You know how you can make one of those ridiculous professional mistakes, and you’re all set to kick yourself in the pants, but then you figure out something terribly important from the mistake? Yeah, that happened to me the other day.
It all started a year ago, when I’d accidentally disabled the publicizing feature on my personal blog.
But then last week,
I realized the mistake and got to work, getting all my promotional tools up and running again. That’s when the terribly-important figuring out began. (I mean, besides the terribly important thing I figured out about checking the status of your publicizing tools on various social media.)
First, I noticed my blog post titles. When I double-checked my blog feed on the afore-mentioned various social media, and saw my blog title pop up, I had this moment where I thought, “Would I stop to read this blog post based on that boring title?”
Well. It was a humbling moment, friends. I’m a
creative writer, for crying out loud. I should be coming up with extra-oomph-y titles, right? But I’d been taking the lazy route, falling back on same-old, same-old title patterns.
To be honest, I suspect my faithful blog readers would probably read my posts no matter what I titled them. And yours probably will, too. But do you really want to get in the bad habit of penning ho-hum titles? That’s a writing skill you need to hone whether you write fiction, non-fiction, poetry or blog posts.
And for bloggers like me, there’s another reason strong titles are important. I’m in the business of bringing new readers to my blog. Maybe you’d like to build
your subscribers, too. But how can we expect to pull in new readers with ordinary titles? After all, we’re competing with a ton of information (not to mention a ton of cute cats) out there amongst the social media. We’re going to need a title that will grab a reader’s attention—and fast!
Then there’s the first line of the post, the line that also comes up in the blog post feed. I was not too impressed with my first sentence hook. If I were actually fishing with that hook, I’d starve to death.
In the end, I realized that if one is going to go to all the trouble to publicize one's blog posts, it’s terribly important to put one's best foot forward. A strong title can get the casual reader to stop scrolling. A first line with a hook can get that reader to a blog. And if the rest of the post offers something of value to that reader, one is very likely to land a subscriber.
Which is way better than getting a kick in the pants.
~
Cathy C. Hall
Benefits of an Editorial Calendar by Stephanie RomeroWhen I started off my writing career, I was making literally pennies a day. However, the source that I was writing for always provided an editorial calendar.
The calendar reminded me of special holidays and events coming up that could be used as content. It also contained topics and ideas to spur my creative juices.
Now that I am no longer writing for them and make better money as a professional blogger, I have found it beneficial to create my own editorial calendar. Whether you blog personally or professionally, coming up with topics can be a challenge.
One source that I professionally write for requires that each month I produce 15 blogs on parenting teens, 10 on housekeeping, 10 on fitness, 5 on marriage, and 5 on home-based business. Coming up with fresh ideas each month can be a challenge, so that is when I decided to create my own editorial calendar.
I picked up a calendar from my local office supply store and began to fill in each month with ideas. Not only did I include holidays but I spent time looking up other nationally-recognized events.
For instance, “National Simplify Your Life Week” can be used in a home business blog or housekeeping. “Middle Child’s Day” is a great topic for parenting teens. And “Relaxation Day” fits in with my personal blog that I write.
You have to think outside of the box when it comes to topics. September is generally known for the time of kids going back to school. Depending on who you write for, you could turn this into a topic.
In fact, you could create a series out of certain topics. If you are hard-pressed in coming up with new ideas on what to write about, consider creating your own editorial calendar.
* * *
Stephanie Romero is a professional blogger for Families and independent contractor for We Do Web Content. Through her personal blogs she inspires others to actively pursue their dreams and mothers to seek out those heartfelt prayers for their children. She is the creator and instructor of “Recovery from Abuse,” an online course that is currently being used in a correctional institution’s character-based program. In addition, she leads an online writer’s critique group for Proverbs 31 Ministries. Stephanie has taught workshops and Bible studies on a variety of topics to small and large groups of women. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have a blog, a topic to write about, even a schedule for your posts. You’ve found ways to monetize it and even hosted a few blog tours. But how do you drive traffic to your site? What can you do to let readers know about the wonderful information you are sharing on your blog? Here are a few tips to get you started.
