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Blogging 101: How to Write Simple & Clear Main Points · The Daily Writer

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever gotten a great idea for a blog post or article, but you struggled to figure out what to say about the topic?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps you had a lot to say about the topic, but you weren't sure how to organize your thoughts?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If so, you'll love this episode because you'll learn three ways to organize your material and write simple and clear main points.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for joining me on this episode of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm a ghostwriter and professor of communications.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is the show that helps you write amazing content so you can save time, stand out in front of the competition, and get more leads that turn into customers or clients.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, on this episode today, we are continuing our series on blogging 101.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as I mentioned in the first episode of this series, blog posts are a fantastic form of content writing because you can expand or condense that material as you need.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that length of 500 to 800 words or so, it's long enough to communicate meaningful information, but it's also short enough that somebody can read it in just a few minutes.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can also take a blog post of that length and you can expand it into something longer, like a really long form article or blog post, or even a book chapter, or a speech, or a lesson, or something like that.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: But you can also take the material of that length of a blog post and you can chop it up into smaller chunks that you can share on social media, or they can become much kind of much smaller posts, kind of like micro posts or things like that.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I really, really love blog posts.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're the most flexible form of content and also one of the most useful.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we're doing this series on blogging 101.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So far in this series, we have talked about how to write a great headline and how to write an effective introduction that grabs the reader's attention.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And today we come to a topic that deals with the meat or the main content of a blog post, and that is just what I call the main points.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really where the rubber meets the road because without the actual content of a blog post, you don't have much.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, things like the headline and perhaps the introduction, those are kind of the more exciting topics because you know, people love headlines that grab the reader's attention and so forth.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that you have to deliver when you pull people into a post.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times someone can have a great headline or maybe a really snazzy introduction or a compelling story.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: But then when you read the article or the post, it's not really so great.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So what I really want to emphasize is that you've got to deliver.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to have actual good content.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't see a lot of attention paid to this in the copywriting and the blogging world.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Again, there's a lot of attention paid to things like how to write great headlines and how to write a call to action and so forth.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll get to the call to action in another episode or two in this series.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I rarely hear anybody talk about how to actually structure the content of a blog post or an article.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can't ever recall seeing a um seeing an article on that or really seeing any content about that at all.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we're talking about this today.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this really comes out of the last two or three or four years where I would oftentimes just go into uh articles or blog posts on entrepreneur.com or Business Insider or Harvard Business Review or many other places, and I would kind of reverse engineer those posts.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I actually made this is gonna sound really uh kind of anal retentive and very geeky to a lot of people, but that's okay.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I would go in and I would basically reverse engineer those posts and figure out how they actually structured those.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm giving you today is basically a very condensed form of what I've learned from analyzing many, many dozens uh of posts over the last few years by various authors.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in here.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you know that I love templates and systems for making life easier.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that includes writing for sure, because writing can be time consuming, it requires a lot of energy.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So anything that we can do to kind of systematize that process or make it more efficient, I think is a great thing.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that especially applies when writing the main content of a blog post.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I love templates and systems.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want to share with you today is three ways to structure your blog post content.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're struggling to figure out how to organize your thoughts, this is going to come in very handy.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And here are the three ways that I want to talk about on this episode.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: These are steps, features, and benefits.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Again, those are steps, features, and benefits.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are lots of other ways to structure your content, but I want to focus on these three because these three ways of structuring content will apply to 90% of any kind of content that you might want to write, except if it's based on like a narrative.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you're doing a narrative-based piece, that's kind of a whole different animal with a whole different structure.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: But most of the time, whenever you are writing a blog post article, um a speech, a sermon, a lesson, newsletter article, something like that, one of these three three organizational patterns will probably apply to this.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we dive into these three in a little bit more detail, I'm assuming that you're going to have three to five main points in your post or your article.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's nothing necessarily magic about three to five main points except that it makes for a nice length of a blog post or article and it doesn't overwhelm the reader.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, there are exceptions.