Finally! Finally!
Your blog post is finished.
You slam the computer shut as if it just offended you and run for your life.
Writing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and doing a blog edit excites even fewer people.
Continue reading this article for simple tips to make your blog editing less of a drag.
The All Important Blog Edit
As tempting as it is to just hit publish on your blog post – please don’t do this to yourself. You not only want to have a nice blog post layout, but you also want to have content that is free of errors.
You know there are mistakes in there, so why even think about hitting publish before editing? If you feel like you’ve used up your brand bandwidth – take a break.
Take a break and when you come back, your mind will be fresh. You’ll be ready to put the following tips into play so you can edit your blog post to be one of your best.
1. Discover If You Already Have an Editing Process
While you might think that you don’t have a process – think again.
If you’ve done something more than once, you’ve most likely taken the same steps to get the same result.
Go back through your editing process and write down what you do each step. Even if you don’t want to use this process, it is a good base to have so you know what your natural flow has been in the past.
2. Create an Editing Checklist
Whether you noticed you already had somewhat of an editing process or not, now is a time to make an editing checklist.
If you have something to work with then you can refine it and make sure you are hitting all of the important parts.
3. Do All of the Links Work?
We’ve all made this simple mistake. We highlight the text and go to put a link but – oops! Something goes wrong and we have a dead link.
As long as we edit the blog post and make sure the links work – that’s not a problem. If you just slide it through so you can be done with it, that is when things get messy.
Imagine a reader going to click on the link for more information – 404 error! The page does not exist.
4. Do All Sentences Make Sense?
When you’re writing, it is easy to get in the flow. You’re writing the same as you’d talk and those sentences are a mile long.
If you get into the “zone” you shouldn’t stop your writing to edit, but you should go back and edit. If you leave those long sentences, your blog is going to be difficult to read and many people will leave without a second thought.
Your goal is to write short and easy to understand sentences. You don’t want to complicate your reader’s life.
5. Is Your Content Full of Fluff?
Ah – the dreaded fluff.
What is fluff?
Fluff is when you write content that isn’t necessary to make your blog post work. If you put content in your blog that could be left out and do no harm to the post – that is fluff.
Most people tend to put a lot of fluff at the beginning of their blog post. This will turn people off and make them stop reading.
Instead of including fluff in your blog post, find other helpful content to make your post meatier. You don’t want your readers to leave your site because they feel like they didn’t get the help they needed.
6. How’s Your Article’s Hook?
We mentioned the start of your article above. The first of your article needs to have a good hook.
Creating a good hook likely doesn’t come naturally to you. Look at top sites like Forbes online to get ideas for how to start your article.
Grabbing the user attention by using a good hook is key so you can keep wowing them with your amazing blog content throughout the post.
7. Is Your CTA on Point?
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These are some examples of CTAs, which stands for call to action.
CTAs are another important part of your blog post. You’re writing this post for a reason, right?
What is that reason?
Make sure the reader knows what you want them to do next by giving them a direct call to action. If you don’t tell the reader what you want them to do, they are likely to click away from your blog post without doing anything.
8. Is Your Personality / Company Personality Coming Through?
When writing blog posts, you might put on your “writer hat.”
If you put on your writer hat and it changes the way that you come across, that could cause problems connecting with your audience.
Writing isn’t something stuffy.
Writing is a means to communicate an idea to your reader. You need to think of this as a conversation, but also keep in mind how you’re displaying the information.
If you’re writing as yourself, you need to make a point to write so people can get to know you.
If you’re writing for a company, you need to figure out what their voice is. You shouldn’t put your voice into your blog post unless it is specifically requested of you.
Still Ready to Throw in the Towel?
If your blog edit situation still makes you want to throw in the towel – we can help. Work with our best writers and the work you need to do to publish a blog post will seem so small.
Check out our order content page today to see how you can get started.
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