The other day I found myself in another conversation around the challenges of blogging.
“I need more time.”
“I should just write a bunch at once.”
“Maybe if I incorporate a ‘writing day’ into my calendar…”
“I have lots of things to write about, but it just takes so long…”
Any of those apply to you? If so, here are some quick tips to think about:
- A blog entry doesn’t have to resemble an essay, term paper, white paper, or even be as long as an entire paragraph. Not feeling inspired some days? Just do a “quick tip”.
- It’s okay to write conversationally in a blog post. While I do encourage the use of a spell check, the occasional misused semicolon will not bring your business down. Mrs. Schnikelbottom from 7th grade will probably not see your blog post. Even if she does, I’m pretty sure she can’t comment in red ink.
- Feeling uninspired?
- Save questions from clients.
- Write down “case study” examples as they happen in your business.
- Seek out what others in your field are talking about, and write your take on it.
- Take portions of anything you’ve ever spoken about, and write out a bit about it.
- Have an ebook or something simliar? Take an excerpt.
- Ask your clients to submit questions.
- Ask your clients to submit challenges.
- Don’t have clients yet? Make up something your client would say if you had one, or write about the challenges they would have.
- Grab a big topic, and turn it into 6 blog posts (series, anyone?)
How often should I blog?
I personally like blogging once or twice a week. The more frequent publication is actually less “pressure” because I don’t feel like it has to be such a big sparkly production each time I blog. It can be more of an ongoing conversation. I think you need to pick what feels good to you. That being said – if you are working on your SEO – you probably need to be on the 2-3 times a week train.
I have plenty of ideas, but have no TIME!
If you have lots of great info in your head, but no time to get it on paper (or…your blog in this case) – write down article title ideas and the bullet points to with them, and then send it to a writer to complete and make into sentences. Bonus if you find a writer that can also incorporate SEO stuff into your posts (we have can do this… just sayin’). AND sometimes you can even ask your writer to just get on the phone with you for an hour while you spout your wisdom, and then he/she comes back a week or so later with blog posts. It’s like magic. Still your ideas, but somebody else’s punctuation. Practical. Efficient. Yet still authentic. Boom, done.
Repurpose, reuse, recycle.
Are you writing separate items for your ezine, blog, and social media campaigns? If so, stop it right now! There is no need. Check it out:Â blog=ezine=social media updates (that link back to the blog post).
See? Blogging isn’t as hard as you thought!
Do you have any tips for easy blogging? Add them in the comments below!
I always tell people to have fun with blogging. When it becomes a chore, it makes being creative that much more difficult. I also think it’s just as important to network on the various social networking sites, getting to know other bloggers and others who share the same passion. I belong to several groups about dogs on LinkedIn and have made many fantastic connections.
Great tips.
Kimberly
Thanks for your comment Kimberly. I agree! Nothing like a little “I *have* to” to make any task difficult and just plain … sucky. 🙂
Laurie, great post. As a new blogger, I loved your suggestions. I actually am finding blogging more “fun” to do than writing my ezine. (btw- I love your style – how you mix content with humor). One thing I’ve been doing since I started, is making a list of ideas from client conversations and turning that into a blog – that way I always have a topic to write about. Thanks for sharing!
Great tips, Laurie;
I love the bullet points that make these tips seem easily do-able! And yes, all 3 of the first “is this you” section apply to me. I have blogged daily in the past; I know I can, but its a great point that we need to rethink it if it becomes a chore. Bring back the laughter!
Alison
Yeah! I try not to do things that aren’t fun. 🙂
Laurie, I love that you offer a writer that can take our thoughts and clean ’em up, format and SEO etc. I’ve been wanting that for a long time and stopped blogging frequently cause I just couldn’t wear that hat anymore. Great tips!
Thanks Debra! There are SO many things to do as an entrepreneur, and we just can’t do them all. I’ve petitioned God to add more hours to the day, but he hasn’t yet responded. 🙂 Until then, we’ll have to settle for outsourcing and delegation. lol I find that when I “get rid” of things that I just don’t like to do, my productivity increases 10-fold. Amazing stuff.
I’m taking a break from my weekly blog post to read your easy blogging post. I know that I should do 2 a week, but I want to make sure that my audience is actually reading them, and doesn’t turn me off. I know that for myself, I don’t tend the open the ones that come too often. Do you have a way around that?
Susan, that’s a good point, and please keep in mind that you don’t have to “send” your blog posts to your audience every time you write one. Also, one thing that I do (and that I like to see as someone who receives a lot of ezines) – You can blog 2,3,4, or even 10 times a week, but only send your ezine out once a week or twice a month. In your ezine, you can have a “recent articles” section with the title of the blog, and then a little 2 sentence summary of what it’s about. That way, your audience can pick which ones are most relevant and they want to read. Really great examples of mailings that do this especially well (besides mine – just had to throw that in there lol) is:
http://www.raintoday.com <---- this is a great publication for entrepreneurs, too! http://www.babycenter.com <---- emails for moms
Hey Laurie! That was such a fun article, and makes blogging seem so much simpler than we sometimes make it!! I am a big fan on repurposing content, so we are singing to the proverbial choir here together! 🙂 Thanks for spelling out some of the things we can do, because even just a simple tip is enough! And we don’t always think of these ourselves. Yay! Simplicity is king.
Louise x
“Easy blogging”? Ha! Your post is very timely. My goal is to blog once a week, CONSISTENTLY. But I admit, I struggle with it. I consider myself a writer, but I struggle to come up with topics on a consistent basis. So your point #3 is especially helpful. One thing I’d add is that when I find an article, bit of news, etc. that I feel would be a good topic, I bookmark it and then go back to write my own take on the topic later. So I have an ever-ready swipe file of ideas, etc.
Thank you for your comment Michelle! Creating a swipe file is a great idea. To take that one step further – try taking the URL or the part that you want to comment on, and creating a draft blog post of it (this applies if you use WordPress for blogging). Then, when you get ready to write your blog, you can just go into your posts in WordPress, and bring up all your drafts. I do this, and it’s nice to have there be one less step.