You have your website set up, you’ve chosen your niche and now it’s time to get some blogs rolling.

Before you start typing you need to know how to write quality content and our tips on writing a blog post will set you on the “write” path (see what I did there!).

In the biz there’s a saying “Content Is King”. What this means is content is all important.

Not just any content mind you, it needs to be informative and engaging (amongst other things).

Once you get a visitor to your site your job is to make your content so appealing they don’t want to leave, maybe they will even click over to other blogs once they finish this one, perhaps they will be so intrigued they might even buy something or sign up for your newsletters so they can keep in touch with you and read more of your content.

It all starts (and ends) with great quality content.

And as an affiliate marketer you need to create A LOT of content so it’s a skill worth developing and spending some time perfecting. This is an area that some people don’t talk about when they try to sign you up for an expensive course or get-rich-quick scam.

Affiliate marketing is based on writing content, having 100’s and 100’s of informative blogs on your website and unless you can pay to outsource them (get someone else to write for you) you will need to produce content for your website on a regular basis.

But do not worry, everyone has the skills to do this, and I am about to show you the easiest way to crank out top quality blogs and save you money so you don’t need to outsource your content writing.

Now hopefully you are suitably engaged and realise that content writing is not going away so you need to get a handle on it, as quick as you can, and get yourself set up to do it the easiest possible way.

Let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of writing fantastic content.

Why write content in the first place?

If you have started a website with the intention of making money (an affiliate marketing site) you need to understand that first and foremost you are in the business of helping people. You do that by providing them with information that answers their questions, entertains them while they are on your site and ultimately helps them in some way.

We are in the business of helping people. I love Zig Ziglar’s quote ” You will get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want”.

Some basic stats to keep you motivated to write great content:

• Generally a website isn’t considered an “authority site” by Google until you have at least 100 posts.
• Each individual blog post needs to be at least 1000 words to be ranked by Google. Some experts think this is probably closer to 1800 – 2000 words per post. But don’t just write for the sake of filling the screen, remember you are trying to help someone.
• If you have 1000 words of boring, disorganised content your readers are not going to stay on your site and your bounce rate will be high. Not good!

So you can see it is important to write structured content and a successful online business relies on super content.

KISS – Keep It Super Simple

Often when people start blogging they make it all a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Writing a blog has a few basic steps and if you break it down right from the start you won’t overwhelm yourself and get bogged down in the process.

There are only three steps you need to do to write a blog.

Step 1 – Your content idea

So you need an idea for an article you want to create, some problem your readers may be having or some informative content they will want to read.

If you don’t have an idea then forums or Facebook groups, anywhere your niche audience hangs out really, are a good place to start.

You can see the sort of questions your audience is asking or general hot topics and conversations that are getting a lot of comments and therefore people are interested and engaged in at the moment.

All content starts with a question or a problem you know your readers have and you are going to provide them with the answers.

Obviously for this site, I am focused on helping you become an online entrepreneur and to do that you need the skills to write great content.

That’s my idea for this blog – I know from my own experience and various online forums that this is an area that many people find scary and it puts a lot of people off from even trying when it doesn’t need to.

So I am addressing the problem here and providing you with the information you need to answer your questions, let you know the process can be quite simple and hopefully solve your problem and get you writing kick a$$ content right from the word go.

Step 2 – Break your idea down into manageable chunks

I like the Site Content editor at Wealthy Affiliate because you can set templates for how many headings, how many paragraphs and how many words you aim to write. That’s what I am using to write this blog right now actually.

If you are not a WA member you can do the same in Word or Google Docs, just make yourself a template with the following set out:

Introduction: 200 – 300 words

4 headings: 200 – 400 words under each heading

Conclusion or Summary: 200 – 300 words

This helps greatly because I then go through and put the main ideas I want to cover in as H3 headers (that’s the font you see as Step 2 above).

I then go through and under each header, I put the dot points of what I want to cover, so I don’t forget anything and so it keeps me on track.

Also if I have a brilliant idea partway through, which does happen sometimes, I can quickly jot it down under the relevant header.

This way I can also see that under each header I only need to write anywhere from 200 – 400 words which is only a few paragraphs each. Not so daunting when you break it up is it?

If you follow this layout you will have a blog which is anywhere from a minimum of 1200 words to a maximum of 2200 words, plenty to keep Uncle Google happy and get you ranked in the SERP’s. If you are not familiar with the various terms of affiliate marketing check out my terms and definitions blog.

