You don’t need world-class writing skills to produce a quality blog post that will benefit your painting business. Instead, take these tips below, create blog posts, and make your content work for you even when you’re away from the office.

Step One: Find a Web Host with the Most for Your Blog Posts

Your website may have space set aside already for blog posting. If it doesn’t, or if you don’t yet have an online presence, you’ll need a place to host your blog posts. WordPress websites are popular options, especially if you have an appealing WordPress theme. Become familiar with the WordPress dashboard and features by watching tutorials online. It would help if you also looked for a free domain name that fits your brand.

WordPress started as a blogging platform and features a variety of free themes. Look for a blog theme that fits your blog concept and aesthetic the best, then get ready to write your first blog post.

Step Two: Brainstorm Blog Post Ideas

Now that you’ve got the content management system and blog domain in place, you need to start filling it with great content. Are you one of those people who can talk all day long at trade shows, but your fingers get stage fright in front of a blank screen?

Just remember this: You didn’t create your business in one sitting, so think of writing blog content in the same way. Don’t try to accomplish everything at once—start with a nugget of an idea and ponder it.

Add a few thoughts to create an outline. Then start jotting ideas down into your outline. You can get more and more specific each time you sit down to write. You don’t need to write from start to finish–just develop an idea here and there. Then you can piece it all together and structure it later.

Blog Post Prompts to Start Your Own Blog

Ideas for a great blog post are everywhere once you start looking for them. Here are some prompts for new bloggers that may help you come up with topic ideas:

What surprised you when starting your business? What surprising things did you learn along the way? The answer may be a funny story or a helpful anecdote. Both these things contribute to a good blog post on the subject matter.

What are some common questions you get from customers? These likely represent the questions from your target audience. Create a new blog post about each question, and you’ll have content that will appear higher in search engine results pages.

What current news is relevant to your industry? Then, begin blogging about industry trends. When you publish content about current news, you establish yourself as an authority and a thought-leader in your industry.

What makes you stand out from your competitors? What need are you meeting that they’re not? You’ve likely already considered this, or you wouldn’t have started the business, to begin with. Your company is meeting a need that you recognized among a certain population of consumers. Use your blog to explain that.

You can also use these questions for writing headlines. Think about: What makes a great headline? Avoid vague headlines and go for specific questions, teasers, or story titles.

Step Three: Create the Content

Remember — you’re not competing with every blog post creator in the universe for the ultimate readership trophy! Other bloggers have expertise in their niches; you just need to display yours in your corner of the world.

If you feel unsure of yourself trying to write something formal, then don’t. Instead, write in your own voice, as if you’re writing a letter to a friend. In other words — just start to write and see what comes out! Then, after writing your draft, you can go back, move things around, add a sentence here and there, and (of course) proofread it before publishing.

Start with an Outline

It might take you hours or days to tie up the loose ends on your blog writing and pair it with killer headlines and subheadings and maybe even an editor’s note. But a reader is going to digest it all at once, at least initially.

Keep yourself on track by creating an outline before you begin so that your writing doesn’t meander all over the place. This helps the reader follow your thought process by creating a cohesive, logical flow that is easy to understand—a trademark of a successful blog post!

An outline also helps you as you begin writing. Sitting down for a writing session may intimidate you—breaking the post into smaller bits or chunks will make your ultimate goal of posting a beautiful blog easier to achieve.

Writing an outline before you create your post ensures that the time you spend blogging will result in a consumable and interesting post worth reading and linking to.

Elements of an Engaging Blog

A great post is easy to digest, authentic, and shareable. Readers who get to your website through your guest posting efforts may scroll quickly down the page to see if the content is relevant to them. This is where successful blogs use bullet points, bolded terms, and an intriguing post title to build loyal readers.

Final Tips for a Great Post

When you get to a point where you’re feeling pretty good about your post, let it rest for a while. Then, read it aloud to get a sense of the tone when you come back to it. (That also helps you hear any mistakes you might have made, like words you left out.) You can also use online resources that evaluate grammar and tone, like Grammarly, to gain insights.

Reevaluate your blog post formula periodically in case search engine optimization (SEO) standards have shifted. As you’re networking, connect with other small businesses who are blogging, too. You can start sharing each other’s posts on your social media networks if they’re of value to your followers.

Step Four: Optimize For Search Engines

You already know the benefits of blogging. That’s why you’re here! Blog hosting on your website leads to increased web traffic through higher on-page SEO. It also establishes you as a thought-leader in your industry and creates great content for social sharing.

But starting a personal blog for your business won’t get you more traffic automatically. Instead, make sure your content reaches its full potential by incorporating keyword research into your blog.

Blog posts provide answers to your target audience’s questions, but you need to optimize your content so they can find it. SEO is like a bridge that leads knowledge-seekers to the answers they need. Web crawlers scour pages around the clock to index web content for search results.

Search engines are so intuitive that they can answer the question you’re trying to ask even when you’re unsure how to ask it. They do this by incorporating your search motivation, or “search intent.”

As a paintin business owner, you want to learn to harness this intuitive power of SEO.

How do you know if your blog is paying off? First, link a Google Analytics account to your website to measure web traffic. This is an easy plugin to incorporate into your WordPress blog or other blogging platforms.

Now You’re Ready to Start Writing Blog Posts

Start blogging today with this step-by-step guide by your side. Then, monitor your results—and watch your web traffic soar!