How to Sit Down and Write the Damn Blog Already
In theory, blogging is easy. You just write content that reflects your brand that satisfies your audience’s needs as said needs pertain to your brand. Easy-peasy-bloggy-squeezy. The problem comes when—because it’s “easy”—you don’t write or you don’t write on a schedule and then your posts are all over the place in terms of tone, timing, and focus…if, that is, you get around to writing them at all.
Create a Content Calendar
First, if it’s easier to write if you know what you’re going to write about. A content or editorial calendar will help you do that. A content calendar is basically a daily, weekly, monthly plan for what you’ll publish on your blog and your social media channels. If you’re not familiar with content calendars, we covered them in this post (and we provide a free template).
Your content calendar lets you know in advance what you’ll write about, so you don’t sit down at the computer with a seedling of an idea and try to grow a tree. With a content calendar, your seed gets planted early on, so come writing time, you’ll be ready to bolt with your writing.
Set Up a Posting Schedule
Another reason some blogs don’t happen is that people don’t have a fixed posting schedule. With a schedule, you’ll be more inclined to sit down and write the blog if you know it has to post at 8 a.m. CST every Tuesday. Not only is this better for Google’s algorithm and your website’s performance, it’s also a way to guarantee you sit down to write, even if you’re sitting down to write your blog at 6:30 a.m. the day the blog posts, a tactic we don’t recommend as the quality of the post will be spotty at best.
Get the Writing Done in Advance
Finally, work ahead of deadline. With a content calendar, you’ll know what you’re going to write and post about weeks in advance, so why not sit down and write your blogs in advance?
Designate one day a month to write the following month’s blog posts; if you’re writing one post per week, this is easy to do.
Spend the next day on Canva, Word Swag, or whatever your program of choice is doing the creative. Get your cover and post images ready to upload with your blog.
Spend another day getting the posts uploaded on your website. Save them as drafts then schedule them post on the appropriate day
Once you’ve done this, write four more blog posts that are a general good fit for your brand. These can be used in case of emergency. What if you get sick one month and get behind on the following month’s content? What if someone quits and you’re picking up slack in another department and can’t just sit down and write your blogs? A back-stash of emergency blog posts is something every brand on top of their game should have on-hand.
Key Points Review
We digress. The blogging is easy as 1, 2, 3, but it’s not so easy you should ever put it off to the last minute. So, let’s review the highlights:
Create a content calendar, so you know what you’ll be writing about months in advance. Grab a free copy of a content calendar template by clicking this link.
Using your content calendar, designate a specific day of the week, month, whatever to post your content on and stick to that schedule. This will force you to create posts.
Write your blogs and do the creative in advance, so you’re not left throwing something together at the last minute.
See? With a plan, it’s easy to write those damn blog posts…you just have to sit down and do it already. Happy blogging!
If creating content calendars and writing blogs feel like homework, why not hire a team of experts to help out? (Except in real life, hiring someone to write your homework…er, blogs, isn’t going to land you in detention...it’s actually going to help get your page some much-deserved attention.) If you’re struggling to sit down and write those darn blogs, give us, The Storyteller Agency, a shout and let us help you start producing consistent A+ content.
