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How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free

Blog Post Templates]
Written by Rachel Leist

Review a step-by-step guide plus useful templates to learn how to write an effective blog post
for your target audience and customers.

Since you’re on this page, you probably already know how integral the process of blogging is
to the success of your marketing efforts. Which is why it goes without saying that it's
exceptionally important to learn how to effectively start and manage a blog in a way that
supports your business.

Without a blog, you'll find yourself experiencing a number of problems such as poor search
engine optimization (SEO), lack of promotional content for social, little clout with your leads
and customers, and fewer pages that you can use to share lead-generating calls-to-action
(CTAs).

So why, oh why, do so many marketers still have a laundry list of excuses for why they can't
maintain a blog?

→ Download Now: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

Maybe because, unless you enjoy writing, business blogging might seem uninteresting, time
consuming, and difficult.

Well, the time for excuses is over and this guide is here to help you understand why. We'll
cover how to write and manage your business's blog as well as provide helpful templates to
simplify your blogging efforts.

1 2 3 4
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What Is A Blog What Makes A How To Write A Blog Post

Post? Good Blog Post? Blog Post Examples

Let's get started with an important question.

What is a blog post?

A blog post is any article, news piece, or guide that's published in the blog section of a
website. A blog post typically covers a specific topic or query, is educational in nature, ranges
from 600 to 2,000+ words, and contains other media types such as images, videos,
infographics, and interactive charts.

Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on your
website about any topic. They can help you boost brand awareness, credibility, conversions,
and revenue. Most importantly, they can help you drive traffic to your website.

Today, people and organizations of all walks of life manage blogs to share analyses,
instruction, criticisms, product information, industry findings, and more. There are many
popular blog formats, but here are six of the most common:

The "How-To" Post

The List-Based Post

The "What Is" Post

The Pillar Page Post (“Ultimate Guide”)

 The
20 min Newsjacking
remaining Post

The Infographic Post

Save time and download six blog post templates for free.

So, how do you ensure your blog post catches the eyes of your target audience, buyer
personas, and customers?

FEATURED RESOURCE

6 Free Blog Post Templates

Fill out the form to get started blogging.

Hi 👋 What's your name?

First Name

John

Last Name

Smith

What makes a good blog post?

Before you write a blog, make sure you know the answers to questions like, "Why would
someone keep reading this entire blog post?" and "What makes our audience come back for
more?"

To start, a good blog post is interesting and educational. Blogs should answer questions and
help readers resolve a challenge they're experiencing — and you have to do so in an
interesting way.
It's20not enough just to answer someone's questions — you also have to provide actionable
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steps while being engaging. For instance, your introduction should hook the reader and make
them want to continue reading your post. Then, use examples to keep your readers interested
in what you have to say.

Remember, a good blog post is interesting to read and provides educational content to
audience members.

(Want to learn how to apply blogging and other forms of content marketing to your business?
Check out HubSpot Academy's free content marketing course.)

So, how do you actually go about writing one of these engaging and informational pieces?

How to Write a Blog Post

Here are the steps you'll want to follow while writing a blog post.

1. Understand your audience.

Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear understanding of your
target audience.

Ask questions like: What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?

This is where the process of creating buyer personas comes in handy. Consider what you know
about your buyer personas and their interests while you're coming up with a topic for your
blog post.

For instance, if your readers are millennials looking to start a business, you probably don't
need to provide them with information about getting started in social media — most of them
already have that down.

You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their social media
approach (for example — from what may be a casual, personal approach to a more business-
savvy, networking-focused approach). That kind of tweak is what helps you publish content
about the topics your audience really wants and needs.

Don't have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you
get started:

Create Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Template]

 Guide:
20 How
min remaining to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business

[Free Tool] Make My Persona: Buyer Persona Generator

2. Create your blog domain.

Next, you'll need a place to host this post and every other blog post you write. This requires
choosing a content management system (CMS) and a website domain hosting service.

Choose a CMS.

