Course Overview

#1 Idea and Draft

What are your main topics going to be? What is your primary focus? Unspecific goals lead to unspecific results. If you want to success as a blogger, you must know your purpose for blogging.

People that are "general" bloggers that just blog about whatever comes to mind never end up succeeding.

Think about what inspires you or what you're most passionate about. You're going to want something along those lines to be your focus in blogging.

Where can you get great ideas from?

Use google.com/trends to get ideas for what people are actually searching for.
Look at popular questions on quora.com - Some are answered, others aren't.
By polling your current audience. If you already have a social media presence, email list or some other form of audience, ask them what they think you should cover.
Remember, it's all about passion and inspiration, not what you think the world wants to hear. Stay true to who you are and what you believe in!

#2 Develop a Strong Title

Here's the deal. I love great content; who doesn't? Sadly, great content isn't enough anymore. You must first earn the click to your content.

Content is one place that the idea, "build it and they will come" does not work. It takes a strong title complemented by a featured image (next lesson) to get readers to your content.

Here are some great example titles that I've used recently that have converted extremely well:

• How Christians Should Be Sharing on Social Media in 2019
• The Relationship That Completely Changed My Life
• The Day I Should Have Died & The Day I Lost a Friend
• 4 Secrets to Developing Stronger Friendships
• One Simple Act that Will Change the Outcome of Your Situation
• How Discovering Your Passions Can Improve Your Quality of Life
• This New Perspective Will Help You Through Life’s Struggles

I have an eBook that I give away in the premium version of this course. Consider joining if you want to dive deeper into the topic of blogging and developing strong titles! (Plus, I have a free bonus I'm including, which I'll mention later.)

#3 Add Relevant Images

Images are the FIRST thing your potential readers will see. Yes, even before a great title, an image is going to be what gets someone to stop scrolling as they look through feeds of content.

Images serve as a call-to-action and help tell the story of your content. Or at least they should.

Many people get the wrong idea about featured images and they waste it on an image they took (low quality) or something that doesn't complement the title.

When someone stops scrolling because your picture caught their eye, the next thing they do is read the title. So, if your title is strong and compelling, the image better get your potential reader to stop scrolling.

#4 Craft a Lead Paragraph

Simply put, your lead paragraph is the first text someone reads after your title (either right before or after your feature image)

There are 3 primary types of lead paragraphs:

1. Storytelling - Pose a common problem. This is known as opening a story loop, and it grabs people's attention quicker than anything else.

2. Facts - Show your reader that you know what you're talking about. Include some alarming stats, talk about the research you did, anything to show that you are the expert on the topic of this blog post.

3. Descriptive - Share details about the post. Summarize it in just a few sentences. (This one is my favorite) This is the quickest way for the reader to confirm in their mind that this is the blog post they are looking for.

#5 Initial Edit

When it comes to the initial edit of your content, I have a LOT to say. I'm going to share some of the high level points in this free course, but if you want to dive deeper into editing (which is very important) enroll in the premium version of this course which covers a lot more.

When you are doing your initial edit, first off, make sure you narrow down your content to ONE single focus or topic. (You may find that you have multiple blog posts in your draft.

Once you've narrowed it down, focus on the 3 R's of content.

3 R's of content: Real, Raw, Relevant.

• Real - Make sure I'm being real and it's nothing fake or made up.
• Raw - I tell people how I feel and what I've learned and what they will get out of the content. (I give it to them straight!)
• Relevant - Make sure your audience is interested. It needs to reach them and be relevant to them.
Your initial edit is very important. It becomes the baseline for your blog post!

#6 Take a Break

This point is one that catches almost everyone off-guard. It's the point that is skipped the most. But, this is one of the most important points that I'm sharing in this course.

You see, rest leads to fresh perspective. If you step back and take a break from your content, then come back in a few days or weeks, you'll see things that you would never see when you're producing what I call "just-in-time" content.

Taking this break is vital to the success of your content. If you want to product the best content you possibly can, you need to step back!

#7 Focus on SEO

Content is king. Make sure you're writing with excellence and solving the problem or answering the question for readers. This is the most important SEO ranking factor.

Once you've created great content, focus on the following areas for keyphrase placement:

• In your title
• In your lead paragraph
• In H2 or H3 fonts
• In your image alt fields
• In your slug/URL
• Evenly distributed throughout your content

Remember: Great copy is the foundation for SEO. If your content isn’t great, it will never rank.

#8 Formatting Content

When people are scrolling through your content before they stop reading to see if they can commit to taking the time, you want to catch their eye as they scroll. Images help with that, but so does big, bold, colorful text.

Here are the two main points I want to cover with formatting content:

#1. MAKE YOUR CONTENT SCANNABLE

"79% of your audience will only scan your content.” - Neil Patel

We can make our content scannable by doing the following:

• Add relevant images
• Use bold, underline and H fonts
• Write in short paragraphs
• Use bullet points or numbers

#2. INSERT QUOTABLES THROUGHOUT

“Strong, engaging, standalone sentences; this is what people highlight in books.” - Lysa Terkeurst

She went on to explain what she meant about the power of quotables:

• 99% of best selling books have “quotables” on every other page.
• When people stop highlighting, they stop reading. (Even if it's mentally)
• Make sure you're making strong standalone sentences for people to mentally highlight that they can grab on to.

#9 End with a Question

Engagement begins with interaction.

If you want loyal readers, you have to give them a way to engage or to interact with you. The digital word is heading more and more toward community and inclusion.

The simplest way to do this is by enabling comments on your blog.

The best way to boost engagement from your readers is by ending your blog post with a powerful question. Here's some guidelines for posing powerful questions:

• Use a question that relates to your main point.
• Make the question short, straight to the point and clear. (The shorter the better!)
• Don’t make it a “yes or no” question. (If they can answer it in their head, they won't type it out.)

Here is the flow: Question > Comment > Buy-in > Returning Visitor

#10 Final Edit

Here we are... We've arrived at everyone's favorite part! The final edit. Isn't it funny no matter how many times you've read the post or looked through it that you always seem to miss something? (That happens EVERY TIME for me.)

I run all of my completed content through the following:

• Microsoft Word or Apple Pages - I always find that these programs catch small punctuation issues that I miss.
• Grammarly and (or) Hemingway Editor (These two programs will BLOW YOUR MIND with what they can catch. Both are free!)
• Read your post out loud - Or have a screen reader do it for you. (I use Microsoft Word to read my posts back to me.)
• Have someone read your post - This one is the most important. Have someone else read your post and give you honest feedback about how it is. Be open, and you'll be surprised how much they help you improve your content.

That's it! At this point you should have an incredible post put together that the entire world is going to want to read. In the premium version of this course I include more details and examples. Also, I include "SEO PRO TIPS" throughout. If you're a serious blogger, I encourage you to enroll in the premium version of this course.