A simple guide to writing blog posts

Writing new content for your practice blog is one of those tasks that often ends up at the bottom of your to-do list. What can help is having some easy tips for making the process as painless as possible. Here are a few.

Choose a user-friendly platform

Are you frustrated with your blogging platform? While WordPress remains the most popular, there are many other software options to choose from. Hiring outside help to get your blog set can be a great idea, but make sure you choose a provider who can set up a user-friendly system for uploading new posts in-house.

Create a master list of dental blog topics

Do you find yourself sitting at the computer, staring at a blank page for 20 before writing a post? Fix this by laying out topic ideas in advance.

• Read other dentists’ blogs. Browsing other blogs is a fast way to find out what patients around the country are interested in reading. Example: you find an article titled, “Cosmetic Dentistry Services That Can Transform Your Smile.” You can create related titles for future blog posts such as “How Cosmetic Dentistry Improves Your Self-Esteem,” “3 Cosmetic Dentistry Procedures You Should Know About,” and “Cosmetic Dentistry Services at [Your Practice’s Name].” This gives you three titles from one article to add to your future blog post list.
• Think about your patients’ FAQs. For every service you offer, imagine the most commonly asked questions about that procedure. Every one of those questions could be a blog post. Example: “When Can I Return To Work After Wisdom Tooth Extraction?”
• Include community outreach. Not every post needs to be about teeth and oral health. Think about all the ways your practice gets involved in the community. Example: “Holiday Toy Drive.”
• Practice updates. From new equipment to new hires to new services. Each of those updates can be a post.

Free write

Don’t stress over writing a perfect first draft. You’re an authority on this subject matter so just get your knowledge on the page. Once all the information you want to include is typed out, you can go back and clean it up. Any new content is exponentially more valuable than no new content at all. Stop worrying about hitting specific word counts or using the most SEO-friendly format for your posts and focus on getting new articles published. It’s OK if some articles are just a couple of paragraphs.