People and organizations from all walks of life create and manage their blogs to share their expertise, analyses, instructions, criticisms, product features, research or domain reports, etc. While other forms of content are increasing in preference, blogging will still be a go-to method for creators to distribute content and market their brand long-term organically. That’s why it’s exceptionally important to learn how to effectively write and manage your blog posts in a way that supports your online course business.
THE USUAL QUESTIONS OF A BLOGGER?
Most asked questions a blogger just on the verge of starting generally includes:
- How to create a great blog?
- Where to keep getting ideas and motivation?
- How to figure out my niche target audience?
- Is there any checklist for writing a great blog post?
- Do I need to optimise my blog? And so on…
Unless you enjoy writing, business, or for any purpose, blogging might seem uninteresting, time-consuming, and challenging. Even the best bloggers have a wishy-washy relationship with writing a blog at times. So it’s okay if you are struggling to write your first piece. Because if you get down to it and pull through, blog-friendly posts are the most actionable asset for engaging with your audience and generating warm leads for your online course business.
HERE’S WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE A BLOG FOR YOUR ONLINE COURSE BUSINESS.
Without a blog, you’ll find your online business experiencing several problems.
- Poor SEO (search engine optimisation)
- Lack of enough promotional content for your social handles
- Little or no clout with your customers and lead audience
- Fewer pages to share your lead-generating CTAs (calls-to-action) on.
What it takes to create a great blog post?
To start with, a good blog post has to be both educational and exciting. Great blogs answer users’ questions and help their readers resolve a challenge they’re facing — and you have to do so in a compelling manner.
Remember that it’s not just enough to answer people’s questions — you also need to provide actionable steps in your post while being engaging enough. With thousands of blog posts available on every topic imaginable, your posts need to be in-depth and teach others.
For example, your introduction section in the blog should hook the readers and tempt them to continue reading your post till the end. And that’s precisely why this blog post shares the same template that we use in Knorish for almost all our blog posts. Please feel free to use this for your next blog because it is simple and easy to follow, and people like it because it is aesthetically appealing as well.
So, how to get started? Can you share the checklist?
Writing a blog post surely isn’t a big deal, provided you want to take your blog to the next level of awesomeness. In this blog post, we are here to help you discover the strategies to make your blog writing easier, faster, and more effective.
Follow this 10-step simple blog writing check-list and enjoy more likes, shares and links!
Know for whom you’re writing
Figure out your target audience even before you start writing. This is probably the most important point in this whole checklist.
Let’s explain the whys and hows of this practice. For example, if you plan to market your online course with blogs, who are the people you think will buy your online course in the first place? So, you have to create your blog to address that audience and their needs, interests and wants.
In technical terms, this is called the mapping of the buyer persona. It will give you a fairly good idea of the knowledge level of your audience, so you can create blog posts that are not “dumbed down” or overly complicated. This hardly means that you get into any lengthy and complicated process for outlining a fictitious reader. Just ensure to put these few key pieces of info for your intended audience:
- A top problem that your audience is facing that you want to address through your blog.
- How much do they know about that topic already?
- What’s the end goal of your blog post? Whether you want to educate, inspire,
With those three pieces of information, you’ll be ready to start researching your topic. Step 1 to writing a great blog – done! motivate…or maybe simply remind them of a few basics they might already know?
- Research the basic keywords to use
Keyword research isn’t at all about finding high-volume keywords alone. It is also about getting inside the minds of your prospective customers. What are they looking out for? How are they running their searches online? What are the search words they might be using from day-to-day language? All of this is super simplified with online keyword research tools that give your great insights into which words people are searching for. You can even try the Google Keyword Planner or Google Trends to begin with
Here’s how to run basic keyword research before you’ve even finalised your blog topic:
- Plugin a few possible topics
- Figure out the words and phrases that appear
- Compile 5-7 of these phrases as a list
- Use that list to create an outline for your blog post, which brings us to #3 on our checklist.
Draft a basic framework for your post
At this stage, you don’t need to get too fancy here. You have the phrases put together. Pick a theme for your Knorish blog after you set up a blog on your Knorish site, and draft a basic outline with one main topic and some subtopics to help your audience understand your blog’s main topic.
