In all honesty, it's not nearly as hard as you'd think it would be to improve the quality of your blog-post-writing skills. In fact, really all it comes down to is having a manageable, time-saving routine and a few helpful tools, then you're on your way to creating some outstanding content that you can truly be proud to share with the world!
Welcome my friends and fellow bloggers!
Today I am incredibly happy to be sharing with you my personal writing process that I use for every single one of my articles! This five-step guide has been very beneficial to me as a beginner when writing and because of it, I've been able to keep myself better organized and well on track with my posting schedule. When reading, you will find step-by-step instructions as well as a few of my tips and tricks I've picked up on in my blogging journey. There are also website recommendations that could help you after the writing stage with things like photo editing, where to find free stock photos and more!
Lastly, I wanted to announce that this is the beginning of a new series that I will be doing, called #WriteOffTheBat where I'm going to be sharing everything I know about blogging as a beginner, so be on the lookout for more articles just like this one, because I'd like to do them monthly if possible...Now without any further ado, let's begin!
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1. GRAMMARLY
As bloggers, our writing is incredibly important in order to be taken seriously by our readers as well as ourselves, that's why your first step in this process should be installing Grammarly onto Google Chrome or your compatible web-browser. But, wait...What is Grammarly? In case you've been living under a rock or just haven't done much research into blogging, it's basically the greatest application known to the writer. It's a simple, yet very effective writing-enhancement tool that when installed, will check for spelling errors as you go along writing your post which will be such a lifesaver when you're doing something like this on the regular.
Speaking as someone who has dyslexia, (a learning disability; making the process of reading more difficult.) I've always been more than just a little paranoid about accidentally missing some of my little spelling mistakes before publishing my articles. But, since installing Grammarly, that's no longer been an issue of mine. I haven't needed to double check or triple check anything since I started this blog, and that has been a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders, and hopefully, it will be for you, too.
note: Grammarly is totally and completely free for you to use, but does offer an advanced version with a paid-subscription if you'd like to go another notch up with your writing. You can download the free app for Chrome and read more about their application right here.
Once you have your newly installed Grammarly ready for use, we now can move on to our second step, the actual writing process. I like to recommend coming up with your title first before anything else. I know that may seem to be fairly obvious for most of you, but still, I like to remind people that titles are an extremely important part of any blog and should have a lot of thought and consideration put into them.
Without a proper title, you could have a brilliantly written, practically flawless article to share with everyone, but unfortunately, that won't matter so much. Without that interesting title, there won't be anything to pull the reader in, nothing to make them consider it as intriguing or potentially worth their time. With that being said, the title of your post should also be straightforward. If you're choosing to write about how to save money in the new year, then make sure your title reflects that instead of calling it something like, "You Should Be Doing This In 2018" Make sure that people understand what they're about to see before they even click. Don't be afraid to make it as clear to the reader as possible what your article will be about.
After coming up with the perfect title for your topic, it's great to start out with a few bullet points, I usually get the ball rolling on this by writing out a few short, but somewhat detailed sentences that contain the main points I would like to address within the article. I'll then take each of those first lines and start building onto them until eventually, I end up with enough to be used as the foundation for a full-on post.
note: It's crucial to remember that in this step we are working on our rough draft. If something isn't perfect, it's more than ok, that's what we have the editing stage for. Right now, think of your rough draft as a chance to explain everything to yourself, so you won't forget anything of importance in the final version.
3. TIME FOR EDITING Without a proper title, you could have a brilliantly written, practically flawless article to share with everyone, but unfortunately, that won't matter so much. Without that interesting title, there won't be anything to pull the reader in, nothing to make them consider it as intriguing or potentially worth their time. With that being said, the title of your post should also be straightforward. If you're choosing to write about how to save money in the new year, then make sure your title reflects that instead of calling it something like, "You Should Be Doing This In 2018" Make sure that people understand what they're about to see before they even click. Don't be afraid to make it as clear to the reader as possible what your article will be about.
After coming up with the perfect title for your topic, it's great to start out with a few bullet points, I usually get the ball rolling on this by writing out a few short, but somewhat detailed sentences that contain the main points I would like to address within the article. I'll then take each of those first lines and start building onto them until eventually, I end up with enough to be used as the foundation for a full-on post.
note: It's crucial to remember that in this step we are working on our rough draft. If something isn't perfect, it's more than ok, that's what we have the editing stage for. Right now, think of your rough draft as a chance to explain everything to yourself, so you won't forget anything of importance in the final version.
