by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
In part one of this series, I covered setting up a blog and maintaining a blogging schedule. But that’s only part of the process. Today I’ve got ideas for post content (since our writing is the most important part of our blog) and finding/connecting with an audience (since no one wants to blog to thin air).
Tips for content:
Comments on your blog posts can inspire other posts. Many times my blog commenters have either asked questions or suggested future posts.
Expand on topics other bloggers have covered (giving credit to the original source). Sometimes I’ll run across interesting posts that inspire me to experiment with a writing or promo approach. I post on my results and how they might have differed from the original writer’s.
Update older posts (with an eye to not wrecking your SEO). For those of us with years of posted content on our blogs, there’s always the option of updating older posts with fresh content. Since it’s not a good idea to repost blogs from an SEO standpoint, it’s probably best to use the older content as the basis for a mostly-new post.
Break longer content into shorter posts. This approach certainly helps fill up a blog’s editorial calendar. I’ve gone back and forth on this through the years, but now my posts are usually pretty short. If there’s a complex topic, breaking it down into a couple of different parts can help. I keep reading that most blog readers prefer short posts since they’re skimming on their phones. I don’t mind long posts, myself … what’s your own preference?
Blog to themes. Personally, I don’t do this, but many of the blogs I follow have themed days: something on the writing craft one day out of the week, a link roundup on another, and something promo-related on a 3rd. Sort of like Taco Tuesdays or Meatless Mondays for blogs. I think this likely helps with blog planning.
Respond to industry news. If you follow the publishing business (and we all really should), the rapidly changing industry provides much to comment on.
Share resources. This is a favorite of mine, as a blog reader. I love to hear about the newest apps that are helpful for writers, free courses, and interesting articles.
Readability. While not related to the content itself, the formatting of posts can impact how widely they’re read and shared. Many blog readers have tight schedules and are skimming articles on their phones. It’s important to make posts easy to read by using plenty of white space, bold lettering, and/or headers.
Engagement:
Share online. You can reach a wider audience if you share your posts on Facebook, Google Plus, or Twitter
Respond to your comments. Responding to comments creates a discussion group and can lend almost a forum-feel to a blog. I try to respond to every comment as soon as I can. I’ve set up the blog so that readers can be notified of replies to their comments.
Visit the blogs of those who comment on your posts. This is especially important when building a readership, but is vital later on, too—when we’ve established relationships with our blog readers.
End your posts with questions. This is a well-known tactic to increase engagement on a post, but I’ve found it’s a great way to learn from others’ methods.
Finally, benefits to blogging:
Is it worth it? For me it is. Blogging has helped me share ideas with other writers and establish online friendships. It’s also given me a chance to thoughtfully consider my own writing and promo approaches and what’s worked and what hasn’t. Blogging also provides discipline and a nice writing warm up. It brings in traffic to my website, raising the site’s ranking on search engines. What’s more, it’s given me a platform from which I get public speaking opportunities.
What have you learned about creating better blog content or engagement? What do you see as the benefits to blogging?
And, as a note to my readers, I did have a release yesterday. :) Book ten in the Myrtle Clover series, Cruising for Murder, launched.
More tips for long-term blogging: Click To Tweet
Congratulations on your latest! You like to sneak them out quietly.
I think I learned to end with a question from you. Of course, I cover several topics in each of my posts, so there’s many questions at the end.
Alex–Thanks! Yeah, I fly under the radar a little with the releases, ha!
I like your questions because they’re on really varying subjects. If I don’t have much to say about music, you’ll have something on films. It makes engagement fun and easy.
There’s a lot we can share about the ever-changing face of publishing.
New content can be difficult, but I’ve never understood why someone would repost something unless they are updating and making major changes.
Diane–It’s a constant and changing topic!
Some topics are sort of evergreen…finding an agent, figuring out how to power through a first draft. But I think we have to add something to previous posts.
I couldn’t agree more, Elizabeth, about the value of engaging people on a blog. That means reading and responding to comments, and learning from them. In fact, I think that’s one of the things I like best about blogging – what I get to learn from other people. It’s fabulous. And it can inspire new posts.
Margot–So true! I’ve learned an incredible amount from comments on this blog. Sometimes I’ll post on a particular method of promo or writing and then hear how someone *else* does it and get immediately converted.
Congrats on your latest release! I think responding to comments on your blog and visiting blogs of people who comment on yours is a great way to build a community and engage your readers. Plus, it’s just more fun when you create a two-way dialogue.
Thanks, Ellen! I agree: it’s much more fun. It really creates a completely different environment on a blog.
I love blogging. The hardest part, for me, is coming up with something meaningful to say. My best blog posts are the ones where I rant about something that I care about. If I don’t care, neither does anybody else.
