This blog post has been authored by Anne-Marie Ianko, Iris Writing International

Have you considered starting your own blog, perhaps for content marketing? Or have you started one already, but do not know what to write? Writers and content marketers alike often run into these kinds of questions, but answers are available.

Blogging Verses Content Marketing

Note, blogging and content marketing have two different definitions yet remain closely related.

Professionals define content marketing as the creation and distribution of journalistic, valuable, and audience-focused copy aimed at increasing client acquisition.

In contrast, they define blogging as content consistently posted to a specific site, with regular updates to keep the content fresh. Basically, content marketing encompasses blogging, therefore an overlap exists between the two. For a lot of companies, blogging essentially brings value to their readers, and works as an effective starting off point for any successful content marketing strategy.

Blogging and SEO

The only blogs that have significant impact in a company’s content marketing strategy are the ones packed with quality, value, and bring about results. But how do you get results? By writing SEO-friendly content.
Search engine optimization (SEO) consists of writing your content in such a way that it ranks high in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). But how do you do that? The checklist below should help.

The Blogger’s SEO Checklist
To rank high in Google’s search engine results pages, follow the checklist below before publishing any blog posts.
1. Research your blog post’s keywords.
2. Optimize your blog post’s title and subheadings.
3. Use clear URLs.
4. Include valuable media with your content.
5. Ensure your site is mobile optimized and ready for voice searches.
6. Have links to other blog posts on your site.

Remember to install an SEO plugin on your site, and always make sure that your content is useful, valuable, and packed with quality. You should publish blog posts—long blog posts–to your site consistently, and always with internal links to bring your audience to other places on your website.
But even after bloggers have followed these steps, and checked their work carefully, they still run into problems. See if any of these problems have happened to you.

Problems that Bloggers Run Into
• No comments from visitors or readers.
• Not enough traffic.
• No clear purpose for blogging.
• Very few repeat visitors.
• Low blogging income/revenue.

So, what can you do to confront these issues, and improve your blog post writing?

Qualitative and Valuable Blogging in 8 Easy Steps
1. Determine the goals for your blog. What do you want to accomplish?

2. Define your audience. Who do you want to reach? Consider the demographics of your audience—things like gender, age, life challenges, and desires. Consider personality traits such as values, interests, and recreational activities. Having an idea of your audience will help you to write succinct, focused content geared towards readers that can relate to it.

3. Optimize your blog’s content. Include the keywords and phrases that your audience would enter into Google to find you. While making sure to not overdo it, integrate these keywords and phrases in your title, subheadings, and sporadically throughout your copy, creating a natural flow with the rest of your text.

4. Use diverse content. Images and videos work well to diversify your blog post’s content. Your audience is far more likely to interact and share blog posts with visual content, thereby significantly increasing your site’s traffic. Break up segments of text with images or videos. The visual content should have relevance to the written content, and should be original, high-quality, and enticing.

5. Develop your own unique voice and style. You want your audience to connect with your content, and you can achieve that by writing a blog with your own voice and style. Your readers will read more when they identify with what your content says.

6. Write great blog post titles. The title will create an interest in your audience to read your post, thereby improving your Google ranking.

Alternatively, you can always sign for a reliable writing course. The ‘Ultimate Writers’ Writing Course’ teaches you the basics and gets you started on becoming a writer. The more you know, the more confident you will be. We believe that there is a writer in all of us, but we sabotage ourselves most of the time because we have no idea how to get started. Not only will you understand the different types of content and where to use them, but you will also have a list of all the tools professionals use. During the testing process, you will have many opportunities to practice your content writing skills, and by the end, you will be able to confidently seek writing gigs.

Iris Writing International is a well-established international Content Agency working with over 40 writers to deliver premium content for clients worldwide. After working with our writers for the past six years, we understand how to train writers to produce quality professional content. In an effort to open the path of writing to any and all aspiring writers, we are introducing the Iris Academy.
Iris Academy will deliver step-by-step top-tier training to guide its subscribers in completing the course and opening up the possibilities of a writing career to those who wish to pursue it further.