How to Write and Create Great Blog Content

 

 

Once you set up your blog, your next goal is to create content.

The
content of your blog will be the bait that attracts your readers. In this
guide, we will cover what the content your blog consists of, types of
content you can create and blogging practices you should follow.

Without great content, even the most well-designed, tightly-struc-
tured blogs will ultimately fail. There are three types of content you

need to create for your blog.

Pages content
Static page content, such as “About” and “Contact.”
Sidebar content
Static content that appears on the sidebar of your blog.
Blog posts content
Regular posts about your niche.
Before you start writing your day-to-day “Blog posts” you will
want to make sure the static “Pages” and “Sidebar” content of your
blog is created and uploaded to your blog. Let’s explore each of
these content areas. 

Pages content
First, you will need to create static content pages for the following
types of information.

 About page
The most traditional page on any blog is the About page. This page
simply tells new visitors to your blog what it is about, who you are and
why you have a blog about your specific topic. Depending on your niche
and your style, the information you provide can be “all business” or
personal and fun.

Contact page
This page allows visitors to your blog to contact you at anytime. It can
be a simple page with your email address plus social network links,

Products/services
If you created your blog to promote your business, you’ll want to
make sure there’s a page that details the products or services you sell.
Alternatively, if you already have a website for your business, you can
provide a link to it in your menu.

Disclaimer/policy
To give yourself a little liability protection, you might want to consider
a disclaimers or policy page. For example, if you are writing a health
blog, but you’re not a medical professional, you may want to create
a disclaimer to say that you are not a physician or other healthcare
professional and recommend that readers see their doctors for their
personal medical information and evaluation.

You may also want to inform visitors to your website that you use ana-
lytics tracking, Google AdSense, affiliate marketing links and other types

of content. A great example of a disclaimer page can be found here.
As you continue to grow your blog, you will also want to consider
adding the following pages.

Archives

This page simply guides people to your most recent posts, main cate-
gories, top tags and content you have created that’s not located on your

blog, such as guest posts, interviews, podcasts and videos.

Advertising page
If you want to sell advertising on your blog and you have enough
traffic to make it worthwhile for advertisers, create an advertising page
that shows off your latest stats (number of website visitors, pageviews,
email subscribers, RSS subscribers, etc.). Be sure to visit other blogs in
your niche—preferably larger ones—to see what pages they provide
links for in their main navigation bar, sidebar and footer. Chances are,
your visitors will be looking for the same types of pages on your blog.

Sidebar content

Your sidebar is the smaller column to the left or right (depend-
ing on the theme you selected) of your blog’s main content. You

will want to add the following content in sidebar widgets for your
visitors.

Subscribe
Encourage visitors to your blog to subscribe via email or RSS.
Email of course is best, especially if you would like to monetize
your blog in the future. MailChimp is a great service to use as it is
free for the first 2,000 subscribers.

About
This is a simple sentence or two about you and your blog for
new visitors who may not take the time to read your About page.
Having your photo in this blurb of text helps visitors put a face to
the blog, whether you are the owner and editor managing other
writers, or the main content author.

Follow
Beneath your about widget, you will want to display links to
your social profiles so people can follow you. Generally, this will
be your Facebook page, Twitter profile, Google+ profile, etc. You
can use icons to represent each network, or use official boxes,
buttons, and badges from these networks. The latter help you
build your social media audience by allowing people to connect
with you without leaving your website.

Popular posts
A popular posts widget will help direct visitors to your top
pieces of content. WordPress Popular Posts plugin will help you
create this easily, displaying posts based on comments and view
count.

Advertisers
If you plan to add advertising banners to your blog, then add
them from the start so regular visitors will not be surprised when
you do start gaining advertisers. The banners you use until then
can link to products for which you are an affiliate marketer or to
products you simply like.