How to Write a Blog
To write a blog, start by choosing a topic for your post, like an experience you had or your opinion about something. Then, come up with a bold, eye-catching headline to draw readers in. As you're writing your blog post, keep the paragraphs to no more than 3-4 sentences, and separate them with line spaces instead of indents. Also, break up your post using subheadings so it doesn't seem long and overwhelming to your readers. You can also include images, bold text, and links to make your post more interesting and engaging.
Choose a genre. If your aim is to attract readers beyond your friends and family, it's a good idea to pick a genre, however broad, to blog within. Establishing yourself as someone with an interesting opinion on a certain set of topics will keep people who share your interests coming back for more. What's so important in your life that you're drawn to discuss it publicly? People blog about everything under the sun: family, food, cars, professions, the apocalypse, gardening. Think about your own priorities in life and decide where your blog will fall. Just because you aim to be a "food blogger" or a "fashion blogger" doesn't mean all of your content will have to be pigeonholed into that specific category. You can be a food blogger who also talks about being a single mom, or a sports blogger who writes about politics occasionally. Read other blogs that fall into the same genre to get a sense of the community that is already built around that particular topic. Entering the blogosphere is like entering a big group conversation. What are you going to contribute? What's unique about your story? Write like an expert. The most compelling writing sounds confident and authoritative, no matter what the topic is. People who take the time to read your writing will want to feel as though they're learning something from you. Offering your expert opinion on an issue, expert tips on how to do something, or expert information not readily available from other sources will make your blog worth reading. You don't have to have a PhD to sound like an expert. There are already areas in which you have expertise: your own life, for starters. Your taste, your opinions, your experience. Everyone is an expert in something, and blogs are a great way for people to share their knowledge with the world. Your expertise should come across in your tone. Write in assertive prose, rather than using passive language. Back yourself up with anecdotes, and where appropriate, research. Consider creative ways to share your knowledge with your readers. You could tell a hilarious story everyone can relate to and learn from, share a tutorial on how to do something you could do with your eyes closed, review little-known musicians or artists who need some promotion, discuss ways to calm down a screaming toddler in a restaurant... the possibilities are endless. Write the way you speak. Blogs, unlike most traditional writing forms, tend to be casual, conversational, and relatable. When you're writing a post, it might help to pretend like you're talking to your sister or best friend. Use that same voice in all of your posts so that they feel cohesive and represent you as a person. A common response readers have to popular blogs is that they feel the "know the person." When you hit on a tone and style that creates a sense of familiarity with people you've never met, you've struck blogger gold. Many bloggers have a "friendly" relationship to their readers, but there are other forms of familiarity that can also bring success. For example, you could write as though you're a teacher and your readers are your students, spouting inspiring wisdom that keeps them coming back. Find the relationship that works best for you. It can be difficult to use the same words in writing that we use while speaking. If you're unsure how your voice is coming across, try reading your post out loud. Are you able to read it in a natural, relatable way, or does it come off sounding stiff? If the latter is true, go back and change the language and sentence structure to make it sound more conversational. Share details. Let's be honest: blogging is to writing what reality TV is to television. Like the best reality TV, the most compelling blogs are those that have a lot of juicy personal details. If your blog is too dry and formal, you're going to have trouble keeping readers. Share as much of your life as you're comfortable sharing; you'll build trust with readers and strengthen that "relationship" we discussed in the previous step. How much should you share? A good marker is to share the amount of information you'd share with a pretty good friend who knows you well. Your personality and unique experiences should shine through. Know your limits and stick to them. There will always be some details you keep to yourself or share only with intimate friends and family members, and that's OK. Once you publish something on the internet, it's hard to take it back, so don't force yourself out of your personal comfort zone. Have a topic. Each blog post you write should have a topic, however broad or loose, that the post is built around. Publishing a string of unrelated thoughts might be fine once in a while, but stay away from making every post as unfocused as a daily diary entry. Think of each post as a mini-essay; you've got to have a thesis to keep the post moving and make it interesting enough to read. If the topic is something that you are interested and passionate in, this could affect positively the quality of the content that you write so consider carefully what topic to have the blog about. The topic can be obvious, like "My Thoughts on Seeing Wicked for the First Time," or it can be a subtle theme that ties the post together unexpectedly at the end. Get creative with your organization and presentation of your thoughts. Some bloggers like to repeat topics that are popular with readers. For example, you could have a "Music Monday" recurring topic where you discuss new music you'd like to share. Write a bold headline. The headline, or title, of your blog post should be devised to draw the reader in immediately. Get creative with your headlines and make them funny, mysterious, arty, surprising, or otherwise extremely interesting. Your headline is the start of your post and will help the reader decide whether or not to keep reading, so it shouldn't be neglected. Write in short paragraphs. Online writing is characterized by short paragraphs of no more than 3 or 4 sentences, and sometimes fewer. The paragraphs should be broken