Many businesses start blogs without a real plan. After all, it’s easy to do – you just need to start writing. But actually, there’s some serious planning involved and one of the major decisions to make is your blog voice.
Just like you need consistent, clear messaging in the rest of your business, a good blog has a clear and consistent voice that is communicated on every page.
Consistency helps you create a brand and this is what builds trust with your audience. More importantly, you need a blog that is not a copy of anyone else but a true reflection of who you are and how you want to show up to your audience.
The Elements of a Blog Voice
What does ‘blog voice’ mean? It sounds simple but it’s made up of a number of different elements including personality, beliefs, tone, style, and type of content. Some questions to ask include:
Is your blog going to be strictly factual or opinionated? (are you going to be a technician/teacher or a thought-leader)
What values will it speak to?
Is the tone going to be casual and friendly or more professional?
Are you going to focus on recent news items, write reviews or offer how-to information?
Personality is an especially important consideration because you don’t want your blog to be dull and formal. The human aspect has to come through. It needs to be engaging and speak to emotions as well as giving the reader useful and relevant information.
“Yikes!” “I don’t have enough time.” or “I don’t know what I will write about!” is what I often hear when people talk about trying to blog on a regular basis. There’s no question about it – blogging takes time. If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner with a daily to-do list as long as your arm, you may feel like you don’t have the time to update your blog. However, it might be your day’s most important task, so don’t skip it. Here are some tips for taking the blogging weight off your shoulders and making blogging what it should be – fun, energizing, and creative.
Find Your Best Time to Write Your Blog Posts
Everybody has certain times of the day when they feel more inspired than others. For example, you might have your best ideas in the mornings just after you wake up. Set aside some time each day during these periods for working on blog posts. Make it part of your schedule and it will become a habitand ideas will flow and when they do, write away.
Everyone says that you should show your personal side, even if you’re using social media for your business. Personalizing your content and interactions puts a human face on your business. This is how you build real, authentic relationships. But there are cases where you can be too personal, and you need to steer clear of these or the results could be disastrous.
No “Big Talk”
The type of personal content we share on social media falls under the category of small talk, not “big talk.” You might mention a place you ate today and how it was. You may show a picture of your dog and share a milestone in his or her life. But you would avoid topics like romantic encounters, touchy political issues, or things that annoy you about certain people, unless those topics are a central part of your branding. We have all seen how too much politics has made people cranky and frankly rude to one another- even leading to the “unfriending” behavior that is happening all too frequently.
Sharing (too many) Problems
Venting and complaining about your problems is more likely to annoy than engage. However, there is a right way to discuss problems that can actually boost engagement. The way to do it is to share a problem you faced that is also a common problem of your audience. Get them to discuss the problem with you. Even better, offer a solution to this common problem or ask your audience to share theirs.
I invite you to change your thinking about work/life balance because I think it is an unattainable myth.
Yep, that is right. Work/Life balance is a Myth.
There I have said it. Yes, I know it is one of the most universal sought after ideals. It is not just in North America but it is listed as one of the most important issues around the world. Everyone is seeking work/life balance.
Ah, but does seeking something automatically mean it is attainable?
I say “No!” At least not the way most people are going about work/life balance; as a “to-do” item and another thing that needs to be accomplished. There must be some secret out there to achieving it and if I try a little harder, I will achieve it also. And the game begins trying to find the secret to work/life balance.
There are plenty of people trying to sell you the secret
Everywhere you look there is a magazine article or someone else telling you “The 7 Ways to Achieve Work/Life Balance.” Again another “to do” item and boy, does it feel stressful. Not balanced in the way I want you to feel. What if we looked at balance as a “to be” item and that balance meant feeling a sense of harmony? Now we are getting somewhere that feels a little bit better.
I am not against balance per se but I think there is something much better
I just don’t think that being in balance is good enough. Once you get the seesaw of life “in balance”, something comes along to push you back out of balance. This kind of balance is static. It is a tenuous place to exist and people often are in a place of striving when trying “to balance it all”. So, I invite you to say, “the heck with balance, let’s thrive!” Now thriving in work and life is exciting and allows you experience your work and life in a way that is dynamic.
What exactly does thriving mean?
Thriving is a term we hear a lot about these days. Thriving according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary means “To grow vigorously and/or to progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances.” “Despite of” or “because of circumstances”; isn’t that another way of saying “life”. So thriving allows us to do our best work and experience our best life. For years I have talked about Thriving and I like to add that when you are thriving, you are able to take risks; you are able to make mistakes and have “do-overs” so you don’t need to be perfect.
