Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

How to Turn Your Business Blog Into a Solo Podcast

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While most people are familiar with interview-style podcasts, or those with two or more co-hosts, solo podcasts are less common. As I learned from Victoria Fenner of House of Sound and Story, one reason is that they’re much harder to do well.

Luckily, she shared some tips and pitfalls gleaned from her more than 30 years in the radio and podcasting industry. From our interview over at SteamFeed, you’ll learn:

  • Why business bloggers should consider a solo podcast, even over other more popular podcasting styles
  • How business bloggers can tap into the power of solo podcasting
  • The three biggest pitfalls of solo podcasts
  • Five steps to get started as a solo podcaster

I was especially interested in this topic because I’ve always been attracted to this format of podcasting – both as a viewer and a podcaster. While my own Blogging for Business podcast has stopped and started a few times, Victoria’s insights boosted my confidence to stick with this format when I restart it again.

Read the interview at SteamFeed: http://www.steamfeed.com/bolster-business-blog-solo-podcast/

solo-podcast-recording-text

 

Blogger’s Block? Reduce Decision Fatigue in Your Blogging Routine

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© stryjek - Fotolia.com
© stryjek – Fotolia.com

When I read this post about how to streamline decision making in your life, I immediately considered how the same principles apply to business blogging.

The idea behind decision fatigue is that we consciously and unconsciously make countless decisions in our daily lives, including what to eat, what to wear, and how we spend our time.

If we can automate more of these decisions, the theory goes, we can re-apply that time and energy to the activities that will most nourish us and advance our work in the world.

Just like the post’s author Anne Bogel, I aim for and recommend a daily blog writing habit. Yet I still sometimes let myself off the hook – maybe you can relate?

One of Bogel’s tips is to create if-then rules for yourself. Instead of just saying you’ll do something (e.g., “I will write a blog post today”), if-then planning identifies a specific event that will trigger each of your intended actions.

Here are four decisions we may face during the blogging process and how we can use the if-then method to reduce decision fatigue:

  1. What should I blog about?

“If it’s the week of May 10th then I’m blogging about ___, and if I’m blogging about ___ then I’m exploring these ideas: ___.”

In order to have such clarity about your blogging topics and schedule, you need to have a blogging plan and editorial calendar. It also really helps to have an outline for each post. A topic or title aren’t always enough when you come back weeks later and try to write the post.

  1. Is this good enough to publish?

“If I’m finished my draft, then I take it through an editing process.”

In a recent post about her daily writing tools, Ann Handley explains why an editor is crucial: “I think of a good editor as the best advocate for the reader, which is why companies that don’t use editors end up hurting themselves.”

Before turning over her draft to someone else, she checks them with Grammarly and Hemingway. My own self-editing tool is text-to-speech software that helps my ears catch what my eyes miss.

  1. What do I do next?

“If I’m finished my final post, then I do ___, ___, ___, etc. until I’ve completed my list.”

I tend to forget new skills or processes pretty quickly if I don’t have repeated opportunities to practice them. As my volume of monthly blogging clients grew, I would check and re-check whether I had remembered all the steps for publishing and promoting, and then still second guess myself.

The answer for me was to create a blog post publishing and promotion checklist to stay consistent with all the steps in the process.

  1. Should I stop writing or keep writing?

Keep writing, of course!

At Forbes, Stephen J. Meyer describes creating an if-then scenario for when he wants to talk himself out of following through with his exercise goal. “If I get to the point where I want to quit,” he writes, “then I will focus intently on my audiobook and tune out the pain and fatigue I’m feeling.”

“If I want to quit working on my blog post, then I will check my Pomodoro timer and commit to writing until the next break. If I’m still struggling, then I will pause and consciously think about my audience and how this post could help them. If I still want to quit, then I will take an earlier Pomodoro break and play a song from my “Happy” iTunes playlist (dancing around the living room is highly recommended).”

