out some blog posts I take a look at that list and pick out the topics I want to write about. I try to rotate categories to keep things feeling balanced and fresh, with one category for each week of the month.
After the idea (or oftentimes simultaneously) I jot down a title for the post. This is usually a concise way of saying the big idea so it helps me focus on what is most important about the post before I start writing. Sometimes I will tweak it later to be a little more SEO friendly with some extra keywords.
Next, I outline the bullet points of what I want to say on this topic. Usually I do this in my notebook because I prefer real paper, but if it’s more convenient sometimes I’ll use a Google doc instead. At this stage, these are super rough notes that will eventually come together into the full blog piece.
Once I’ve got those bullet points down the rest feels pretty easy (but still takes some time to execute). This is the point at which I actually open my computer and log on to my blog provider (Squarespace) to start typing things out. First, an intro to give a broad overview of what I’ll talk about in the post, then filling in the details under each bullet point and fleshing out the post.
After I’ve got my post written out I go back through and link any relevant things that I talk about (like a service I use, or another blog post I wrote). In addition, I keep a list of keywords next to me as I write and I make sure that I proofread the post and optimize it with my keywords for SEO purposes.
I also use Grammarly to help with my spelling and grammar in my blogs (not a writing expert here). So I’ll go through and correct any mistakes I have with that after I write. Yay technology 😉
Next, I add photos if necessary or appropriate, to show what I am talking about or add interest. Sometimes I already have some stock that works well for the post, sometimes I need to shoot something new. Not every post has photos with the text, but one photo I always add is a thumbnail to the overall post so that it shows up correctly on my main blog page.
I also add a description for the main blog page at this point. Usually I just pull an excerpt from my introduction paragraph for this. It shows up under my thumbnail photo and title on my main blog page. Then I mark which category my post falls into and after that, I just need to schedule my post!
Of course, when the post goes live I like to highlight it for my email list and on social media, so once it’s scheduled I’ll often times move right onto that…but that’s a whole other post for another day!
I forgot to mention that when I check my work I make sure I have some sort of call to action at the end of my post, whether it’s to book my services, read another post, or sign up for my email list; I like to give my readers a place to go next. So, here’s yours 😆 If you need some on-brand photos to go with your new blog posts, you can hire me to create them! Just click the button below to get started.
