As I’m going through October on the topic of blogging, I’m trying to come up with all my little tricks that I’m so used to doing that I might not realize it’s new to some of you. Do you ever just open your WordPress blog, and it’s just like the blinker’s on? You just go blank? And then you’re like, “I wonder what’s going on on Facebook?” Because I have no idea what I’m going to write. If that’s you, then you will want to learn all about batch processing and creating a blogging workflow that will make you a consistent blogger.
So today, I want to share a little of my blogging workflow. How can we become better at getting blogs out? Something that’s been helping me recently has been batch processing.
To avoid the dear in headlights look when you site down and blog, you need to go on a “collection of ideas” date with yourself. For one day, I just want you to sit down and write down blog ideas. No research, no graphics, just create a library of blog topic ideas. (Here’s a hint: you can take a scope you did and make a blog post from it.).
That way, when you sit down to write your blog, you can have something to access to get you started. If you can do two or more, then you have an opportunity to be ahead of your own game. This is the start of your batch processing.
DAY 1: This is like a pre-batch process which you will need to do perhaps once a quarter and not every time.
That is what you’re going to do for that one day: Just make your idea library. If you have trouble starting, just go back to the question, “Who’s my target audience?” Then imagine yourself as the expert on the subjects that matter to them. Sometimes that’s what we need to break through our own fears and insecurities. We can put our customers and clients up on such a pedestal that we’re afraid to preach to them. Just imagine yourself standing up on your soapbox and being that expert on what they’re looking for. Now, make that list. Is it easier?
Here are some additional ideas. How about NOT showing me a fully-finished concept? What about featuring some behind-the-scenes shots and the backstory of what you do? What about your personal history and where you come from? Don’t we love reality TV? Of course. People would love to view behind your curtain. You’d be surprised how much showing some vulnerability draws people to you and endears them to you. Just don’t forget to take off the cute fuzzy slippers and get back to business. Right? So types of blog post ideas and titles:
- Tutorials- share a tutorial on how to use something
- Interview Series- interview people they would care to listen to and relates to them
- City Events- Great for local S.E.O
- Round up posts of blog articles you find online on Topic A
- Series on your own work
- Behind the scenes
- Personal Post/Travel/Food/Kids
Now grab that special coffee and have a date with your self, set the time and just WRITE!
DAY 2:
So, on day two, take your list of ideas, go to Google Drive (where you can now find Google Docs) and just do a brain dump. Set a timer for 20 minutes, click “NEW” and then go down to “Google Doc”. You will just write that first blog post. Don’t get perfect, just write. And if you can keep going and do a second one, just do it. Don’t grab links, and don’t worry about spelling. What I do is I have a copy editor who does this for me, and she often reminds me if I forget to highlight the links. It all gets checked before I copy it into WordPress. I don’t recommend writing directly into your blog.
DAY 3:
Day three could be proofreading, and anything like adding and checking links, doing research, finessing your information, and getting your backlinks set up. It sounds short and sweet, but you’ll be glad to have a separate day to do this. It uses a different part of your brain than writing does, so separating it out is helpful.
DAY 4:
Day four is going to be the step of creating graphics for the blog or blogs and putting them together. Time to get creative again! I’m going to copy my text from Google Drive, I’m going to paste each one into a WordPress post, save the drafts, and then I’m going to go make graphics on Canva. Did you miss my blog post on creating pretty graphics with Canva? Do this one step for all the blogs you were able to write. We’re batch processing now. Feel the flow?
DAY 5
Then on day five, take those shiny graphics, and you’re putting it all together and publishing the blog posts and even scheduling some posts out. Let me tell you, it will feel so good if you could do more than one at a time. It saves so much time this way. Rather than going through each step one at a time for just one blog, you end up with a small handful that you can schedule out. I promise that this works to save you time, sanity, and will make you more consistent, and make your blogging for the holidays more enjoyable. Now, who’s got my Caramel Machiatto? Let’s blog and let’s get found!
Have you tried batch processing blogging ? Which tip did you like the most? Do you have any further tips how to become a consistent blogger?
P.S I recommend the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller.