Today’s episode is another solo episode where I’m going to teach all about writing a blog for your business. Whether you already have a business blog or you haven’t yet set yours up, blogging is a great way to publish informative and relatable content for your audience. Today, I am going to take you through a blogging checklist, which consists of all of the things you need to think about when creating your own blog posts for your business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Blogs are incredibly to set up and if you want to post regular content, it’s a great place to start. Both the cost and barrier to entry are really low.
• If you’re posting a blog post, the first thing you need to think about is what you’re going to be writing about.
• When it comes to thinking of ideas, batching is a great approach to take. Although you may not write them in batches, writing down lots of ideas at once can be really effective.
• If you’re looking for ideas, try taking a look at what other people are posting or Google things in your area. Answerthepublic.com is a great place to do this.
• Once you know what you’re going to be writing about, you need to think about the keywords you’re going to be using in your post. As you write your post, you can drop these keywords in.
• When it comes to writing your blog post you need to find a method that suits you. Whether that means writing it yourself or outsourcing to a content writer, you need to ensure it is something you’re comfortable with.
• Come up with your blog post title last as this will ensure it is as relevant as it can be to the content you’re sharing.
• When creating content, you need to try and link to as much of your own content as you can.
• To make creating images easier, having a drag and drop framework you can use is a great way to speed things up. Canva is a great resource for this.
• Once you have created your image, you need to start scheduling it on each social media platform you use. Think about whether or not you can repurpose it and post several times.
• Create a short link that will make it easier to access your content.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

A call to action doesn’t always have to be about sales. A call to action could be say hi on social media, comment down below or sign up to my newsletter.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Why Should You Be Creating Blog Posts? – 07:01
• Starting Your Blog Post - 08:25
• Choosing Your Keywords - 11:20
• Writing Your Blog Post – 13:00
• Proofreading Your Blog Post and Coming Up with A Title - 14:20
• Make Sure You Have A Call to Action - 17:45
• Linking to Related Content – 19:00
• Do You Have an Image for Your Post? – 20:47
• Social Media Scheduling and Email Marketing - 22:30

Transcript below

Speaker 1: (00:32)

Hello and super welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So I've seen recently that I've had some lovely new listeners reach out to me and say that they've just found the podcast. So if you are new to the podcast, welcome and I am your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. And if you are struggling with social media and digital marketing trying to work out how to manage all of this mindfill your business, then you are absolutely in the right place. Every week I deliver a podcast episode to you. I normally do one that is solo followed by one that's an interview and the solo ones tend to be kind of a bit teaching. And then I interview some amazing people and have been very lucky to interview some phenomenal people in not only just in this industry, but also general other industries.

Speaker 1: (01:22)

So if you haven't seen, do go back and have a look at the likes of when I interviewed Amy Porterfield, Pat Flynn, Rick Mulready, Jasmine Star, I loved that episode. She was so, so good. Michael Hyatt, that was a phenomenal episode. And honestly, James Wedmore, too many. I can't even name them all. But basically I've been very, very lucky to have some phenomenal people on the podcast. So do go check it out if you're new. So this week you might hear that my voice is a little bit of funny because I think I'm coming down with something and I am praying that's not the case because actually I'm recording this only a week before it's coming out. And November for me is absolutely crazy. So August I had at home, September I had a few a speaking events and then was I away in September? No. Speaking events in September. October, I had speaking events and I was away in California doing some other events and then November is just back to back speaking every single week and I've just found out that I'm, well I've been asked to speak in Istanbul, which is super cool because I, I've never been to Istanbul but it's in a few weeks time and I'll have to move a few things around and yeah, I like to be organised.

Speaker 1: (02:40)

I like to know where I am and right now because I feel super tired and my voice is going about, I am panicking a little bit. That may be overdoing it but I'm sure I'll be absolutely fine. I will make the most of trying to look after myself and the only problem with today is that I have a podcast interview this afternoon. I say this afternoon, it's actually 10:00 PM UK time because obviously I do interview quite a few people who aren't based in the UK and therefore I have to interview them with all sorts of different times. So tonight I am interviewing, I'm recording this, it's about a, it's really four o'clock in the afternoon and I'm interviewing them at 10:00 PM tonight and I have a coffee sat next to me, which I wouldn't normally have at this time in the afternoon. I don't drink coffee past about two because I don't sleep brilliantly and obviously that can help not help as it were.

