Day 5 – The only thing left to do, is go write

This is part 5 (hooray!) of a 5 part series. You can read the intro here, and the links to part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

Okay, you’ve come so far there’s almost nothing standing in the way of you being a blogger. I say almost, because

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You’ve parted with your money to buy a domain and hosting space, you’ve installed WordPress on your domain, and even gotten analytics to measure that sweet sweet taste of audience traffic later on.

Now, there’s only one thing to do.

Write.

It’s the easiest thing for me to say, and it may be the most difficult thing to do. You may have so many ideas floating in your head, about the things you want to share, the experiences you’ve had that may benefit others from penning it down.

Yet somehow, the words don’t come easily. Sure, I’ve been there, and still have at times succumbed to a bout of writer’s block.

So, here are some tips and tricks on banging those posts out.

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Headlines matter

Humans are shallow. Just look at how we read the news. We skim through the headlines, and only read the news content if the headlines shout out to us.

We (or at least I) buy books, sometimes purely on the design and attractiveness of the cover and the title. Headlines go a long way in hooking in the reader. And once a reader comes into the article, they typically read the whole way through.

So take your time in coming up with a killer headline. (I should follow that advice more).

Here’s Neil Patel giving you The step by step guide to writing powerful headlines.

An Ideas backlog

Have an ideas backlog. Sometimes, in the shower, or when I’m walking around at lunch or even just reading the news or a book, a really good, but half-baked idea may spring into my mind.

I usually don’t know where that idea will lead, but I try to jot it down really quickly so I can store these ideas, let them stew for a bit, and come back to refine them. Some ideas may ultimately never see the final url, and that’s fine.

I typically try to come up with an interim catchy headline, and a 2-liner description of my thoughts on the story/article to help jolt my memory when I come back to it. I use Google Keep to store them.

Edit edit edit, but first, write

Editing is key to perfecting that blog post and getting it publish-ready, but the work of editing implies that there is something to edit down with. So yes, before you can edit, you have to just… write.

Writing, like any other skill, improves with time and practice. Schedule in time of day to write, if you must (another advice I need to adhere to myself! I love how I’m proving myself as I’m handing out tips!).

This is where the ideas backlog comes in handy, eh?

Here’s a helpful article on how to “just write“.

I love how The Hustle writes their newsletters, so here’s their CEO Sam Parr himself, on how to write like The Hustle.

So there you go. Keep a rotating log of ideas you can refine each day, write first, edit later, and punch it up with a killer headline.