We create blogs for many different reasons. No matter what your individual reason may be, we all have the same goals in common.
We want to get more traffic, convert readers into sales or subscribers, get backlinks and so on.
This is possible for every single one of us and it all starts with your content. We have to create blog post in a way that is informative, on topic with your niche and in your own unique style.
I fell in love with blogging but writing was not something I was naturally good at. It took a lot of work for me to crank out even a 1,000 word post. I had to continuously work to develop my skills at becoming a better writer.
In doing so, I created a technique I would like to introduce you to called, “The Never Ending Blog Post”.
This technique meets three important criteria:
1) It is easy to use.
2) Anyone in any niche can use it.
3) Most importantly, it is effective!
Who Needs the Never Ending Blog Post
The Never Ending Blog Post is great for several different types of people. There are plenty of techniques out there that help us get through many of the different obstacles we face. All options are not created equal.
For different reasons, one option may not work as well for you as another option can.
This was specifically designed to help people with these common issues:
Trouble with completing a blog post
When I first started blogging, it was difficult for me to finish a post. I spent plenty of time looking at the screen wanting to type something but it just wasn’t coming to me.
It is not always easy to complete our thoughts and craft a post in a way that our readers will understand, retain and appreciate.
The Never Ending Blog Post, is an ideal way to complete a blog post in a way that is none pressuring and allows you to effectively create the post at your own pace.
Problems with creating post at the ideal length
There is not a set in stone length you have to reach. It is a personal preference but there are a couple of things you should keep in mind when crafting your content.
You may or may not have seen the tons of research and case studies done on this topic. Many of which show that there is more of a benefit if you create longer, more in-depth post.
There are a couple of ideal lengths depending on your focus that can lead to better results. I will go into more detail later in this post.
Having enough posts on stand by
I found this to be an incredibly important part of blogging that bloggers really need to focus on. If you look at the numbers, majority of bloggers are part-time. Which means that there are other responsibilities that we have to tend to outside of blogging.
Like most bloggers, we are one man or woman operations and we have to take care of most tasks on our own. This can be unfortunate since life does get in the way sometimes. We can’t control what happens to us and blogging may be the thing that has to take a back seat. Depending on the severity of the situation and whether or not it is a source of income for us.
Having multiple post on standby is a great way, at the very least, to keep your blog from looking abandoned. This is beneficial not only to your readers but to search engines as well!
Keeping Up With Your Ideas
This is not only for creating new blog post ideas but continue to build on ideas that you currently have in your drafts.
Later in the post, I will discuss research I found and tested, that will help you continue to come up with creative ideas to add to your post.
Limited Time For Blogging
Many of us love blogging and wish we were able to do it full-time but this is not the case for most of us. Ryan Biddulph from Blogging From Paradise is a great example of where many of us want to be. Able to create a successful blog, earn an income from it and blog from paradise. Even if you’re blogging from paradise is blogging from your couch
When we have jobs, family, hobbies, a social life and so on. It can feel like you don’t have time to blog.
If blogging is something that you really want to do and you are that strapped for time, then sacrifices will have to be made.
With the Never Ending Blog Post Technique, it will allow you to spend more time doing other aspects of your life online or off, while continuing to create and add to multiple blog post at the same time.
The 4 Things You Will Accomplish Using This Technique
Create Content Only The Way You Can
Even if it is on the same topic as many others, we still have the opportunity to create content in a way that stands out.
This will be something that people will want to share. You are a product of your blog and people will begin to appreciate your value!
We continue to grow, learn and develop new ideas every minute. The Never Ending Blog Post taps into that process and helps you continue to create content only the way you can!
Optimizing Your Content
There is more than one way to increase your chances of ranking better on search engines. The thing with SEO, is that you spend as much time studying and doing research, just as you do actually using SEO techniques. It is for constantly changing.
There is a way that has been one of the more consistent methods at optimizing for search. That is by creating detailed post that has a certain length.
That length becomes ideal by creating blog post that has 2,000 words or more. With the Never Ending Blog Post, hitting this mark will be much easier to achieve, if you have issues with longer post.
SerpIQ did an interesting study to find that their highest performing blog post had a length greater than 2,000 words. With their best posts hitting the 2,400 word mark.
It is not all about the Search Engines though. What is the ideal post length for the ones that matter most, our readers!
Medium did a study on the average amount of seconds spent on each post, based on post length.
They found that post averaging about 1,600 words or 7 minutes in length had readers attention the longest.
