Everyone is blogging nowadays.
Some people blog about their small business, some blog about personal challenges and accomplishments, and some even blog about blogging!
Whatever you choose to blog about, it’s important for you to organize your blog. Why does your blog need to be organized?
• An organized blog is an easy blog to read
• An organized blog is a blog readers want to come back to (and isn’t that what we want our readers to do?)
• An organized blog represents YOU. You don’t want to look disorganized to your readers!
Whether you’re thinking about starting a blog or wish to tweak an existing one, here are a few tips based on basic organizing philosophies that will keep you on track and help you organize your blog:
Schedule It
We make appointments for the doctor, an oil-change, and the cable guy, Why not make an appointment for yourself to blog? Blocking out the time on your calendar gets you one step closer to accomplishing the task. Figure out how many times a week or month you are able to post and stick to that schedule. But, be realistic. Brainstorming, writing, taking photos/video and commenting takes more time than you think it does.
Sort It Out
Compile a list of topics you’ll want to discuss on your blog. Look at a calendar–are any of your topics seasonal? Plug them into the months they belong in. For instance, as a Professional Organizer, I would start blogging about Spring Cleaning in March. A chef might blog about the best foods to barbecue in May. Other topics may revolve around holidays, trade shows, milestones, or history.
Break It Down
Take your topics and create sub-topics for them. So, if the chef were to blog about Barbecuing in May and has decided to schedule one blogging ‘appointment’ per week, he or she might blog about the benefits to cooking on a clean barbecue the first week, do a hot dog review the second week, offer grilling tips the third week, and list his or her top ten recipes for summer grilling during the fourth week.
Delegate
Sometimes we need to take a break from blogging. Find other blogs of similar topic/interest and link to their information for your readers. Check out blogs that are pertinent to yours and invite their authors to be guest bloggers on your site. You get a break from writing while your guest blogger gets a whole new set of readers (and possibly followers). It’s a win-win!
Get Rid of the Clutter
Too many pictures, videos, or advertisements detract from what you’ve written. Keep the look of your blog simple and streamlined. You have to grab the reader’s attention within the first five seconds of their arrival at your blog. If they have to spend those five seconds looking for your latest blog post, they may not return out of frustration. (Nooooo!)
Maintain It
Stay on track with posting to your blog. If you know you’ll be on vacation or going through a life-changing event, write posts in advance or have a guest blogger fill in for you. Keep all photos and videos for your blog in one place on your computer. Once a month, review your topics and subtopics and make any necessary tweaks or changes.
After applying the above principles, your newly organized blog will be low-maintenance, a pleasure to post to, and a joy to read.
Which organizing philosophy would help you organize your blog the most?
Stacey is a Professional Organizer, Virtual Organizer, and Author in Bergen County, New Jersey specializing in home organizing, time, and paper management. She is the author of The Organized Bride’s Thank You Note Handbook: Let Systems and 101 Modern Sample Thank You Notes Take You From Overwhelmed to Organized.
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Excellent tips, Stacey!
I also suggest making it as easy as possible for readers to find information on your blog by using categories and/or tags, a search box, and links to related posts – all of which you’re doing here!
Thanks, Janet. And I appreciate your good ideas. I may have too many categories even though I haven’t added any in years. I’m going to think about letting go of some of them in the future.
You and Janet must have had a mind-meld because you both wrote about organizing the blogging process this week. I like the way you each describe your process. While I have done “Ask the Expert” features and collaborative posts where I ask colleagues to respond to a specific question, I’ve never had a guest writer. I see the benefits but have chosen to keep the “voice” of my blog to mine. Have you invited guest bloggers? If so, what has your experience been? And happy snow day!
Years ago when I was blogging more regularly, I used to invite guest bloggers to contribute at times when I knew I’d be otherwise occupied such as when the kids were off from school for a week. Now that I’ve slowed down on blogging, I haven’t done it in a while. You were actually a guest blogger of mine years ago–this was the post: https://organizedartistry.com/organizing-help-for-back-to-school/. Thanks for filling in for me!
I really do agree with keeping your blog streamlined looking. After all, we are organizers. Our sites should be easy to navigate. That’s my philosophy anyway. Very helpful tips here! I keep a place on my phone where I record any ideas for blogs that pop up. Most of my inspiration comes from client work, so I need to grab my ideas when they come along or I am likely to forget:)
I understand what you’re saying about easily forgetting! I use Evernote on my phone to capture ideas quickly and easily for blog posts. And yes, if a Professional Organizer’s blog is not well-organized, that’s just not a good sign…
Great tips for beginners. It took me a long time to establish as system to blog and it probably will change again in the future.
Thanks for your comment, Janet! In the almost ten years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve see blogs change from online diaries to full-blown businesses. Regardless of their size, it’s so important for a blog (and it’s blogger) to start out organized!
Great ideas, Stacey! I have found that picking a theme word for the month helps me to focus on one idea. Then I take a quick look at Pinterest (I actually set my timer) for quotes about that theme. Then I use that info to pick 4 blog topics for the month.
Pinterest is an amazing resource! I find quotes for my newsletter there, too. Good thing you set your timer–I should do that so I don’t get lost in the Pinterest ‘rabbit hole!’