My AI Blogging Strategy That Works (Step by Step)

I've been blogging for nearly 2 decades, and I can say with confidence that in 2024, it has never been easier to write and publish blog posts! It's absolutely crazy to me how easy it is compared to even 5 years ago, all thanks to AI tools.

Before I show you my exact blog post writing strategy, I want to make something very, very (!!) clear: I do not copy and paste AI outputs into WordPress and hit publish. I utilize AI as an assistant, as a tool, as a helper, as a first-draft writer.

This is a VERY clear and important distinction between my process and those who mass produce shitty AI content and then get blacklisted by Google.

My AI Blogging Strategy

I use three AI-powered tools to help create my blog posts, with 2 of them being optional if you're on a super-tight budget, but they're still very helpful:

• optional: Topical Map AI – to map out your clusters and gain topical authority
• optional: RankIQ – to find low-competition keywords, see what others are writing, and watch for content decay
• must-have: RightBlogger – to write your blog posts (along with a million other things; see below)

The whole point of using AI-powered tools for blogging is to save yourself time and energy. I live with chronic illness and so does my daughter, so I have to work less and make more money. AI helps me do that. That doesn't mean I phone it in; in fact, I wrote this entire blog post without the help of AI at all. It just means that I'm utilizing these three tools to write blog posts better and faster.

Yes, had I used AI to help me write this post, it'd probably be way more organized and thorough LOL. Touchè.

Pro blogger tip: While I use affiliate links in this post, you'll notice my main recommendation is for RightBlogger, which pays me far less for each signup as an affiliate than RankIQ does. It's always important to be honest when making recommendations or your readers won't trust you. If you're new to affiliate marketing, read my affiliate marketing tips for bloggers.

Topical Map AI

You can use your topical map as a starting point for a new blog, saving hours and hours of manual research. Or, if you already have a blog, you can use it to fill in content gaps.

First, put your topic into the Topical Map tool and it will create a map for you.

I used “thyroid cancer” as an example because on my personal blog, I talk about my thyroid cancer journey. Typically, you would NOT choose a health topic to blog about – but my personal blog is just a hobby for me, so I don't have to worry about ranking, traffic, monetizing, etc.

Next, analyze the topics, subtopics, and pages the map has given you.

This will be based on your own knowledge because you're writing about a topic you love, are passionate about, and know a lil somethin' somethin' about.

If you need to rewind and choose a niche, that's okay. Pause and do that now because you can't create a topical map without a topic LOL.

I like to pull all of the ideas into a spreadsheet and start digging through them. This is one of my favorite parts of blogging: all the ideas!!

Be careful not to go off the rails here; remember this is an AI tool so it's giving you the info it thinks is relevant. You have to use your brain to determine if your audience really needs or wants to hear about each topic idea or not.

Now it's time to sift through everything. Topical Map AI gives you around 1,000 ideas. It would take ages to write 1,000 posts… so we focus on 10 at a time.

Build your clusters/silos out in the spreadsheet (or on paper), and then do some keyword research (RankIQ or RightBlogger – see below).

As you write your posts, remember that the #1 thing is to create valuable content for your audience. Keyword research is important but it comes secondary when you know your topic well. When you're first getting started, you may need to rely on keyword research tools like RankIQ a little more.

Still have questions? You can read my Topical Map AI post to see how to use it step by step.

RankIQ

Using RankIQ is like using training wheels when you're learning to ride a bike: they're very helpful at first, but later you can take them off and ride on your own (aka use less-expensive tools).

RankIQ shows you an entire list of keywords you should consider using in your blog post. Heavy on the consider… do not keyword stuff your posts just to get a good grade in RankIQ. Many of my top-ranking posts are graded a “C” by the content optimizer.

Remember this is an AI-powered tool. We have to use our brains to override the robots sometimes: which words are important to include? Which words can you leave out without negatively affecting your post? These are things you learn as you publish more.

