Coming up with winning ideas is often the most difficult part of blogging, so it’s crucial to carve out time for creative thinking.

To get started, consider your goals, niche, your target audience, and what you want to offer readers and customers. Begin by jotting down the types of stories your readers might be interested in. Who are they? What are their concerns? Where do they live? What topics might offer them value?
For example, the Bluehost Blog team targets small business owners who want to learn more about building and using a WordPress website to promote their product or service. That mission shapes our content and gives us direction. And we keep it in mind every time we generate post ideas.

If you need help brainstorming, use a worksheet, online tools, or Google Docs to keep track of possible ideas and topics. Do word association or mind map exercises. Talk to friends and colleagues (or folks on the interwebs) for ideas, or browse blogs in your niche to get a sense for what’s already been done. Use prompts. Dump all of your ideas into a single place and always carry around a notebook (or keep a virtual one, like a SwipeFile).

2. Create an Outline

Now that you’ve got a million great ideas to write about, it’s time to choose one and create an outline.

For your first post, we recommend choosing a topic that you’re passionate about, one that provides you with enough material —  and is interesting enough to you —  to write conclusively and authoritatively about. You don’t want to lose steam 200 words in.

Flesh out your story idea by detailing subpoints of your topic and listing important supplemental information. Determine where each subpoint fits in the overall structure of your post. There are apps for easy outlining, or you can follow this simple pattern:

  • Introduction
  • Section #1
    • Main point
    • Additional information
  • Section #2
    • Main point
    • Additional information
  • Conclusion

Segmenting your information — so you can better visualize it — will make the writing step a lot easier.

3. Write Your Post

Once you’ve developed your ideas, start writing. Write freely, ignoring the impulse to self-edit as you go along. Polishing your draft takes place later, so for now, just get the words out.

Use your own unique voice, all while keeping your audience in mind. If you seem to have trouble getting the words out, set aside a specific period of time each day — say 30 minutes — to write without distractions (you can try a handy online tool like ZenPen or Coffitivity if you need ambient noise). Keep the keys clacking and don’t stop until the time is up.