How To Make Blogging Easier

10 Excersize To Make Blogging Easier

1. Clarify The Why:  knowing why you’re doing something makes it easier to do.  Often times we begin things because we heard from “others” that it’s important for our business yet, we don’t often take the time to clarify why we’re really doing it and knowing it’s important is not powerful enough of a reason to get us started.  So, take some time and ask yourself a few questions to determine your why for blogging.
- Why am I blogging?
- What is the goal of blogging, what do I believe blogging will result in?
- What will I personally gain from writing blogs?
- What might my business gain from writing blogs?
- What might others gain from reading my blog posts?

2. Talk It Out:  I find that I would prefer to talk than to type or to write so I have decided to try using Google Drive Docs via my phone so I can use the talk to text feature to dictate for me.  I simple open Google Drive on my phone, open a new Google Document and then press the microphone icon and talk away.  Now, this is not a perfect final draft, but it’s a really great raw rough draft that I can either come back to later or send off to my virtual assistant for editing.

3. Get Together With A Co-Hort: It never fails that when I’m sitting chatting with a co-hort (another woman business owner) my mouth can move a mile a minute with words flowing out as if I have almost no control over them BUT, when I sit down at my computer all alone it’s like there’s a lock on my mouth and my fingers freeze up.  So, a co-hort and I have decided we’re going to start getting together and dictating for each other.  As one person talks about their views on things, their perspectives or anything that comes from their heart, soul and mind the other person will quickly capture those words down on a keyboard for them.  Again, this will likely not be a perfect final blog post but isn’t it better to have a rough draft than no draft at all.  Who knows in one conversation with a co-hort you could even walk away with more than just one draft.

4. Basket Of Blog Ideas:  Now, this can certainly be a real basket filled with post-it-notes that have a blog idea on each one OR like me, you can use a specified Google Document where whenever you have an idea for a blog you simply add it to the list.  This is why I like having it on my phone so that no matter where I am when I have the idea I can quickly add it to list. 
(except when I am in the shower, then the phone doesn’t work so well.. See #5) Then when you are ready to write a blog, you simply take the idea, start a new separate Google Document and well.. see #2 and start talking it out.

5. Shower Ideas:  It never fails that the shower is where I get tons and tons of ideas popping into my head.  Some say it’s because it is the most oxygenated space and the extra oxygen is what opens up our brains and allows them to function at a top performance. So maybe we should all get oxygen tanks on when we blog. (sorry I digress) Back to some tips for shower ideas.
They actually make note pad for your shower at www.showernotes.com (not an affiliate link) or if you’re more old school (like me) you can certainly look at your local Goodwill Thrift Store for a small white board you can hang outside your shower to capture your ideas, just make sure those ideas make it into your basket of blogs (see #4)

6. Calendar Oh Content:  Grab a piece of paper OR you could even use your basket of blogs and start thinking through each month of the year with your audience in mind.  What is your audience experiencing, thinking about, planning during each month of the year?  How could you spin this into a blog post for that time of year?  Here is a short list of things to think about for each month.
- January: Goals, New Year, Resolutions, End of the Holiday Season, Getting Taxes Prepped
- February:  Love, Relationships, Presidents Day Get-A-Ways (short weekend get-a-ways)
- March: Spring Is Coming, St. Patricks Day (anything to do with luck, Ireland or Irish) Taxes are only one month away
- April: Spring Cleaning, Taxes, Prom Season, Easter,
Hopefully this gives you a good start and you can now go through each month and think about what’s happening for the world in general and how that might be playing out in relationship to your client and your area of expertise.

7. Invite Guests:  While you are certainly an expert for your ideal audience, there are likely other experts who could add value for your clients as well.  Often these are people who work with your same audience but serve them in a different way.  So for myself I have reached out to a money/budget coach, a freelance writer, an image consultant and more. These are all people who can add value to my clients lives/businesses and so I invite them to be a guest blogger.  Who in your networking community could you invite to be a guest blogger and add value for your audience? 

8. Make Time: Aww yes, the best plans can remain plans unless they are given dedicated implementation time.  Now I once thought that setting an appointment to blog worked and that just might work for you, but for me it just didn’t.  I found that when I pigeon holed myself into a certain time each week for blogging I just created a bigger block and the lock on my words just got tighter.  Yet, when I just dedicated 2 hours each day to my business and used that time for things like blogging, social media, accounting, program development, etc I felt this deep sigh of relief.  Now I have a blocked out time but I have the freedom to do what I want in that time, as long as it is working ON my business and not IN my business (meaning not working with clients or on client stuff) I was good to go.  It feels free and allows my words to flow as they are inspired to flow rather than trying to force them.

9. Stop The Self Doubt Cycle:  We all do it.  We all have times when we allow ourselves to beat ourselves up, berate ourselves and to be honest we can get downright mean but, it’s not worth it.  It’s energy draining and non-productive.  So, if you get off track with your editorial calendar, don’t finish a blog exactly on time or implement a system that doesn’t work for you just admit it, take responsibility and move on.  We are not perfect, we are human.  Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on.  It’s ok, it’s just a mistake and you’re very likely to make another one so rather than spending energy trying not to make mistakes, spend your energy learning how to move on from mistakes and not allow them to start you down a cycle of self doubt.

10. Set Realistic Expectations:  Sure if you can blog 3-4 times a week Google is likely to give you more Google Juice (higher SEO ranking) but if blogging is new for you or not your best skill setting the expectation that you’re going to blog 3-4 times a week is just crazy talk. It also sets you up to start a cycle of self doubt (see #9.) What if instead you told yourself you were going to write one blog a month for the next 3 months and as you wrote them you were going to create a checklist of what you do to create that blog. 

Maybe your checklist would look something like:
- jot down bullet points you want to talk about
- come up with a title
- write blog
- edit blog
- look for places to add keywords or change words to more keywords
- format on blog
- schedule date and time to post

Also, as you write these 3 blogs be sure to track your time for each blog as this will give a more realistic estimate of the time it will take you to write blogs.  Now that you have a better estimate of time and a checklist maybe you’re ready to start writing 2 blogs a month for the next 3 months while continuing to define and refine a system for blog posting.  Then after 3 more months move it the 3x a month and so on until all of a sudden you’re writing weekly and bi-weekly blog posts because you have a system and a flow.

11. BONUS: Always, always, always remember… YOU GOT THIS!!!