Let’s show you an example of a basic outline here, where under the broad theme “writing a great blog”, the draft proceeds:
- Theme: Blogging
- Main topic: Great Blogging Tips
- Subtopics: DIY keyword research; relevant images; crisp writing; check-list
Once you’ve put this structure together, you’re set to jump into writing your blog’s title and post itself. Customise your blog’s appearance to reflect the theme of your content. For example, if your online course is about leadership & life skills, you must add enough visual references to the post, use an appropriate font, add similarly aesthetic videos and so on.
If you already manage a course site and are writing your first blog post, ensure that your article is consistent with the course site in appearance and subject matter. In that case, here’s how to add a blog post on Knorish: How to add a blog post on your Knorish site?
Come up with a working title
It depends from writer to writer how he comes up with his blog title. Some bloggers love to finalise their title beforehand, while others identify their main theme but write the title only once they’re done writing their post. Great bloggers choose to
- To come up with a basic working title before they start writing, just so that they have a bit of direction as they write
- Their working topics are kept as simple as possible (e.g., for this post, we’ve currently used “How to write a great blog post?”)
- They usually try to make sure that their main theme keyword(s) is in the title itself – not necessarily for SEO purposes only, but also because this way, it’s really clear to their audience what their post is about
- Hook your reader’s attention with catchy headlines [Here are a few samples]
Your first one to two lines decide the fate of your blog. So, yes! they should be crafted to jump out at your readers, making them think, “Yes! That’s me!” or “I totally agree!”. Those first two lines are basically your hook to draw them in and get them to keep reading.
Here is a perfect Blog post-hook example:
- List Headlines that give out a useful list of information. For example:– Smart Entrepreneurship Online: 10 Super Tricks To Excel at Business Marketing – 50 Smart Ways to Grow Your Email List Like a Pro– 30 Promising Blog Post Writing Hacks
- How-to Headlines are meant to teach something invaluable. They aim to help people achieve a specific desired result. For example:– How to Optimize Your Course Site for More Sales– How to Create a Great Landing Page for Increased Footfall– How To Build Your Profitable First Online Course?
- Resource Headlines are like lengthy guides or contain a large amount of curated content in order to provide a complete solution to a given problem. For example:– Ultimate Guide to Single Course vs. Multiple Courses for Your academy – Which One is The Better Option?– Win Bigger Audience Through Your Marketing Features Integration: Comprehensive Guide For Beginners– The Ultimate Online Course Business Optimization Book: 16 Steps to Instantly Boost Your Revenue
- Question Posts often throw open the floor to their audience or readers and offer them direct answers to their problem questions. For example:– How Long Should I Wait To Launch My Second Online Course? – If My Course Is So Good, Why Isn’t It Selling?– How Do I Monetize My Online Course, Blog Site and Make Money?
- Heart-to-Heart Headlines are major at engaging the audience on a more personalised note. These headlines almost talk one-on-one to their audience. They have loads of sentiments. A few examples:-23 Things We’ve Never Told You To Be Best In Your Industry-No, You Don’t Need to succeed All The Time – and Here’s Why?-An Open Letter to People Struggling to Learn Yoga.
- But wait. This is not just enough for your headline to follow one of the given five formats above; you’ll need to implant an infectious agent- to create shareable content apt to trigger emotions like awe, anger, anxiety, fear, joy, lust, surprise, shock and many more. Here are a few examples:
Viral Headline Example #1: How To Hit 1000,00 Visitors in 60 Days On Your Cooking Online Course?
Headline Type: How-To
Infectious Agents: Awe | Shock | Surprise
“1000,00 visitors!”: Wow! It’s a promise of huge benefit: set to discover how to get 100,000 visitors. Which course creator doesn’t want to learn how to get 100,0000 visitors on their course site in that short time? Even if the visitor is sceptical, he would want to click, right?
“In 60 days”: Even better as this headline almost promises its readers a desirable deadline: 60 days.
Hint: You’ll need to define your target audience (niche) beforehand.
VIRAL HEADLINE EXAMPLE #1: HOW TO HIT 1000,00 VISITORS IN 60 DAYS ON YOUR COOKING ONLINE COURSE?
Headline Type: How-To
Infectious Agents: Awe | Shock | Surprise
“1000,00 visitors!”: Wow! It’s a promise of huge benefit: set to discover how to get 100,000 visitors. Which course creator doesn’t want to learn how to get 100,0000 visitors on their course site in that short time? Even if the visitor is sceptical, he would want to click, right?
