Beginning blogging: Make a plan
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Great change of plans image by Rustybuckets.
Welcome to the second in a series of posts about beginning blogging for journalists. If you’re new to the series, feel free to view previous posts, including: Getting to know your niche. Want more? View the entire beginning blogging for journalists series.
GET TO KNOW YOUR BLOG - MAKE A PLAN
Now that you know your niche, it’s important to know how you will impact the conversation online – meaning, know what you will write about and how you will keep your blog going. Here’s a few things to consider when developing a plan for a blog.
- Develop a focus. Blogs that are everywhere and anywhere won’t generate high return traffic. Decide a specific topic that you will write about and stick within the near vicinity. In the previous post in this series, I mentioned that new bloggers should research niches to focus their blog on a topic they are passionate about. This should help writers from running out of ideas.
- Pick an angle. Are you a news blog or an opinion blog? Are you a little of both. If you’re news, be careful of putting in too much opinion, as this could skew readers’ view of the blog’s objectivity.
- Design a posting schedule - and stick to it. Spread your posts out during the week. If there’s breaking news and you have to publish five times in one day, that’s fine. But make sure you have a follow-up later in the week. A good rule of thumb is 3-5 posts per week. The first month a blog launches, you should post at least once per day to build an audience (all while continuing to participate and comment on other blogs).
- Consider 5 ways your blog can serve a need. Put a pen to paper and list what the conversation in your niche needs and how your blog can fulfill those needs. Examples include providing analysis, aggregating top stories/blog posts or breaking news, among others.
- Think about the future. Where do you want your blog to go? Put some momentum behind your blog by having an idea of what you want to achieve - whether that be building traffic, affecting change within your niche or becoming regarded as an expert on your topic.
Soon-to-be-published guides include: Finding communities related to your niche and How to increase traffic to past content.
Did I miss anything? Want to share your experiences with starting to blog? Comment here or direct message @shawnsmith on Twitter!
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March 6th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I’ve had good luck with starting a blog by brainstorming dozens of blog post titles. Generally, if you can get a piece of paper full of titles, you can have a sense that there’s something there to blog about.
There’s a bunch of formulaic title approaches based on how some of the busy blogs do things - in particular, people reading blogs appear to have an inordinate fondness for numbered lists (fondly known as PNB or Pointless Numbered Bullshit). The net is good at absorbing lists, so start with some lists.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Thanks for the tips Edward. You’re right about lists
I like your idea with drawing up content before starting posts. Chris Garrett talks about this sorta thing with his flagship content idea. I’m planning on talking about that in a future post, but it’s worth a read for new bloggers. Thanks Ed!
March 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
como uma pessoa pode dar os seus primeiros passos na blogosfera, criando de forma rápida sua audiência. Shawn também tenta ensinar métodos de como usar as redes sociais na web para divulgar seu blog. Beginning blogging: Get to know your niche eBeginning blogging: Make a plan, são os outros dois textos da série. Alberto Marques
March 13th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Think the biggest problem that bloggers at newspapers face is the ability to pick a good blog topic. I’ve seen some really esoteric blogs out there, but they’re never updated because A. the blogger is burnt out or B. they’ve run out of things to post about. Wouldn’t you agree?
March 13th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I agree with you Chip. I think often times a writer gets an idea and no one is there to help guide them. Those writers are handed a blog, where they write, and then they get very little traffic. I think a big part of the reason is they don’t focus on a particular topic and stick to it. And if a writer runs out of things to talk about, that must not have been their passion. I think a lot of planning should go into a blog before a writer ever puts up the first post. Sadly, many don’t plan for the future of their blog before launching it. - Nice observations