You’ve been thinking about starting a business blog.
You’re keenly interested in putting forward your expertise, commenting on trends, and sharing information.
But there’s a sticking point you just can’t quite get around. The whole thing just seems so overwhelming.
I should know, as I’ve been in your shoes. I’ve been blogging since 2010. That’s a whopping 14 years of writing blog posts on my own company’s website and for other sites.
With over 900 posts under my belt, you could say I’ve experienced a thing or two about the world of blogging.
As a productivity consultant and time management coach, I bring a unique viewpoint to the blog writing process.
Over the years, I’ve not only honed my writing skills but also created some efficient workflows to make the blog creation process more streamlined.
I’m happy to share with you five tips to help make the blog writing process a bit smoother for you and your team.
Capture potential blog post topics
The trouble with blog post topics is that you don’t know when they’re going to pop up during your day.
You may come up with fabulous ideas for posts in the shower, while you’re outdoors exercising, during weekly meetings, or while you’re tying your shoes.
Whether you choose to use a physical notebook or a digital note-taking app, it’s a good idea to have some sort of note-taking device with you at all times.
It’s also a good idea to create a centrally-located, dedicated list or idea bank of blog post ideas in your office or workspace in an app, word processing document, spreadsheet, or CMS database.
Simply take any ideas you may have and add them to your list. This way, you’ll have any number of ideas at your fingertips you can use at a later date.
Plan a blog posting schedule
There will be times throughout the year in your business when you’ll be more busy than not.
That’s why it’s such a good idea to come up with a content schedule or editorial calendar for your blog posts.
This ensures you’ll always have a steady stream of content created and ready for publication.
Schedule time regularly in your calendar to plan out blog post topics.
Along with ongoing regular content, consider planning timely blog posts focused on key business events, holidays, announcements, news items, company updates, promotions, sales, and the like.
Source ideas from clients and customers
Some great blog post ideas can come from common concerns, challenges, and situations faced by your clients and customers.
Think about recent conversations or communications you’ve had with people in your business.
What questions are being asked? What’s a top-of-mind concern? What do people want to know more about?
No matter your business, industry, profession, or specialty, remember that what you consider to be the most basic of information can be extremely helpful to others.
So take care to put yourself in your readers’ place and be sure to cover the basics.
Work in different writing stages
Writing blog posts is just like doing any other type of writing; you must write and then edit what you’ve written.
All blog posts will require first drafts. Depending on the situation, some posts will need second, third, or fourth drafts.
Fortunately, you can use this creation process to your advantage and keep things interesting.
There’s no law that says blog posts must be written in order, from first draft to final draft, before you can start working on another blog post draft.
Think about ways you can cycle writing drafts into your schedule.
Perhaps one day’s blog work will be focused on brainstorming ideas, while another will be spent writing first drafts, and still another will be focused on polishing drafts for publication.
Find your own preferred writing rhythm and stick to it.
Create a blog post checklist
To make the blog post creation process go even smoother, consider developing a blog post checklist.
This list should include all the different steps that need to happen in order for a blog post to go fully live.
This may include such items as brainstorming ideas, drafting, editing, loading the post into your CMS, sourcing images, doing SEO research, developing meta descriptions, titles, and the like.
Not only is such a checklist helpful for you personally, but you can easily delegate checklist tasks to an assistant or others on your team as needed.
If you’re not personally creating blog posts, you can have a team member create a standardized blog post checklist for your business to follow in the coming weeks and months.
Learn Productivity Tips to Help You Work More Efficiently
Managing a business blog or any other key business task requires careful thought and planning.
If you want clarity when it comes to working productively in your business, schedule a free 30-minute video strategy session with me today.
How about you? Which of these business blog productivity tips are you going to try? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!
This article originally appeared on Inc.com.
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