How to Structure Your Posts (and Why You Need To)

Posted: May 17, 2012

[caption id="attachment_10151" align="alignright" width="400"]© zozulinskyi - Fotolia.com[/caption]Blog posts sometimes lack the stucture they need to convey the writer's thoughts properly. If you need some help getting them in the right format your posts, read below.

Do your posts seem to be a loose collection of ideas, in no particular order?

When I’m coaching bloggers, one common problem that comes up is a lack of structure. During the drafting process, many writers simply sit down and type whatever comes into their head. That’s fine for a warm-up … but it’s not a very efficient way to create a blog post.

Think of structure as the underlying framework for your posts. With a strong frame in place, your post won’t sag in the middle or have bits falling off at the edges: it’ll be easy for you to create, and easy for your readers to take in.

How to Structure Your Posts

Every post needs three key elements:

Introduction – this hooks the reader and introduces the topic
Main body – this explores the topic, often with subsections or several bullet points
Conclusion – this rounds off the post and gives a call to action

When you edit your next blog post, check that your introduction is present, and that it does a good job of hooking the reader. (If you’ve written a list post, for instance, don’t just jump straight in with the first item – give the reader some context for the list, so they have a reason to read it.)

Check, too, that you have a conclusion: bloggers often leave this off. Your conclusion doesn’t need to repeat everything you’ve said in the post, but it does need to make the post feel complete. You could end by encouraging people to try out an idea from the post, or by asking them to leave comments about their own experiences.

Read the complete article How to Structure Your Posts (and Why You Need To).