As you may know, I have been blogging for nearly two years. I would say I am the best blogger by any stretch of the mark, but I know how to write and plan a post. Here is how I write and plan blog posts!

Firstly, You need a subject. This could be a poem, your favourite things, lists or anything else you want to write about. Let's say that I want to write about my 5 favourite quotes from this month. I use the blogger website to draft my blog posts, but many use Word documents or equivalents. Write the title that you want to give your blog post at the top of the piece. If you do it on Word, you don't have to do a title until you transfer it to the website, but the Blogger website has a box for the title at the top.

Then, you want to make sure you know what you are going to say. Although sometimes I make things up, like poems, on the spot, I usually have an idea of what I am going to write beforehand. Take a look and see whether your font type and size are correct for you and then you can begin!

Start with an introduction to the post. For example, I said "I said a while ago that I wasn't particularly motivated by quotes, but recently, that has changed. I like the idea that you can read something and suddenly feel like you can do anything. Here are my 5 favourite quotes this month." You want your readers to get a good impression and want to read on! Something eye-catching, for example, a joke or a fact about yourself. 

Then, start to write. If you are doing a list, you can use bullet points or numbers from the toolbar and the top. I used numbers so that I can show that they are my top 5, but you don't have to if that isn't you.

After you have finished, sign it off in a way you like. On my blog, Katiewaytohappy, I always sign off with "Stay Happy, Katie xx". If you don't want to put your name, that is your choice! There are no set rules to blogging (within reason) so you do your blog your way. 

After I have finished writing, I add my pictures. You can do this as you go along, but I like to do it at the end so I don't get confused. You can add as many as you want or none at all, but people love pictures!

Also, add any links in if you want. For example, I wanted to link my Pinterest board to the post, so I clicked 'Link' and then add the website and highlighted the word I wanted to have the link on.

Make sure your blog post looks the way you want it to. Have you done everything that you need to on your post? There is a checklist below that you can use to check!

You can add labels to sort your posts into categories. I put the labels 'Quotes' and 'Favourites' in to show that this is what my post is based on. 

If you want to put the post up at that moment, go ahead and click publish! If not, you can schedule your post by clicking the date and time you want to put it up for, click done and then remember to press publish otherwise it won't publish at all.

Then, you can plug it on social media. I use Twitter and Instagram mainly. I schedule tweets with the link in on TweetDeck and pin them to my profile!

I hope this helps newbies or not so newbies with the basics of blogging!

Until next time,

Katie xx