March 26, 2012. My first day at 2 Web Design. One of my first tasks I was asked to write a blog post. Feeling confident and wanting to impress my new boss, I was like “sure”. But then horror struck. What the eff do I write about? Hmm. Feeling slightly out of my depth I quickly Googled “blog what to write” (or something very similar to that).
Searching through the results I came across a Mashable article (oh Mashable, what a sweet companion you’ve been to me for the past couple of years), that talked about the different social media networks and explained each in detail. So I did what I’ve now learnt most good bloggers do, and “newsjacked” that article.
SEE ALSO: How to start a blog, from scratch
Was the article a great success? I’ll let you be the judge of that. However, what it did do was give me the confidence to continue writing more and more, and better blog posts. Practice makes perfect, right?
Now there are those of you who want to start writing blog posts for your business, but either have no idea where to start or are daunted by the thought of other people reading your writing. To be honest, it can be quite scary knowing what you write is analyzed and judged by other people, especially your peers. Therefore, I’m offering you some seasoned advice on how to start writing your first blog post.
Bury your fears
First things first. You have to overcome your fear of knowing what you write will be read by the public. It’s true that most writers – professional, bloggers – have some apprehension when writing or blogging. But you have to think to yourself – how can I get better if I don’t write at all?
In our modern online world, where we rely heavily on website content and blogs for communication, no one should fear writing. So my advice to you is to just write. That’s what I did. I just wrote and wrote, and wrote. Of course I felt some anxiety with my first couple of blog articles, but now? It doesn’t bother me at all. This is because I am confident in my writing ability and am knowledgeable about the topics I write about.
Also, if you are unsure about what you have written and need a second opinion, then ask a colleague for 5-10 mins of their time and have them read over it.
Write about who you are
Now that you have the confidence to just write, the next step is what are you going to write about? Easy. You write about what you know best – you and your business.
Blog readers want to find information they can trust. So the more credible information you share about yourself and your business, the easier it is for a reader to trust you.
If you read quite a few of my later posts (late 2012 and onwards), you will see I share a lot of information about myself. I never felt confident doing this at first, but the more I wrote, the more I became comfortable with sharing this information. By doing this I built up trust between myself, the company, and the reader.
Therefore my advice to you, when writing your first blog post is to share, share, and share some more. The more trust you instill in your audience, the more they will continue to use your blog as a resource. You will then grow in confidence knowing what you write is appreciated and will happily share more information about yourself and your business.
Involve your audience
One area of blogging that often gets overlooked by new bloggers is how their audience can get involved.
Blogging is a two-way communication. You write the article, but then you MUST open it up to your audience for discussion. But how do you do this? You tell them exactly what you want them to do. Do you want feedback? A comment? Have them contact you? If so, then give them specific instructions. AND if they do respond, and ask you a question, then be sure to respond as well.
Freebie: an example of how to write an encouraging statement to invite your audience to leave comments can be seen at the end of this blog post (feel free to “borrow” it).
At the end of the day blogging can be overwhelming, challenging, strike fear into the bravest person. But on the flip side blogging can be extremely rewarding and for some, including me, therapeutic.
I hope the advice I have provided will help you to start creating some blog posts for your business blog. And if you have any questions, comments, and/or other suggestions on how to write your first blog post, leave them in the comments section below.