Do you think it worth the extra 400 words to appeal to Search Engines or appealing to readers is the better option?
Increase Comments, Subscribers, Sales
The longer your post, the more opportunities you have to connect with readers by appealing to several emotions.
Those levels can be reached when you target readers through their sense of Greed, Pride, Fear, Altruism and Envy. All these emotions cause your readers to connect deeper with your content, which will make them more likely to engage with your content.
By your readers connecting, it increases the chance that they will act on your ‘Call to Actions’.
So, those questions that you asked throughout your post or at the end, can increase the number of comments you receive.
Why increasing the number of your comments are important:
1) Increases Your Authority.
2) Build a loyal following (It’s all about your response. Make them feel welcome, appreciated etc).
3) It gives you more opportunity to show your expertise on the given topic.
Increase Social Shares
Neil Patel did some research not to long ago, on how a post that exceeds 1,500 words or more did far better in receiving social shares.
Neil Patel explains, “My own research on Quick Sprout confirms this. All of my posts that are more than 1,500 words receive 68% more tweets and 22% more Facebook likes than the articles with fewer than 1,500 words.”
This is surely information you can trust. I mean, Neil Patel is kind of a big deal, if you didn’t know!
Using this technique will make it much easier for you to create longer more in-depth blog post.
How To Create The Never Ending Blog Post
Step 1. Topic/ Headline
We get inspiration from topics with everything that we do. It starts with keeping an open mind throughout the day. Whenever you get inspired to create a new blog post on a topic, write it down immediately and place it in your drafts.
Don’t chance forgetting that idea that could go viral because you may never get the chance to write that post again if you forget it.
I get most of my inspiration from reading others blog post. There are plenty great bloggers out there that cover many different topics. Reading what they have to share will help you grow in your niche and give you ideas for new blog post.
Even if you read an insanely detailed, well thought out blog post from Pro Bloggers like Jon Morrow, Yaro Starak or Pauline Cabrera, you can still take the topic they write about and make it your own.
One good thing is that when they publish a post, people listen. So, when you create your post a week or so later. They have already made the topic relevant.
It’s not about competing with their post. Bloggers of that caliber cover plenty of different topics within one blog post. That one topic that sticks out to you or the one you notice getting attention in the comments may be just the thing you are looking for.
Don’t always focus on just areas in your niche as well. By keeping an open mind, you can pull topics that are common in other niches and make them relate to your niche. Just because one problem is discussed more in one area, doesn’t mean that people in your niche can’t relate.
The possibilities of where you can get inspiration are endless. Let’s look at a few tools you can use to come up with content ideas.
Top 3 Tools For Creating Content Ideas
Buzzsumo– This is an amazing tool that should be considered if you want to find out what is popular across social media. Simply put your niche or topic of choice in the search bar.
Then you will get plenty of results depending on topic listed from highest to lowest depending on the amount of shares a particular post has received. This will give a leg up in potentially creating content that will get shared across different social media sites.
Title Tool by Content Forrest– This is an interesting tool as well. All you need to do is add your topic of choice into the search bar, select whether you want 10, 20 or 30 headline ideas and select ‘Get Ideas’.
Then you will receive up to 30 headlines that have already been published online to help you come up with some content ideas.
Unlike Buzzsumo, you have no idea how well these post did on social media to help you determine if the topic is one that people are interested in. Which is fine because you never really know what people will latch onto and make go viral. It is just up to us to have everything in place and be ready when it happens.
Content Idea Generator– This is a tool that everyone should give a try at least once. It will provide you with about 100 content ideas that are sure to get the creative juices flowing.
All you have to do is accurately answer 18 questions and you will get ideas for not only blogs post but other forms of content as well. Such as, eBooks, Podcasts, Videos and more.
After you receive your results, in only a couple clicks you can have all your ideas saved to a Excel file to refer back to whenever you need a little creative help.
Step 2. Sub Headings
After you came up with a great content idea. You will most likely have some points of interest that you want to cover to make your point.
After the headline this is another important part you need to consider.
3 Reasons To Consider Sub Headings
1) Since majority of people naturally scan your blog post. The better you break it down into sections, the better you will get your point across, even if they don’t read every last word on the screen.
2) Breaking your post up makes your blog easier to read. A large block of text can come across pretty boring.
Sub topics are a great way of making your post visually appealing without the use of images.
