Feeding the Blog Monster: How to Keep the Content Flowing on Your Blog

transcript

A PRESENTATION BY JUDITH GOTWALD

Feeding theBlog Monster

My background.Judith Gotwald• Journalism-University of Pittsburgh• Magazine News Editor• Stringer-Somerset Daily American• Publications Manager-Nonprofit• Self-Employed In Publishing since 1978• GotwaldCreation• Blog (personal) 2x2virtualchurch.com• Content editor for several companies

A COMBINATION OF THE WORDS “WEB” AND “LOG”

What is a blog?

Sharing

Why Individuals Share?• The Joy of Expression• To Find the Like-Minded• To Breathe Life into Ideas• To Spark Change• To Build A Structure for Action• To Make Money

Why Corporations Share?

• To Establish Authority• Create Visibility• Extend Reach• To Enlist Support• To Establish Relationships• To Build A Structure for Action• To Make Money• To Save Money

BENEFITS • Inexpensive• Control of Message• Ownership• Power of Serendipity• Forces You to Think• Forces You to See Big Picture• Discipline

BLOGGING STATS

Majority of bloggers are women.

Search Engines find blogsbefore web sites.

85% of searchers find blogs before websites. They may never know it!

7 million blogs

13 million microblogsTwitter/Facebook

7 million blogs

13 million microblogsTwitter/Facebook

SocialMediaToday

ANATOMY OF BLOGGING

Why we run out of ideas?FAILURE

to realize that blogs are not about us.

They are about how we relate to others.The world is a big place.Focus on it—not yourself.

to understand audience.

Your readers are great sources of ideas!

to understand that we are all colleagues.

Old thinking has us trained to view the world as competition.

WEBSITE

FB Twitter

YouTubeSlideShare

BLOG IS HUB

8 TYPES OF CONTENT

VISIONARY

HOW-TO PERSUASIVE ANALYTICAL

STORIES NEWS

REVIEWS CURATEDCOMMENTARY

VISIONARY

Are you a dreamer?Write about how you’d liketo see the world/yourfield/your family, etc.

BLOG SAMPLES

Seth Godin: Krypton Community College

HOW-TO

Are you a teacher?How to articles are among the most popular blogs. They tend to attract traffic.

BLOG SAMPLES

Seth Godin, Social Media Examiner, Hubspot, 2x2

PERSUASIVE

12 - 12 - 2012

Do you have a cause?Hammer it home.

Blogs can be influential inchanging the course of history.

BLOG SAMPLES

Any nonprofit

ANALYTICAL

Do you like statistics?People turn to the web forup-to-date statitsics.

BLOG SAMPLES

Kissmetics.com, StatsBlogs.com

COMMENTARY

Do you justwant to be heard?Blogging is the onlysocial mediaPlatform that you control.

Huffington post,indivdual journalists,Leaders in any given field

STORIES/NEWS

Are you astory-teller?A blog is a modern campfire.

BLOG SAMPLES

venturegalleries.com

2x2virtualchurch.comfeatures a story each week

REPORTER

Do you like to be first to share ideas/knowledge?Start blogging!

Mashable, socialmediaexaminer

CURATED

Do you like to collect and juggle all kindsof information?A blog is a modern campfire.

BLOG SAMPLES

Firepolemarketing, socialmediaexaminer

UNDERSTANDING THEBLOG MONSTER’S DIET

Biographies

VideosPodcastsPhotosGlossaries

Case Studies

Petitions

Explore Trends

Lists Comments Breakdown ListsResults InspirationRevisit Old Posts

PoetryTransformational Stories

MicroContentBeginners Guides How ToInfographics

Slide PresentationsSerials

ebooksPress Releases

White Papers

Round-UpsSurveys

TestimonialsList Resources

Reviews

Promote A Charity/Cause

Rate ThingsGuest Posts

Graphs/ChartsExplore Related Fields

Best Of . . .

