by Katy on November 1, 2011
Today’s suggestion is one that I really struggle with, but whenever I implement it, I’m always glad that I did. The suggestion for today is to create an editorial calendar for your blog. If you’re not familiar with that term, simply put, it means that you sit down with the calendar and plot out what you’re going to write on what days.
Photo Couresy of Eagle1effi Click to visit their Flickr page
Sounds pretty simple, right?
As a personal blogger, I find it difficult to do–how do I know what will be important to me next week? Still, some personal bloggers create calendars by having themes–Wordless Wednesday, Stream of Consciousness Sunday, etc.
For almost any other kind of blog, an editorial calendar can save you a ton of time–you only need one brainstorm session to get down a bunch of posts. For example, this series on creating a better blog–before I even started, I planned out 30 titles. Now, when it’s time to write, I just pick one title and get writing. So much faster than sitting down, brainstorming, and then starting to write. I’m pleasantly surprised every time I write one of these posts because they come together so quickly.
See if you’ve got a planner in you–try planning a week or maybe even an entire month. If you can’t stand the idea of micro-managing things then maybe toy with the idea of having theme days.
by Katy on October 21, 2011
These days, it’s not enough to just write the post. Once it’s written and you’ve distributed it to your network, you also need to include a way for visitors to share you content. Luckily, there are a bunch of easy options that can make sharing your posts even easier.
If you have a blog in Word Press, there are plugins that allow people to share your posts via Facebook and Twitter. On my personal blog, I use the “Tweet This! Button” plugin and the “Facebook Share” plugin. There are a variety available, however, and you can test out a few since most are free.
If you’re in Blogger, it’s pretty straight forward these days–gone are the days of having to hand-code your buttons. From your dashboard, Click on “Design.” At the bottom of the box labeled “Blog Posts” you will see an “Edit” button. Click on that. A menu will appear and there should be a box for you to check that reads “Show Share Buttons.” Click that and you should be good to go!
by Katy on October 16, 2011
Usually when person visits your blog for the first time, they stay on the main page. Your average visitor doesn’t sit down and start clicking through your archives until they decide that they like you. 
For this reason, you need to maximize the front page of your blog–provide new visitors with many opportunities to click and get to know you a little better. One great way to do this is to create a “Best Of” section–a list of some of your best posts. Let’s face it, not everything we write literary perfection. Blogs have up days and down days and some posts just resonate with your audience. Do yourself a favor and link to those posts somewhere on your main page.
Creating a “Best O”f section can help turn one-time visitors into long-time readers. You owe it to yourself to add this section to your blog.
