Staring at a blank screen and finding the right words to string together to make a worthy blog post is probably one of the most frustrating things about blogging. There are times when you just can’t find the inspiration and it happens to the best of us, yes, even those ones that have been in the blogosphere for a long long time.

I do not claim to be a writer and it does get pretty hard at times. Ideally, I would love to blog at least once every other day, to be honest, it’s all about planning which I am getting better at nowadays. I cannot promise to write a blog post three or four times a week, but when I do get stuck I refer to this simple blogging checklist, to remind me what I need to consider before getting stuck in, after all if you enjoy writing there is no reason why you cannot create an engaging blog post!

Knowing Your Lovely Audience

Before you get excited it’s good to have a clear understanding of your target audience. I’m sure you have heard this before, what do they want to know about you? What situations and experiences have you had that can relate to them?

Picking A Good Title

There is nothing more I hate than titles that are aimed to click bait or just plain irrelevant. While some people might think that picking “You will never guess what happened to me today when I opened the fridge!” is pretty catchy and will get a lot of clicks, it’s pretty annoying eh?

Setting high expectations for your title and a content that you does not match can lose you a lot of readers. Make your titles to the point (ideally 65 characters) and use clear instructions on what your post is all about, using brackets at the beginning and end of titles lets your reader know what to expect. [Tips & Tricks], [Free Download]

Engage With A Good Intro

I find this bit a little tricky, especially when I’m having a mental block (which happens far too often!).

Captivating your readers in the first paragraph is a great trick to keep them from reading the rest of your post. Many readers lose interest if your introduction is not interesting enough. You can make your posts a lot more engaging by starting with a story or a joke, being empathic or gripping them with facts or interesting statistics.

Organise Your Content

A lot of times I have so much to say and points that I want to put across. But sometimes readers only scan your content to get to what they want to read. Laying out your content and creating short but informative points will make your content easier to read. May it be in; list, bullet points, examples and data to back up your post. Also, remember to insert the correct attribution when including external sources. Share the love!

Appealing Featured Image

Now that your content has been written make sure that you choose an appealing and relevant image for your blog post. Popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogloving treat posts favourably if they have an attractive image. Getting the visuals right can do a lot of good for the success of your content across a wide range of social media.

Edit, Proofread and Fix

Your post is looking good, but don’t get excited yet. I cannot stress enough how important it is to check and proofread what you’ve written. I have been guilty of publishing without checking at least twice and then I spot the offending typo, not only that it makes me look lazy but it’s embarrassing too!

SEO It!

Don’t worry about how many keywords you need to cram in. Your readers and Google are not stupid and they know when your sole purpose is to monetize your post instead of keeping true to the topic. Try not to complicate your post by fitting unnecessary keywords let the words flow and yes include keywords only if it’s suitable.

How you tackle writing a blog post? Do you have a checklist like me? Do you need to feel ‘in the mood’ when blogging, or are you one of the lucky ones who can create an amazing post on a whim?!  Let me know on the comments below! 🙂