Add a Share This Button to Your Blog
You’ve probably seen this link or button on several blogs. I added it to my blog if you want to see an example. Scroll down to the bottom of any post, and you’ll see where it says: “Share this.” This button allows people to easily share a post on your blog in any of the major social networks from Digg to Twitter to Facebook. Readers just click on a link, and a menu pops up. Then they choose which social media outlet to send your post to. “Share This” also shortens the link, so it is not a long URL address for Twitter or Facebook.
To add a “Share This” button to your blog, go to ShareThis.com and follow the simple directions. You can use this button for any website or a Wordpress, Typepad, or Blogger blog. Make it easy for people to share your words with the world. Readers are busy—giving them the ability to push a button and share a link is crucial to getting publicity for your blog.
Guest Blog and Blog Comments
Another easy way to drive traffic to your blog and get people to read what you are posting is for you to visit other blogs with similar topics. You can do this in one of two ways. You can visit another blog as a guest blogger, where the blog owner allows you to write a post on a topic. The hope is that your post is enjoyable or informative, and people will want to read more. So, they check out your blog, which you provided a link to in your guest post.
How do you become a guest blogger? Find blogs that you like, see if they have guest bloggers, and write to the site owner about doing a guest blog. Remember to always be professional and approach the site owner the same way you would approach an editor. You can also ask a friend if you can guest blog on each other’s blogs.
You can also visit blogs and leave comments pertaining to the posts on that blog. Make sure your comments are relevant and interesting; and always, always, always leave your blog’s URL with your comment. That way people can read your intelligent and heartfelt comment and think, “Who is this wonderful person? I want to read more of her thoughts.” Then they click on your link and visit your blog.
I always visit the blogs or websites of people who leave comments on my blog, and I try to leave a comment on theirs. It is important to support each other and to build a community with the readers who are taking the time to leave comments on your blog. These people will be more likely to subscribe to your blog or visit again if you also show an interest in their work, too. Besides, blogs are interesting, and you never know what you might learn from someone.
One final note. . .
Don’t forget to share your posts on your Facebook page and with your Twitter followers. You might want to do this only a couple times a week, but your friends, family, and followers want to know what you’re up to and hopefully will support your blogging adventures.
7 Comments on Share Your Blog With the World, last added: 7/7/2011
Owning a blog seems to have become a 'must-have' for writers these days. It keeps us in contact with our readers, gives us a platform to display some of our great work and it's free marketing tool. But when you choose to blog every day, you can run out of things to talk about. I know it's happened to me on occasion.
My blog, The Gift, used to target a specific audience: special needs children and their families. I loved it but I realized I was running the same topics over and over and I missed chatting about the other passions in my life. In the last few months, I've given my blog a more general feel to it. I still talk about living in a special needs family as that's where my heart is but I also have days devoted to writing, music, gardening, cooking and other interests. And you know what? My followers have doubled, my daily hits have skyrocketed and I've even been approached for some pretty cool writing gigs!
I thought what I'd do for today's post is share a few ideas you can try when your blogging topic well runs a bit dry. Here's a short list of 30 you can try out:
1) Do a book review. And don't do what everyone else is doing. Choose a book that's controversial, edgy or just different.
2) Interview an author.
3) Interview a magazine or ezine editor about what's hot, what's not, the Do's and Don't's for their publication and what they're looking for right now.
4) Highlight a new writing opportunity.
5) Do a giveaway.
6) Get another writer, author, editor or publisher to do a guest post.
7) Review a writing resource.
8) Do a 'Top ____' list. Choose a subject such as best/worst books, best writing tools, etc.
9) Do an interview with a character from either one of your works or someone else's.
10) Post a picture and have followers write short story about it.
11) Do a weekly writing prompt.
12) Start a story and invite followers to keep the story going by adding their own scene.
13) Interview a child about his or her favorite books and why they love them. (Kids are a GREAT resource for writing ideas!)
14) Flip through a book, read the sixth sentence and write something based on that sentence. You can choose whichever numbered sentence you fancy! I just chose sixth.)
15) Share a short story, article or chapter from your latest work.
16) Participate in Six Sentence Sunday.
17) Write a post about your favorite song and why it means so much to you.
18) Put another author's blog in the spotlight.
19) Discuss a media tool (eg: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) or give some tips on how to use it most effectively.
20) Have a 'Writers' Treasure Hunt' where readers have to go to fellow writer's blogs for clues to win a prize.
21) Participate in, or organize, a writer/author blog hop with a specific theme.
22) Share a special childhood memory.
