My Blogging Process

 

If there’s one thing I love, it’s reading about how other people do their jobs. Whether it’s a blog post, an Instagram reel, or a YouTube video, seeing ‘day in the life’ or ‘My work day’ type content always fascinated me.

But I’ve never really done one myself. So I thought I would show you ‘behind the scenes’ what my blogging process looks like. Feel free to join in the conversation, and let me know how you do it!

Finding blog topics

I keep a running list of topic ideas on my Trello board – as part of my batching process, I spend a bit of time now and then brainstorming blog post ideas. Those ideas can come from other blogs I’ve read within my industry, a video I’ve watched, or conversations and questions from my existing copywriting clients.

Having a ready-to-go list of topic makes writing blog posts so much easier for me, and often one idea can spark another.

Need inspiration? Try this --> https://yoast.com/tips-for-blog-ideas/

Making notes for the blog post

Once I have my initial blog post idea, I start thinking about what I want to talk about. What is it that I want to get across to my readers? How can I best help them, answer their questions, and inspire them?

I write down anything that comes to mind (again, on my Trello board), and do a search on the topic to see what other people think about the subject. I also make this time a ‘fact checking’ exercise, and note down any statistics or quotes that I might be able to use in my blog post.

Researching keywords

Something else I consider is how people might search for my blog post. I make a not of any words or phrases that might get my post found on Google. For example, this particular post might be found for things like ‘blogging process’, ‘blog writing’, amongst other things. So I’ll note them down, and then if I can incorporate them naturally onto my text, I’ll do that. Although I NEVER ‘stuff’ words in – in fact, there are times when the keywords I write down end up not being used at all.

Finding a blog title

By now, I’ve usually got a good idea of what my blog post will include, and I can come up with the title for the piece. I usually think of 2 or 3, and then consider which will work best to a) be most likely to be searched, and b) tell my readers exactly what the post is about.

The title can change once the final thing is written, which is fine. I’ll often Google my title to make sure it hasn’t been used before (sometimes you can’t help but repeat, but I try not to), and occasionally I’ll be inspired to change it to something better through that process.

I used to run my titles through an online title checker – and yes, that cam work well, but I found that sometimes the titles ended up being all about SEO and not enough about my own creativity. I still fall back on it sometimes, but other times I prefer to think up my own based on my own experience.

Planning and writing

This is the fun part – but also the hardest. I try not to overthink it, and I just write everything I’ve thought of using my previous plan and notes as a guide. It will go through a re-write anyway…we’re no longer in the age of the typewriter thank goodness, so we can delete and re-do as we go.

The editing process

Once I’ve got it written, I run a few quick tests. First, I copy it into a programme which will read it back to me (I use Natural Reader, there are others). This works so well, because I’ll usually pick up loads of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that just weren’t obvious to my eye.

Then, I run it through a spell checker one last time, just in case I missed anything, and I then read it aloud, to make sure it sounds natural. Once I’ve done all of that, it’s usually ready to go.

Making a blog image

I use Canva for this – it’s so simple to use and I don’t want to be faffing around too much. I simply choose a photo that portrays what the piece is about, and then place my title and logo over the top. Done!

Over to you…

I’d love to hear about your blogging process – share it below!

About me

Tereasa Hedges, freelance copywriter for creatives, designers and makers.

I’m a freelance copywriter who specialises in writing content for creative people, helping you to reach larger audiences through blogging, web content, email marketing, and a little bit of social media for good measure.

Want to work with me? Contact me for a chat via shirecopywriting@outlook.com