Speaker 1: (03:29)

So, but I've got a coffee cause I'm hoping that that'll help me stay up and keep me lively until 10 o'clock this evening. But we, we'll see. Anyway, today I want to give you a teaching episode again and I want to talk about blogs, which is kind of funny because whenever I speak and I've been doing a lot of, like I said, speaking recently and a lot of the speaking I've been doing is talking about how you choose to do the content that you do. So obviously you should all be doing regular content. This is where you nod your head and say, yes, Teresa, I am doing regular content. And if you're not doing really content, you kind of think, well, okay, I promise I will anyway. And blogs is one of those things that you could use as your regular content. And I often stand on stages and say, the reason I do a podcast is because I speak way better than I blog because I don't write well still, I don't write brilliantly.

Speaker 1: (04:20)

If you're on my email list, you might, well, you might agree or disagree. I'm not entirely sure, but I don't find writing as easy as I find speaking. So for instance, I have put together, I always put together different ideas of things I'm going to speak about on the podcast. And then I literally have a rough list of things that I'm going to talk about. And that's it. I don't write it down. I don't prep it any more than that. But I know as long as I know the subject, which luckily most things I talk about it do. I know I can literally just hit record and start talking, which is what I'm doing right now. Whereas if I was going to write a blog, Oh man, it would take me forever and I'd really struggle with it. However, saying that I have done blogs in the past and in the Academy, I create content every single month where I give a full lesson.

Speaker 1: (05:10)

So when I say less than it's like several videos long. There's downloads and there's various lessons, sheets and things to help about how to do all the different things I talk about on my podcast. All the different things we need to think about when running our business in terms of marketing my Academy members so that let's say one of them wants to do a blog, they can go and watch the full course and do the all the lessons in that blog course and therefore they can then be completely well versed with how to create a blog. So it's kind of odd that obviously I can happily do a course on how to do a blog, but I may not necessarily like writing blogs. So this seems a little bit funny for me, but anyway, we're going to go with them. So today I'm going to take you through the blogging checklist.

Speaker 1: (05:54)

Now, like I said, I've taken this out of the Academy. This is part of the PDFs at the end of the PDF, which kind of helps break it down and everything I've talked about in the lessons cause my lessons are videos that they can watch when there's a slideshow and I'm talking. So it's almost like I'm presenting these things to you and then I always do some kind of action type workbook or step workbook that they can then follow as they go along or they can use as a reminder later. And at the end of this workbook, I've put them my blog checklist of things that you might want to do or that you need to think about when you're creating a blog. And I thought, why not share that with you guys today? It's a super easy one, super simple, but hopefully it might help you if you've got a blog already, then it might just kind of help you find the gaps in maybe where you're doing your blog or if you're struggling with things.

Why Should You Be Creating Blog Posts?

Speaker 1: (06:42)

And then if you haven't got a blog, then pretty much this is going to help you start to finish how to do your blog and kind of all the steps you need to consider when you're doing it. Now, like I said, I'm not a massive fan of writing, but blogs are brilliant. They're really, really great. They're really easy in order to set up content as you go forward. So if you are sat there on with one of those people that hung your head in shame and said, I haven't got any regular content. Oh Teresa uh, I know what it's like. It's hard work doing this. I promise you. Hence why I'm recording this on a week before it's due to go out. And if you're sat there thinking, I need to produce some content, what shall I do? Blogs are one of the easiest things that you can do.

Speaker 1: (07:23)

So in terms of setup and barrier to entry, it's really low in terms of costs, it's really low. So really in terms of creating content, this is one of the easiest and simplest things that you can do. Now the other bits of content like podcasts and blogs and going live, are they saying that live is is again low barrier to entry and super kind of easy, no cost. However, most people don't actually like to go live and I know it's something that people do struggle with. However, if you are sat there thinking, I need to go live or I want to do, go back and listen to episode 84 Overcoming the Fear of Going Live with Tiffany Lee Bymaster. It was really, really good, really helpful. But anyway, today we're talking about blogs. So if you're sat there thinking, I want to create some content or I am doing a blog, but I'm not entirely sure I'm making the most of that blog, then this episode is going to be perfect.