23) Talk about an issue that needs to be in the spotlight.
24) Highlight one of your other favorite creative distractions.
25) Have another writer join you for a post where your readers come up with three (or more) prompt words you have to create a story with.
26) Discuss a specific genre.
27) Talk about how you broke into a specific market and share a few tips.
28) Interview a publisher and get some tips for submitting to them.
29) Open the discussion about what a certain celebrity is doing.
30) Give a list of writing opportunities or writing contests.
These are just a few I came up with off the top of my head. What would you add to this
When you're starting a blog, you probably have the best intentions of blogging every day. And at first, blogging is so much fun! You share your opinions and thoughts on a subject you know about, you receive a few comments, and you're hooked. Then comes month three and four, and blogging has lost its newness. So, even though you've heard time and time again that when starting a blog, you should blog every day or on a regular schedule, it seems like it's not so important any more.
This happened to me with my blog, "Read These Books and Use Them." I just couldn't keep up with reviewing a children's or YA book a day AND providing activities for the book for parents and teachers. I knew my traffic wasn't good, and my blog wasn't what it could be.
So, I set up a daily blogging schedule (which is only five-days a week, M through F), and this helps me stay on track. It also keeps the repetition down and my excitement level up. I took each day of the week and made it a certain topic or theme. I have Maniac Mondays, which is like an opinion piece on the educational/homeschooling world today, and Tuesday Tales and Un-Forgettable Fridays--these are like my old format where I provide key information and activities about books for parents, teachers, and librarians. Finally, I made up Wacky Wednesdays and Timeless Thursdays. Wacky Wednesdays are where I provide some sort of lesson idea/plan for teachers, which could be a bit wacky and sometimes based on a book. Timeless Thursdays features an older book like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle that children still love and can learn from today.
I've seen blogs with certain days for giveaways, certain days for photos only--Wordless Wednesdays--. and certain days for interviews. You just have to look at the focus of your blog, brainstorm a little, and figure out some topics that you could stick to each day. This doesn't mean that you can't blog about something else on one of these set days if something really exciting happens. But in the morning when your brain might be a little foggy, you already have a start on what to blog about. Blogging every day helps build readership, gets your blog posted higher on the search engines, and provides monetizing opportunities. If you are interested in any of these but you are struggling, try a blog schedule in 2010.
Happy Blogging!
Margo Dill
http://margodill.com/blog/
photo by joyosity www.flickr.com
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"If I were actually fishing with that hook, I'd starve to death."
That's a great line, Cathy. And you're right. I had not considered the first line that pops up on people's sidebar.
As is usually the case, it's better to give than receive. You gave US a kick in the pants. Thank you.
Titles are difficult. Sometimes I succeed and other times, more often, they just fall flat. I hadn't thought of the first line either-- but you're spot-on. I also consider the picture I use that might pop up in readers. Good points-- thanks for sharing.
Why thank you, Sioux. Feel free to borrow that line whenever you like! :-)
And Julie, pics! Yes! I'm a sucker for an intriguing pic with a title. They're little things, but they can have a BIG impact.
Fished in! Excellent! I love making up titles. It's the first lines I neglect. I'm a hem-hawer. Thanks for the pointer.
I try to create catchy post titles with the hopes of snagging some readers who may have passed my blog by otherwise.
Great advice!
The first lines are easy. It's the title that gets me...and forces me to sit in front of my computer screen until something creative comes to mind.
My webmaster added All in One SEO Pack. Since she added it, I've been forced - I mean, able to - think about how a title and the first lines affect SEO rank, which is another part of reeling in readers.
thanks for the reminder, Cathy!
Great advice, Cathy! I think this is something most writers struggle with. We usually have to revise at least one or two titles per issue for the articles submitted to the WOW e-zine. And it's always from fantastic writers with creative ideas, but for some reason have trouble coming up with titles! I find coming up with titles a breeze, but maybe it's because most of the time I'm titling them for someone else. If I'm stuck, I'll think of a title I can tie a graphic design element to. If I read a title and a picture immediately pops into my head, I know it's a good one.
I need a kick in the pants. :) Tal about boring titles. . .I use the titles of the books I'm talking about. Okay, changing today! Thanks, Cathy!
Coming up with good titles is a true art form! But I'm MUCH better with titles than I am with the first line--talk about your rewrites. Ugh.