Speaking with a client the other day, I was caught off guard when he proudly stated that he’d completed a dozen blog posts to launch his blog, and had sent them off to his VA for posting late night. Waaaiiiitt!! There is so much more to this than just writing and posting. Where is the strategy??
Blog posts, like all content, are simply a format of information, nothing more. You have to know a lot more before you jump in. Here is a short blogging checklist to get you on track and into strategic action.
1. WHO is your market? (Writing as if you are in conversation with just one person is much more effective than speaking to a group.)
2. WHERE will they see your post? (Do you have a list or community you can email?)
3. Have you done your KEYWORD RESEARCH so that every post is optimized and shows up in the search engines? (This step is most often forgotten.)
4. Is there a theme to your posts? Do they build from one to the next or are they stand alone?
5. Have you included an image or two so that when shared on social networks there is a visual grab factor (and Pinterest Pinnable)?
6. Did you link to any of your own or other expert posts inside the post?
7. Is your content EVERGREEN? As in it can be read in nine months and still be as valid?
8. If your content is EVERGREEN, have you considered eliminating dates on each post to promote reading over a longer time frame? (We check dates first and will often ignore “old” posts.”)
9. Are you planning to share your content just once on the social networks? Or have you crafted a multiple sharing plan that maximizes exposure at BEST TIMES OF DAY?
10. Have you invited comments at the close of each post? (People will do what you ask them to do, if you don’t ask, you won’t get comments.)
11. Have you leveraged SHARE plugins (free apps/widgets for your blog) that will encourage readers to share on social networks?
12. Are you using strategic plugins to promote SEO, measure your reach (Google Analytics), and limit spam comments?
Okay, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. My point is not to discourage you at all. I want you to get your thought leadership, your content out into the marketplace. I simply want to save you time by setting yourself up for success when you do it right. Blogging can be a lot of work, or it can be fun and effective. It’s your choice!
See, the cool part in all this is that you can create less content with a solid strategic plan for sharing it and make a bigger impact than when you simply dump quantities of content randomly onto the web. And when you follow the checklist, you are doing work, in many cases, once that will then automatically apply to every post you write.
The blog checklist here applies in part to almost everything you do in your business. START with STRATEGY and then pull in the right tools for the job. Otherwise you wind up full on tools and starved for strategy which is the fuel that drives success. Tools just drive busyness.
COMMENT BELOW! I’d love to hear how you have applied strategy beyond toolitis to your business or how reading this has been a wake up call.