A CMS helps you create a website domain where you'll actually publish your blog. CMS
platforms can manage domains (where you create your website) and subdomains (where you
create a webpage that connects to an existing website).

HubSpot customers host web content via CMS Hub. Another popular option is a self-hosted
WordPress website on a hosting site such as WP Engine. Whether you create a domain or a
subdomain to start your blog, you'll need to choose a web hosting service after you pick a
CMS.

Register a domain or subdomain with a website host.

Your blog's domain will look like this: www.yourblog.com. The name between the two periods
is up to you, as long as this domain name doesn't yet exist on the internet.

Want to create a subdomain for your blog? If you already own a cooking business at
www.yourcompany.com, you might create a blog that looks like this: blog.yourcompany.com.
In other words, your blog's subdomain will live in its own section of yourcompany.com.

Some CMS platforms offer subdomains as a free service, where your blog lives on the CMS,
rather than your business's website. For example, it might look like this:
yourblog.contentmanagementsystem.com. However, to create a subdomain that belongs to
your company website, register the subdomain with a website host.

Most website hosting services charge very little to host an original domain — in fact, website
costs can be as inexpensive as $3 per month when you commit to a 36-month term.

Here are five popular web hosting services to choose from:

GoDaddy

HostGator
 DreamHost
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Bluehost

iPage

3. Customize your blog's theme.

Once you have your domain name set up, customize the appearance of your blog to reflect
the theme of the content you plan on creating and your brand.

For example, if you're writing about sustainability and the environment, green might be a
color to keep in mind while designing your blog.

If you already manage a website and are writing the first post for that existing website, ensure
the article is consistent with the website in appearance and subject matter. Two ways to do this
are including your:

Logo: This can be your business's name and logo — it will remind blog readers of who's
publishing the content. (How heavily you want to brand your blog, however, is up to you.)

"About" Page: You might already have an "About" blurb describing yourself or your
business. Your blog's "About" section is an extension of this higher-level statement. Think of
it as your blog's mission statement, which serves to support your company's goals.

4. Identify your first blog post's topic.

Before you write anything, pick a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to
start. For example, if you're a company that sells a CRM for small-to-enterprise businesses,
your post might be about the importance of using a single software to keep your marketing,
sales, and service teams aligned.

Pro tip: You may not want to jump into a "how-to" article for your first blog post.

Why?

Your credibility hasn’t been established yet. Before teaching others how to do something,
you’ll first want to show that you’re a leader in your field and an authoritative source.

For instance, if you're a plumber writing your first post, you won’t yet write a post titled “How
to Replace the Piping System in your Bathroom.” First, you'd write about modern faucet
setups, or tell a particular success story you had rescuing a faucet before it flooded a
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customer's house. Here are four other types of blog posts you could start with:

List ("Listicle"): 5 ways to fix a leaky faucet

Curated Collection: 10 faucet and sink brands to consider today

SlideShare Presentation: 5 types of faucets to replace your old one (with pictures)

News Piece: New study shows X% of people don't replace their faucet frequently enough

If you're having trouble coming up with topic ideas, a good topic brainstorming session
should help. In the post I’ve linked, my colleague walks you through a helpful process for
turning one idea into many. Similar to the "leaky faucet" examples above, you would "iterate
off old topics to come up with unique and compelling new topics."

This can be done by:

Changing the topic scope

Adjusting your time frame

Choosing a new audience

Taking a positive/negative approach

Introducing a new format

5. Come up with a working title.

You might come up with a few different working titles — in other words, iterations of
approaching that topic to help you focus your writing.

For example, you may decide to narrow your topic to "Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets" or
"Common Causes of Leaky Faucets." A working title is specific and will guide your post so you
can start writing.

Let's take a real post as an example: "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."

Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably "blogging." Then the working title
may have been something like, "The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic." And the final
title ended up being "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."
See that
20 min evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may
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not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information
so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming
topic.

6. Write an intro (and make it captivating).

We've written more specifically about writing captivating introductions in the post "How to
Write an Introduction," but let's review, shall we?

