Long-Term Blogging, Part II

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.