In my VIP blogging program, I recommend utilizing RankIQ for the first few months of writing blog posts, just so you can get used to including keywords, looking at competition, etc.

After a few months of consistently writing blog posts, you should have the hang of it to where you can use RightBlogger for minimal keyword research and write the post on your own.

However, many experienced bloggers continue using RankIQ because it's so helpful to see all of the keywords at once – as well as links to the posts your competitors wrote, title keywords, etc.

If you're on a tight budget, it's okay to go down to RankIQ's lower plan of 8 reports a month (you have to email them to ask), or pause for a bit and go back to it later. If you find you're writing better posts with RankIQ, find it in the budget – it will be worth it in the long run.

You can read my RankIQ review to learn more about how to use it and why I like it.

RightBlogger

While Topical Map AI and RankIQ are immensely helpful, RightBlogger is the only tool I would say you *absolutely need* when it comes to blogging with AI. If you're on a budget and just want to buy ONE thing, this is it.

You can use RightBlogger to do keyword research (similar to RankIQ but not as in-depth), build clusters of blog posts (similar to topical map but not as detailed), identify content gaps, turn your videos into blog posts, and more.

Writing Blog posts with RightBlogger

After you've built your topical map and done thorough keyword research, you can use RightBlogger to help you write your blog posts.

Remember: we use AI to help us create a first draft. Never copy and paste and hit publish!

I go over how to do that in my RightBlogger review but you can also watch ththe video below where I show you how I use *only* RightBlogger for this process.

Is RightBlogger the only tool I need?

If you know your topic, you understand a little about SEO, and you just need to grab some keywords, RightBlogger is sufficient. It's not going to give you a whole map with keywords for one post like RankIQ does, but it's also $29.99/mo for unlimited use.

Because I blog about blogging (how meta!), I use a lot of tools that I wouldn't necessarily keep using every month if it wasn't my literal job to keep up with them. With RankIQ, I love the ease of use – but RightBlogger does the job for a fraction of the cost – so I probably would use the lower plan on RankIQ (or pause it and only use it a few months a year) if I was just blogging and not teaching about it.

Does RightBlogger replace RankIQ?

My recommendation is that you try out RankIQ if you can afford it and try out RightBlogger to see if you need them both or if RightBlogger is sufficient for your use case. That's the only real way to tell if you need (or want) to use both tools.

As you can see, RightBlogger does do some keyword research – but it's not the training wheels like you get with RankIQ.

Does RightBlogger replace Topical Map AI?

Some people may find RightBlogger easier to manage than Topical AI. I don't mean as far as the actual use of the tools (they're both super simple and easy to use), but when you use Topical Map, you get 1,000 ideas. That may be overwhelming to you, or it may be energizing like it is for me.

As you can see in the screenshot above, RightBlogger can easily help you create clusters of blog posts.

However, it's not nearly as detailed as what you get with a topical map.

So just like with RightBlogger vs RankIQ, you're going to have to decide which is better for your personal use case.

The good news is, all of these tools are relatively affordable when it comes to amazing AI-powered blogging tools.

My Blogging Tool Box

To use all 3 tools, it's still under $100 per month, but I know that budgets can be tight! While I love all three tools and I think it's the perfect trifecta of AI-powered blogging tools, like I said before… if you can only swing ONE tool right now, I would go with RightBlogger.

• TopicalMapAI is $19/mo for 30 maps
• RankIQ is $99/mo but if you use my link you get it for $49/mo (and sometimes they have an even better deal through this link)
• RightBlogger is $29.99/mo for unlimited use of 70+ tools (and is WAY better than any of the other AI tools out there as of June 2024)

What's Next?

Now it's time to get to work! Go map out your clusters and get to writing. 🙂

If you have any questions about using these tools, or about writing blog posts, blogging strategy, etc just leave them in the comments below and I'll get back to you ASAP!

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It helps my blog tremendously. Thank you!