Starting Your Blog Post

Speaker 1: (08:18)

So let's start right at the very beginning. Now the very first idea you're going to need when you're doing a blog. So if you're setting up a blog, and I'm not talking about the logistical or the technical how to get it on your site, if you are using a WordPress site though that is virtually built for blogs, if you haven't got a website, then at the very least you can put those on LinkedIn and you don't even have to have a website. You can just use LinkedIn to do it if you wanted. So, but I'm not really going to go into that. I'm going to go into actually once you say yes, I've got a blog and you know roughly what your blog is going to be about and that sort of thing. Obviously if you are this a business that is going to be about the thing you are selling or your product or service or whatever it might be.

Speaker 1: (09:01)

So the first thing you're going to think about is what are you going to write about in this blog? So I E you've come to sit and write a blog for today or that's going to go out this week. What is it you're going to put on that piece of paper? So the first thing I do is come up with your blog ideas. Now I would try and do these in kind of in a batch way so that even if you don't batch your blog as in you don't sit down and write three or four at a time, even if you're only writing one or two at a time. I would definitely think about trying to come up with lots of ideas at once and then just keep going back to those ideas and finding one. So I'm sure I've talked about this before, but some of the places I look for ideas are go and see what other people are writing about.

Speaker 1: (09:46)

Go and see. And by the way, just on that, it's not that you're going to go and copy their idea. It's not that you're going to go and copy their blog, but it's just the fact of your take on something. So let's say there's been a really good blog in your industry or done by your professional body or whatever it is, then it can be your take on that. It's just a case of actually that's really interesting at the moment and lots of people are talking about that or a lot of people are speaking about that thing that changed that idea, whatever it might be. So go and have a look what other people are writing. Google things in your area. So have a look at what people are Googling for and I've talked about this site, it's so many times, but answerthepublic.com is a really good place to do that.

Speaker 1: (10:30)

You'd go in, you type in a couple of the words that relate to your industry and it comes up with lots of questions that people are asking. The other thing to do is what do people ask all the time. So one thing I do is if I speak, if I, especially in the Academy and lots of the questions I answer in the Academy, I might then turn into a podcast episode. The same with the fact that this is a course in the Academy and I'm using one elements of this course to do a podcast episode. So the really has lots of options for you to come up with ideas. And what I tend to do is I use Evernote and on Evernote I just keep jotting down ideas as they come to me and I'll do a brainstorm in there as well so that when I come to do an episode of the podcast, and obviously let's pretend that's a blog, I will then look to and go, Oh yeah, I'll talk about this today.

Choosing Your Keywords

Speaker 1: (11:18)

So then I want you to think about, so let's see. You've picked your blog idea. I want you to think about what are the key words you want covered in that blog post. Now when I tell talk about keywords, all I'm talking about is if someone was to search for that thing, that blog post, what is it they're going to be typing into Google? And I don't necessarily mean a really long title. I mean what kind of keyword would they put in? So, for instance, I don't know what the title of this episode's going to be yet because my lovely team member, Kirsty decides what they're going to be called. But I might use the keywords for this episode talking about blog checklist or something like that. So think about what those keywords are, and I want you to bear that in mind right at the beginning because the idea with the keywords is you're going to keep dropping them in through the whole post.

Speaker 1: (12:10)

And I don't mean subliminally or, or just keep throwing the word and I mean you're going to try really hard to add in those keywords as you go along, but obviously it still needs to read. Okay. It still needs to make sense. So the reason you're going to be putting those keywords in is because you're going to be using, and one of the reasons people use blogs is because of the fact that it helps with your SEO, helps with your search engine optimization. And actually in a few weeks I'm recording an episode about search engine optimization, about really the basics and getting started because hand on heart, I know very little about it, so I'm actually really excited about that one. But I do know that having regular content go on your site and regular keywords go into your site through things like blog posts will be a really big benefit.

Writing Your Blog Post

Speaker 1:...