First, grab the reader's attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs — or even
sentences — of the introduction, they'll stop reading (even before they've given your post a fair
shake). You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grip the
reader with an interesting fact or statistic.

Then, describe the purpose of your post and explain how it will address a problem the reader
may be experiencing. This will give the reader a reason to continue reading and show them
how the post will help them improve their work or lives.

Here's an example of an intro we think does a good job of attracting a reader's attention right
away:

“Blink. Blink. Blink. It's the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers —
amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to
occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.”

7. Organize your content in an outline.

Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information — for the reader and
the writer. The trick is to organize the info in a way so readers aren't intimidated by length or
amount of content. This organization can take multiple forms — sections, lists, tips — whatever's
most appropriate. But it must be organized!

Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

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Download These Templates for Free

Let's take a look at the post, "How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look Into HubSpot’s Snapchat
Strategy." There's a lot of content in the piece, so it's broken up into a few sections using
descriptive headers. The major sections are separated into subsections that go into more
detail, making the content easier to read.

To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. This way, before you start
writing, you'll know which points you want to cover and the best order to do so in. And to
make things even easier, you can download and use our free blog post templates, which are
pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!

8. Write your blog post!

The next step — but not the last — is actually writing the content. We can't forget about that, of
course.

Now that you have your outline or template, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline
as a guide and expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if
necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to
back your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources.
upremaining
20 min

When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.

If you're having trouble stringing sentences together, you're not alone. Finding your "flow"
can be challenging for a lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help
you improve your writing. Here are a few to get you started:

Power Thesaurus: Stuck on a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides
users with a number of alternative word choices from a community of writers.

ZenPen: If you're having trouble staying focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool.
ZenPen creates a minimalist "writing zone" designed to help you get words down without
having to fuss with formatting right away.

Cliché Finder: Feeling like your writing might be coming off a little cheesy? Identify
instances where you can be more specific using this handy cliché tool.

You can also refer to our complete list of tools for improving your writing skills. And if you're
looking for more direction, the following resources are chock-full of valuable writing advice:

Copywriting 101: 6 Traits of Excellent Copy Readers Will Remember

How to Write Compelling Copy: 7 Tips for Writing Content That Converts

How to Write With Clarity: 9 Tips for Simplifying Your Message

The Kurt Vonnegut Guide to Great Copywriting: 8 Rules That Apply to Anyone

Your Blog Posts Are Boring: 9 Tips for Making Your Writing More Interesting

9. Proofread and edit your post.

You're not quite done yet, but you're close! The editing process is an important part of
blogging — don't overlook it.

Ask a grammar-conscious co-worker to copyedit and proofread your post. You may also
consider enlisting the help of The Ultimate Editing Checklist or using a free grammar checker
like Grammarly.

If you're looking to brush up on your self-editing skills, turn to these helpful posts for some
tips and tricks to get you started:

How to Become a (Better) Editor: 13 Editorial Tips

 How
20 to Become
min remaining a More Efficient Editor: 12 Ways to Speed Up the Editorial Process

10 Simple Edits That'll Instantly Improve Any Piece of Writing

When you're ready to check your formatting, keep the blog elements in mind:

Featured Image

Choose a visually appealing and relevant image for your post. As social networks treat content
with images more prominently, visuals are more responsible than ever for the success of your
blog content.

For help selecting an image for your post, read "How to Select the Perfect Image for Your
Next Blog Post" and pay close attention to the section about copyright law.

Visual Appearance

No one likes an unattractive blog post. And it's not just pictures that make a post visually
appealing — it's the formatting and organization of the post, too.

In a well-formatted and visually-appealing blog post, you'll notice that header and sub-
headers are used to break up large blocks of text — and those headers are styled consistently.

Here's an example of what that looks like:

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Screenshots should always have a similar, defined border so they don't appear as if they're
floating in space — that style should stay consistent from post to post.

Maintaining this consistency makes your content look more professional and easier on the
eyes.

