When readers finish this type of post, they should be able to immediately execute on the given topic and have very few questions left on how to do it. As I mentioned in the previous step, the publications you want to target have a thorough editorial process. So first look for the website’s guest blogging guidelines, then prepare your pitch idea.

Employ transition words to help your reader glide from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. Because of that, it’s crucial to master the rules of the comma. I used commas a lot, so I understood why she was giving me that feedback. In my defense, commas are important in writing and apparently very financially valuable for businesses.

You can also use these keyword research tools we mentioned above in step one. Now, don’t be intimidated by the term “keyword research.” It’s not just for marketers, but for new bloggers, too. Start with “low-hanging fruit,” writing about a highly specific topic that serves a small segment of your target audience.

You’ll be standing out from a sea of about us and about me pages in no time. As a self-described “creative hustler,” “rule-breaker,” and “designer of dope brands,” the language ShaDrena uses on her site comes across as edgy and authentic. All right, we might be biased in highlighting this professional, as Aja is our very own director of English growth at HubSpot. Nonetheless, the ingenuity she brings to the company isn’t lost on her website’s about me page. His about me page carries a valuable lesson to personal brands that cater to over one audience — especially if those audiences speak different languages.

You can easily design a branded blog and start publishing SEO-friendly content, while letting HubSpot’s free CMS tools take care of security monitoring and hosting. There’s a plethora of website traffic analysis tools that you can take advantage of to better understand your audience’s behavior on your blog posts. Your post is published for the world to see, make sure you’re keeping an eye on its performance over time so you can see if your blog post strategy is working well enough for your goals. Keeping relevant content throughout your post can provide your readers with more helpful information, and potentially boost search engine rankings with corresponding longtail keywords. Call to action are a part of a webpage, advertisement, or piece of content that encourages the audience to do something.

When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post. You’ve got your topic — now, you need to check that the user’s search intent would be fulfilled by a blog post. These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow your new blog post to rank more easily.

Talk about how you got to where you are today on your about page. This is also your opportunity to show personality in your writing. Blog posts don’t have to be strictly informational, they can be filled with interesting anecdotes and even humor if it serves a purpose in expressing your ideas.

Because this is true, they want to see grammatically impeccable and stylistically flawless articles. Don’t send your articles in, expecting them to be copyedited and proofread. Sure, editors have the know-how to correct your silly spelling mistakes, but that’s your job … Thousands of would-be guest bloggers have been blacklisted from writing for certain websites. Because they tried to make a buck selling links or gaming the system for some easy backlinks to their website.

Like I mentioned above, you want people to read your blog posts. One way to do that is to get organic traffic through SEO. If you want your blog to be successful, learn how to research keywords, how to rank in search engines, and how to build an SEO strategy. Once you’ve started your blog, you’ll likely want to reach a wider audience and develop a following. Driving traffic to your blog is great, but it won’t impact your bottom line unless you can turn that traffic into new business. Starting a free blog with HubSpot gives you access to free website-building and marketing features designed to help you turn clicks into customers.

You’re probably already aware of other blogs in your particular industry. If you know the go-to blogs in your space, reach out to them, and see if they accept guest posts. HubSpot’s free blog maker provides everything you need, including free hosting and security tools.