So now that we have our rough draft put together, it may be looking a little bit crazy at this time. In fact, most of my rough drafts are usually just a jumbled mess of thoughts that would only ever make sense to myself. But it's all good because we're about to make some magic happen! We've got plenty of what we need to work with and now it's time to turn that draft into something special that will not only make sense to our lovely readers but will also give them the enjoyment that could potentially bring them back, looking for more to read in the near future!
It's safe to say that editing is where things will really start to take a turn for the best when writing your new article, but it can also be where the pace starts to slow down a bit for some bloggers, including myself. It's a pretty simple process, but if you're someone who can be critical of your writing and find yourself constantly rearranging, or even deleting sentences because you truly believe in your heart that you could be doing better (...That's literally me.) then this step can and most likely will, take up the majority of your time.
But the main purpose of the editing step is to go over what you've already written and start to polish it up until it gradually turns into something that you can feel completely satisfied and confident in sharing. You can use this time to place words within sentences that will help things start to flow a little better than they might have before, maybe even remove some words and replace ones you have used a little too frequently, (though that's hard to avoid depending on the topic and how much you write, so don't put too much pressure on yourself.) But overall, it's really all about tying everything together and trying to make it work in the best way possible.
note: At the end of the day, we're blogging because we enjoy it and it's meant to be a fun experience, so it's best we try to avoid getting caught up in the need for perfection. We can strive to do our very best, and we can totally strive for improvement, just not perfection, or we'll never be happy with the outcome of our work.
AFTER WRITING
4. TAKING YOUR BLOG PHOTOSIt's safe to say that editing is where things will really start to take a turn for the best when writing your new article, but it can also be where the pace starts to slow down a bit for some bloggers, including myself. It's a pretty simple process, but if you're someone who can be critical of your writing and find yourself constantly rearranging, or even deleting sentences because you truly believe in your heart that you could be doing better (...That's literally me.) then this step can and most likely will, take up the majority of your time.
But the main purpose of the editing step is to go over what you've already written and start to polish it up until it gradually turns into something that you can feel completely satisfied and confident in sharing. You can use this time to place words within sentences that will help things start to flow a little better than they might have before, maybe even remove some words and replace ones you have used a little too frequently, (though that's hard to avoid depending on the topic and how much you write, so don't put too much pressure on yourself.) But overall, it's really all about tying everything together and trying to make it work in the best way possible.
note: At the end of the day, we're blogging because we enjoy it and it's meant to be a fun experience, so it's best we try to avoid getting caught up in the need for perfection. We can strive to do our very best, and we can totally strive for improvement, just not perfection, or we'll never be happy with the outcome of our work.
AFTER WRITING
Truth be told, a more professional looking article involves just a little more than the writing itself...
Let's focus on adding and improving some of those bells and whistles before we finish, with our final two steps!
Creating and adding in the right photos to your latest masterpiece can be just as important as coming up with a great title. The first photo you add to your blog post will usually be what your future readers will see in a preview once you've shared your link throughout social media. So, for our fourth step, we'll be focusing on my absolute favorite part of this process, which happens to be taking photos that will spice things up and make all of your hard work stand out and appear more visually interesting.
I know that there are a ton of people out there that automatically assume you need to have the newest and fanciest camera in order to take professional looking blog photos, but really, the camera on your phone mixed with some good lighting will work just fine! But that there is the key, good lighting. Natural light, or natural light with a little artificial, will end up doing wonders for the quality. If you're using a phone or some sort of mobile device, try taking your photos earlier on in the day or whenever you have the best natural light coming through. I recommend you avoid taking any of your photos at night, the pictures will appear darker and grainer, which will bump the quality level way down.
On the flip side, if you do happen to have a nicer camera to use, you should totally take advantage of its power and use that baby for anything and everything. I'm no tech expert, so I recommend you Google tips and tricks on how to use your camera to the best of its ability. Learning exactly how your camera works will benefit you in so many ways, especially if you're using a DSLR, switching my Canon Rebel T5i from auto to manual was a total game changer for all of my blog photos.
note: I'm planning on doing another installment of this series that involves full details of how I take my blog photos with my DSLR. So, if you're not having much success with learning your camera and taking the best photos, hang tight because help is on the way! I'll try my best to hook you up with the best resources and tips asap!
