12 Steps To Writing a Well-Researched and High-Quality Blog Post

adminMarch 10, 2023

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How to create a well researched blog post

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Do you know what the hardest thing about being a writer is?

It’s the writing itself.

Reading: How to create a well researched blog post

Writing every day, writing things that people actually read, write, inspire people to take action.

It’s not just me, most writers feel the same way.

A study by Zazzle Media found that creating more engaging Content is the top challenge for 65% of writers.

Source: Zazzle Media

I’ve been a freelance blogger for 6+ years, but I still have days when my head shakes is empty and I can’t write a word.

This is also not uncommon for bloggers (as this Twitter interaction between two authors shows).

Source: Twitter

But those days are less common when you have a formula, a standard template, or a fixed process that you follow every time you write a blog post.

Not only does it help you write faster but also to create immensely engaging and valuable content.

Many of you have asked in the Private NicheHacks Facebook Mastermind how we consistently go deep on content.

It’s natural a lot of hard work, but I’ve developed (through trial and error) a process over the years that you can also follow to speed up your writing.

And that’s what today’s article is all about.

I’ll tell you exactly what I do before, during and after writing a blog post, how I research data for my content and whatever else you want to learn more about blog post writing.

So let’s dive in…

The Pre-Writing Stage – Strategically Planning Your Article

Writing great content takes time.

But it also requires a lot of preparation before you actually write a single word.

The quality and success of your content e depend heavily on the pre-writing stage you are in. Actually create a plan for your article.

More specifically, you need to identify the questions your article is targeting and gather the information necessary to answer them.

Let me describe the exact steps I follow.

1. Determine the primary goal of your blog post

Each blog article you write should answer a specific question or a group of closely related questions.

Your content should address the issues Solve your readers, help them take action, and get them closer to their goals.

To do this, you need to clearly define the scope of your article before you start writing.

Here are the things Things you need to do Determine

1.1 Your primary goal for writing the article

Who are you writing this article for?

Why are you writing this article?

p>

What do you want your readers to do when they read it?

What do you hope to achieve with this article ?

These are simple but crucial questions you need to answer before you write an article, because they determine the direction of your blog post and the angle from which it addresses a given topic aims.

For this particular blog post, my goal is to tell readers exactly how they should go about writing a bl go og article. I want to show them how I do it for NicheHacks so they can model their writing process along my lines.

I will limit my content to these goals.

If I do So I can always go on without adding value to my readers.

When an affiliate site posts a product review, the goal is to share information about a product and connect it to the needs of that audience and convince readers to buy it.

1.2 The question(s) your article will answer

Ask the questions you want your article to answer clearly.

Don’t try to cover too many different topics in one article. Focus on just one or more closely related questions from your audience and try to answer them comprehensively.

For example, this NicheHacks article targets just one question, “Finding and Hiring Content Writers” in extreme detail.

Here is an example of a title that covers too many questions.

“How to build your email list, increase traffic and website conversions Boost”

A better approach is to break this up into three separate articles and cover each topic in more depth.

“17 Best Practices to Grow Your Email List Exponentially expand”

“The Simple Content Strategy To Grow Your Traffic By 783% In 30 Days”

“7 Tips To Increase Website Conversion Rate By 287%”

Do you get what I mean?

Try to answer too Many questions in an article will not only confuse your readers but also limit you to sharing only superficial information rather than covering each topic in detail.

1.3 Word count of your article

Several studies have proven the relationship between content length and search rankings. Longer articles also tend to get more backlinks and social shares.

HubSpot found that the longer articles on their blog (over 2500 words) got more backlinks, on average.

Source: HubSpot

However, word count itself should never be a goal when writing an article.

You should write as many words as necessary to answer the questions you are targeting in a blog post.

But you should still have an approximate word count range in mind before You start writing.

This helps you structure the article and break it down into different segments.

For example, Stuart and I set ourselves an average word count of 2500-3500 words for all NicheHacks articles because we have learned over time that these are the fewest words we need to cover a topic in detail.

I have this range in mind when I start write.

But I don’t follow it religiously and can exceed it if there is a real need.

That’s why many articles on NicehHacks are 4000, 5000 and even 8000+ words.

But in general we try to reach the word range from 2500 to 3500.

2. Create a distraction-free environment to maximize your productivity

When you sit down to write an article, it’s crucial that you block out all distractions and create an environment where you can only focus on the work.

Because you can’t write great content without it.