I have a tendency to ramble, I hope you haven’t noticed! If you stick to your headings and cover only what you have chunked down under each heading you will be less likely to go off on a completely different tangent and lose your audience.

If you find yourself waffling on about something else, and it actually is important, then make it into a new header and elaborate on it there.

Step 3 – Start writing

Now if you are not an expert in your field or you don’t have a lot of knowledge about the subject you will need to do some research. Good old Google comes in handy about now. There will be key points or advice you need to explain.

If you don’t know the best way to explain it, do your research, find out and make up your own mind about how best to reproduce that information.

Do your research before you start writing so you have a good understanding of the subject which allows your writing to flow.

Just remember you have created a blog because you have something to offer, you have your own particular style and take on things.

That’s why people have come to your site so don’t plagiarize other peoples work, you don’t need to (apart from that it is dishonest and Google will know and rank your article low because of it).

Never copy and paste anyone else’s work, it’s cheap and nasty, and also a waste of your time.

Your content needs to be fresh and different. It needs to be in your style and no-one else’s. That’s what makes it unique to you and why you will develop a following over time.

4 Tips to Quality Blog Content

So you have started writing, remember these 4 tips for each content page or a product review you do on your site and you will be creating the very best blogs possible.

Be Informative

Make your content long enough to really give your readers the information they are after.

You can see if I stopped this blog up at Step 3, you would have the basics but you would still not be writing the very best blogs you could because you wouldn’t have the information I am about to tell you now. Which by the way will make ALL the difference when you put it into play with the 3 steps above.

It is your job to bring all the various pieces of research together into a coherent, easy to read piece. You need to put all the pieces of the puzzle together so your readers get what they came to you for and go away feeling informed.

Remember the point of your blogs is to help people, so you need to provide as much valuable information as is required to answer their question or help them to the best of your ability.

If you are doing a product review spend some time understanding all the ins and outs of the product. What you consider to be important may not be what your reader finds important. If you cover every aspect then you are sure to be answering the question.

Be Engaging

Write how you speak. You are not writing an English essay or a scientific theorem.

I am writing like we were together having a cup of coffee and we started talking about how to write good blog content. I am not a professor of English or Literature and don’t profess to be, and I’m not sure you’d have read this far if I was.

Keep your style light, you don’t need to research big fancy words or get a thesaurus out to find words you never use.

Simply put your thoughts out on paper (or screen in our case) and engage with your audience as if they were in the same room as you.

They want to be here and you want to give them an enjoyable time while they are here with you.

If you write as if you are speaking with a friend you will find the words flow and are easy to read.

Be Accurate

Covered above – do your research and make sure you are providing correct information to your readers. They may have come to you with a problem they don’t have all the information about, but they are not stupid. They will know if you know what your talking about and have provided valuable information.

So you can see you may need to do quite a bit of research if you are not super familiar with your topic. This is why we encourage people to choose a niche they have a passion for because if you don’t know from experience you will spend many many hours researching, which is great if you are interested in the topic but can become quite mundane if you don’t.

Be Opinionated

Once again there is only one you. It is your blog and you can and should have an opinion on what you are talking about.

You don’t need to be wishy-washy, if you don’t like a product say so and explain why, if you feel absolutely passionate about something let your readers know.

They may or may not agree with you and that’s OK. Having an opinion doesn’t mean you need to be a rude so and so about it!

I promote Wealthy Affiliate as my #1 recommendation on this site, it’s my site and I will not promote something I am not 100% kosher with. You can read all about Wealthy Affiliate and how it will help you become a super successful online marketer by clicking here.

I could be making more money promoting more expensive but inferior products but I have a reputation and I intend to uphold it.

If I am asked to review a product and I don’t feel it is worthy of you my readers, I will say so, and let you know why I have come to that conclusion. That’s not to say you might not go off and buy it anyway, but I have provided a perspective that you may not think of and that’s what mates do for each other, right?

What we haven’t covered

OK so this blog was just about content, the words only. There is a heap more to know about choosing and using keywords as well as the aesthetics of a blog eg. using images and quotes, choosing a theme, use of white space as well as structuring your content for excellent SEO.

Some of these I have provided links for and some are topics for other blogs which will be coming soon – see that’s Step 1 in action. I have so much I want to tell you guys, there’s just not enough time in the day to get it all down.

I have written a more comprehensive How To Guide which explains affiliate marketing and how you actually make money as well as providing some sweet bonuses for you. You can check it out by clicking on the button below.