“Create content that teaches. You can’t give up. You need to be consistently awesome.” — Neil Patel

Here’s a model that has kept me:

• Constant in publishing blogs
• Consistent outside and inside my content
• Concise in wording my content
• Clear in my content
• Creative in brainstorming blog ideas and selecting photos and quotes

1.  Decide and no longer flounder

 

• Consider carefully how often you can blog and which days you’ll post. When I first started blogging, I decided I could blog once a week. I chose Thursdays to post. I haven’t missed posting. (Constant)

• Decide what type of blog you’ll write: Journal, Review/Interview, or How-to. I write how-to blogs. (Consistent)

• List what topics you’ll stick to. My topics are:
  • writing craft,
  • book marketing,
  • blogging, and
  • speaking. (Consistent)

• Decide if you’ll host guests. I host guests who have how-to posts in my topic areas. (Consistent)

 

2.  Schedule and no longer struggle

 

• Brainstorm and Draft. On Fridays, I seek God, brainstorm post ideas, research, and draft posts. I often use tasks I’m working on in my topic areas. That way, I can share my research. (Creative, Clear, Constant)

• 

  Polish and Setup. On Mondays, after my content sits for a weekend, I edit the main content down to 500 words, put it through my checklist, obtain photos and a quote, and add my post to WordPress. (Concise, Clear, Consistent)

• Publish and Announce. On Thursdays, I review the post again, publish, and announce to social media and writing groups. (Clear, Consistent, Constant)

• Respond to Comments.  I have email notification of comments sent to me. I respond to all comments as soon as I can. (Constant, Consistent)

3. Create aids and no longer forget

• Checklist. Mine makes my editing tasks go quickly without worry. Most important reminders in my checklist are:   

◊  Check for:

•  Uniform bullet structures (Consistent, Clear)

•  Words I tend to misspell (Clear)

•  Words that may work as contractions (Concise)

•  Words ending with –ing (Concise)

◊  Add links and make sure they open in a new tab. (Clear)

◊  Construct Click to Tweet. (Clear)

◊  Test that links and Click to Tweet work. (Clear)

◊  Add tags and category. (Clear)

◊  Select featured photo. (Consistent, Clear)

◊  Capture post’s unique link to announce posts. (Clear)

◊  Announce post to list of social media venues and groups. (Constant, Consistent)

 

• Photo and quote sites. I add an opening quote and 3 to 5 photos. I use the sites below. They have free photos and allow modifications. Required or not, I always give attributions.  (Clear, Consistent, Creative)
  • Photos:
    • http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/agree-terms.php?id=10081079 Needs attribution, which you can choose to have them email you.
    • http://www.morguefile.com
    • https://pixabay.com/en/photos/
  • Quotes:
    • http://creatingminds.org/quotes/quotes.htm
    • http://www.brainyquote.com
    • Quotes from my research sources.

• Reserve blog post. I always have at least one post ready on WordPress for emergencies. (Constant, Consistent)

Use this model to be a constant, consistent, concise, clear, & creative blogger. Click to tweet.

What do you do to make blogging efficient and your content reader-friendly?

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