[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Top skinny IC Logo Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#cc4315″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” custom_padding_tablet=”0px||0px|” next_background_color=”#ffffff” global_module=”26126″][et_pb_row global_parent=”26126″ make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”on” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” padding_top_1=”0px” padding_right_1=”0px” padding_bottom_1=”0px” padding_left_1=”0px” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”IC logo Image” global_parent=”26126″ src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IC-logo-horizontal-framed-e1468862028685.jpg” alt=”Iris Content logo” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” url=”https://iriscontent.com” animation_style=”none” animation_duration=”1000ms” animation_intensity_slide=”50%” show_bottom_space=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” background_image=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/bigstock-Blackboard-chalkboard-textur-15751904.jpg” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#ffffff” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” prev_background_color=”#cc4315″ next_background_color=”FDF3E7″ _builder_version=”3.0.101″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_divider color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”200″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blog Post Title Text” background_layout=”light” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Cantata One||||” text_font_size=”72″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.1em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” text_font_size_tablet=”52″ _builder_version=”3.0.101″]
The Iris Content Masterclass Series: How to Ideally Structure a Blog Post
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You’ve thought of the perfect topic for a blog post. You sit down at your computer, and the consistent clicking from the keyboard indicates that your ideas are flowing. The content creation process was successful regarding your ability to translate your ideas into words. But, those words still need to be put into an ideal structure to help your readers easily digest the material, and ultimately, to help your chances in selling with content.
Here are 8 major elements included in the structure of a blog post:
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1. Headline
Your headline might be relatively short compared to rest of your post, but it can take at least a few drafts for even copywriting experts to get it right. The importance of a strong headline or title is important for both SEO strategy and attracting readers to actually click to read the rest of the post.
It is okay, and perhaps even best, to use a rough-draft title to guide you through the rest of the post during the content creation process before going back to refine it. Don’t rely on good content to grab your readers’ attention; you need a high-quality headline to begin your post.
2. Image: Presenting Content Creation in Blog Posts Includes Visuals
Keep in mind that the structure of your blog post is not an exact formula. When structuring your blog to best communicate your content creation, the first image doesn’t need to immediately follow the headline. For many blog posts, it is both appropriate and important for an image to be located near the beginning of the post, however.
The first image will:
Attract attention – People like pictures. A huge wall of text with no visuals in a modern blog post will feel foreign to many readers. Without any visual charts or pictures, readers might deem the post too involved or serious for a quick read.
Tell the story – The famous idiom, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” can be applied to your blog post. Relevant and high-quality images can exemplify an actual object, person, or fact featured in the post, or they can support the general tone or emotion of the post.
Stay in reader’s memory longer than words – According to Dr. John Medina, pictures are more memorable than audio or text alone. A person will remember 10% from a particular piece of information three days later. That percentage increases to a whopping 65% when a picture was included.
Control the overall impression when shared – If your first image is a featured image, it will represent the entire blog post when shared on social media.
3. Introduction
If you’ve managed to capture readers in with your headline, reading the introduction is one of the next steps for them. This section of the blog post gives you another important opportunity to communicate why your blog post needs to be read. Keep in mind the problem your post attempts to solve as you aim to hook in your readers with these few sentences.
You won’t be giving away everything in the introduction, but readers need to understand the main point of the article. If they don’t see personal value in the post as they scan the introduction, they certainly won’t stick around and scroll down to read more.
4. Sub-headline
Readers will scan the subheads to get a greater understanding of the post’s main points. While scanning, readers will determine whether or not the various sections are worth reading. Make sure the subheads are all formatted clearly and consistently. Similar to the headline, clever or funny subheads typically do not lend themselves well to readers wanting to quickly scan them for direct, key information.
5. Main Copy
Finally, we’re at the meat of the blog post where you get to insert the content to which everything else has led. Ideally, you’ll share truthful, interesting, and well-supported content, but understand that even extremely well-written copy will be scanned by most readers.
Think about your own online media habits as a consumer. How often do you read every single word from an online article you opened because the headline and featured image captured your attention? Bullet points and lists are formatting techniques that can be used throughout your main copy paragraphs to make the substance of your post reader-friendly.
Speaking of your main copy paragraphs, remember that long paragraphs will likely be deemed as intimidating or too time-consuming for the average reader. Paragraphs might be as short as one to three sentences to ensure you don’t scare away readers with a giant wall of text.
6. Call to Action
What’s the goal of your blog post besides providing a piece your readers will find valuable and informative? Did you create the content of the blog post hoping that readers follow you on social media, subscribe to your mailing list, buy a product, or visit other pages on your site? Consider space in your header, footer, and sidebar for CTAs such as social media buttons. Within the structure of your blog post, you have the opportunity as you conclude to include at least one call-to-action within the text of the post.
7. Encourage Engagement
Perhaps, this is your main call-to-action or an additional goal. Though this is not a necessary element as you structure your blog post, posing a question or requesting a response from readers can lead to great discussion in the comment section of your blog post or on social media accounts if comments are directed there.
8. Mobile Optimization
You came up with your amazing content and put it together into the ideal blog structure. You’re done, right?
Even if your blog post looks like it has the perfect structure on a computer, many of your readers will probably be viewing the post on their mobile devices. The smaller screen means that tips such as making sure there is enough white space and keeping paragraph length to a minimum only become more important.
As a content creator, you have the important job of packaging that content in the best way possible for those reading your blog post on a variety of devices. Include these important elements to structure your post with your own flexibility and discernment, and the end result will be a well-crafted blog post.
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With this Masterclass Series, our skilled team here at Iris Content will provide real, honest insight into the world of content creation.
If doing the content part of your strategy still scares you, if you would love to do it yourself but lack the know-how and think that it is an unattainable goal, we want to help you achieve this task.
Without any misconceptions, any attempt to draw you in for a sale, without any hidden agenda. We want you to learn how to do it!
We want you to succeed in an ever-growing, killer competitive market where the volatility of rules makes it difficult to get there and stay at the top. All throughout the month, we will try to teach you a few of the basics of content creation and at the end, gather it together in a fully downloadable resource. Good luck and happy reading!
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”groove” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#c97824″][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Annie_Team2.png” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”right” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ show_bottom_space=”on” /][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_team_member name=”Annie Ianko” position=”Chief Content Officer” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https://www.facebook.com/IrisWebContent/” twitter_url=”https://twitter.com/Iris_Content” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,.1);||” _builder_version=”3.0.101″]
Annie has over 20 years of experience as an editor and content creator and manager. With work in television and written media, she has dedicated her past 10 years to learning the ropes of online content creation, from writing to editing, from SEO to content management.
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