Personally, I struggled a lot with online distractions when I first started freelance (most writers do this).

I would sit down to write an article but spend hours on Facebook or Twitter without actually doing anything. I missed deadlines and took three times as long to complete projects because I just couldn’t block out distractions.

Over time, however, I learned to focus on work using a few tools and techniques.

So here’s my quick piece of advice for you.

Determine your writing time: Whether you’re an early riser or a night owl, determine your writing time and blockage during that time turn off everything else. Just write. It has helped me increase my typing speed and productivity tenfold.

Track your time: I use RescueTime to track my activities and it helped me stay focused on work.

Turn off social media: Log out of Facebook, Twitter, and all other social networks and turn off smartphone notifications while you rewrite.

3. Have all the blogging and writing tools you need

One last thing before you start the content research and creation process is to make sure you have the right content creation tools.

So are hundreds of free and premium content marketing tools that you can use. But let me share the ones I use.

Google Docs: Free and Easy Word Processor to Write Your Articles.

Grammar: This is a real lifesaver as it checks your content for grammatical errors, typos, incorrect sentence structures and misspellings. I don’t know where I would be without Grammarly.

Evernote Web Clipper/Skitch: Great tool for creating annotated screenshots.

CloudApp: This is a paid tool for creating animated GIFs. Instead of explaining everything in the text, I like to use GIFs because they not only help me to demonstrate processes better, but also engage the readers better.

Cliche Finder: It’s a useful tool to help you shorten long sentences and look cheesy.

Power Thesaurus: Use the same Words can repeatedly take the shine out of your writing. This crowdsourced thesaurus shows you synonyms for the words commonly used by bloggers.

Canva: The best online tool for creating high-quality custom images for your Blog and social media posts.

4. Do some initial research to understand the topic

No one, including your favorite bloggers, can write a detailed, actionable, high-quality blog post without doing some research.

So even if I’ though When I’m familiar with a topic, I still spend 30-45 minutes exploring the latest content, forum discussions, and any relevant research or case studies on my topic.

My initial research starts with some fairly broad Google searches. Search Queries See what’s already been published on this topic.

For example, when I wrote this article about hiring a freelance writer, I just searched “how to hire a freelance writer”.

I then spend 15-20 minutes looking at the top rated posts on the topic to see what they wrote.

I often go as far as page 3 of Google searches , to rel to find relevant posts.

Meanwhile, as I peruse these articles, I make a note of any unique points, things I didn’t know about the topic, or specific examples I like.

Here are the things I focus on when researching articles s

The author’s main argument and the angle from which it is approached

Article Word Count and Content Depth

Author’s title and subheadings and the emotion he is trying to evoke.

The type of article and its formatting (list post, guides, etc. and the number of sections/parts in the article)

Images used in the article

And the most important thing.

I always read the comments on an article to find unanswered questions or feedback from readers. This gives me extra points to create a more valuable and detailed article.

To give you an idea, this is what my browser looks like when I browse different articles on a topic

Next, I go to BuzzSumo to find the most shared articles on my topic. This gives me a good idea of what type of content is resonating with my audience.

Pay special attention to the formatting and headlines of the most shared articles, as these are two of the main drivers of audience engagement.

Source: BuzzSumo

As usual, I’m taking notes and bookmarking articles during this research.

Then I head to one of the most popular useful research platforms I’ve ever had provide a ton of information on a topic and help me understand exactly what my audience wants to know.

I’m talking about NicheHack’s Facebook Mastermind, a community of 50,000+ seasoned marketers , aspiring entrepreneurs and complete newbies with many Questions.

I’ve used insights from this in almost every post I’ve written for NicheHacks over the past 4 years.

To find relevant discussions, I simply search the G group by my topic and look for interesting questions or comments from different group members.

I created this animated GIF to show you exactly how I do it.

It helps me to uncover unique questions that are otherwise hard to find.

But you probably don’t have your own Facebook group, so you’ll need to look for other popular Facebook groups related to your target topic.

Spend a little time exploring different groups and I’m sure you’ll get plenty of ideas for your topic.

Usually these methods give me enough insight to start writing .

But I also sometimes research Quora threads and relevant online forums when I feel I need to know more about the topic.

The goal of this initial research is to understand your topic and see what works for your competitors.

But don’t overthink it much.

You You don’t have to know everything about your topic yet.

5. Do some basic keyword research

Before I move on to the writing phase, I spend 10-15 minutes researching relevant keywords to use in my content.

