Already week three of February Fundamentals. That just doesn’t seem possible. However, I will admit that I am behind this week. I have only now started posting for week three because I have lost all motivation to do anything.

Not sure if it is the full moon that is messing with me or a new meditation that I am trying but damn. So here I am, trying to get back on track.

If you are just joining us now for February Fundamentals, we have had two full weeks of the blogging fundamentals that we are covering.

In week one we talked about your blogging foundation and five key pieces to make sure that is strong.

In week two we talked about your blogging niche and the five key pieces to make sure that is strong.

If you want to join in on the conversation in my group, Becoming the Blogger Within, we would love to have you there.

THE THIRD FUNDAMENTAL OF BLOGGING

For this week, we are covering the fundamentals of your content. I love talking about content. We are once again going to cover five different pieces of the foundation of your blogging content. As usual, there are more pieces to your content but I am only covering these five different ones.

Blogging is all about content.

My content has changed throughout the years but it has also remained the same in some ways. Last week I talked about how I have changed from a mental health blogger to a hybrid mental health/blogging blogger. I have combined both of the niches and this is what makes up the content that I write and share on my blog.

Are you ready to jump in and learn the five fundamentals of your blogging content?

FIVE FOUNDATIONAL PIECES OF YOUR BLOGGING CONTENT

What does your content cover when it comes to blogging?

Well, you will of course have your blog posts but you also have more than that. You have…

• Graphics
• Social media content
• Guest blog posts
• Podcast episodes

Blogging has so many different moving parts and with the content being the BIGGEST part, we need to make sure that the foundation of our content is strong.

COMING UP WITH IDEAS

You won’t get far with your blog or your social media if you are struggling with your content ideas. Having a list of content always ready to go is going to help when you get writer’s block because it is going to happen.

It helps to have your blogging pillars figured out. Your blogging pillars are going to be the 4-5 main topics that you cover under your niche. This means that all of your content is going to fall under one of these blogging pillars. Read my blog post to learn more about choosing your blogging pillars.

I love brainstorming ideas with people. It lights me up and gets my creativity going. If you are struggling with ideas, Answer the Public and Tweak Your Biz are great resources. All you need to do is go to the websites and type in a word or phrase to get ideas generated for you.

You can also do a social media post asking what questions anyone has in regards to your specific niche.

If you are needing help coming up with ideas, check out my blog post, Creative Content in 30 Minutes.

COMING UP WITH A PLAN

I say it often BUT having a plan is going to help you be successful when it comes to blogging. We are going to talk about creating a plan when it comes to your content. The suggestions that I give you are a great way to start out and use it until you figure out what works for you or keep using them.

Since it is almost the end of February, I want you to grab a calendar for March.

Decide on a topic that you want to talk about all month. I am going to use my client, Sally with Reinvented Inc, as an example as she is part of the blogging mastermind.

Let’s say for the month of March she decides that she is going to use her monthly topic as Reiki. Now she can create a list of topics under Reiki that she can talk about. She will then take these topics and place them on the days of the month that she plans to publish a new blog post.

She can also use these topics and break them down, even more, to help you create content for your social media. All you need to do is repeat for every single month until you have your 12 months of blogging mapped out.

Hopefully, this example helps you to understand how to create your own plan when it comes to your blog.

ORGANIZE YOUR CONTENT

You can have the most amazing content but if you aren’t organized then it isn’t going to make a difference. Blogging has so many moving parts that you need to be organized with your plan and all of the pieces that go along with it.

How do I organize my content?

I have a monthly planner that I write out all my blogging topics for that specific month. Actually, I have two. One is hanging on the wall in my office that I can erase and reuse every month and one is my big paper planner.

I then have a weekly planner that I created and printed for my social media platforms. This way I can create and map out my content weekly.

I also use my blogging Trello board that has EVERYTHING that I need for my blog. Read my blog post about mastering blog organization if you are needing more help.

IMPORTANT PIECES OF YOUR BLOG POST

Time to dig into your actual blog post content. There are pieces that every blog post that you write should have. The layout that you use for your blog posts is going to be different than how I would write mine.

The important pieces of your blog post are…

• Title: You want to make sure that you try to use a keyword in your title.
• Graphic: You are going to want a graphic that can easily be shared with Pinterest in every blog post. You also want to make sure that you add alternate text that contains a keyword or a keyword phrase.
• Headlines: This helps to break up your blog post and show your readers what each section is about. Again, this is a great place to add your keywords and keyword phrases. Make sure that you use a heading one first and move down in order.
• Links: You want to add relevant links to each and every blog post. This is a great way to keep readers on your site longer and give them more information to help them with the problem they are trying to solve.
• Call to action: You want to make sure that you are giving your readers something to do at the end of every blog post.

CONTENT UPGRADES

Are you wondering what a content upgrade is? This is a way for you to take your blog post up a notch by offering something to the readers of that specific blog post. So for example, I have added my Trello board inside one of my blog posts as a content upgrade.

Tailor a special opt-in to go with your blog posts. This is a great way to give extra information and more valuable information to your readers and keep them coming back.

If you already have opt-ins created for your blog, this is a great way to keep using them and creating new ones. I like to change my opt-ins often but they are still active so if they aren’t on my website, I can use them in a relevant blog post and still build my email list through that content upgrade.

Get creative with your content upgrades and have fun. Think outside the box for things that your readers are really going to love.

That is all for week three of February Fundamentals. I hope that it helped to break down different pieces of your content so that you can build up your foundation and get everything organized and mapped out when it comes to your blogging content.

Stay tuned for next week when I share week four of February Fundamentals.