Writing successful blog posts is not just a matter of creating content. To make sure, your blog posts get real attention, this 7-step-guide and checklist will help you to turn a good blog post into gold.

However, content is still king. Considering that millions of blog posts are published every day, your target readers get millions of options to choose from. So, you have to make your content stands out among the masses. In the age of the social web and content marketing, commercial content produced by corporate blogs and bloggers is competing with traditional journalistic content. There is hardly a topic not yet covered. Mark Schaefer prepares us for The Content Marketing Shock:

"The emerging marketing epoch defined when exponentially increasing volumes of content intersect our limited human capacity to consume it?"

What does this mean for bloggers? Is there still a chance to get to the top of an ever growing blogosphere? Yes, there is. But it also means you will have a lot of more things to consider before and after hitting the publish button.  This article will help you with a 7-step-guide & checklist to make sure you create valuable blog posts for your target audience, to optimize your posts for better readability and search engine indexing and to maximize your promotional efforts for more outreach and performance.


Download the Checklist 7 Steps to Writing Perfect Blog Posts

Step 1: Make sure your blog post content is awesome
In the age of the semantic web (web 3.0), relevancy is more important than ever to hit your target audience. Take your time before writing on any topic of general interest. It is somehow very tempting to write a post on a topic of general interest. But you will be more likely to succeed if you focus a specific niche topic for a specific target group. If you try to write for everyone, you will end with no one. The better you know your audience, the better your post will catch the attention of your target readers. Focusing on a very specific topic or niche will help you adapt your approach as well as your wording to be more relevant for the specific audience. Make sure that you research thoroughly about the subject you are writing so that your work may be relevant and up-to-date. Research what others have written on your topic and comment or pick up a specific aspect that has not been covered. By doing this, you will find many more ideas for your future posts.

Create awesome content, that will make your readers remember you as a point of interest and a useful resource for valuable information on your topic. Provide tips, strategies, how to articles or entertaining content for your specific audience and topic. Adding value for the readers will make your posts memorable. For more guidance on managing content marketing without overwhelming your audience, also read “Epic Content Marketing,” by Joe Pulizzi.

Step 2: Write a catchy headline and introduction for your blog post
Your headline and introduction are most important to grab the attention of your target readers, so make sure you spend enough time to create a catchy title and an introduction that will make your readers want to read the rest of your post. Summarize what your post is about. Outline the topic and your key arguments, but keep the suspense.
Also, make sure your headline and introduction are optimized for SEO and meet the requirements for the 'title' and 'meta description' displayed in the search engines:

Write a title with less than 57 characters and include your keywords. This makes sure your title is properly displayed and gets not truncated in the search engines.

Make sure the first 160 characters of your introduction cover the essence of what your post is about and also include your focus keywords so that it can double act as meta description and snippet for your post.

Tip: Try the Sumo Kickass Headline Generator to create engaging headlines and titles for your blog post

Step 3: Maximize readability for readers and search engines  
A well written and properly formatted blog post will maximize readability for your readers as well as for search engines to index your blog post for matching searches. There is no perfect length for a blog post, however, make your blog post as short and precise as possible and as long and detailed as necessary to get to the bottom of your topic. Keep your sentences short and easy to understand. Keep your language simple and stay within the language usage of your target audience. Listings, italics and bold help to outline and highlight important aspects and keywords.
To maximize readablility for your perfect blog post

Be as short as possible and as long as necessary.
Segment your blog post into paragraphs with strong sub headings.
Organize your blog post in paragraphs with less than 150 words and
Structure your post in sections with less than 300 words.
Use subheadings for each section focussing on a single aspect of your topic.
Include at least 1 internal link to refer to related content in your past posts.
Include at least 1 external links for quotes or high authority sources referencing on your topic.
Write in a language and wording that meets the tonality and language usage of your target audience.
Proofread for spelling errors and grammar.

Step 4: Check your blog posts for keywords

Continue to read the article on blog2social.com.