I have been involved in various discussions over the last few weeks about blogging, I have been speaking to my Rockstars about blogging and their blocks around it.   The overriding thing about peoples feelings about blogging is that it scares them.

Why People Avoid Blogging:-

❌they are giving away too much

❌that people are judging them

❌that their peers are reading it to see what they are up to

❌that they are fed up of giving stuff away for free

❌that they have no idea what to write and spend hours, days, weeks over each blog.

It seems lots of people have got stuck in the blogging trap, they are overthinking their content and they are making it a MASSIVE job.

I promise it doesn’t need to be this way.

Before I get into my top tips for making blogging easier let me tell you why that humble blog is so important to your business.

In your online business, content is king.  This blog that you write can serve you many times over.  It can become a post on Facebook or Linkedin, it can be shared with a little to the blog on Twitter or broken down into little tweets, it can be shared on Pinterest and Instagram, it can form part of your newsletter and the basis of videos and podcasts you record as well as press articles that you might write.

✔️It allows you to showcase your knowledge to your crowd.

✔️It allows you to nurture relationships with your audience.

✔️It drives traffic to your websites.

✔️It can drive traffic to your free offering.

✔️It’s good for search engine optimisation.

Gosh & that’s just the major benefits.

So as it seems lots of people are overthinking blogging and getting frightened of the thought of the blog, then what are my top tips?

1. Write Everything For Your Crowd On Your Blog 

Every time you write something in your business (whether it’s a blog, an article or any other content) run it through these questions

✔️Is this something that my crowd will find interesting?

✔️Is this important to my crowd?

✔️Am I giving my crowd enough information to understand the topic and take it away and implement the ideas?

✔️Am I using any technical language that they may not understand/do I need to explain anything further?

If you are stuck on content then ask your crowd what they need help with right now.  This will help you to decide on the type of content to bring together for them.

2. Don’t Be Afraid To Give Away Information/Advice For Free Within Your Blog 

Not only does your blog content help you to create a library of great articles and advice but it can be used on your Social Media platforms. It allows you to build relationships and geniuely help your crowd AND it can also fast track your audience into buyers on the basis that they get to “try before they buy” and see your style of teaching. If you are super clever you can also use it in order to profile and target your audience moving forwards!

3. Keep A Notebook of Ideas

I advocate first of all taking a note of all the topics that you could possibly talk about within your blog.  Keep the notebook with you and then if you get a flash of inspiration you can capture that straight away.  Inspiration for your blogs can be found EVERYWHERE.  Write down that headline that caught your attention in the newsagents, take a photograph of a magazine that captured your attention and note it in your notebook.   Keep a track of ALL your ideas.

WARNING – if your ideas flow with ease when you are driving please wait until you pull over to take the notes!

4. Think Through The Titles Of Your Blog Posts

The most read blogs on my website have had numbers in the title (i.e. 13 Steps to A Sales Page Which Sells).

Where possible keep your blog titles within 65 characters so that they show up in their entirety in searches and on your email titles (it’s not one I’m anal about but do keep an eye on title length).

5. Gosh, How Many Words?

This is one that I can get asked ALL the time. How many words should my blog be? Well, the answer is……..
How many does it need to be? Don’t add words in there just to pad it out. Some blogs are short, some much longer. I do suggest that you try to get over the 400 words mark if possible but it really does depend on what you’re talking about and how much you have to say.

6. Mix Up Your Content

You can do podcast blogs, vlogs (video blogs) or written blogs – it’s always nice to mix up your content. Your written blogs can also be broken down into tips/hacks blogs, stories and”how to” blogs.

7. Tell Stories Within Your Blog

Paint a picture, tell a story, show an example. Not only is it great to help people cement the learning you’re putting in front of them and paints a picture of what it is you really mean BUT it also allows your audience to get to know you a little bit more. Sharing an element of your own life and experiences shows your audience that you are real.

8. Re-Use What You Have Already Got

Re-write articles which you have already got, tweak them and make them even better.  Look at the Facebook posts you have and whether you can expand on them and make them into blogs.  Re-write ideas that you have had in the past.

9. Don’t Force 

Sitting down to blog and forcing yourself to write, even when you aren’t in the mood or you are suffering from writers block is completely and utterly pointless. You will never produce your best work in those circumstances. Take time out, recharge and come back to writing when you are ready!

10. When You Wanna Write Then Write

When you do find yourself in the mood then write your little heart out. Write all the blogs that spring to mind. Leave them as drafts in your website to go back and tweak later or schedule them for release at a later date. A few blogs up your sleeve will always come in handy.

11. Unless Your Audience Require Stuffy & “Professional” Don’t Do It!

If your audience don’t require “professional” type blogs then don’t be stuffy! I find this is one that so many people get hung up on. I write in the same way as I speak. It may not be 100% Queen’s English & it certainly isn’t the way I would have written in my corporate days but I have made the decision to write in this way and this is the way in which my crowd engages with me. It may upset some people that I am not always on the ball with the grammar and the Grammar Police may come out in a cold sweat BUT I don’t care. Reading my blog is the same as sitting and chatting to me over a cuppa. My aim is to take my subject and make it accessible, understandable and easy for my lovely crowd to implement in their business.

12. Blogs Don’t Have To Be All Words

Good images in your blogs will make all the difference. They will look better on your website, they will be easier to share on Social Media, they are more likely to capture attention AND they will be easier to read and remember!

13. Make Them Easy To Read

✔️ Some people skim read – so break your blogs up with sub-headings.

✔️Some people learn via visuals – can you add infographics into your blogs & remember the images!

✔️Start with a summary – what’s the blog all about? This will allow your audience to decide whether they should invest the time in reading the rest of the blog.

14. Calls To Action

Do you want your crowd to take action after reading your blog? If the answer is yes then tell them!! It might be that they need to go away and implement something or it may be that you want them to look at further articles or it might be that you want them to sign up for a freebie – whatever it is, spell it out.

15. Make Them Timeless Or Topical?

It’s great to jump on the back of news stories where appropriate in your business BUT you must remember that your blogs are there forever and it’s important that you make sure that your topical blogs also include timeless messages in case they are shared again in the future.

16. Keep A Blog Log

Keep a note of the blogs you have written and a quick indication as to the topic it’s all about. The first thing that this will help you with is to see, at a glance, whether you are missing any specific topics from your blog AND secondly, it will help you re-use these blogs. I re-share old blogs on my Social Media regularly. I make sure that my blogs remain up to date and I continue to share them on Twitter and Facebook at regular intervals. Just because I wrote them a while ago doesn’t mean that I can’t use them again!

17. Write Your Blog, Leave It, Then Read It

Re-read your blog with fresh eyes and edit it where necessary.

18. Make Your Blog Shareable

My blog is written on WordPress & I use the plugin “Flare” which allows my audience to share my blog at the click of a button.

So now is the time to relax into your blogging, stop overthinking it and stop standing in your own way.  Be yourself and write blogs that serve your crowd and showcase your talents!

If you want a little help and support then please do shout up, I’m considering running a FREE Blogging class and I’d love to know if you’d be interested.