That differs from the detailed keyword research you should do when starting a new blog and developing its content strategy.

When I write an article, I just search Google for the main topic and study the following .

Autosuggest keywords from Google

Related searches for my main topic keyword

Related searches in Google Trends for my main topic keyword.

I write down the keywords that match my Topic relevant and get their search volume Using Ubersuggest

Source: Ubersuggest

That’s it.

I’m not putting too much effort into SEO at this point or keyword research because I’m over it I already know what I need to write about.

Also, I defer on-page SEO activities until the editorial phase so I can continue to focus on the needs of my readers when writing an article.

Now we can move on to the writing phase.

The writing phase – creating quality and actionable content

In this part you will create the skeleton of your post and then fill it in with quality content.

This is how I do it.

6. Give your draft a title (not the final headline)

Nobody will read your article unless they click on the title.

And nobody will click on your title if they do doesn’t stand out from other content in their news feeds, Twitter timelines, and email inboxes.

In short, without a compelling headline, all of your content can go to waste.

Research shows that 80% of people just look at the headlines of articles and only 20% actually click on the headline to read the full article.

Source: NeilPatel

Me start my writing process with a vague title for my draft article.

It’s not the final title, but it captures the overall idea of the post.

For example, here is the headline I used when I started writing this article.

Pretty simple, right?

The aim of this title is just, give me direction as I write the post.

Once I’m done writing. When I edit my article, I go back and rewrite the headline until I’m happy with it.

On average, I write 5-7 headlines before I get to the final headlines after a discussion with Stuart.

One of the world’s leading viral news sites, Upworthy is known for its memorable headlines.

All authors must create at least 25 headlines before selecting one.

Here is a screenshot of an Upworthy presentation about headlines.

Source: Upworthy Presentation

NicheHacks Insider has some really useful execution plans with step-by-step details to help you create meaningful headlines for your articles.

But I’ll quickly give you the factors I consider when creating titles for blog posts.

6.1 Clarity: People are lazy and don’t have time to think about vague and unclear titles. So be clear and specific in your headlines.

Example,

“How to lose weight” – bad headline

“11 proven steps to lose belly fat afterwards to lose pregnancy in 5 weeks” – clear and specific headline

6.2 Emotion: Our feelings and emotions can make us do strange things. Things that don’t make sense, things that aren’t even right That’s why emotional headlines always work well.

Example:

“How To Heal Acne Scars” – Bad Headline

“Acne Scar Treatment: 3 Tips To Recover Your Lost Beauty and Love Yourself Again” – makes the reader dream

6.3 Numbers: Whether you like them or not, list posts with numbers get more clicks than other headlines.

6.4 Urgency: I noticed that headlines that create urgency lead to more clicks.

Example:

“7 Ways to Boost Your Blog’s Organic Traffic in d ie skyrocket” – average headline

“7 ways to increase website traffic by 247% in 37 days” – good headline

You can find many more in this in-depth post proven tips for creating headlines.

Once you have a usable title, it’s time to create the article outline.

7. Create an article outline to structure your thought process

This is the first step in actually writing your article.

The goal of an outline is to tell you exactly how your article will look would look like once it’s done.

I’m trying not to make it too complicated though.

I’ll start by creating the headings for the main parts of my post.

For In this article, the three main parts were Pre-Writing, Writing and Post-Writing phases.

After that I divide each part into several sub-headings like I did in this article.

This is what the skeleton looked like when I first created it for this post.

Nothing special, I know.

The next step is, each of which to fill headings and subheadings with quality content.

8. Write drunk, edit sober

After all this preparation, you’re finally ready to write.

In this step, you can spend hours staring at the blinking cursor without even one only word to write.

But with all the prerequisites I’ve outlined above, it shouldn’t be that hard to let your creativity run free.

Here’s the most important rule for writing your draft.

Just write.

Forget misspellings, typos, sentence structure, attribution, images, links, SEO and everything else in this world.

Just write.

This infographic sums up my reasoning quite well.

Source: Custom Writing

Start writing down your thoughts without interruptions.

That’s what the famous saying “Write drunk, edit sober” means.

It doesn’t literally tell you to get drunk.

Write e simply without worrying about anything else.

This one piece of advice dramatically changed my writing style.

I used to stop after every few sentences to refine my copy or to add images or links that broke my writing flow .

But once I stopped caring about everything else and just started typing, my typing speed increased 2-3x.

The real challenge is to control the perfectionist in you that keeps reminding you of your mistakes.

