Blogging When You Don’t Want To Blog; Tips & Tricks When It’s The Last Thing You Want To Do
If this sounds dramatic, it’s because it is. But amidst the struggle of trying to figure out what kind of blog to write and then finding the time to actually sit down and write it, these feelings are very real. I’m not alone in these feelings either — we see clients struggle to post consistently on their own website blogs. And let me tell you, I can totally sympathize because, at this moment, writing is hard. Words are hard. Blogging is harder.
The truth about blogging in 2019? It’s essential to your website’s health. At General Public, we often find ourselves sitting across a conference table talking to clients about our thoughts regarding onsite blogs. That conversation usually revolves around this big idea:
Most people are not visiting your website to read your blog, but a successful blog post can get the right people to visit your website.
When you write a blog, you’re adding to your website’s footprint. It’s one more page for Google to crawl and a signal that your website is being updated with new, valuable content. So, as hard as blog writing can be, it is often the easiest way to get a quick win when it comes to your website’s SEO health.
So, you know you should be writing blogs, but what do you do when writing a blog feels like going to the dentist?
- Look At Your Analytics
If you have Google Analytics installed on your website, chances are you can use that data in your favor. What are people searching for when they get to your site? Do you have any old blogs that had more engagement than normal? User data is a great place to start brainstorming topics for your next blog post. Many times it will show you exactly what kind of content users want to see on your site. - Think About Ways To Give Back
One of my more successful blog posts was a few sentences accompanied by a downloadable Photoshop template for social ads. Part of the reason we saw higher engagement was because we offered something for free that was useful to our target audience. It can be daunting to try to be a “thought leader” with every blog post, so offering a digital asset is a great way to switch things up! - Officesourcing (Like Crowdsourcing, But In Your Office. Get It?)
If you’re blogging on behalf of a business, crowdsourcing content from coworkers and/or publishing a group blog is a great way to inject fresh voices into your blog content. We do this all the time at General Public; you’ll see it when we write blogs like our Spotify Summer Jams blog. This method is especially helpful during busy seasons when asking a few people to write a paragraph is more feasible than placing the weight of an entire blog on one person. - Set Realistic Expectations
Be honest with yourself when it comes to how much time you or your company has to dedicate to writing blogs. In general, we like to shoot for 2-4 blogs a month: it allows for a steady stream of fresh content without taking too many resources away from other revenue-generating tasks. But what do you do if your blogging schedule continues to be a burden, despite your best efforts? That could be a sign that it may be time to take a look at outsourcing your blog writing to a third-party.
So, there you have it — you’ve reached the end of my blog about blogging. If you’ve made it all the way to the end, thank you (also, hi mom!). In typical Liz fashion, I’m struggling with how to wrap everything up, so I’m going to leave you with a challenge: if your website has a neglected blog, push yourself to write one (yes, just one) post in September. Set aside the time, do some research, edit the hell out of it, and then revel in your success when you hit “publish”. Then, when you’re done celebrating, shoot us an email with a link to your blog and we’ll hook you up with some free General Public merch (if that’s not an incentive, I don’t know what is).
Good luck fellow blog writer, I believe in you!
