12 Steps to writing an article

How's everybody doing? I hope everyone is well?

So, the reason I write this is because I occasionally forget some of the necessary steps when producing content, such as forgetting to add pictures, or request comments.

This list will help anyone who, like me, has a bad memory at times :)

1.) Decide on an article/review, then do some alphabet soup to find a few appropriate keywords/phrases. Yahoo answers also helps to think of potential questions to use as key phrases

2.) Do keyword research on those keywords to find two low-comp keywords (I use Jaaxy; it is worth every penny)

3.) If necessary, do an amount of research on the product or article that I am writing about, create a bullet point of notes (pros & cons), while formulating an idea on how I am going to present my info, and deciding on a format "style" for my article (general layout).

4.) Become an affiliate with the product that I am writing about, if necessary.

5.) Put one keyword in the title, and one in the first paragraph, and that is it! Then just write the article naturally, without concentrating on keywords or word count. I tend to format as I go along i,e, headers, horizontal lines, etc.

6.) Once finished, I will review my piece. I suggest Grammarly; anyone serious about blogging should go premium (unless you are already an English expert).

7.) Find relevant pictures for my article. Remember that pics will get ranked too, so do keyword research for each picture. I use canstockphoto.com as the most reasonably priced image hosting platform, but if you do not want to pay for your pics then read this:

my.wealthyaffiliate.com/joshyt/blog/easiest-way-to-find-free-royalty-free-images

8.) Add a Pretty Link for the affiliate link/s if necessary, and then go through every single picture link and text link, to ensure that they all open in a new tab. Note that Grammarly will disable the "open in new tab" boxes every time you open the Grammarly editor. I use a plugin called "MDC Target Blank" to prevent this.

Note - ALL text links should be blue and underlined. This clearly identifies the link as such; even a "Click here" will not naturally attract people if it is a colour other than blue without the underline (although orange does sometimes work, I still suggest blue).

9.) My article is now complete; however, I will give it one last read through, although this time, I will view it through my mobile. Reading it on a different platform, I will spot bad formatting that I would not have spotted otherwise.

10.) Include a featured image if your post is appearing on your blog roll

11.) Request comments through WA's comment feature.

12.) Post my article on social media.

Done! Next article :)

If anyone has any input that he or she would like to add to this list, please feel free to shout it out. This is my personal checklist, or rather, a process that I go through from start to finish, and I would very much like to know how the experienced bloggers operate!

Regards

JoshyT

*Update* 3rd Sept

There are a few things that I would like to additionally mention:
Always remember to:

• Enable comments on your post/page
• Enable the sidebar for your post/page (if you wish it to be there of course).
• Add some tags to your post/page (not that important)
• Add an SEO title and description if you're not happy with the default tags
• Make sure you have enough "entrance points" to the product if you are writing a review (without over-killing it).
• At the footer of every article that you intend to have comments on, remember to invite your reader to leave comments or send you a private email, and also include you email address (obviosuly).
• If applicable, find a few Amazon products to advertise related to your article to place at the very bottom (optional)

Also remember to be consistent. When I write a review, I will have another review of mine open to copy the formatting style i.e. same colour headings, indents, centralisation, etc.