One of the most competitive fields to enter these days is the field of blogging. There are blogs out there on the internet that cover almost every topic known to man. If you can think of a subject matter or product, it is being blogged about by someone some where in the world. Very few of these blogs though are truly successful in that many just blend in with the surrounding blogging landscape and get lost in the shuffle. What separates these unsuccessful blogs from their more successful counterparts sometimes is proper planning and strategy.
Bloggers that blog on the fly may create a somewhat more exciting blog, but often they create a blog that appears to their reader to be disorganized and suffering from poor planning. Considering that in most cases in life perception is reality in terms of marketing, why would any blogger purposefully want their readers to perceive that they or their blog are unprofessional, disorganized, or not properly planned out?
A definite blog strategy can turn a poorly operating blog, or even a moderately successful blog, into an extreme success. By operating a blog under a planned out model or strategy, a blog owner is maximizing it’s chances at success. Readers crave consistency from any source that they frequent on a regular basis. One great part about offering your readers a definite strategy and plan is that they come to rely on your blog and check back regularly. When a blog is inconsistent in both subject and operation, it makes a reader check back less often because they know that there may not be anything new or of interest for them.
Great examples of blog strategy include:
Regular Consistent Posting
Many blog owners strive to submit a new post once per day or three to five times a week. This is a great goal to have and has the effect on the readers of a blog that they can count on new information being placed and ready to be read at specific times. Readers like knowing that when they check back to read a blog there will be something new there to read.
Topic Timing
Another nice strategy that some blog owners use is to offer coverage of different topics, or things related to the topic of the overall blog, on different days of the week. If a reader knows that information they will be interested will be posted on that blog every Wednesday, then they can still read the blog at their leisure at other times of the week, but they know they can look forward to that specific day for something that they really want to read.
Feature Timing
Similar to topic timing, a blog owner can encourage loyal readers by offering the consistent timing of different features. Reviewing new products on a certain day of the week, running a contest or having a contest end on a specific day of the week, or having a certain day of the week be the day that a new guest blogger’s post will appear are all great ways for blog readers to feel secure in investing their time in a particular blog. There are reasons that certain topics are covered in newspapers on certain days of the week and that television stations show a particular program at the same time and on the same day of the week, it’s because this strategy works as a way of obtaining and keeping regular viewers or readers.
There are too many negative things to list here that result from having a poorly planned out blog or a blog that lacks any consistent strategy. The benefits from planning a blog’s operation are enormous and cater directly towards the goals that most blog owners have for their blogs, that being they all want more readers and more regular traffic. While it is easier to fly by the seat of your pants when blogging, it is far more rewarding to have an extremely successful blog, and that just isn’t nearly as possible without a good operational plan.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
For me, blogging consistently is the best plan. I try to post at least 5 new posts a week, sometimes more and sometimes less. However, my topic is no where near consistent. But I guess that’s what makes it so interesting…
September 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Thanks for your informative and helpful post! I am fairly new to the whole blogging thing (3-4 months), so these articles and blogs are very helpful. I only do one post a week, but it is always consistently updated (every Thursday evening) and there is a daily updated column (The Daily Concoction) which gives a reason for people to keep coming back. I like to keep my blog clean and anything from overly crowded and disorganized, but you did bring some good points for me to consider. Thanks and keep it up!
September 29th, 2008 at 4:32 am
[...] Don’t Blog Blindly or Blog by Accident - Bruce brought up a very good point here about making sure everything is ok with your post. Read this post. [...]
September 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I would have to say that “blogging blindly” is the number one cause of blogging failure!
The old saying, “Failing to plan is like planning to fail” applies in SPADES to blogging!
Just found your blog - I’m definitely subscribing!
September 29th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Thanks Kathy it is great to have you on board!
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Good Evening -
Your article on Blog Strategy is well thought out,but if I might add to this - part of the overall strategy should be your keywords. Once you have created a good list of the keywords for your niche, this will serve you well for many functions. For example,writing titles and posts for your content. Helping you with choosing your categories etc.
Another idea that is useful, is to draw on paper and pen .. a paper map, this will help guide you as to where you want to go with your blog.
There are so many things one can do, when blogging that it is quite amazing.
Blogging is not rocket science, but yes there are new things to be learned everyday.
I am glad that you are giving good solid information.
Keep up the good work
To Your Success
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Welcome Diane - I always appreciate well thought out feedback and contributions such as yours. Thank you!
October 9th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
As a new blogger i was quite confused about what i should blog about and was blindly wandering about there for a while. Now i seem to have found my focus areas.