Kessie–Good point about the part passion plays in making more successful posts!
I wish I’d had all this info when I first started blogging. The one thing I try to do is answer all the comments and visit those bloggers who have visited me. But I’m in a different category than those of you who have careers as writers. Thanks for all you do to help. And congrats with your new “under the radar” release.
Karen–You always do such a great job and I love your warm and thoughtful posts! And thanks so much!
Like Karen says: I wish I had this post when I first started blogging. We learn by mistakes, don’t we. Being in it for the long-haul no matter what is the key. Here I am still blogging whether or not anyone visits! Like Alex says: I learned ending with a question from you. :-)
Roland–I wish I’d had this post, too! It would have saved me a lot of headaches. :)
And I learned ending with a question from someone else! Can’t remember now who it was.
Hi Elizabeth – I think if I’d hassles in blogging at the beginning I wouldn’t have lasted long. My main challenge was working out my content … but once I’d settled my thoughts on that matter and decided not to tie myself to a theme – it opened up all kinds of possibilities for me: resulting in my learning more about all sorts of subjects than I’d have ever have thought possible.
As you say – I enjoy the learning I get from other bloggers … and certainly my knowledge outreach has gone beyond where I ever thought it could. I’ve also enjoyed the huge support we get … and encouragement …
I think I was lucky at the beginning someone wrote a blog post to me – as I had no email and that engendered some new followers … I’m still in touch with those early ones. I then worked out I needed to comment elsewhere and then filtered those I wanted to keep engaging with … then the A-Z came along … and really that was that. Now I need to take the next step and get publishing …
Cheers to you all – it’s wonderful to learn and be amongst blogging friends – Hilary
if I’d have had hassles ….. it was meant to be!
Hilary–So true…if blogging had been any more challenging than it was, few of us would still be doing it!
Good point about blogging prompting you to learn about subjects more in-depth than you might ordinarily have done. I find that to be true, too.
Hope you’ll take that next step to publishing soon!
[…] Long-Term Blogging, Part II – Elizabeth Spann Craig […]
Really informative and thoughtful. Lots to ponder and excellent tips. Thanks!!
Thanks, Laurie!
Congrats on your new release. I always – always learn something valuable from your blog posts. I tune in for each one and I eagerly await the release of your Twitterific links post even when I’m MIA (like now) from the blogging world. My biggest problem has always been consistency. I’ve endured numerous crisis during the past few years, with my husband’s deteriorating health and assisted living and my dad’s death, but I shouldn’t let that keep me from blogging. I would probably continue blogging but I can’t do anything in moderation. If I’m blogging, then I’m also visitng and commenting on countless blogs daily. I need to find a balance – a way to continue doing what I enjoy without allowing it to consume so much of my time that I neglect other areas of my life that I can’t afford to neglect. Your two part series came at the perfect time, just as I’m finding time to settle back into a blogging routine. My husband is stable. The kids are back in school and for the first time since May, I’m not so overwhelmed . I feel like I can breathe. I’m grateful for the tips and I will use them wisely. When I was blogging I found that interacting with bloggers who commented was the most satisfying. It not only increased my number of readers but I met a host of people I never would’ve have met . I discovered blogs that fascinated me, offered informative tips, and some that had nothing to do with my career or desire to become a published author. I discovered new interests unrelated to my career just by visiting people who left comments. I’ve met and kept in touch with quite a few remarkable people.
I like to read short post, but if the topic is an instructional one and written well, I don’t care how long it is. Actually, I prefer some of the longer “how to ” writing articles. Especially when the writer gives examples by showing how something worked in a novel or film. Thank you.
Melissa–That’s so, so much to have going on at once. I think it would be hard for *anybody* to blog during that period unless there were already-written posts ready to go. I’m so glad to hear that everything is looking up for you and that your husband is stable now.
One thing that I’ve done in the past to help make blog visiting and commenting easier is to use an RSS feed reader (I use Feedly) to subscribe to blogs and then divide those blogs into folders on Feedly…folders for days of the week. Then I can split up what I’m reading and make it less time consuming.
This is the perfect time, while you’re feeling less overwhelmed, to gradually build up either an editorial calendar with fleshed-out ideas for content or a buffer of posts. And take care of yourself! God bless the caregivers.
Blogging is hard work, but it is so rewarding! You need to learn every day to become a successful blogger, and I think that the easiest way to do that is through reading comments. It is so easy, you don’t have to search anything else, just read suggestions in comments, stick to them, and you are set.
Thank you, Elizabeth, for great tips! I cannot wait to try my favorite one and finish the blog post with the question. I loved this idea, and I am sure that I will get more engagement from my blog readers!
Irene–I feel that way, too–the comments have been SO valuable to me and have made me experiment a lot more. Good luck with ending with questions!