Topics and Tags

Tags are specific, public-facing keywords that describe a post. They also allow readers to
browse for more content in the same category on your blog. Refrain from adding a laundry list
of tags to each post. Instead, put some thought into a blog tagging strategy.

Think of tags as "topics" or "categories," and choose 10-20 tags that represent all the main
topics you want to cover on your blog. Then stick to those.
10. Insert a CTA.
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At the end of every blog post, insert a CTA that indicates what you want the reader to do next
— subscribe to your blog, download an ebook, register for a webinar or event, read a related
article, etc.

After your visitors read your blog post, they click on the CTA, and eventually you generate a
lead. But the CTA is also a valuable resource for the person reading your content — use your
CTAs to offer more content similar to the subject of the post they just finished reading. If
you’re not sure how to get started, take a look at some CTA examples.

In the blog post "What to Post on Instagram: 18 Photo & Video Ideas to Spark Inspiration,"
readers are given actionable ideas for creating valuable Instagram content. At the end of the
post is a CTA prompting readers to take a social media certification course:

See how that's a win-win for everyone? Readers who want to learn more have the opportunity
to do so, and the business receives a lead they can nurture ... who may even become a
customer!

11. Optimize for on-page SEO.

After you finish writing, go back and optimize the on-page elements of your post.
Don't
20 minobsess
remainingover how many keywords to include. If there are opportunities to incorporate

keywords you're targeting, and it won't impact reader experience, do it. If you can make your
URL shorter and more keyword-friendly, go for it. But don't cram keywords or shoot for some
arbitrary keyword density — Google's smarter than that!

Here's a little blog SEO reminder about what you should review and optimize:

Meta Description

Meta descriptions are the descriptions below the post's page title on Google's search results
pages. They provide searchers with a short summary of the post before clicking into it. They
are ideally between 150-160 characters and start with a verb, such as "Learn," "Read," or
"Discover."

While meta descriptions no longer factor into Google's keyword ranking algorithm, they give
searchers a snapshot of what they'll get from reading the post and help improve your
clickthrough rate from search.

Page Title and Headers

Most blogging software uses your post title as your page title, which is the most important on-
page SEO element at your disposal. But if you've followed our formula so far, you should
already have a working title that will naturally include keywords or phrases your target
audience is interested in.

Don't over-complicate your title by trying to fit in keywords where they don't naturally belong.
With that said, if there are clear opportunities to add keywords you're targeting to your post
title and headers, feel free to take them. Also, try to keep your headlines short — ideally, under
65 characters — so they don't get truncated in the search engine results.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the word or words that link to another page — either on your website or on
another website. Carefully select which keywords you want to link to other pages on your site
because search engines take that into consideration when ranking your page for certain
keywords.

It's also important to consider which pages you link to. Consider linking pages that you want
to rank for a specific keyword. You could end up getting it to rank on Google's first page of
results instead of its second page — and that isn’t small potatoes!
Mobile Optimization
20 min remaining

More than 60% of organic visits are carried out on a mobile device. As such, having a website
with a responsive design is critical. In addition to making sure your website's visitors
(including your blog's visitors) have the best experience possible, optimizing for mobile will
score your website some SEO points.

12. Pick a catchy title.

Last but not least, it's time to spruce up that working title of yours. Luckily, we have a simple
formula for writing catchy titles that will grab the attention of your reader. Here's what to
consider:

1. Start with your working title.

2. As you start to edit your title, keep in mind that it's important to keep the title accurate and
clear.

3. Then, work on making your title sexy — whether it's through strong language, alliteration,
or another literary tactic.

4. If you can, optimize for SEO by sneaking some keywords in there (only if it's natural,
though!).

5. Finally, see if you can shorten it at all. No one likes a long, overwhelming title — remember,
Google prefers 65 characters or fewer before it truncates it on its search engine results
pages.

Let’s summarize everything we’ve learned.