Thriving allows you to think and grow from a place of abundance and possibility. Sometimes thriving means slowing down and nourishing yourself as a plant often does in winter. Thriving is a way of Being instead of a way of Doing and it allows room for peace and harmony to co-exist with mistakes and messiness. All the while supporting you in moving forward toward your goals. And by first “being” you can be more successful at taking action and “doing”.
How do I start to thrive?
If you are ready to thrive, I invite you to visit me here again as I write about tools, topic and tips to help you keep moving forward, because that will create success.
So, back to our myth that work/life balance is attainable. I hope you have decided that work/balance as another “to-do” item is no longer something you desire. I invite you to go beyond seeking balance to a creating harmony so your work and your life will both truly thrive.
Coming up with fresh content ideas for your blog isn’t always easy. Today I have a great new content tip for you and the best part is that some of your post is already written. It’s a bit like getting to skip ahead in line. Perfect for those busy days when your calendar is full but you want to get a blog post published.
Got Questions?
Keep an eye out for questions in comments. Save them, horde them, and when you need a quick post, take that question – copy and paste it into your blog and answer it. That was easy, wasn’t it?
Of course you want to answer your readers right away when you see the comment come up. Go ahead and do that. But keep a mental tab on this question and ask yourself this:
Will other people have the same question? (99% of the time the answer will be yes)
Is there more I can share on the topic?
If you answer yes to both questions (and most likely you will), then the commenter question qualifies for a follow up blog post. And that’s exactly what it is; a follow up to the original comment question and your answer.
Answer those questions
Start by introducing the topic or question. Share the question and then let your readers know that you wanted to give a more detailed answer, thus the new blog post. Share the answer you gave the reader in the original comment and elaborate as you see fit. That’s it. A quick and easy blog post and for a portion all you had to do was copy and paste.
Format it, add a graphic and you’re ready to hit publish. Rinse and repeat with other questions as they pop up in your comments. Readers love these types of posts because they often had the exact same question, but they were too shy to ask.
Your Personal FAQ section
If you find yourself with quite a few questions, you may even want to make this a new featured category on your blog. It will quickly become a valuable resource to your readers. You can even answer them all at once (in different blog posts) and schedule them to be published on a certain day. If you are consistent with this, your readers will know look forward to reading the answers. You can also do this as a video if you would like just to give people a more personal connection to you as you are answering their questions.
It will save you time in the long run. By being thorough in your answer, it will not only apply to this exact question, but a multitude of related questions. When they pop up in comments, all you have to do is reply with a link to the post. You have created your own personal FAQ section for your blog.
Wasn’t that easy? So, do you have any questions for me today?
I have a quick tip for you today that will come in handy as you’re working on getting ahead on your blogging. It’s using the draft feature. Yes, it’s handy that WordPress and most other blogging platforms have a way to save your posts as drafts so you can continue to work on it over the course of a few days. It’s even better that they usually auto-save for you – at least it is in my case. But there’s another great way to use the draft feature.
You can use drafts to get ahead of the blogging game in several different ways. Let’s start with the most obvious one.
Use Drafts to Work on Your Next Blog Post (or Two)
The most obvious way to use drafts is of course to work on your current blog post until it is ready to publish. But don’t just stop there. If you know you have a busy day tomorrow or later on in the week, go ahead and give yourself a head start by creating a draft and working on it here and there as you can fit it in your busy day. You’ll be glad you did when it comes time to wrap up that particular post.
Use Drafts to Plan Out Your Week
You can also use drafts to plan out your blogging for the week. Let’s say you want to post 5 times per week. Come up with 5 topics and create a draft for each. Then start working on them, making sure you wrap up and publish at least one of the posts on each of your publishing days.
Not only will this keep you on track and show you at a glance what you’ll be blogging about this week, it also allows you to work on multiple posts throughout the week, giving you options when you get stuck on writing one post.
Use Drafts as A Way of Storing Blog Post Ideas
Let’s wrap this up with my favorite way to use the drafts feature. And that’s to use it as storage container for ideas for future blog posts. Here’s how to do it. When you get an idea for a blog post, go ahead and create a draft. Come up with a working title and make a quick note of what your blog post will be about. If you’re feeling ambitious, go ahead and write a quick outline for the post. Then save it as a draft.
Do this anytime you come up with an idea and save them for later. Then whenever you need something to blog about, browse through your drafts and pick one of these. The idea is there and you may even have done some of the writing already. These drafts make for fast blog posts and are just the thing when you’re suffering from writer’s block.
Thought I would do something fun for today, the 23rd of the month. Here are some reasons why 23 is the greatest number of all time as stated by www.urbandictionary.com I changed # 8 to It is Tennis Day because that is important to me (see my blog post on “Why I am addicted to Professional Tennis”) and #12 because, come on, we all need to celebrate International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day. Enjoy!
