No one reading your psychology blog? It is probably because of your topic or title. I'm sharing a foolproof strategy for writing psycho-education posts people want to read.
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Good psychoeducation blog posts answer real questions that real people have in their real lives.
Real is the important word here. Whatever we write about it has to be something that a person would REALLY type in to their search engine.
There is no one size fits all for this. For example, if you are writing a blog for yoga instructors about how to incorporate more meditation into their practice a problem like “why can’t I get my class attendees to do diaphragmatic breathing?” would probably be very “real” for them. However, your average stressed out bank manager probably wouldn’t relate to the term “diaphragmatic breathing” at all.
There are some simple steps you can take to figure this out.
1. Know your ideal client(s). Listen again to the podcast episode on creating ideal client avatars for your product or service and pick just one for this blog post. Then talk to them! There are lots of ways to find them and talk to them and I go into this in the episode.
2. Record what questions they ask you (note common words and phrases). Go through your emails, voicemails, notes from sessions. What do they tell you they worry about?
3. Record what questions they ask each other (note more common words and phrases). What is commonly talked about in FB groups where they hang out? What do you overhear?
4. Read book reviews on Amazon on your topic and again note key words that reviewers are using to describe the problems the book solves. For example, if I am writing a blog for women diagnosed with ADHD I could look at the comments left on Amazon under “A Radical Guide for Women With ADHD.”
5. Use a tool like “Answer the Public” to sense check the questions you have come up with and add some more.
6. Use keywords everywhere to check search volumes. Avoid terms with very high search volumes as it will be hard to stand out in the crowd but do go for something that has some people searching for it.
Now you know the sorts of topics people are really searching for and have a list of words they use to describe the problem. It is time to come up with a title that will make them want to read. I do this first so that I keep the structure of my blog tight around one very specific issue.
Key principles for titles
1. Name the problem not the solution. People don’t search for CBT for anxiety. They search for “what to do when I can’t stop worrying?” They don’t search for “top tips to improve your attachment with your child”. They search for “what do I do if my three year old hates me?” We type our problems into search engines. But most of the time we title our blog posts with OUR chosen solution. If you name the problem rather than imposing a solution in your title you are more likely to come up as a match to someone’s search term. Your content “snippet” which we will create later in the week then needs to tell them that you have the solution to the...