Is decision fatigue sabotaging your blog writing efforts? What trigger events could get you back on track with your business blogging?

P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy the Blogging Tips newsletter, delivered weekly to your inbox! Sign up here.

How to Choose the Best Business Blog Categories

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© goir - Fotolia.com
© goir – Fotolia.com

Your business blog categories are a vital part of your content marketing strategy. When someone visits your website and finds your list of blog categories displayed in the sidebar, they get an instant snapshot of the range of your expertise, and how you can help your customers.

Your blog categories are a natural extension of your brand, revealing what’s important to you and what you stand for in your business. Blog category links also help guide your readers to the information that will help them the most.

Blog categories help you plan

Planning your blog categories before you write helps you organize your writing and stay on track, so you can achieve the consistency that will attract long-term readers and grow those relationships into sales.

By being strategic about your blog categories, you can more easily produce a balanced number of posts in each topic area. That way, visitors can see proof of your expertise no matter which category name they click.

This post will explain:

  • How to choose topics for your business blog categories
  • How to choose names for your business blog categories
  • How to maintain your business blog categories
  • How to clean up your business blog categories

How to choose topics for your business blog categories

When considering your categories, identify the most pressing problems of your prospective clients. In the Four-Step Business Blogging Plan, I encourage you to consider topics that are broad enough to give you some variety and options, but specific enough that they’ll be relevant to your perfect customers.

Ideally you want to find the intersection between your audience’s interests and your own. You or someone on your team needs to have the interest, knowledge and ideas to keep writing about each category.

When choosing blog categories, think about the body of work you want to build over time. Is there a book in your future? Your blog categories could very well be your book’s chapters. An online course? Your categories might be lessons or segments of that course. White papers and presentations can also be created one blog at a time.

Aim to have 5-7 blog categories that you find interesting and manageable to write about, which also address the concerns of your ideal customers.

How to choose names for your business blog categories

Avoid jargon or industry-specific terms when naming your categories. Remember that your business blog visitors may have varying levels of knowledge and experience with your subject matter.

Also consider doing keyword research, as Doug Kessler explains:

If you use the same language your ideal customers are using, you’re more likely to show up in search engine results when they type in those terms.

Categories and tags can both be helpful for organizing your content and displaying your knowledge base. What can get messy, though, is mixing them up. Be clear about the difference between categories and tags, and have a specific plan for how you will use each on your site.

Use categories for broader topic areas and themes, such as you’d find in a book’s Table of Contents. Think of tags, on the other hand, like the index at the back of the book. Here you can get much more specific with single words and sub-ideas.

You can also use tags to group together related posts, such as all posts in a series.

How to maintain your business blog categories

Once you’ve settled on a list of category names, commit to publishing in each category regularly. When you’re feeling creative, outline a few ideas all at once so you’ll never have to start from scratch.

Charlie Gilkey’s Blog Post Planner and Calendar are helpful for seeing your categories at a glance and making sure you’re achieving an ideal balance.

Your categories don’t have to be set in stone, but please think twice before you add a new category. Ask yourself:

  1. Do you already have a category that’s very similar to this one? For example, Business Tips versus Small Business Tips.
  2. Is this too specific to be a category, and would it be better as a tag?
  3. Will you have other posts to write about this topic in the future, and is it something you know is relevant for your readers? Watch that you’re not using a business blog as a diary to explore your own interests.
  4. Are you using the same capitalization style as your other categories? I recommend title case for categories (capitalizing all major words, along with the first and last word) and lower case for tags.

Above all, ensure every post is assigned a category. Describing a blog post as uncategorized makes your blog seem disorganized.

How to clean up your business blog categories

If you started blogging without a clear plan for topics and categories, you can always make a fresh start with a category clean up. First, take an honest look and answer these questions:

  • Do any of your categories make you cringe because the topics or language are outdated, or because you haven’t posted anything new about the subject in a long time?
  • Have you been adding more and more categories until they’ve become unwieldy, overwhelming, or even meaningless, both for you and your readers?
  • Do your category names accurately reflect the content on your blog? Will the words or phrases mean the same thing to your readers as they do to you?
  • Are your categories tags in disguise? Have you been using categories and tags to serve the same purpose?