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If you've mastered the steps above, learn about some ways to take your blog posts to the next
level.
By20now, you should know who you’re writing for, have a blog all set up, and understand the
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basics of writing a blog post. While it’s easy to understand the practicalities of writing a post,
it’s difficult to get started on your very first article.

Let’s go through the process of writing your first blog post.

Your First Blog Post: Choosing a Topic, Writing the Post, and
Actually Getting Hits
You’ve got the technical and practical tidbits down — now it’s time to write your very first blog
post. And nope, this isn’t the space to introduce yourself and your new blog (i.e. “Welcome to
my blog! This is the topic I’ll be covering. Here are my social media handles. Will you please
follow?”).

We’ve briefly touched upon it in the previous section, but your first blog post shouldn’t be a
how-to guide. Remember: you’ve yet to establish authority in the field. You should instead
start with “low-hanging fruit,” writing about a highly specific topic that serves a small segment
of your target audience.

That seems unintuitive, right? If more people are searching for a term or a topic, that should
mean more readers for you.

But that’s not true. If you choose a general and highly searched topic that’s been covered by
major competitors or more established brands, it’s unlikely that your post will rank on the first
page of search engine results pages (SERPs). Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing
a topic that few bloggers have written about.

TLDR; Your first post should cover a niche, low-volume topic. As you write more and more on
your blog and establish topical authority, you can begin to cover more highly-searched
keywords.

Let’s walk through this process.

1. Find a low-volume topic.

The first step is to find a topic with low searches in Google (we recommend sticking to about
10 to 150 monthly searches). These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow
your new blog post to rank more easily.

To choose a topic, you can either do a traditional brainstorming session or carry out keyword
research. We suggest the latter because you can actually see how many people are looking for
that topic.
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Now, don’t be intimidated by the term “keyword research.” It’s not just for marketers, but for
new bloggers, too. And it’s really easy to do.

To jumpstart your keyword research, first begin by identifying the general topic of your blog.

Say you’re a plumber. Your general, high-level topic might be “plumbing” (67K monthly
searches).

Next, put this term into a keyword research tool such as:

Ahrefs

Moz

Ubersuggest

Wordtracker

When you run this term through the tool, a list of related keywords will appear. Scan the list
and choose one with a lower search volume. For this example, we’ll use “under sink
plumbing” (1.4K monthly searches).

Run that keyword in the keyword research tool again. Look at the related keywords. Find one
with a lower search volume. Do that again.

For this example, we’ll settle on “plumbing problems under kitchen sink” (10 monthly
searches). That’s the topic for our first post.

TLDR; Choose a low-volume, low-competition keyword that will ensure your first post ranks.

For more help on keyword research, here are more resources you can use:

How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide

How to Perform Keyword Research and Rank

Top Tools For Finding Long-Tail Keywords

2. Google the term to double-check search intent.

You’ve got your topic — now, double-check that the user’s search intent would be fulfilled by a
blog post.
What
20 mindoes that mean?
remaining

If someone is looking for “plumbing problems under kitchen sink,” they might be looking for a
tutorial, a diagram, an article, or a product that can fix the issue. If they’re looking for the first
three, you’re good — that can be covered in a blog post. A product, however, is different, and
your blog post won’t rank.

How do you double-check search intent?

Google the term and look at the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term,
you’re good to go. If you only find product pages or listicles from major publications, then find
a new topic to cover in your first post.

Consider the term “under sink plumbing bathroom” (30 monthly searches). It seemed like a
perfect fit because it had low monthly searches.

Upon Googling the term, we found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and
Lowes, and guides written by major publications. (You’ll also want to avoid topics that have
been covered by major publications, at least for now.)

TLDR; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user
intent by Googling the keyword. Also, don’t forget to take a look at who’s written about that
topic so far. If you see a major brand, consider writing about another topic.

3. Find questions and terms related to that topic.

You’ve got a highly unique topic that’s been covered by just a few people so far. It’s time to
flesh it out by covering related or adjacent topics.

Use the following tools:

Answer the Public: When you place your keyword into this tool, it will give you a list of
questions related to that term.