Question the Accepted Ask A Question

InterviewsQuotes

Behind the ScenesTip of the Day

Personal ReflectionsNews

Provide Links

Showcase Colleagues

PraiseCrystal Ball Predictions

Recipes (not just food)NewslettersCartoons

Contests

History

REPURPOSE

PRESENTATION TITLE AND COMPANY NAME

12 - 12 - 2012

• Different formats• Different platforms• Ezines, white

papersTHINK EVERGREEN

INGREDIENTS

STORYTELLING

A good story has the power to move mountains.Know your audience. There may be more than one!

✴ Choose one to three personas.

✴ Describe them. Give them a name.

✴ Find a photo to represent them.

✴ Names, vital statistics, work, hobbies, friends, dreams.

✴ Why should they read your blog?

PERSONAS

Rememberthe power ofthe“Soccer Mom”

✴ About 80 Characters

✴ Key words

✴ Use Numbers, (9 Ways to Edit Your Blog)

✴ Why or How to

HEADLINE

Copyblogger.comgood source for help!

✴ Who, What, When and Where

✴ Key words (again)

✴ Get to the So What Factor(Why should they keep reading)

LEAD PARAGRAPH

✴ Search for an Image or from a free stock servicesuch as photopin.com (include a link), pixabay.com, morguefile.com

✴ Key words (again—this time in the tagging section of the photo)

✴ Edit photos in Photoshop or picmonkey.com

✴ OLD ADVICE is 250 to 500 words

✴ CURRENT ADVICE: Google likes longer, meatier posts and rewards good writing.

✴ WRITE to be helpful

WORD COUNT

✴ Subheads

✴ Bulleted Lists

✴ Quotes

✴ Indents

BREAKING UP TEXT

✴ Review for your copy for potential links.

✴ Don’t be afraid to credit other bloggers or websites.

✴ Blogs are fueled by connection.

5 5 5Blogs in your field Blogs in

related fieldBlogs that you

Where to Get Ideas

5 Bookmark things thatmight be useful in the future.

evernote.com

Where to Get Ideas

Keep eyes and ears open.

Twitter is an idea mill!

Keep a Notebookor record Voice Memos

Visit topsy.com

Where to Get Ideas

DON’T GET OVERWHELMED

What is thepurpose of your blog?

Determine a direction.

If you don’t you will jointhe large percentage of bloggers

who quit after five posts.

Plan Three Months of ContentBefore you Start Posting

BRAINSTORM!

Choose three platforms.(Blog, Facebook, Twitter)(Blog, Pinterest, Twitter)

(Blog, Slideshare, YouTube)

EACH PLATFORM IS WORK!

✴ Write 50 topic ideas

✴ Decide how to address each of the 50 topic ideas on each platform.(Study the tabloids—they are good at this!)

✴ Start to lay them out on a calendar grid.

You may never look at this after the first week,but it will be there when you’re stuck.

EDITORIAL CALENDAR

✴ Write or review your mission.

✴ Develop your personas.You’ll introduce them to us next week.

✴ Write 50 topics ideas or headlines.

✴ Consider your keywords.

✴ Choose your platforms.

✴ Next week: Editorial Calendars

HOMEWORK

✴ socialmediaexaminer.comGreat up-to-date articles, community, training

✴ hubspot.com (helpful how-to books),topsy.com (analyzes your field)google key word analytics

✴ James Wedmore for video helpAmy Porterfield, Mari Smith for Facebook helpMark Schaefer for Twitter and marketing Seth Godin for marketing and fun thinkingJoe Pulizzi for content marketing strategy(and me! Judith Gotwald)

HELPFUL LINKS

Just a few!

There are many

experts out there

sharing FREE

Hope you enjoyed this presentation.

Judy Gotwaldcreation@dca.net@jigotwald.com

Gotwaldcreation.com2x2virtualchurch.com

THANK YOU!

Brainstorm Cartoonphoto credit: neilslorance via photopin cc

Dear Diaryphoto credit: incurable_hippie via photopin cc

Anatomy (brain cross section)photo credit: Patrick J. Lynch via photopin cc

frogphoto credit: Jess*Lo via photopin cc

PHOTO CREDITS