Ignore him until you reach the editing stage.

Until then, just write.

Here are a few things to pay special attention to when writing your draft.

8.1 Use short paragraphs, active voice, and a conversational tone to

Check out the snapshot below and tell me which format looks more reader-friendly.

Source: TwelveSkip

The one on the left, of course.

Its content is in multiple subheadings, short sentences, short paragraphs and lists.

Therefore it is much easier to scan.

Because people do – they can, don’t read, content.

I follow the same rules.

All my articles for NicheHacks have many subheadings and I r never write more than 3 lines in a paragraph. Likewise, I avoid longer sentences and generally try to break them up into shorter paragraphs.

Also, make sure your article speaks directly to the reader by frequently using “I”, “you” and “I” use.

Remember, you are not addressing a large congregation. You are writing for a single person to read your post. So address them directly in the singular.

8.2 Nail the introductory paragraph for hook readers

Headings get you clicks, but introductory paragraphs keep readers staying (or leaving right away)

So writing a compelling introduction is essential to the success of your article.

But is there a formula for writing an introduction? Yes, there is!

Here’s what works for me.

8.3 Start with a question to stimulate curiosity

I often start my articles with a question because it immediately gets the reader thinking and engaged with my article.

So as I did in this post.

Many other popular bloggers use the same technique.

For example, here is Matthew Woodward opening an article with a question

Source: MatthewWoodward

Here’s Neil Patel doing the same thing

Source: NeilPatel

In short, opening your article with a question keeps readers engaged longer .

But there are other ways to open your article.

8.4 Make a bold statement

Say something bold enough to make your readers stop and read on.

Here’s a good example

8.5 Make a comparison

This type of opening really draws the reader into your article.

I’ve used it several times on NicheHacks and it works always good.

Stuart shared several other proven ways to start your articles in NicheHacks Insider.

O When you’re done with the introductory part of your introductory paragraph, skip straight to the Point and clearly tell the reader what your article is about.

If your introduction gets too long, you can easily bore the readers and eventually lose them.

That’s why I try in general, limit my introductions to 150-200 words.

After the introduction, continue with the subheadings you created in Article Outline.

8.6 Support your arguments with Relevant Data, Citations, and Case Studies

You must have noticed that all of the articles on NicheHacks have lots of data references, examples, and expert citations.

We’re not saying anything out of thin air.

Our content is not dominated by our opinions.

Instead, all NicheHacks authors, including myself, try to support our arguments with indisputable evidence.

In fact, our editorial policy specifically requires that we back our claims with numbers and examples.

The reason for this is obvious.

Data and case studies add weight to your content, make it more believable, and do a great job of holding readers’ attention.

They’re also great for getting more backlinks, as this study shows.

Source: SEO PowerSuite

Since data and examples are so useful, I try to include at least one reference for each subheading of my article.

So for example, if an article has 12 subheadings -headings it usually has at least 12 data or case study references which gives it a lot of credibility.

How do I find data?

Here are my main sources

Statista: A seemingly endless database of statistics and research

Pew Research Institute: Another well-known research database

Google Search: Use these search terms to find relevant data and case studies

“Your Topic + Research”, “Topic + Survey”, “Topic + Study”, “Topic + Case Study”, “Topic + Examples”, “Topic + Stats”, “Topic + Stats”

You can also use Google Scholar to look up specific y case studies and research papers related to your topic.

Simple, isn’t it?

Just make sure you don’t overdo it.

Use stats to back up your claims, but don’t bombard your readers with stats all the time or it will get a bit dry.

8.7 Use screenshots, images, GIFs and Infographic Snippets

Okay, I’m sure you’re into this Already seen a dozen screenshots and a few GIFs in this post.

As with the stats, I try to add at least one image, screenshot, or GIF to each subheading of my article.

Like me As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I use Evernote Web Clipper for screenshots and CloudApp to create animated GIFs.

My favorite technique is finding relevant infographics and using parts of them in my content.

For example, I really liked this infographic from Venngage about visual content. So I used Evernote Web Clipper to use a segment of it in my content.

Graphics like this not only add the wow factor to your content, but they also help keep your readers longer.

And all this can be easily done with the mentioned tools.

8.8 Leave spaces

All NicheHacks authors use double spaces after subheadings, quotes and images/GIFs

This creates a cleaner look and makes it easier for the reader to understand the content.

That’s it as far as writing my articles.

With Bei After all the research before writing, I usually have enough information to write a good article. Also, I do additional research to find stats and graphs for each subheading as I showed you.

