In this third installment of my “how to” series, I’ll give you some tips on how I go about writing a new post for this blog.
Make a list
Take a look at the snippet (that’s the picture at the top) I took just before I started to write this. That’s how I start. I make a list of the points I want to make in the post. I don’t necessarily use this method for every post, but I do make use of it quite frequently. It has the advantage of forcing you to think a little bit about what you want to talk about. Since you can see what you’re going to talk about, it also helps you to find a logical sequence to your thoughts. As you write, you may find that occasionally you think of another thought you want to share in your post. No problem. Just add it to the list, and if it seems to fit better in another place, there’s always cut and paste to place it where it makes the most sense.
Explore your points
As you finish writing about each point, you simply move down to the next and expand on the idea that you have listed. Begin the exploration with your main point. As you proceed further into your point refine the details. You simply follow a logical path of starting with a more general idea and going into more detail as you develop that section of your post. Another way of looking at it is state your point, and then tell us why you believe your point. Give us reasons so that we understand why you feel the way you do.
Lead to a conclusion
Each section or paragraph should move your reader further along toward your conclusion. When you listed the points you wanted to make, you listed a conclusion you wanted to lead your readers to didn’t you? You need to know where you’re going in order to get there. Think of your post as a map. You are a guide, leading your readers along the road to your conclusion.
Proof read plus
Finally, there’s the proof reading. Notice that I called this section “proof read plus.” There’s a reason for the plus. Normally when you proof read something you’ve written, you are looking for spelling, grammatical errors, and things like that. For blogging and other internet writing, I add another step to the proof reading process. I scan my post for tags. These are the keywords that might help someone find your post. I read through it, and as I come to words, or phrases that I think are likely to be searched for, I add them to the post tags section.
There’s another part to the plus section too. Links. I look for words or phrases that I can use as links to other posts I have written that might help my readers understand my [point better. Sometimes I might want to link to another blog or website to help my readers. Either way I’m looking for words or phrases that a link to another web page (mine or someone else’s) that will help. The plus part of proof reading has two purposes. Not only are you assisting your readers to having a better understanding of what you are saying, but there are the benefits of backlinks. Linking to articles in your own blog helps you with search engines, and if you link to someone else’s blog, they’ll be glad for the link. Feel free to link to anything you find on my blog, I’ll be glad. So that’s my method of crafting a new post.
If you found this helpful please share it and send a link to someone.
As always, comments are encouraged.
How To #2 – Effective Promotion
Here’s number 2 in my series of “how to” articles for bloggers.
What should you know about effective promotion of your blog? You are probably already familiar with the usual litany of blogging. Write posts, comment on other blogs , and guest post. But is there more that you could be doing? Funny you should ask. Now let’s talk a little about what you could be doing to promote your blog more effectively. (Here’s a little freebie piece of advice. Make sure you hit “save draft”, and not the “publish” button when you’re writing in the wordpress editor. heh)
New Posts
This one is not really promotion, but you need to add fresh content to your blog regularly. It doesn’t have to be an every day thing, but try to update, and add new articles on a fairly regular basis. Think about it. How many times are you going to keep coming back to aq blog if the content never seems to change.
Comments on other blogs
This is always on everyone’s list of promotional activities. There’s a reason for that, of course. It works! As has been said already a hundred times, this does not mean making meaningless noises abut how helpful this post is. Leave something with a little meat on it (Sorry vegetarians, but if God didn’t want us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat? I’m sorry about that. I couldn’t help myself. It’s one of the funniest things I ever saw. As a public service, here’s the truth. The China Study proves that meat really is not very good for you. The consumption of animal protein leads to all kinds of health problems. End of health lesson.) As I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself, when you leave comments, be sure you are contributing to the conversation, and not just leaving noise. The point of the exercise is two-fold. One, you want the backlink, which is important to traffic. More backlinks = higher rank on the search engines = more traffic (=more money if you are monetized). Two, you want to leave a comment that has valuable content and is so well-written that readers feel that they just have to go see what your blog is all about.
Guest posting
Guest posting, like commenting has two purposes. One is the backlink, and two is to gain readers. Always check the blog you want to submit a guest post to for any rules or guidelines that they want guest posters to abide by or follow. Since you’re trying to generate more backlinks, and traffic with your guest post, and you are using another bloggers site to do it, you owe them your very best work. Your article will reflect on them as well as you. Make sure you show them the respect and gratitude they deserve by offering only your best writing.
Build Links
There are a number of ways to get links. Blog carnivals, where a number of bloggers with a similar interest get together and list there latest offerings can be effective. Get your blog listed in directories. Find forums and take an active part in them.
Social media
Twitter and Facebook are changing the internet. They should be an important part of your campaign to get people to be aware of your site. Create accounts and talk.
SEO
Before I go I should probably mention something about SEO or search engine optimization. In the comments and guest posting sections I briefly touched on backlinks. They are the principal criteria for ranking. There are different levels of backlinks. The more authoritative the source of the backlink, the more weight it carries. You also should be aware of keywords. Keywords are not just single words either. They are the words and phrases people put into search engines. The higher your page ranks in the search engines for any particular term, the more likely it is that people will click on the link to your page. This is especially critical if your site has something to sell. This one does not…yet. It also helps your site to link to your own articles within your site, so don’t overlook that source of links. I find it helpful to go through my posts after they are written to inspect them for keywords to use as tags, and to look for any terms I may have used that are well-suited to use for links.
Conclusion
The basic concept is simple. You want your blog’s name to appear in as many places as you can possibly find. The more places on the internet it shows up on, the more people will see it. See, effective promotion isn’t that hard.
If you enjoyed what you read here please send a link and share it with others, and as always comments are encouraged.