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: There are definitely times when you can have 10 points or 12 points or two points or whatever it is, but I am gonna just again assume that this is gonna be three to five points because that's what most articles tend to have.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And for each type of organizational arrangement that I'm gonna talk about, I'm gonna give you a couple of examples of how this might work using these organizational arrangements.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna use two topics that I just pulled off the top of my head, which is the iPhone and the Mandalorian.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So one is kind of a tech thing, one is kind of an entertainment-based thing.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: The first organizational pattern that I want to talk about is steps.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, steps are the actions that someone needs to take to accomplish a goal.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a super common way to arrange content because it's quick to write and it's quick to read.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So let me give you a couple of examples using the topics that I mentioned.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you're doing an article on the iPhone.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could do an article on something like how to set up a new iPhone, or how to use a new version of an app, or maybe how to set up your AirPods with your iPhone.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, those articles would feature clear steps that go in a specific sequence.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Step one, step two, step three, etc.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for something that is more entertainment-based, like the Mandalorian, you could broaden out the topic a little bit and say something like uh five steps to having a great movie night with the Mandalorian.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you could say, like, step one, cue up the show on Disney Plus.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Step two, get your snacks ready.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Step three, find a comfy chair, etc., etc.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now that may seem like kind of a superficial or a silly article idea, but these kinds of articles are actually extremely popular.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because they give you a clear pathway to doing something that's important to you, or rather, it's important to the reader.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So keep that in mind that things that may seem silly or inconsequential to you sometimes are not necessarily silly or or meaningless to other people.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, this is all about serving your reader.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, depending on the outlet you're writing for, and depending on who your audience is, some things they may take very seriously that are not necessarily important to you.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why it's important to keep your reader in mind because you're writing for them.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you can take a tiny, tiny sliver of a topic and you can develop a whole art a whole article on it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first way to organize your main points, which is simply developing steps in a logical sequence.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, organizational arrangement number two is features.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, oftentimes in the advertising world, you hear features and benefits put together.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I often see this in academic book catalogs, which I often get, and I love getting those.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of a geek about that stuff.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I will get these catalogs from academic book publishers, and oftentimes in those catalogs, they'll be highlighting a new book and they will talk about the features and benefits of that specific book.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we're used to putting features and benefits together when it comes to featuring products and advertising and marketing and that kind of stuff.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But remember that features and benefits are not the same thing.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: A feature is a positive aspect of something, while a benefit is what that feature or the product helps someone accomplish.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if you're talking about ice makers in a refrigerator, the ice maker is a feature, while the benefit would be that it delivers ice to you instantly right from the door.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the feature is an aspect of the product or the topic that you're talking about, while the benefit is what that does for someone.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of more of much more of the emotional component or the benefit that they receive directly from that.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is an important distinction because many times we mistake features for benefits.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And to be really honest, people don't really care about features.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: What they want is benefits.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever we create something, whether it's uh a book or whether it's a product or whatever it is, a service that we provide, many times we think in terms of features and we want to convince people how great our thing is by talking about the features.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it has this and this and this and this.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But what people really care about is the benefit to them.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: They care about how that thing actually helps them accomplish something that's important to them.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So keep that in mind when we're talking about how we're the language that and the terms that we're using to describe whatever it is that we're talking about to the reader or to the client or customer.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this really goes back to keeping in mind that what people really want is convenience.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: They want to save time, they want happiness or pleasure of some kind.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can frame the features of what you're talking about in such a way that it appeals to people emotionally, that's that's really the bullseye of what we're trying to do.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So don't talk about just the features of something.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Really focus on highlighting the benefits.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: But for the purposes of what we're doing here in this uh podcast episode, let's go ahead and focus on the features of our two topics so you can see the difference.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, using these examples that I've talked about, the iPhone and the Mandalorian, here's how you might highlight the features of an iPhone in a blog post or an article.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, you could talk about the features of the camera on a new version of the iPhone.