One of the hardest things about running a blog for your company or website is trying to come up with good topics for your articles, especially when you don’t have much time.
The instinct may be to skip publishing but that’s not best because frequency matters when it comes to blogs.
By utilising these five essential actions, you can create outstanding blog content consistently and still stick to your publishing schedule.
Crappy first draft
American novelist Anne Lamott is famous for promoting bad first drafts.
Her point is that you just need to get something on paper.
“Writers write” is a quote I hear or read at least once a day because it is a crucial device that writers use to remind themselves that their job is to, well, write.
My first drafts often take on an outline form – I’ll consider the title and keywords I need to target and, as I research, I’ll pull out the ideas I want to highlight.
Once I determine the sections and flow, I can start in the middle of an article even when the introduction isn’t coming together.
The point of the crappy first draft is to get some words written.
You may delete them all later, but at least you’ll have started!
Walk away
After you get something down, walk a way. This might seem counterproductive, but I promise that it works.
When writer’s block strikes, I’ll sometimes take an actual walk. Getting outside and doing something active seems to be a perfect method for inspiring new perspective and thoughts.
Use tools
While no tool is perfect, automated grammar software program Grammarly is my go-to tool so that everything I write is checked by a second set of ‘eyes’ before I hit publish.
The free version of the tool is helpful tool to catch spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, but the paid version goes even further.
For example, Grammarly often highlights that my drafts are “wordy”. This isn’t surprising to me, but it is a gentle reminder for me to edit my work to improve clarity.
However, I don’t turn Grammarly on when writing my first or second drafts.
I’ll turn it on once I’m on my final review so that I can consider any suggestions and edit accordingly. After this, I do one final read-through before sending my content to a proofreader.
Use a proofreader
As writers, we can find ourselves feeling defensive about the editing process, but the reality is that developing outstanding content requires editing.
Even when you have a great handle on your audience, it’s still important to make sure that your ideas are communicated clearly.
Remember that you’ve been focusing on your article for several hours or even days at this point and have probably read it through at least four times; it’s possible you are not being as clear as you think.
Proofreaders are also great because they can tell you when you have complicated an explanation of a particular topic – perhaps you are using five sentences when only three are needed.
A great proofreader will provide suggestions that clarify your content without substituting their voice or perspective for yours.
Consider all suggestions and always keep the end goal in mind: you’re creating outstanding content for your reader.
Create a content calendar
The best way to stay on track when writing consistently is with a content calendar.
There are many benefits of having a calendar, but my favourite is that you only need to brainstorm subjects once – as opposed to every time you sit down to write.
With my personal blog, I plotted out a year-long content calendar with titles and subjects in January.
This might sound like an overwhelming task, but I publish eight times a month so I only needed to come up with 60 titles and plot out the publishing dates.
When you work ahead, you give yourself flexibility if life circumstances happen
to inspire new content; I have found that prepared titles can be easily postponed for the future, perhaps even the next time I develop my content calendar.
Thinking about all of your blog articles in one go might not work for everyone, but I suggest you think further ahead than a few weeks – quarterly calendars are the ones I encounter most often.
By taking the time to brainstorm keywords, titles and subjects, you can jump into that ‘crappy first draft’ easily and with a little bit of inspiration.