Here are 23 Reasons why 23 is the greatest number: It is…
1. a prime number, as are 2 and 3.
2. Michael Jordan’s number.
3. the NBA record for most consecutive points scored by a single player in a game, done by none other than Michael Jordan.
4. the number of chromosomes in a human sperm or egg.
5. the angle between the earth’s magnetic and rotational axis.
6. the Tropic of Cancer at 23 degrees N Latitude.
7. the Tropic of Capricorn at 23 degrees S Latitude.
8. Tennis Day
9. the most quoted Psalm in the bible (“The Lord is my shepherd…”
10. the number of people executed in “A Tale of Two Cities”
11. the smallest number of people for which there is at least a 50% chance that two will share the same birthday.
12. International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day
13. one of the “Lost” numbers on the television show….also the sum of two of the other numbers (8 & 15)and the solution to 42-15-4=23, all of which are also Lost numbers.
14. the number of times Caesar was stabbed in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
15. has been prominently featured in the following: Serendipity, Futurama, Star Wars A New Hope, Monty Python The Life of Brian, Seinfeld, The Big Lebowski, The Matrix Reloaded, and Die Hard III among MANY MANY other movies.
16. the number of flavors Dr. Pepper claims to be a blend of.
17. the number of distinct orientations of Tetris pieces.
18. the sum of U2, the greatest band ever. U is the 21st letter of the alphabet.
19. the number of letters in the latin alphabet.
20. the number of the Illuminati.
21. the letter W in the english alphabet, a letter with 2 points down and 3 points up.
22. the smallest number of integer sided boxes that tile a box such that no two boxes share a common length.
23. the only US president to serve between nonconsecutive terms of another president (23rd president Benjamin Harrison serving between Grover Cleveland’s terms).
Getting people to visit your blog is essential to building a following. Of course, to get traffic to your blog you first need to write great content. Once you’ve got the content, focus on promotion. Here are a few ways to promote your blog.
Social Media
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest can help drive traffic to your blog. You may already have accounts with social media sites. You’ll want to consider whether you should create a separate account for your blog.
If you want to keep your personal and professional life separate, it is a good idea. However, if your personality is your blog, then your social media accounts should be under your personal name.
You can use your social media page to interact with others who are interested in your topic and to drive traffic to your blog. In addition to interacting, sharing, and commenting on relevant information, you can share snippets from your blog and link to your posts. This will help drive readers to your blog and help you develop a following.
Keywords
What keywords do you think people will use to find your information? For example, if you’re blogging about nutrition then someone might search “how to eat right or what should I eat to be healthy.” If you have posts on that topic, with those keywords, your blog will show up in their search results.
You can identify potential keywords in a number of ways. One is to pay attention to trending topics and hashtags on social media. What keywords and hashtags are people using? You can also use keyword tools like Google’s Keyword Tool, https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner.
Use keywords in your blog posts and your title where they logically fit. Don’t try to pack your posts with keywords, it doesn’t work and can backfire on you. And you always want to write quality content – focus on your readers first.
Great Headlines
Great blog post headlines entice people to open your posts. They’ll share, link to them, and like them perhaps before even reading all of the content. Great headlines often pique curiosity or they evoke an emotion.
Study the headlines that you click on. Ask yourself why you clicked on it. What attracted your attention to the headline? Also, think about what your audience might be interested in. And finally, pay attention to the headlines that your readers respond to.
Guest Blogging
Consider seeking guest blogging opportunities. As a guest blogger, you’ll write and publish content for other bloggers. You gain a new audience and the opportunity to promote your own blog. Make sure that you’re posting on blogs that are relevant to your blog topics.
For example, if you’re blogging about fitness then you might guest blog on a sports nutrition website. You want the audience to be people who may be interested in your blog and you want to add value to the blogger whose site it is.
Search the Blogosphere
Spend time surfing the web and find other bloggers who are relevant to your own audience. Start commenting on their blogs. Begin developing a relationship with relevant bloggers and provide thoughtful comments. Generally speaking, comments will attract attention from other commenters and blog readers. You can generate traffic, and opportunities, when you interact with other bloggers.
Once you have people coming to your blog, you are in a position to begin profiting from their visits. As a blogger, there are many ways to profit. They include, but aren’t limited to:
Selling Ad Space on your blog – the more traffic/visitors you have the more you can charge a company that wants to advertise.
Selling your own products or services, including information products
Promoting affiliate products or services and earning a commission from the sales
For any of these models to be effective, you need to create a community of followers who get value from what you write about. You want your visitors to come back to your blog again and again.
We will take a look at how to how visitors come back again and again in the next post. Let me know how these tips work for you.