Google: Google is your best friend. Search for the term and look under “People also ask”
and “People also search for.” Be sure to touch upon those topics in the post.

You can also use these keyword research tools we mentioned above in step one. 

5. Outline and write the post.

Now, it’s time to outline and write your first post!
With your
20 min niche topic and related questions as guideposts, you can now write a post that’s
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highly relevant to your niche and doesn’t have as much competition.

Use the how-to guide we shared in the previous section to help you write a great first post.

Don’t forget to:

Hit at least 1,000 words. It’s been proven time and again that longer posts rank better.

Put your target keyword in the title. Remember that niche topic we chose in step one? Try to
work it into your title naturally.

Include at least two H2s with related search terms. Remember those related topics we
found in step three? Use them as H2s to build the topical authority of your piece.

6. Promote your first post via outreach.

As a new blogger, you likely don’t have a social media following yet. The solution? Build a few
backlinks to the post to get it off the ground.

Backlinks are a major ranking factor, but you don’t want to use black-hat methods such as
spamming the comment sections in other blogs. Instead, reach out to people and let them
know this new resource exists so they can link to your post.

If you’re a plumber, for example, you might reach out to your local plumber’s association. Here
are more blog post promotion resources:

12 Tried-and-True Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

10 Sites You Can Use for Free Blog Promotion

9 Link Building Email Outreach Templates That Actually Work

Inbound Link Building 101: 34 Ways to Build Backlinks for SEO

11 Creative (But 100% White Hat!) Ways to Earn Backlinks

First Blog Post Ideas

Stuck? Let’s take a look at some first blog post ideas.

The Difference Between [Niche Topic] and [Niche Topic], Explained by a [Niche
Expert]
 The
20 min Difference
remaining Between SEM and SEO, Explained by a Marketing Expert

The Difference Between Sedans and Coupes, Explained by a Car Mechanic

The Difference Between Baking and Broiling, Explained by a Professional Baker

The 10 Best and Worst [Niche Tool] for [Niche Activity]

The 10 Best and Worst Writing Software for Fiction Writing

The 10 Best and Worst CRMs for Nurturing Prospects

The 10 Best and Worst Family Cars for Cross-Country Roadtrips

8 [Niche Activity] Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

8 Non-Fiction Writing Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

8 Salmon Broiling Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

8 Car Maintenance Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

9 Proven Tips for [Niche Activity]

9 Proven Tips for Checking Plumbing Problems under Your Kitchen Sink

9 Proven Tips for Writing a Non-Fiction Bestseller

9 Proven Tips for Doing DIY Car Maintenance

Why We/I Switched from [Niche Tool] to [Niche Tool] (Comparison)

Why We Switched from Pipedrive to HubSpot (Comparison)

Why I Switched from Microsoft Word to Scrivener (Comparison)

Why We Switched from iMacs to Surface Studio (Comparison)

[Niche Tool] vs [Niche Tool]: Which [Tool] is Best for You?

Zendesk vs Freshcaller: Which Call Software is Best for You?

Air Fryer vs Convection Oven: Which One is Best for You?

Mazda Miata vs Toyota Supra: Which Sports Car is Best for You?
The Ultimate
20 min remaining Roundup of [Niche Activity] Tips and Tricks

The Ultimate Roundup of Novel Writing Tips and Tricks

The Ultimate Roundup of Macaroon Baking Tips and Tricks

The Ultimate Roundup of Solo Traveling Tips and Tricks

Want some real examples of blog posts? See what your first blog post can look like based on
the topic you choose and the audience you're targeting.

Blog Post Examples

1. List-Based Post

2. Thought Leadership Post

3. Curated Collection Post

4. SlideShare Presentation

5. Newsjacking Post

6. Infographic Post

7. How-to Post

8. Guest Post

1. List-Based Blog Post

List-Based Post Example: 17 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2021, According
to HubSpot Bloggers
 20 min remaining

List-based posts are sometimes called "listicles," a mix of the words "list" and "article." These
are articles that deliver information in the form of a list. A listicle uses sub-headers to break
down the blog post into individual pieces, helping readers skim and digest your content more
easily.