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: You could talk about the iris scanner, you could talk about the specific size of the iPhone, or the type of speaker or screen that it has, or some other kind of aspects or characteristics of the product.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: You see this type of article and YouTube video come out a lot right after they release a new version of an iPhone or new version of a Samsung or whatever the tech product is.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because there are a lot of people who are excited about the features of something.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Those are kind of like the tech geeks and people who are really into that stuff.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us don't care a lot about those things.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: We care about what it does for us.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a certain segment of people who are really, really excited about whatever your product or service or thing is that you're talking about.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So those are kind of like the early adopters who get really excited about features, but don't leave out the majority of people who get really excited about the benefits, what that thing does for them.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's apply the features to the Mandalorian.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: You could frame this in a bunch of different ways.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: For example, the 10 best characters in the Mandalorian or the five best episodes of the Mandalorian season one.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: You get the idea.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's move on to the benefits.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we've already highlighted the difference between features and benefits, but just for the sake of summarizing this, features are an aspect of the topic that you're talking about, while benefits are something that the reader gets out of it.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And let's apply this to our examples.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: If we're talking about a new iPhone, a great article might be 10 reasons why the new iPhone is better than a Samsung phone.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or it could be something like five ways the new iPhone will help you save time.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Benefits focus heavily on reasons why the reader should do something or enjoy something.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if we take this to the Mandalorian, it could be something like Five Reasons The Mandalorian is the best show on Disney Plus.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: You could talk about things like great cinematography, fun storylines, or a cool new droid, or any number of things that you think people would enjoy when it comes to that topic or that product or service.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So there you have it.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Those are three organizational arrangements that will help you write simple and clear main points for your blog post, your article, or any number of other kinds of content, including sermons, lessons, newsletters, emails, speeches, or as you're listening to this right now, podcast episodes.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, did you notice that I had three main point three main points to this episode, which are the three main organizational patterns, steps, features, and benefits.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple more things before I wrap this up.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: First, whenever I write a blog post, uh, a podcast, or an article, I almost always have the main points set before I sit down to actually write it.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, these change a little bit as I write.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why is that?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's because the process of writing is the process of discovery.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: You write and you discover things, you think that you thought a certain thing about the topic and then you change your mind as you write.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that is totally okay.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And just understand that that's part of the process.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Also, if you have a topic and you're struggling to figure out what to say about it, you can use one of these organizational arrangements to give you ideas for what to say.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: For example, you can come up with a topic, and then if you're not sure what to say about that topic, you can think, well, what would some steps be in a logical sequence related to that thing?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what would the features be?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: What would the benefits be?
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can apply that to virtually any topic under the sun.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're wrestling and struggling to figure out what do I say about this topic, just think steps, features, and benefits, and you can almost always come up with several different outlines for that content.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, before I start to wrap this up, I do want to say this.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you'll be writing and you'll come up with main points that don't fit within the article.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I've had this happen many, many times, and you probably have too, where you have an idea for a podcast or a book chapter or an article or a blog post, and you sit down and you start drafting out the content, and then it kind of goes in a different direction.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: You started out writing about one thing, and then you ended up writing about something else.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: That is totally normal and totally expected.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is just the creative process at work.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes things go in a different direction, and that is great, and that's okay.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what you do is you have to decide are you going to stick with your original idea or are you going to go off on this other idea?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever material that you don't use, just stick that in Evernote or Scrivener or Microsoft Word or wherever you keep your ideas and just hang on to that for some time later.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to pack all of your ideas into a blog post or an article.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's a really bad idea to, you know, completely pack everything you want to say about a topic into one um into one container.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: So don't ever do that.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, just take those extra ideas and store those somewhere uh for a later time.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And probably you'll have ideas for several other things that you want to create as well.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a blast.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love talking about this stuff, and I really hope this has been helpful to you.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: As always, remember that you can find more resources for writers at KentSanders.net.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.