Now decide which categories you want to keep, and which of those need more attention. Also decide if there are categories you want to retire, in which case you would re-assign those posts to other categories and remove the category name from your sidebar.

In some cases you may want to change the name of an existing category. Be sure to research how your permanent links will be affected. Is the category name part of the permalink? If so, will links to older posts still work? Consider also whether you’ve ever linked to your category archive page from other posts or pages on your blog.

Check with your website developer to avoid any problems with broken links. If you’re using the self-hosted version of WordPress, you can also try a plugin called Term Management Tools, recommended by WP Beginner.

If you’re about to start or re-start a business blog, download the free Four-Step Business Blogging Plan for help with goals, categories, topics, types of posts, time management, and creating an editorial calendar.

Blogging Research Tips and Tricks

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How does a daily blogger keep up with both his writing and the research it takes to produce well-rounded articles? Those are the questions that led me to interview fellow SteamFeed contributor Darin L. Hammond of ZipMinis.

Our conversation actually led to two blog posts. The first was published here at Content Mastery Guide, and focused on how to balance your time between blog research and writing.

The most recent post, published at SteamFeed, delves more deeply into Darin’s research methods, and includes guidance for how to vet potential sources, and create your own collection of reliable sources you can keep coming back to again and again.

http://www.steamfeed.com/strengthen-blogging-research/

© olly - Fotolia.com
© olly – Fotolia.com

How to Remove the Technical Obstacles of Business Blogging

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© taramara78 - Fotolia.com
© taramara78 – Fotolia.com

Even people who are accomplished writers and influential leaders in their fields sometimes feel intimidated by business blogging. There is a lot of confusion about the term, and the mechanics of posting and promoting can be another hurdle to jump.

If you know you have valuable ideas to share, but you’re getting stonewalled by technology, here are seven ways to step away from the computer and still post regularly to your business blog:

  1. Mental blogging – In a previous post, I described a process of mental writing you can do anywhere, anytime. The key is to have a plan in place, so you can let your thoughts drift naturally to your blogging topics even while you’re doing other things.
  1. Working with pen and paper – Whether you’re a graphic thinker who uses mind mapping, a list maker, a long-form journal writer, or some combination, take your blogging off-screen to unleash your creativity without any digital distractions.
  1. Catching ideas on the fly – Just because you’re away from your computer or other devices, doesn’t mean you can’t make progress on your business blogging. Use a notepad, journal, or a small slip of paper to record your thoughts; write on the back of a receipt or a napkin if you have no other options!
  1. Getting out into the world – In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends taking your inner artist out for a date where you can fully immerse yourself in creative thinking. You can use the same premise to schedule blogging dates, visiting the people and surroundings that most inspire you and fuel your excitement for your business and the topics your ideal customers care about.
  1. Asking real people real questions – Since the best blog post ideas come from customer questions, that means that when you’re clocking face time at a networking event, client meeting, seminar, or even a personal outing, you can be working on future blog posts. Find out what matters to your customers and prospective customers, then address those issues on your blog.
  1. Reading – Books, magazines and blog posts all offer unique opportunities to learn, grow your awareness, expand your vocabulary, and make new connections – especially when you venture beyond your own industry. As a bonus, you can share some of this content with your audience as a way of being more visible on social media.
  1. Outsourcing – Is there a better way for you to be spending your time than fussing with the technical aspects of publishing and promoting blog posts? Is your time worth more than what you will pay someone else to do those things? Even for those of us who do enjoy technical challenges, it can sometimes turn into a sneaky form of procrastination.

Have you been letting the technical elements of blogging stall your progress? See what happens when you remove this barrier to your unique expertise, by trying a low-tech approach to business blogging.