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I set 27th June as a date to review the document. So this seems like the perfect opportunity to share some of the things I’ve learned, as well as some of my goals for the next 4 months.
1. Blog post ideas don’t come easy – you need a plan
Coming up with ideas has definitely been the biggest
challenge.
I set out to post every Sunday evening / Monday
morning but have failed miserably, often because I couldn’t decide what to
write about. While I came up with a few ideas to get me started, I’ve generally
been led by the stage of the course that I’m at, or events that have occurred
at the time of writing. A fairly casual approach.
Maybe I should have tried harder to pull together a content plan, but it seemed like a step too far when I had never even written a blog post before.
Maybe I should have tried harder to pull together a content plan, but it seemed like a step too far when I had never even written a blog post before.
The times that I have had a few ideas in the pipeline
I have really seen the benefit as I’ve been able to keep an eye out for
anything relevant and bookmark it or jot it down. I find pondering a post for a while, as I go about my
daily routine, helps shape it and make it easier to write once I do get
started.
Knowing which posts are coming up definitely makes the
whole process easier.
Next steps:
Create a content plan for the next month and try to
stick to it
2. Make sure your blog attracts the right audience
When I set up my blog initially I went for pink
and flowery – I don’t know why, I’m not even a very girly girl. I guess I got a
bit overexcited and didn’t give it enough thought. I also used a ghastly,
swirly font for the post titles because I thought it looked pretty.
4 months wiser and I now see that attempt 1 was
difficult to read, slightly garish, and if any self-respecting bloke had opened
the blog, I am fairly sure there would have been a loud expletive as he closed
it again without getting past the title.
My point being, your blog has to appeal to its target
audience. If I had been trying to attract teenage and 20-something females I
was probably going the right way about it.
So I decided it was time for a refresh.
I didn’t want to lose my Ramblings of a Learner
Copywriter header, so that was my start point. I came across this article
from the logo company about colour psychology. I’m not sure how much I believe
in it (maybe that’s for another post), but I decided that trust and
creativity were values I was happy to run with.
Having now seen a number of other blogs I knew I would
prefer a simpler look, so this is what I’ve gone for. Slightly more
professional looking, but still in keeping with my personality – there is no
point in pretending to be something you’re not. Right?
I changed the fonts too, to make them much clearer,
slightly larger by default, and easier to read on-line.
What do you think? I'm still not completely happy with it - but it is certainly an improvement.
Next steps:
Keep an eye out for ideas while exploring other
people’s blogs.
3. Write so people want to read it
We’ve all been there, you excitedly open the link to a blog, read the first few lines and realise they’ve lost you already.
You scroll through the post and all the text blurs together – you focus in on a
bit in the middle…But…Nah, too much like hard work.
You hit ‘Close’.
In today’s world, where it is estimated that the
average social network user receives 285 pieces of content daily*, getting your
audience to click on your post is only half the battle. Our attention spans are
getting shorter, that means our content has to work even harder to grab and
hold our readers.
Obviously style of writing is a large part of this. If
your audience doesn’t like the way you write, they’re not going to read it, no
matter what you’ve written about. The usual things can help – writing in
plain English, using a chatty, informal style, injecting your personality into
your writing etc.
But you should also sit back and look at your post on
the page – blogging platforms allow you to view the blog before you post for a
reason, and I urge you to use this function. How attractive a post looks on the
screen is key to your readers sticking around.
Think about adding regular sub-headers to break up the
text, use bullet points, numbered lists and images (see point 5). Vary the
lengths of your sentences and paragraphs, but make sure they are not too long
and unstructured. Notice how a nice lot of white space makes your post easier
on the eye, and indeed the brain.
Never forget, if you make your post hard work to read,
your reader will turn to one of the other 151,999,999** blogs available on the
internet.
*Source: www.iacpsocialmedia.org
**Source: www.wpvirtuoso.com/how-many-blogs-are-on-the-internet/
“There are £152m blogs on the internet”
4. Don’t ignore Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is about getting your
blog in front of your audience.
At its simplest, it is about making a few tweaks so
Google can tell exactly what your post is about and put it in front of the
people who want to see it. If someone searches for, “Games to play with
toddlers,” and you’ve written a post about that, there is much more chance your
post will be seen if you’ve optimised it.
SEO doesn’t have to be scary.
Here are some quick and simple tips to optimise your
blog:
Pick a relevant keyword or
phrase (such as “games for
toddlers” in the example above) and make sure you include it in headers, a few
times throughout the text and in the titles of your images (see point 5)
Meta descriptions – There is debate around whether these
are used by Google any more, but it can’t hurt to include them. And if
nothing else, this is the little bit of information Google will include when
your post does appear in someone’s search results. Make sure you make it clear
exactly what your blog is about.
Meta descriptions should be included for your blog as
a whole and also for individual posts.
How to do this will vary depending on your blogging platform.
For more information about adding meta tags for Blogger and Wordpress blogs,
see below.
Labels – When creating a post, you have the option to
tag it with relevant labels – perhaps “Toddlers” & “Games” in the example
above. Really it is up to you. Yes, these labels help link together related
topics on your blog so your readers can find their way around, but keep in mind
that they also help Google to figure out what your post is about.
