I make my money creating content that brings in readers to my website and then converting readers into customers using affiliate marketing.
While I still think blogging is one of the best ways to make money online, actually “creating content” often puts off a lot of people from taking the first step.
Today, I want to show you how to write your first blog post because I know many are struggling with this, but I also know how easy it can be.
In this article, I am going to walk you through:
- How to write your very first blog post
- What to write in your first blog post &
- Some tips & tricks that will make writing as a beginner much easier.
A few things you need to know about me is that I am not an English speaking writer, and I do not consider myself “a writer”.
Nevertheless, my writing (grammar and spelling mistakes included) managed to create a publishing business, and I’ve published 1000s of blog posts read by millions of people – every year.
As I said, learning how to write your first blog post is not as complicated as some make it out to be.
Once you have found “your groove’, you’d immediately start banging out blog posts “like a pro”, and I’m going to show you how to do it right now.
Ready to write your first piece of content?
Here’s How To Write Your First Blog Post
All you need to be able to write online is a will to do it and a website.
I won’t go into the specifics of how to create a website as I have covered that plenty of times in the past, so please take a look at some of my previous guides if you do not have a website yet.
What Should Your First Blog Post Be About?
What you write in your very first blog post really doesn’t matter a single bit. This is because nobody is ever going to read it!
If you’ve done some research on blogging, then you’d know that building up a steady flow of readers to your website/blog doesn’t happen with one blog post.
In fact, you will need 10s of blog posts to start getting enough traction on your website.
If you are fearful somebody might read your first blog post and think you’re a horrible writer – don’t worry – that’s never going to happen.
Now, your content plan in general needs to be catered towards the blog topic you’ve chosen (often called your blog niche) – if you know your niche well, then you know what topics need to be covered, and you know what content you can write about.
It may also help to start learning about keyword research if you want to optimize your blog posts for search engine traffic.
Do not worry too much about your first blog post, or the second or the third – keep publishing and keep writing.
I swear the second one will be easier, and so will the third one.
Take advantage of the fact that you do not have readers and practice your writing and “tone”.
Later down the road – when you notice some blog posts are gaining traction and are getting regular visits, you can go back in and edit and polish the content even further.
When you do that, you will see how far (and how quickly) you have improved as a “content writer”.
With that covered, let me now give you some tips on how you can get started – and rid yourself of the fear – of writing your first blog post.
3 Tips For Writing Your First Blog Post
Overcome Your Imposter Syndrome
This is common – imposter syndrome is when you feel like a fraud for doing something you know you may not be qualified to do.
This is super common and nothing to let it hinder your progress – nobody is an expert in anything – especially online.
+ you do not have to position yourself “as an expert” online; you can easily take the “I’m a beginner, and this is what I am doing” approach to anything you want to talk about.
Don’t let this “syndrome” stop you from doing what you want.
Learn How To Research What To Write About
This is also a common trait, but as I said;
If you know your niche well (which you should) + know how to dig for keywords, you’d have more ideas on what to write about than you can even handle.
I have been writing online for 6 years now and every single day I wondered if I’d find anything to write about.
Guess what; I always do.
Remember, You Still Don’t Know If You’re Doing It Right
A student I mentor inside Wealthy Affiliate asked me whether he was “doing it right” or not.
This is a tough question to answer, and I will tell you why.
3 years ago, I thought I was doing it right but looking back at it; I have adjusted my tone, improved on my English, and also expanded my knowledge on the topics I write about.
Does this mean I was doing it wrong before?
No, it just means I have improved on what is right.
Writing is a skill that you have to develop. You can do it right today but look back at it in a week and hate it; that’s a good sign!
Don’t Be Afraid of What Others May Think/Say
Don’t worry about what others have to say online (I’m guessing you know this already).
While the feedback you get will most likely be positive, there’s bound to be a few sad people out there who may want to leave negative feedback.
Again, this is nothing to worry about.
If you’re too worried about people in real life finding out what you’re doing, then you can also use a pen name if you’d like.
I do use a pen-name, and I’ve never had any issues because of it.
Tips On How To Format Your Blog Post (Like A Pro)
To close off this article, I want to give you some technical tips on how to craft and write your very first blog post.
Here are some dos and don’ts for when you are writing online.
Do not copy/paste content:
Of course, don’t just steal other blogger’s content and try to pass it off as your own – this will get you nowhere, and “your” version would likely not rank thus not get any traffic.
Stealing blog posts is a huge waste of time with no advantages – don’t do it.
Space out the blog post in small paragraphs:
As you can see, this post has 2-3 line paragraphs, and that is on purpose. People like to read short paragraphs because they can easily skim through it.
Don’t write big chunks of text as people would not read that.
Don’t over-italic stuff:
I see way too many beginner blogs overusing the bold and italics formatting.
Don’t do that – keep it clean and simple.
Too much fluff makes a piece of content a lot harder to read.
Grammar mistakes:
Grammar mistakes will happen – there might be some in this post even though I am using Grammarly and I’ve proofread my post 6 times before publishing.
Of course, try to avoid any grammar/spelling mistakes, but even if you do publish a post with some random mistake, it’s not the end of the world either.
People likely won’t mind, won’t notice it, or won’t care.
Always add images:
One good tip I can give you for writing your first blog post is to get in the habit of adding images to your content.
Just text is boring – people want images (and videos) that would capture their eye and help the reading progress.
Always – always – add an image or two (or five) to your content.
Learn some simple on-page SEO:
If you want your first blog post (and others) to rank in Google, learn some simple on-page SEO techniques.
These are just methods of how you can use words, structure your title, and also your meta descriptions to give your new post a chance at ranking.
It may sound complicated, but it isn’t, and you’d do well in taking a 5-minute read and learn the basics of on-page SEO.
Hit Publish:
That’s it – just hit publish.
Don’t overthink it, don’t stress too much about it – just hit publish and jump on to the next one and then another.
Don’t try to make it perfect as it’s never going to be perfect – you just need to put in the work and train your writing skills. That’s all there is to it.
Publish and never look back (for now).
Learn How To Make Money With Your Blog Posts
If you’re starting your blog with the hopes of making money, then it’s my duty to bring your attention to the course which has helped me build my online business, which I now run full-time from home.
If you are serious about starting a blog that makes money, look no further than Wealthy Affiliate.
Their training course will show you all you need to know and do (including how to write content that you can make money from).