3) They help you get your point across! Even though you are covering a certain topic, elaborating on other topics related to the one your discussing will make things clearer to your readers.
By using all these sub headings, I am explaining the many different topics that will help you create the best possible blog post while using the Never Ending Blog Post techniques.
By the end of the post you will know exactly why all these were important in getting you to fully understand what goes into creating Click-Worthy, Shareable and Optimized blog post.
Step 3. Elaborate
Now that you have your Headline and Sub Headings drafted, it’s time to go into more detail about each. You want to write on each as much as possible.
Don’t force yourself to write anything. This is one of the main principles of the Never Ending Blog Post.
Even if you can only get out a few points on one Sub Heading, that is completely fine!
As experienced bloggers can tell when someone is just adding filler text in order stretch the post.
Focus on adding as much value as possible to every line you write.
Sometimes you may have to scrap a section or entire post!
There was a time I was creating a post on turning a blog post into a SlideShare presentation. I spent about an hour crafting the post until I stopped and looked over what I had so far.
I realized I was explaining these simple to use steps, in a way that seemed so complicated.
That was not my intention and I knew I needed to change the direction I was going with the post.
It wasn’t easy to highlight so much of what I typed and hit the backspace key. By the time I was done, I realized just how necessary it was to start fresh.
Step 4. Elaborate Again and Again
This is where your content begins to take form. Be sure to continue to refer back to your draft whenever you are able to add value to your post.
This is what works so well when you are trying to lengthen your post without losing value with all the filler text.
I have a post that I have been working on for a couple of weeks. By drafting a Headline, Sub Headings and elaborating here and there. I already have a 2,000 word post that is nearly finished.
It up to me whether or not I want to publish it on my blog or submit it as a guest post. It is a good feeling knowing that I have it and a few others in my back pocket when I need them!
Step 5. Time to Publish
This step is completely up to you. Whether the post is 500 words or 3,000 words, when you feel the post is just about ready to publish, then finish the draft.
Before you click Publish, make sure you do the next steps first!
1) Edit you content and make sure it has the least amount of errors as possible.
2) Create an interesting, attractive Headline that will get readers attention. That is if your original one used for the draft needs an update.
3) Create strong Sub Headings in order to break up content and make it easier to read.
4) Interlink content to other relevant content mentioned in the post.
5) Link to external content that can add value to your post
6) Add an attractive image(s) to your post (Be sure to add Alt attributes to your images)
7) Prepare your newsletter for your subscribers
How To Begin Creating Drafts Using This Technique
First
You want to at least begin using steps 1 and 2 whenever you have an attractive idea.
The point here is to not create a perfect post. Get your ideas down as soon as possible. You can lose them as fast as you think of them.
Use your computer if you are there or a napkin if it is all you have available. Just get it down somewhere!
This will be the foundation you will use to create your entire post.
Second
After you have steps 1 and 2, as consistent as possible, move on to steps 3 and 4. The key is that you want to choose how ever many post you are comfortable with, and focus on using steps 3 and 4 on those post.
When you get to the point you are happy, then you move to completing the steps in Step 5.
How Do I Ever Finish A Post If It Is Never Ending
The thought process behind the Never Ending Blog post, is based on you starting your draft, without ever having an end date in mind.
You only want focus on adding valuable content to the draft as often as possible.
Of course, you will need to Publish your content eventually. Which is why this technique is not intended to be used right out of the gate.
Continue with whatever system you have in place right now. When you begin using this technique, get at least 3 drafts or more depending on your posting schedule. Make sure they are just about ready to go before you Publish your first post.
I found that focusing on 3 post at a time works well for me. We have to focus on that number or we will just continue to have tons of half done post. Then you would be able to take the Never Ending Blog Post literally
This technique is to help take the pressure off writing post. So, if you publish one without having a few drafts ready to go, you will still feel pressured to finish another draft by your next publish date.
Final Thoughts
You will, on a continuous basis, have multiple post that will be just about ready to publish.
Even extreme part-time bloggers have the ability to create content like the many other amazing Pro Bloggers out there. While not neglecting the other important aspects of blogging.
This helps take off a lot of the stress that comes from living life while maintaining your blog.
That is a lot on our plate and only having a few hours or so a day doesn’t make this easy.
This technique was recently developed to help prevent life from getting in the way of creating content.
I hope this technique helps with your content creation strategies. It has helped me a lot and I am excited to share new post and guest post in the near future using it.
What are your thoughts on the Never Ending Post technique?
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