5. CANVA, STOCKSNAP.IO, AND BEFUNKYOn the flip side, if you do happen to have a nicer camera to use, you should totally take advantage of its power and use that baby for anything and everything. I'm no tech expert, so I recommend you Google tips and tricks on how to use your camera to the best of its ability. Learning exactly how your camera works will benefit you in so many ways, especially if you're using a DSLR, switching my Canon Rebel T5i from auto to manual was a total game changer for all of my blog photos.
note: I'm planning on doing another installment of this series that involves full details of how I take my blog photos with my DSLR. So, if you're not having much success with learning your camera and taking the best photos, hang tight because help is on the way! I'll try my best to hook you up with the best resources and tips asap!
You know, I don't think I've ever gone without editing even just one of the photos I've taken for this blog because if they ended up turning out well on their own, then they could only get better in my mind. I don't spend a whole lot of time on this part, it's pretty quick and easy, just because I don't really do anything too crazy with them, but I do love to adjust and add brightness, change the sizing of each photo to fit my post perfectly, and I'm always adding some cool fonts to certain images, like the second photo you've seen at the top of this article, in order to display the title again, or a similar message.
Alright, so if you'd like to do any of those things that I just mentioned, you'll need to get yourself familiar with using the combination of websites BeFunky.com and Canva.com...Now, you may be wondering why I suggest you use two different sites to edit, well, it's because both sites have very different features that they offer for free, and using the two together is how I'm able to get the most out of my photos without having to pay an extra monthly bill.
Canva is a great site that works really well for any simple graphic design projects. There's a lot of free fonts you can choose from, a lot of illustrations, photos, etc. BeFunky is more for basic editing tools such as brightness, contrast, touch-ups, that sort of thing. Combine all free aspects of BeFunky and Canva together, and you've got a powerful editing tool that can be used for just about anything you'll ever need on your blog as far as design goes.
Alright, so if you'd like to do any of those things that I just mentioned, you'll need to get yourself familiar with using the combination of websites BeFunky.com and Canva.com...Now, you may be wondering why I suggest you use two different sites to edit, well, it's because both sites have very different features that they offer for free, and using the two together is how I'm able to get the most out of my photos without having to pay an extra monthly bill.
Canva is a great site that works really well for any simple graphic design projects. There's a lot of free fonts you can choose from, a lot of illustrations, photos, etc. BeFunky is more for basic editing tools such as brightness, contrast, touch-ups, that sort of thing. Combine all free aspects of BeFunky and Canva together, and you've got a powerful editing tool that can be used for just about anything you'll ever need on your blog as far as design goes.
Now, in case you're having some trouble with photography, whether you don't have any of the right equipment or just can't seem to take the kind of photos that will have the most relevance to what you're discussing in your articles, I have two sites that will benefit you!
Thankfully there are plenty of websites out there that offer stock images, more importantly, there are websites out there that offer free stock images! The two I find myself using most often are called StockSnap.io and once again, Canva. Both sites have an awesome selection of free photos that can get you through your blog posts with ease. You could also use a combination of your own photography with stock images, that's something I do every once in a while and I know a lot of different bloggers like to do that, too.
-Thankfully there are plenty of websites out there that offer stock images, more importantly, there are websites out there that offer free stock images! The two I find myself using most often are called StockSnap.io and once again, Canva. Both sites have an awesome selection of free photos that can get you through your blog posts with ease. You could also use a combination of your own photography with stock images, that's something I do every once in a while and I know a lot of different bloggers like to do that, too.
When you take the time to follow this routine or even the time to develop your own that will better suit your needs, you'll be surprised at how much time you can cut down on during your writing process. It doesn't take much to step up your blogging game, just having something to follow along with as you go, will help keep yourself more organized and on track, which will make a world of difference.
With all of that being said, remember to let me know what you thought of this first installment of #WriteOffTheBat and what kind of blogging topic you would like to see me cover in the future! Thank you for reading!
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