What to write your first blog post about – A 9 Step-plan to dominating your niche

When you start writing your first blog post, you’ll cycle through a few different emotions: excitement, nervousness, and doubt are just a few. As a new writer, all of these are to be expected. Each emotion will teach you something different about your writing and your message.

Before you can start writing your first blog post, you’ll need to decide the main purpose of it.

Here are a few reasons:

• Is the post used to introduce yourself?
• Is the post used to promote/make money?
• Is the post used to teach someone something?

Great bloggers know the intention of their post before they even start writing. Once you know the reason, you can then more clearly express your ideas.

1) Find your keyword

Before you start writing, you’ll want to think about the keywords you want to target with your writing.

Remember when you used Google last? What did you type in and what were you looking for?

Those words that you search for are called “keywords”.

A keyword is a set of words/phrases that give readers the ability to find your writing through search engines.

There are a few different tools you can use to find keywords for your first post.

• Google Keyword Tool
• KeywordTool.io
• Kwfinder.com
• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer

If you’re starting a new blog, try to find keywords that have a competition factor of under 40% (or medium and under). When you can show Google that you deliver results for smaller keywords, they’ll trust you more and you’ll have an advantage when you start writing for more competitive keywords.

Here, take a look at some of the keywords I’d write about for this blog post:

One note of caution though; when you’re writing your first post make sure you don’t overstuff your content with keywords. Google is always getting smarter, and they will know.

A long time ago, a blogger used to be able to create very keyword-dense articles and soar to the top 10 rankings. Now, Google cares more about things like how long a user stays on your website, how many other links are pointing to that URL, and the quality of content.

2) Read about your competitors

Now that you’ve found your keywords, we need to start looking at all of your competition.

Check out all of my competition on Google:

To be able to run a successful blog you’ll need to make sure that you can either offer better content or add a twist to the way you present your content. You'll notice all of those links are purple because I've read them all!

Type your main keyword into Google and look around for similar blogs and websites that are in your niche.

Look for these things:

• Content: Look at what content types they are posting, make a chart of their most viewed articles.
• Their Story: Are they starting from nothing? Are they an established author?
• Design: How well-presented is their information?

All of these questions will be good for making sure you have an edge on your competition.

Another tip to find your competition is to use Ahrefs.com.

3) Do your research

Whatever you’re explaining to your readers, you’ll want to make sure that it’s accurate and will actually help them.

A great way to do better research is to perform a simple Google search on your topic and go through the front page of google. All this information should be correct. If you’re pulling information straight from the sites make sure to save the web address so you can cite you writing.

This will also help your reputability and show that other people are agreeing with what you’re saying. This tip is also really easy if you're already checking out your competition!

I recommend clicking on all 10 of Google’s top results for the keyword that you’re ranking for so you can be knowledgeable about the topic, and also so you can make the best webpage to help your user. Answer all of their questions in detail… this will greatly help you rank more, grow your organic traffic, and eventually earn more money!

4) Market your article with AIDA

Before you start building your outline, I want to give you a quick rundown on the AIDA Model. It’s mainly used for sales and marketing but can help you with the overall flow and readability of your blog post.

AIDA stands for: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.

You start off your blog post with Awareness: make sure that your reader knows that what you’re explaining is an issue. They obviously have to be aware of what you’re about to tell them, so make it clear in the title, sub-headline and the URL they clicked on.

Then you’ll move to Interest: create interest in learning about what you’re explaining. What emotions can you create to build more interest? Tell them exactly why they’ll want to read your entire blog post. I could have said “When you finish reading this monster guide, you’ll know more than 95% of all expert bloggers and have the knowledge to grow your blog twice as fast”.

Towards the middle you can create Desire: what about your topic can they want to learn more about or improve? This is where knowing your audience really comes in handy. Do they want to write better to make more money? Do they want to write better to go down in history? Do they want to write better because it’ll communicate their ideas better?

Be emotional about the interest. Most people don’t want just a car, they want a car that’s beautiful, will give them a rush of adrenaline when they step on the gas, and their friends will be jealous of.

Lastly, you create Action: This is where you’ll add an opt-in or ask your readers to do something. You can ask them to do a million things. Some people create an opt-in or lead-magnet to collect emails and eventually send more content or sell something. Other people will go straight for a sale… asking the reader to buy something. Easier than both of these is just to ask the reader to share the article or leave a comment if they have any question.

Increasing the engagement of your article will always improve your rankings on search engines because it shows you provide helpful content.

Follow this simple formula for creating quality, SEO-optimized, and readable content!

5) Create your outline

After you've done your keyword research and know exactly what your competition has to offer, it's time to create the outline of your first blog post. 

If you wish to see a great example of an outline, check out the conclusion at the end of this post. In fact, it's basically my outline. I just added more content to each idea. 

If you're struggling adding more content to your outline, I suggest finding questions that your readers might ask... and then answer them! For example, you might ask:

How do I create a simple outline for my blog?

Well, let me tell you exactly how to do that!

1) Always start with an introduction. Who are you, what are you going to teach me, and why should I trust you? These are the 3 main questions your reader will subconsciously think before even scrolling down. 

2) Answer the main question. For this article, it would be how to actually write your first blog post. This can be answered in 200 words or 2000 words, but answer their question to the fullest. 

3) Add extra questions. When you finish reading this article, you'll realize I linked to a bunch of other authority blogs and their first posts. I guessed that you might ask "Can I see some examples of first blog posts?" and I answered it! Pro-tip: Find extra questions by doing keyword research!

4) Add a conclusion. This allows you to make sure you covered everything you had planned, and also gives the reader a tool to look back on everything they learned without a bunch of scrolling. 

6) Stories and transitions

Great writing includes stories, examples, and fluid transitions.