“In 60 days”: Even better, as this headline almost promises its readers a desirable deadline: 60 days.
Hint: You must define your target audience (niche) beforehand.
VIRAL HEADLINE EXAMPLE #2: WHERE TO FIND FREE BLOG IDEAS FOR MY ONLINE COURSE BUSINESS?
Headline Type: Resource Blog
Infectious Agents: Awe | Delight
This headline almost answers a burning question for many online course creators: where to find free blog ideas? It will help them save a lot of hassle and keep them motivated.
Key Takeaway: This headline looks super simple but is very direct and bold while it solves that problem.
Viral Headline Example #3: How to Have an Alternative To Your 9 to 5 Job By Sharing Knowledge Using a Laptop?
Headline Type: How-To
Infectious Agents: Awe | Ambition| Joy
“Alternative to your 9 to 5 job”: Everybody wants that. Who doesn’t want to have passive income?
“Sharing knowledge”: Immediately leaves a hint that you need to have a skill set to share with your audience. If you’ve taken pains to identify your niche audience, this headline will click with them.
“Using Laptop”: Imagine, who is without a laptop these days? Better use it beyond 9-to-5 cubicle-cell bars. This is how it is perceived.
Key Takeaway: This headline promises an alternative to the 9 to 5 job grind, such as freedom, creative fulfilment and livelihood and stands an excellent potential for to go viral.
So, here’s how you can go about creating catchy headlines with proper practice. Try out this strategy and take your blog to new heights. Now finally comes writing the post itself on no. #6 next.
WRITE THE BLOG: The problem is that some bloggers only start and end with this bit. However, as you can see, there’s a lot more you can do to amp up your blog post. So, go writing the blog but don’t go off track. Constantly ask yourself these questions:
- What questions my ideal reader might have at this point?
- What other info might they be looking for?
- Is my tone okay for my readers?
If you can keep track of these questions, your post is far more likely to hit its mark – and make your writing process too smooth. Most importantly, proofread your blog and keep it updated at every point till you publish it.
USE THE RIGHT RATIO IMAGES
While it’s great to have a header image for your blog, besides, your blog post will need more visual content than just that. It is ideal for including one image per every 75-100 words. One added benefit is that this technique increases your blog’s social media shares. Of course, remember that not every post might be apt for this many images – so don’t worry if you don’t meet this ratio every time.
OPTIMISE YOUR BLOG FOR SEO
Your goal is to ensure that the people looking for info on your topic can reach your post. Easier said than done; we understand that. While using your keywords is still important, we want to inform you that SEO is more than just keywords. Longer posts, say around 1,900 words, rank highest, as do the total posts that cover the main topic and subtopics.
Links, too, are super important. Adding links to your new posts internally to your other posts, including several older, high-authority posts, is an excellent practice.
ADD A COMPELLING CTA (CALL TO ACTION)
Now that you’re done writing your blog. And if you’ve followed all the nine steps in the above checklist, we can assure you that your audience will love it. This means increased likes, shares, and external links. But could it be even more than that?
The question is, what do you want to accomplish through your blog post? Is it just the pageviews? Or do you want readers to sign up for your mailing list? Visit your course site or home landing page. Buy your online course.
Decide precisely the action you want your readers to take, then make it known in your post. Here are some tips for creating your CTAs:
- Clearly articulate the benefit your reader will receive
- Communicate what will happen when they click on the link
- Keep your CTAs to the point & shoot
- Add a sense of urgency so that the reader acts, e.g., “Just three days left to register for our free Masterclass”)
Revisit your headline once you are done writing
It is more likely that you need to change your headline once you’re done creating your post. One of the great strategies is to spin a title from a popular blog post in another industry. Here’s how it works if you want to see an example:
Visit big-name sites and look for the titles of the posts, and see if you can be creative with them to come up with a perfect title for your blog. The goal here isn’t to steal the headline to copy it exactly but to use the basic format to develop a new title for your blog post.
Final Thoughts
You could sit down and write a blog post. But are the people going to like and share it? Will it get enough links? Will search engines pick it up? Why would someone keep reading your entire blog post? And why must your audience keep coming back for more?
Blogging can help you to build brand awareness, establish you as a thought leader and expert in your industry, and even attract qualified leads in addition to boosting conversions. We hope you know how to make your blog post work for you after running through the quick checklist. There should not be anything to keep you away from your blogging goals.