Once I’ve finished writing the article, I’ll move on to the editing phase.

The post-writing phase – editing and fine-tuning your content

New bloggers and writers think they’re ready to publish once they’ve completed their first draft.

I can understand the urge.

But don’t do it.

You’ve spent hours creating a well-researched article.

The editing phase will help you turn it into a flawless resource.

Relax, I won’t push you into anything overly complex.

You’re a blogger, not a novelist. All you have to do is make your content reader-friendly. That’s the sole goal of the editing phase for bloggers and affiliate marketers.

Here are the things I do to optimize and improve my content.

9. Read your article out loud (Yes, you will be talking to yourself!)

Like you, I don’t read content, I scan it.

But you can’t do that with your own items. You have to read every single word again.

And not just with your eyes (like most people do)

Read it out loud.

It’s amazing , how many typos, punctuation, and grammatical errors you can miss just reading with your eyes.

Reading aloud gives you a closer look at your content and how it sounds to readers.

Veteran journalist and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean seems to agree

Source: Twitter

I read my articles at least three times during the editing period, um checking the usual like spelling and grammatical errors.

But I also look at how I can improve sentences, make them shorter and more convincing, and also pay special attention to the voice of my content – should always be active.

Your first draft will likely contain a lot of unnecessary words and repetition.

Use the editing phase to rephrase them en or remove it entirely.

The infographic below shares quick and easy editing tips you ca I can apply to your content.

Source: TheWriteLife

My The main concern in the editing phase is to make my content reader-friendly.

But I don’t do it. I’m not obsessed with writing the best copy ever published.

That’s not what my audience wants.

They want actionable information in a reader-friendly way.

And I make sure I give them what they want.

10. Add Missing Links and References

As you read your article aloud, you’ll find instances where you mentioned a brand or cited a study without linking to it.

Now the Time to fix it.

Make sure any of your images, data citations, case studies, or other external content are from the right sources.

Don’t take this lightly, using someone else’s attribution content can get your site in trouble.

11. Add relevant internal and external links

I’ve written extensively about internal links and how they help improve the user experience and your search rankings in one of my previous posts on NicheHacks.

Let me give you a brief synopsis.

Use internal links frequently to expose older content on your site to your readers and to help search engines crawl your content faster. Internal linking improves both the user experience and your site’s SEO prospects by transferring link juice from the higher authority pages of your site to the weaker ones.

Similarly, you can use outbound links to other high authority sites Adding authority everywhere makes sense. Outbound links are not harmful to your site unless they point to a shady or low-quality site.

In fact, a study by Search Engine Journal found that linking to more established sites in your industry actually improves it Your rankings.

That’s why we never shy away from linking to the higher authority sites in your niche (as long as it makes sense).

Before you publish your post, see just quickly see if you can and put some internal and external links to make your post more comprehensive.

12. Are you looking for additional on-page SEO opportunities

Remember those keywords I researched in the pre-writing phase?

Well, it’s time to

This is usually the last thing I do before sending a post to Stuart.

However, I don’t add keywords just because I have to. I only do it when it makes sense in the context of my post and it doesn’t hurt the user experience.

Here are the things I do

Add add the main keyword to the article title

Use it in the article URL

Use the keyword in at least a few subheadings

Use variations of the keyword in 1-2 subheadings headings

Use related keywords in 1-2 subheadings

Use that Main topic keyword in introductory paragraph.

Use variations of main keyword throughout body text

Use the keyword towards the end of the post (ideally, but not always, in the closing paragraph)

Use keywords in alt -Text of all images used in the post r

Also, I always create a short and compelling meta description for my articles (we use the Yoast SEO plugin for NicheHacks).

Meta -Descriptions have no direct effect. They don’t affect your search rankings, but they play a key role in catching searchers’ attention and driving more clicks to your title.

With that, I’ll save the draft and send him to Stuart for verification.

Are you ready to start writing your next high-quality blog post?

I gave it all up in this post and told you everything I do behind the scenes.

From research and writing to image creation and editing, I’ve shared my entire process of writing a well-researched blog post for NicheHacks that can be emulated for any blog, website, topic, or niche.

If you were confused before, what’s stopping you from posting great content on your blog now?

It’s time to take action.

Follow following the steps I’ve shared in this post and so on, no reason why you can’t create even better content than NicheHacks.

If you still have questions, feel free to ask them in NicheHacks Facebook Mastermind .