up with line spaces, rather than indents. This style is much more conducive to online reading, which occurs from the top of the screen to the bottom, rather than from side to side. You'll lose readers if you make it too difficult for them to scan the page quickly. Use subheadings and bolded words. Breaking up the text with subheadings is a good way to prevent your post from seeming like a long, difficult-to-tackle essay. Subheadings are usually written in a bolder, bigger, or entirely different font from the rest of the text, drawing the eye's attention when it might otherwise wander. If you don't want to break your post up into labeled categories with subheadings, consider bolding an important sentence here and there to make the post more visually interesting. Another way to add visual interest to the post is to play around wit other types of formatting. Bold or italicize individual words, experiment with different font sizes, and use different colors. This strategy can definitely be taken too far, so make sure you don't overdo it. You want your post to remain readable, and too many fonts or colors could create a visual catastrophe if you aren't careful. Consider including a how-to section or list. Many bloggers include some type of tutorial or list as part of their posts, usually with bolded steps. This gives readers a concrete takeaway and has been shown to keep people on the page longer. Items on a list can also act as a stand-in for subheadings when it comes to breaking up the text to make it more interesting. If you're including a how-to section, make sure your tutorial is easy to follow as well as entertaining. Don't switch your tone entirely to that of a how-to manual; it should still be written in your voice. Lists are a good way to organize thoughts that are seemingly disparate. You could write a list of "5 Ways to Mentally Prepare for the New Year," for example, and include 5 funny anecdotes related to things you've been thinking about as the year comes to an end. You've essentially created a structure for your post where before it would have simply been a string of unrelated stories. Use links. Some bloggers use more links than others, but most sprinkle a few into every post. Linking to other articles is one of the hallmarks of online writing. It's a great way to connect your blog to the greater online world. Linking also makes your writing seem more relevant and up to date - a huge bonus when it comes to attracting readers who check blogs because they want to be in the know on a certain set of topics. Link to other people's blogs. They'll start linking to yours, too, and you can share each other's traffic. Link to fascinating items people may not have seen. Readers will start coming to your blog for good information they can't find elsewhere. Don't forget images. Some bloggers use 8 images for one post, while others use one or even none. Whether you include images in your blog is entirely up to you, but it's worth experimenting with a few to see whether they increase your traffic and make your blog more interesting. Just remember to follow the same rules you follow in your writing: keep the photos relevant, offer something unique, and where appropriate, get personal. You don't have to use professional-looking photos on your blog; pictures you've taken with the camera on your phone will do just as well in most cases. If you're starting a blog about food or another topic that works best with pictures, consider investing in a good camera and learning how to edit photos for web use. Update your blog often. Blogs are competing with a lot of other content on the web. It's important to stay relevant and up to date to keep readers coming back; otherwise, your blog will get quickly forgotten. Keep yourself in readers' inboxes by updating at least once a week, and ideally more frequently. When writer's block takes over and you're finding it difficult to come up with consistently great posts, remember that not every post has to be high quality and well thought out. You can update a few times a week with shorter posts or thoughts, just to keep yourself on people's radar. Updating frequently is especially important when you're first starting out and trying to gain an audience. As you rise in popularity, you'll be less likely to be forgotten after a week or two of no posts. Publishing a consolidated list of "favorites" is a good way to put up a post without actually having to write it. Consider ending the week with a list of links that inspired you, for example. Encourage comments. The beauty of online writing is that your readers can participate in the conversation in real time. You'll know exactly what people think of your blog, because they'll tell you so in the comments. This type of participation should be encouraged, because it makes people feel welcome to the "community" of your blog, creates a sense of friendship and intimacy, and leads to fans spreading the word about your blog to other people. One way to encourage comments is to ask people questions in your posts. For example, you could end a post about your vacation with the question, "what's your favorite place to travel?" When people are encouraged to participate, they usually will. Be prepared to get some negative or mean comments every once in a while. Try not to take them personally; everyone who has a blog that is read by people other than friends or family is subjected to a troll every once in a while. You can delete the comment or ignore it, it's your choice. Respond to comments, emails and tweets. When you're first starting out, taking the time to correspond with people will help you build a loyal readership by increasing the sense of intimacy people feel with you. Eventually it won't be possible to respond to every single comment or email, but allotting a certain amount of time to the task will pay off in the end. Pay attention to your audience. If a certain topic or style of blog post seems to be hurting your traffic or inspiring fewer responses, try something new next time. This is not to say you should cater wholly to your readership, but if you aren't offering something that readers like, you'll have trouble getting them to stay with you. 
Choose a genre. Write like an expert. Write the way you speak. Share details. Have a topic. Write a bold headline. Write in short paragraphs. Use subheadings and bolded words. Consider including a how-to section or list. Use links. Don't forget images. Update your blog often. Encourage comments. Respond to comments, emails and tweets. Pay attention to your audience. 