How to Plan Blog Post Topics

Not sure how to plan blog post topics? Well, it is actually really quite an easy process to go through, once you know how. (If you'd prefer to watch, you can do so here.)

ONE: Decide on the overarching content theme of your blog.

I’m sure you already have a good idea of what you want to blog about.

The main idea of your blog is, of course, going to be whatever your area of expertise it. Are you a doctor, nutritionist, coach…?

My main theme is ‘helping people to take their expertise and turn it into a business’.

I have created a few sheets you can use to help you write this out.

TWO: Know who you are creating content for.

If you are a nutritionist, who do you want to help? People with diabetes, mums that have just had a baby, people in business who need to move more often? It is easy to think that we can help everyone but we need focus on a slightly smaller community, than everyone.

If you aren’t really sure about who you want to work with (who your ideal client is), I have a video that will help.

My ideal client is – women who have a job, that are looking to build a business using their knowledge and expertise. It is either what they have been doing in their jobs or what they have been studying for.

THREE: Work out the main topics for your blog posts.

Now you want to decide the main topics you are going to talk about.

If you have a product idea you can work backwards, like I have and will show you how to do shortly. Before I knew what my main product was going to be I just used the main content ideas that I wanted to talk about.

Take a bit of time to write down what your main topics are going to be.

(Remember to grab the sheets if you want to use those to plan this out.)

Let’s have a look at how I worked out the main topics for my blog posts.

I have a program called ‘From Idea to Open for Business’ where I take you through the 7 steps of creating a business online, serving people with your knowledge and expertise.

The areas covered in the 7 steps are the main topic ideas I use.

The 7 steps are Gaining Clarity, Branding, Website, List Building, Content Creation, Packaging Your Knowledge and Marketing.

I also talk about mindset and having a full time job while running a business. I don’t talk about all the topics in an equal amount. But that is what forms the basis for all of my content.

Take a bit of time to write our your main topic ideas.

FOUR: Decide on your sub topics.

Once we have the main ideas then we want to go a little deeper.

Let's have a look at the marketing topic from my list.

Marketing is the main topic.

Email Marketing is then a subtopic.

Then I start to consider what, inside of email marketing, I might want to talk about.

I use ActiveCampaign as my autoresponder service provider, so I might create some content around using ActiveCampaign. Why I use it, how to use it. I could do some ‘how to’ videos about that.

As you can see, I've taken the main ideas and then broken them down again.

Let’s look at one more example:

Gluten Free (main blog theme or it may be that, if you have a health blog, it could be one of your main topics, not the main blog theme itself).

• Benefits of going gluten free
• Signs you might have a gluten intolerance
• Guten free recipes
  • one pot recipes
  • recipes to do with the kids
  • lunch ideas

Now, if you're not sure, or you can't think of any content ideas inside of a topic, then maybe that topic isn't a main topic that you want to use for your website.

It might be something that you talk about every now and then, but it mightn't be one of your main content ideas.

Go back to the sheets and add in your sub-topics. There are multiple layers you can go down. Even inside one pot recipes, you could go deeper with vegetarian or family recipes.

Stuck for ideas? Included in the template are a list of ideas you can use if you are stuck.

Now that you have your blog post topics your next step is to read the post – Keyword Research for Bloggers (but it is really for everyone!)