This post was prompted by a reader’s question and I thought the answer might be great to share with a broader audience here. A few weeks ago I outlined my social media system. One of the items on my list was the fact that I write a blog post each morning.
So, here’s the question from a reader: “One thing that caught my eye – you mentioned you write your blog post each day. Do you write it real-time for that day or do you have a few in advance reserve that you draw from and post? Also do you have an editorial calendar that you write by theme or do you write more spontaneously?”
First to answer the specific of the question.
1) most blog software allows you to create multiple blog posts in one sitting and then schedule when they go live on your blog. This is not a bad way to manage for some, but I must admit that I write most of my posts in real-time with the intention of hitting the publish button.
2) When I first started blogging I created a notebook with about 100 topics I knew I wanted to blog about as content around my keyword phrases and area of desired thought leadership. (At first blog content is mostly about ranking higher in the search engines, audience and subscribers come from doing that.) Now, I may subconsciously refer to my original list, but I have also developed this well honed radar that is always on in the background observing my world for post content. (I find myself writing content in my head at all times – with great apologies to my wife when we are out for dinner.)
In terms of advice for bloggers new and seasoned – Blog to meet your objectives. For most, search engine traffic for nifty phrases should be your first goal. I know that sounds like creativity killing advice, but no one wants to read your blog just yet, but they do want to find the answers to the questions they are typing into search engines, and that’s how you develop readers and sell stuff.
The best source of blog content is the questions your customers and prospects are asking you. Get a question, answer with a blog post. Also, make it a point to run by sites like delicious and yahoo answers and digg to see what kinds of things people in you industry are writing about that others are bookmarking as good stuff.
And a few more readers shared their social media systems:
Chris Kluis
Paul Chaney
Bran Kleinman
PS – Did anyone notice that this blog post was an example of what I suggested you do?
