www.inkthinkerblog.com — Over the next several posts, I’ll transcribe my notes, and my Tweets, from the eight sessions at SOBCon08, Business School for Bloggers. All sessions have notes, but not all were Tweeted. Just fair warning. :)
More Bang for Your Blog
Chris Garrett
Consider promotion as a discrete thing you have to think about.
Get popular for the right reasons.
Learning is a loop — send something out, get answers back. LISTEN to the answers.
– People will give you feedback and you must listen to it.
What do you want your content to make happen?
- People come to your blog for YOUR OPINION Add something, don’t just rehash other people’s ideas.
- Record your ideas. Take time out to generate comment ideas.
- You can revisit topics time and time again. People learn from topics time and time again.
If you freeze up, that comes across. If you flow, that comes across.
Don’t censor yourself by removing yourself.
Not everything has to be book length (example: Seth Godin)
– Do your best.
– Put out real thoughts
– A good question is sometimes better than a good statement
Derive content from what you do as well as how you do what you do.
Mindmapping/word webs –> Editorial Calendar
– Write the best you can do with the most impact you can do. Use analytics
– Plan ahead, post ahead, and draft ahead — posting efficiency
– Source in advance in case your blog breaks. (get help for the things you don’t do well)
You’re only as good as your last post.
The 5-Minute Blog Post (read mine)
- Start with the end.
- Work backwards.
Remember the “so what?” — don’t focus on just the “what”
Punchy, attractive, scannable, pointed
– Imperfect is okay. Incomplete is, too.
– Leave room for comments.
The pinnacle of content is what becomes an ambassador for what you do. (The opposite is filler, and the in-between is community content.)
Feeds: Divide by Crucial, Valuable, Nonessential.
Take the “rubber ducky” approach to writing your blog posts (write like you’re explaing it to a rubber ducky).
– You don’t have to be “a great writer”
Focus your time: do writing and promotion in batches
Resources: Skitch, BlogBridge, Skype
“Simplicity is the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.”
What did I miss? Leave a comment and let me know.
Tags: freelance writing blog, freelance writing, freelance, writing, communications, chris garrett, chris garret, chrisg, social media, bang for your blog, SOBCon08, business school for bloggers, inkthinker, kristen king
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
Comments on this entry are closed.
How about this: Include your entire post in your feeds. I know, I know, some people complain about others stealing content from them based on full-feeds. The problem from a subscriber’s point of view, though, is that (using myself as an example) I have about 75 feeds in my reader, nearly all of which update daily if not several times a day. I like to quickly scan my feeds in one screen, and unless someone is super-compelling (and there’s only one blogger on my entire list who qualifies) I unsubscribe or don’t bother reading the rest of the post.
I include the full feed in my blogs. If someone is out there determined to steal my content, they’ll find a way. Otherwise, I have too much to do without having to add “blog vigilance” to list of daily chores.
Cheers,
Marjorie
Marjorie’s last blog post..V-Day in New Orleans, Pinay-style
Great tip, M.
But now I’m DYING to know who your sole super-compelling blogger is. Please dish.
kk
Hee hee. It won’t mean much to you, but the blogger of whom I speak is a Filipino journalist/columnist/essayist/author named Jessica Zafra. She’s super-snarky, has a stronger command of the English language than most native-speaking writers I know and just has a really funny and brilliant sense of humor. Yeah, it still sometimes annoys me that she only does partial feeds, but s’okay. She’s worth the extra clicking.
Cheers,
Marjorie
Marjorie’s last blog post..V-Day in New Orleans, Pinay-style