As you can see in the example from our blog, listicles can offer various tips and methods for
solving a problem.

2. Thought Leadership Post

Example: How HubSpot's Customers Are Shaping the Next Normal

Thought leadership posts allow you to share your expertise on a particular subject matter and
share firsthand knowledge with your readers.

These pieces — which can be written in the first person, like the post shown above — help you
build trust with your audience so people take your blog seriously as you continue to write for
it.

3. Curated Collection Post

Example: 8 Examples of Evolution in Action
20 min remaining

Curated collections are a special type of listicle blog post. Rather than sharing tips or methods
for doing something, this type of blog post shares a list of real examples that all have
something in common in order to prove a larger point.

In the example post above, Listverse shares eight real examples of evolution in action among
eight different animals — starting with the peppered moth.

4. SlideShare Presentation
Example: The HubSpot Culture Code
 20 min remaining

SlideShare is a presentation tool that helps publishers package a lot of information into easily
shareable slides. Think of it like a PowerPoint, but for the web. With this in mind, SlideShare
blog posts help you promote your SlideShare so that it can generate a steady stream of
visitors.

Unlike blogs, SlideShare decks don't often rank well on search engines, so they need a
platform for getting their message out there to the people who are looking for it. By
embedding and summarizing your SlideShare on a blog post, you can share a great deal of
information and give it a chance to rank on Google at the same time.

Need some SlideShare ideas? In the example above, we turned our company's "Culture
Code" into a SlideShare presentation that anyone can look through and take lessons from, and
then promoted it in a blog post.

5. Newsjacking Post
Example: Ivy Goes Mobile With New App for Designers
 20 min remaining

"Newsjacking" is a nickname for "hijacking" your blog to break important news related to your
industry. Therefore, the newsjack post is a type of article whose sole purpose is to garner
consumers' attention and, while offering them timeless professional advice, prove your blog is
a trusted resource for learning about the big things that happen in your industry.

The newsjack example above was published by Houzz, a home decor merchant and interior
design resource, about a new mobile app that launched just for interior designers. Houzz
didn't launch the app, but the news of its launching is no less important to Houzz's audience.
6.20Infographic
min remaining
Post
Example: The Key Benefits of Studying Online [Infographic]

The infographic post serves a similar purpose as the SlideShare post — the fourth example,
explained above — in that it conveys information for which plain blog copy might not be the
best format.

For example, when you're looking to share a lot of statistical information (without boring or
confusing your readers), building this data into a well-designed, even engaging infographic
can keep your readers engaged with your content. It also helps readers remember the
information long after they leave your website.

7. How-to Post
Example: How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide
For
20 this example, you need not look any further than the blog post you're reading right now!
min remaining

How-to guides like this one help solve a problem for your readers. They're like a cookbook for
your industry, walking your audience through a project step by step to improve their literacy
on the subject.

The more posts like this you create, the more equipped your readers will be to work with you
and invest in the services you offer.

8. Guest Post
Example: Your Bookmarkable Guide to Social Media Image Sizes in 2020
[Infographic]

Guest posts are a type of blog post that you can use to include other voices on your blog. For
example, if you want to get an outside expert's opinion on a topic, a guest post is perfect for
that.

Additionally, these posts give your blog variety in topic and viewpoint. If your customer has a
problem you can't solve, a guest post is a great solution.

If you begin accepting guest posts, set up editorial guidelines to ensure they're up to the
same standards as your posts.

Ready to blog?
Blogging can help you build brand awareness, become a thought-leader and expert in your
industry, attract qualified leads, and boost conversions. Follow the steps and tips we covered
above
20 min to begin publishing and enhancing your blog today.
remaining

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2013 and has been updated for
comprehensiveness.

Originally published Apr 15, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated April 15 2021

Topics: How to Write a Blog Post

Don't forget to share this post!

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