[Top Blogging Tips]: What You Must Do Before Writing a Blog

Top Blogging Tips

(What You Must Do Before Writing a Blog)

Before you write a blog

If you are raring to go and are all charged up to write your blog, I suggest you hold your horses.
Writing is not about opening a word document and start typing what comes to your mind.
You have to prepare before you hit the keyboard.

If you don’t want your readers to wonder what the blog was about, you need to have a structure that you will follow. You need to take your readers on a journey of revelation through your blog.
So, how do you prepare to write for your blog?

Before Writing a Blogpost You Need to:

 Have the ability to select a topic to blog about

 Focus your writing on the interests of your readers

 Showcase Your Knowledge and the ability to explain or teach the Subject Matter

What is Blogging?

Blogging is not just a piece of writing.  It’s an organised composition of various snippets of research and ideas put together by you based on a purpose. The Purpose can be to entertain, educate, or show your readers in a step by step process how something is done.

Your blog should have a design. It should have a beginning, and should move in an orderly manner towards the desired conclusion.

Here’s a step by step process to prepare for your blogpost...

• Develop The Ability to Select the Topic You Want to Write On

This might appear obvious or common sense, but most of us don’t know how to decide on a topic.
Here are few suggestions that you can utilize to develop your ability to select a topic:

o Don’t write on a topic that is popular or trending. Pick a subject you are convinced about. If you can’t convince yourself on a particular subject, you will never be able to convince your readers.

o Don’t just have a general knowledge about your topic. Research deeply and know a lot about the Subject you want to write about. Things that will be news for your readers. If you don’t have much to write about, your blog post will end even before it begins.

o You need to be excited about the topic you want to write about. If the topic doesn’t excite you, pick another topic or look at the same topic from a totally different angle. A bored mind will create a bored content that will bore your readers and  put them to sleep.

• Create a Working Title

This will make your blog meaningful specific rather than a wandering generality in the blogosphere.
Don’t write everything about a topic. Instead focus on one thing that you will be covering about that topic.

You can limit the scope of your topic by defining the goal of your blog.

Ask Yourself – ‘What one thing do I want to tell my readers about this topic?’

Say your topic is ‘tourist spots’, you need to narrow it down to maybe ‘hill stations’ or ‘historical places’, or any other specific place you want to focus on.

You need to further narrow it down to one spot in your category. For example, you can choose to write about a hill station “Ooty”.

Your working title can be –

‘Romancing Ooty in rain.’

Or

‘Exploring Ooty on Toy Train’

Trust you are getting the idea.

Time to Work on Your Topic...

Take the topic that you have decided to write on.

Limit the scope of your topic by coming out with a minimum 3 working titles.

Ask Yourself – ‘what aspect of my topic will I be focusing on and writing about in each of my blog?’

Done? Great!

Now, it’s time to move ahead to the next step...

• Collecting and Documenting Relevant Data

First, note down all the points and ideas that you know about the blog you want to write about. No need to put your thoughts in sequence. Just write down anything and everything that comes to your mind related to your blog.

After brainstorming if your mind stops coming up with any new relevant ideas, then you need to move to a platform where you are exposed to more relevant data.

Here are few resource materials you can look up –

1) Newspaper articles

2) Magazines

3) Interviewing people who can throw more light on your blog topic

4) Internet. Use search engine to ask relevant questions and you will get tons of information that you can refer to.

Can you think of any other way to find information?

Go ahead and use it.

Now you need to put your thoughts and your views on whatever information you have assembled.
What are your views? Write it down next to the information you have gathered.

What you are doing by adding your views is getting into the process of owning your content.
Remember, you need to become the author of your blog.

• Putting Things in Order Using Relevant Sub Headings

After you have collected your data, you need to put them in order.

Let’s continue with our example of Ooty.

Say, our topic is – ‘Romancing Ooty in Rain’

You can put things in order under following categories –

• Best month to visit and enjoy Ooty in Rain

• The best way to reach Ooty in rain 

• Places to visit in Ooty to enjoy both Ooty and rain

• How’s the weather during rain

• Best local eatery to enjoy your food in rain

You can come up with lots of categories that you want to include in your blog.
 Remember, every single sentence in your blog should lead back to the goal you are trying to achieve through your writing.

Time for Drill...

Pick one working title based on your topic that you have finalised above. Write down all the categories that you would like to cover on that particular topic.

Edit, Edit, Edit...

• Aligning Your Content order in a Group

You might have oceans of data as research. If you want to successfully mine your data you need to put them in a group so that you can look at the bigger picture of your blog.

You have to be ruthless enough to discard few of your ideas or research.

Ask Yourself – ‘Is the data that I am presenting in the blog interesting and new or is it just general knowledge?’

If it’s just general knowledge, you need to discard it, as it may bore your readers.

Learn to include data that will add some excitement to your blog and will be an interesting read.

Finally,

• Develop Your Outline

Your blog outline is like a roadmap. Just as a roadmap keeps you on course towards your destination, your blog’s outline will ensure you don’t get carried away while writing your blog. It will save you a lot of your time and energy.

Here are some benefits of preparing your outline before you actually start writing your blog:

• You will not tend to repeat yourself

• You will not be distracted from your topic

• If you are writing a Blog that is complicated, your outline will give you a bigger picture of your blog and keep your mind focused

• You will save time revising your blog

Time for Drill...

Create an outline of your blog topic and see if it gives you a bigger picture of what you want to achieve from your blog.

Let’s Sum Up

Writing a blog is both an art and a science. While the science helps us be on track, by providing certain rules and regulations, the art helps us play with words to keep our readers excited and interested.

We need to keep on practicing the art so that we remain on the cutting edge of our creativity.
Here are the key points –

1. Choose a topic for your blog on which you have enough knowledge.

2. Experience what you want to blog about.

3. Create a Working Title of your blog so that you can plan your ideas and research that revolves around your title.

4. Create an order for your content. What are the titles under which you will express your ideas.

5. Group your titles in such a manner that they flow in a smooth manner – A beginning, middle, and a conclusion.

6. How will your blog appear? Prepare an outline based on your research, ideas, and grouping.

How do you prepare for your blog?

What steps do you follow before writing your blog?

Share your ideas in the comments below.

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