Stories and examples are great for helping your reader completely understand what you’re talking about. For example… If you’re explaining why dogs need to stay inside, tell a story about how your dog started to have health issues the longer it stayed outside. If you’re teaching how to create an online course, show pictures and tell a story about how you earned $26,000 with a single launch.

Now, you’ll want to go about writing better transitions. How well does your content flow and how well can a reader get to one point to the next? This is really important in great writing.

You want your readers to be able to read through your whole blog post and not have to pause to try and comprehend what you’re saying or the structure. To write better transitions, try and think about how the two topics relate and use something that can transition them.

You don’t want to make your writing choppy or skip around to different points.

7) Edit like a pro

If you think that your writing will be perfect on the first draft, you’re probably wrong.

Ernest Hemingway once said “The only kind of writing is rewriting”. 

Authors like: Stephen King, Jeff Goins, James Scott Bell, and Handley all state that your best writing comes out when you rewrite.

After you have written your first draft, take the time to let your writing sit for a day. This’ll give your mind and creativity a break for when you come back to edit your writing. Sometimes I take a whole week before going back to an article to add or edit content.

When you go back through your writing try these few things:

• Do a search for words like “Very” and “That”: These words tend to just add fluff and aren’t needed most of the time.
• Cut as many adverbs as possible: Try and remove an words that end with an “-ly”. If you absolutely need them try and find a synonym that is stronger.
• Delete weak phrases like “I think” and “In my opinion”: These will create more issues than benefits. If you’re going to say something; say it with confidence.

Just doing these few tricks will help you write concise and readable content. When you can waste less of your reader’s time while still providing value, they will appreciate you even more.

8) Title Your Post

Most new bloggers spend too much time trying to come up with a title before they even write their post. If you want to create a great title, wait until after you’ve written it.

Now, it’s important to know what keyword you’re writing for… and to have an idea of the content you’re writing about, but you can always change your title. I’d spent 5 minutes on a title, then write the content for an hour or two, and come back to make sure your title matches your content.

You can create a rough title name to keep you on track but don’t spend too much time.

Make it Accurate: Does your title portray accurately what you content will be about? If you’re creating titles that are just “clickbait”, then you won’t see any quality traffic come to your content. Note: Clickbait is different than clickworthy. You want to entice a click, but you don’t want to lie about the content you’re offering.

Create Emotion: What will you get them to feel? Sadness, Anger, Joy. These are all feelings that will get people to click. For example, “10 reasons you still aren’t succeeding and never will” or “8 Bad habits your parents gave you” will be emotional for most people.

Use Numbers: Numbers are great for getting readers to click through to your blog. As I’ve mentioned on my post about increasing your success at blogging, the human brain absolutely loves lists.

9) Promoting your first blog post

Once you’ve written your first post, you’ll want to start promoting it. What good is spending your time creating content if no one will read it?

Here are a few easy ways to promote your blog post:

• Pinterest: Pinterest is a visual search engine that many bloggers use to get their content out to potential readers.
• Facebook: You most likely already have friends and family on facebook, these can be great for sharing your content. Once you create your initial content, post it on Facebook to get some early eyeballs.
• SEO: SEO is the best way to promote your content, but it’ll take a while to get established. Some domains take up to 9 months to rank, if even at all. You can check out a more in-depth article on preparing your writing for SEO.
• Forums: Whatever niche you’re in, there is always some type of forum. Use these forums to post your content to get feedback from the people who could be interested in your content. Make sure not to spam.

  
  

10) First Blog Post Examples

Before I leave you, I want to give you a few examples of first blog posts from big name bloggers.

Here they are:

• Createandgo: Quit Your Job and Travel the World – How We Did It Blogging!
• SmartPassiveIncome: Why I Will Quit My Job for a Passive Income
• Avocadu: 16 Zero Calorie Foods For Weight Loss
• GoinsWriter: Why I Started This Writing Site
• NeilPatel: 11 Ways You Can Improve Your Business with Google Analytics
• CamperReport: Coachmen Pursuit 33BH Review

If you’re having a hard time coming up with a first blog post, I’ll include some examples you can use for your first post.

Here are some ideas for your first blog post:

• Write about why you’re starting your blog
• Explain how to do something in your niche
• Give them a fun list of 50 facts in your niche
• Explain your passion for the niche
• Explain how you earned your expertise

You can be as creative as you want with your first blog post. Just make sure to have some fun with it!

Conclusion:

Writing your first blog post can be difficult, but when you have a full blueprint, the process is much easier.

Let’s go ahead and recap on everything you’ve learned.

1. Find your keywords: Keywords are important for making sure that readers can find you through search engines. Spend 10-15 minutes looking up relevant keywords.
2. Read about competitors: Spend a decent amount of time looking around at your competition. Use this time to figure what you can offer different and what’s working best for them.
3. Do your research: Before you write your first post, make sure you know everything relevant in the niche. Your goal is to relay your knowledge to your reader.
4. AIDA: Use the selling model AIDA to make sure your blog post hits every part of the reader it needs to.
   
5. Create you Outline: Creating an outline will cut down your writing time in half. Creating an outline will also help you keep your writing organized.
6. Stories & Transitions: This is the time you add stories and transitions into your writing. Things that will keep your readers engaged and won’t interrupt their thought process.
7. Edit like a pro: Editing is the time where you’ll sculpt your writing into your personal masterpiece, removing fluff and leaving the delicious, nutritional meat.
8. Your Post Title: One of the most important contributors to your success titles. These are the gateways that your reader will find your content. Make sure to spend an ample amount of time and energy crafting the perfect one. Also know you can change them in the future.
9. SEO Checklist: Now that you’ve written your first post, we need to make sure to go back and use your SEO Checklist to double check if you have every aspect of a successful post.

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