If you’re a good blogger (i.e. you post regularly, always have things to write about), then congratulations.
I have a cookie for you. And, hey, keep on writing that post.
For the rest of us, it’s not so easy. While we know blogging is important for many reasons (for me, it’s SEO!), it can still be a tough nut for non-writers to crack. Planning posts is second-nature for good bloggers, and is something that can help us bad bloggers move to the right side of the tracks.
As an example, I started the Matterhorn Marketing blog back in 2006. Despite knowing the importance of posting, I was never able to get it together to maximize its value to the business.
Why Planning Your Blog Matters
The importance of planning posts, as a part of an underlying content strategy, can help eliminate the paralysis by analysis that prevents a lot of us from becoming one of the good guys.
Simply brainstorming topics that are of interest to you, and more importantly are of interest to your audience can help create an outline of post topics. This alone can prove to be a valuable step.
I mean, I’m certain that I’m not the only one that knows they need to feed the blog, logs into WordPress and then stares blindly at the dashboard thinking, “what should I write about?”
Our resident content strategist and house-blogger, Ben Curnett, has placed me (as he does with all of our partners) on a pretty simple path by providing a framework which makes posting regularly seem less, well, scary.
Additionally, the bar has been set low. I know (I know!) can write a few hundred words per week. I know you can too.
Simply put, planning blog posts for the bad blogger.
- Create a list of topics which interest you AND your audience
- Plug those topics into a calendar
- Set attainable goals
The benefits of regular postings are numerous. As an SEO (Search Engine Optimization’er) at heart, I always find myself approaching content creation from that perspective. As a result of creating consistent posts, a few of the SEO benefits you can expect are:
- Google and Bing will visit your site more often. They love fresh (good) content.
- You’ll create more opportunity to be found through long-tail search. More on long tail terms in another post… it’s on my schedule.
- You’ll provide more opportunity and reasons for people to link to you.
How do you plan your posts and what benefit do you receive from it? Or, perhaps a better question, how would planning help you?
And why haven’t you done it yet?
Tags: blogs, content strategy, Digital Marketing, Pat Strader, planning