How To Start A Blog Challenge, Month #2: Write Two Blog Posts

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Welcome to the second month of the rest of your blogging life. Taking your blog all the way from concept to running itself as part of your content strategy can seem like an intimidating, neverending process if you’re not sure how to do it. 

Like Rome, your blog won’t be built in a day. That’s why we’ve split up every requirement into monthly task chunks to tackle. That, you can definitely handle.

Last month for installment #1 of this ‘how to start a blog’ series, we laid the essential groundwork for a blogging strategy, including setting up Google Analytics to measure important blog metrics, having ample, copyright-secured images on hand to add pizzazz to posts (why? because posts with pictures are 94% more likely to be viewed), writing your very first blog post AND publishing it, and creating a running list of blog ideas to draw from when you’re flat out stumped on what to write about. 

Hey, no one said it would be easy. But stick with me, and we’ll make it worth it.

If you’re joining us now, check out the first post of the 12-month challenge to start—these are meant to be done in order. And, if you’re a planner and want to see what this year of monthly challenges has in store for you, check out or download this infographic.

Or, if you successfully completed Month #1, let’s press forward with Month #2. (Lucky you, it’s MUCH easier.)

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1. Write two blog posts & publish ’em.

Yes, this will be a theme.

You should at least be in the habit writing all your own blog posts at the beginning of these 12 months. We’ll get to options on how to offload and outsource some of that content later.

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And, this goes without saying from here on out, but publish those posts after writing. Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule in advance.

Slaving over a blog post for hours without publishing is a lot like gathering and combining all ingredients for a delectable chocolate cake without ever putting the cake in the oven. What good is that cake if you don’t see it through from start to finish? (And don’t pull the argument that cake batter > cake. That’s just not true.)

So mix up those ingredients AND bake that cake—make that advanced post scheduling feature your best friend. Enjoy the tasty benefits of your labor.

Draw from the list you started last month, and crank ’em out. All it requires is a couple hours of your entire month.

Or, if you’re short on time and have trouble finding 10 spare minutes to string together, schedule some blocks of time on your calendar to sit down and write. And, here’s the key part: defend that writing time.

2. Go back to all three blog posts & SEO optimize.

So you’ve got three blog posts published in the hopper. Now, we have to make sure they’ll each be performing to their full extent for organic search to extend your website’s online reach as far as it’ll go.

Enter: SEO (search engine optimization). Stumped on what SEO is? Here’s a beginner guide. Why is it important for your blog/website? For a ton of reasons.

And what do SEO best practices look like when applied to a blog post? Keep this handy-dandy SEO checklist on hand to help you get in the habit of maximizing SEO on every single blog post.

Every. Single. One.

3. Brainstorm 10 more future blog topics.

Don’t neglect this step!

Add the new 10 to your running list.

If your list lacks formality still (you’ll see mine was living informally in a desktop Sticky), just plop it in a spreadsheet. Right now. Seriously.

It only takes as much time to do as this gif (aka SECONDS of your time). Get it done and all in one place.

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See? INSPIRATIONAL.

Looking forward to seeing you next month for the third installment. Stay after it, don’t lose steam.

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(Want a preview of the rest of the months? Or just a printable checklist to keep you honest? Download or print the full guide here.

Kali

Kali Bizzul

I write and market (yes, verb) at Verblio. Whether that's a blog post, email subject line, social media update, or a lousy author bio like this one, if you've been around Verblio you've likely seen some letters I threw together. I love helping get the word out about Verblio to get all sorts of folks good content to market themselves. Apart from Verblio, I'm really passionate about puns, foreign languages, Colorado at large, staying active, and leprechauns.

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