Images - Save your images with an SEO friendly name
(including your keywords), and re-size them before you upload. Add Alt tags (this
is shown if your image fails to load, and can be useful for people with poor
eyesight), title descriptions etc, all making use of your key terms where
possible.
This is a great post from Blognix on SEO for blogs
Next steps:
Work out how to submit site to Google for indexing so
that I can do some analysis on it via Google Webmaster Tools.
5. Don’t overlook the importance of images
I like to create my own images – alright they’re
fairly amateur and taken with nothing other than my iPhone, but I quite like
coming up with ideas.
I keep seeing studies saying that we are
becoming increasingly visual, attracted by images that are easy to take in at a
glance, hence the rise in popularity of 'infographics’ and social media sites like Vine
offering quick bursts of information.
Images can:
- Attract readers
- Help the ‘look and feel' of the post on the page making it more readable (see point 3 above)
- Benefit SEO (point 4 above)
- Increase the chance of your post being shared on social media. People are twice as likely to click on a link on Twitter if there is an image in the tweet*.
Try to include at least 1 relevant image in each blog
post.
*Source: http://blog.bufferapp.com
Next steps:
Improve photography skills
Look into stock photo options
Investigate Canva for designing images.
6. Proofread BEFORE hitting post
I’m sure we’ve all had an, “Oh s*d it, I’m sure it is fine,”
moment and pressed post.
I did this at 3am when writing a post about the
#nomakeupselfie, convinced that for it to be timely and relevant it had to be
posted at that very moment. In the cold light of morning (when Toddler had
woken me up at 5.30 – that’d be 2.5 hours sleep then!) I re-read it and
noticed at least 3 errors even though I definitely proofread it.
Or did I dream it?
I quickly corrected the errors, but in hindsight the 5
readers I'd had between 3am and 5.30am (in the USA), were not worth the
risk.
In short, if you find yourself thinking, “Oh s*d it!”
it is a sign that you need to take a break, NOT a sign you need to press post.
For other useful proofreading tips see The Impotence of Proofreading.
7. Sharing is key to blog success
Yes I know you have just finished a blog post and it
is the best one anyone has ever written, but until you have developed a large
and dedicated following you can’t expect people to just read it. You need to
shout about it.
Social media is designed for sharing content – use it.
At the very least link your blog to Google+ ( this
will benefit your SEO too) and share your post to Twitter.
And while you’re at it choose a great title that will
intrigue people, and use relevant hashtags to get in front of the right people.
If you’ve written a post that aims to help small business owners, use
#smallbiz.
I must admit I struggled a bit at first. Not used to
sharing my writing, I found it really difficult to put it out there, and indeed
early on there were a couple of posts I didn’t share because I wasn’t sure they
were good enough. Now I realise that any feedback is good feedback, and if one
post is not received well I’ll learn from it and write a better one next time.
There are lots of theories on the best times to share
blogs and posts on various social media sites (People read blogs first thing in
the morning, people are active on Twitter around 8am and 12-2pm weekdays,
Facebook activity peaks later in the day and at weekends etc.), you can research this easily if
you wish.
Really, though, I think the key is getting to know
your audience and the best places and times to find them on-line. Try sharing
the same post several times throughout the day and monitor when you get the
best reaction.
But no matter what, make sure you share your new blog post everywhere you
can, and don’t be embarrassed about encouraging other people to share it too.
After all there is no point in blogging if no-one is going to read it.
8. Respond to comments
Possibly my most exciting blogging moment to date
(yes, yes I’ve led a sheltered life!) was when +Rob Philbin shared one
of my posts on Google+ adding a nice little intro of his own - this was the
first time that I’d had any indication that what I was doing was any good, and
it honestly felt brilliant.
If people write comments on your blog, or take time to
share your posts on social media it is really important to thank them and find
out a bit more about them. You could even return the favour if you think any of
their posts would interest your followers.
Next steps:
Engage with other bloggers and comment on their blogs.
9. Set goals
Always focus on the big picture. What are you trying
to achieve with your blog?
That way you will be really able to focus on who your
audience is, and how you can best give them what they want.
It's a bit rich me suggesting this, as focus is something that I am really struggling with at
the moment!
Next steps:
Focus on defining some SMART (specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic and timely) objectives for my blog.
10. Don’t give up – keep at it
Most blogs fail in the first few months.
Make sure yours doesn't.
Some weeks it is tough, but keep at it, even if you
don’t post as often as you would like, or your posts are not as long as you
would like. Make it a habit.
Keep going and you’ll find, as I have, that just as
you’re starting to lose your blogging mojo something happens, someone leaves
you a lovely comment saying simply, “Love your blog,” and you’ll catch that
blogging bug all over again!
Oh, and one final thing I've learned is if you
bother to write a blog strategy it is probably a good idea to look at it
occasionally and not just stick it in a folder.
I now have a revised version….Next review date: 27th October.
I now have a revised version….Next review date: 27th October.
Watch this space.
If you are a blogger, I would love to chat – leave me
a comment below.
Follow my #copywritingjourney on Twitter: @weenixlen
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Wondering how it all started? Read my first post: CA – Copywriters Anonymous
Follow my #copywritingjourney on Twitter: @weenixlen
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