Obviously the blog posts are coming hot and heavy this week as the 30-Day Blog Challenge wraps up. And those of us in the Mini 7 Challenge are playing catch-up. For example, in my case I needed to write 10 blog posts in 5 days!
After the blog challenge, things go back to “normal.” But what IS normal? There are several schools of thought on posting to your blog, so let’s review the most common models.
As you think it. Many people look upon their blog as a journal – and post accordingly. If there is something they want to share, they do so. If they are busy and don’t have any ideas to share, they don’t. That’s essentially what I’ve been doing for the past few days – posting as the ideas emerge.
Timed release. Under this model, a blog owner releases a new blog post on a schedule. My friend Robert Plank does this very effectively. Every few weeks he releases a new blog post. For at least 3 days before he posts it, he sends email to his lists, telling them it’s coming. Great teasing emails.
I’ve been known to set a reminder on my computer to be sure I rush over to read his post as soon as it’s released. Why? Because he closes comments! He was the first person I know of to do this – and it has worked beautifully for him. Now he closes comments at 100 – and if you want to be part of the first 100, you need to rush over when he posts the new article.
Marketing tool. For many marketers a blog is just another marketing tool. They publish well-planned articles on their blog, promoting their products. There is little interaction on the blog because it’s primarily a one-way communication medium.
So where are you going from here? Which model will you use and how often will you post AFTER the blog challenge? What will be your new Normal?
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeanette Cates, Bobbye Middendorf. Bobbye Middendorf said: RT @jeanettecates New from Jeanette:: Scheduling Blog Posts https://jeanettecates.com/scheduling-blog-posts/ #mini7 <things 2 consider! […]
I will continue to use the scheduling function primarily. That way I can write my posts on the weekend and schedule them for the upcoming week. If I were as organized as Robert, I could even write posts for a month or more and have them scheduled to come out as I indicate. Then, as with the blog challenge, there is nothing stopping me from posting other items in between.
Terrie
Thanks for the shout out Jeanette, when are you going to limit a post of yours to 100 comments?
The only way I would ever participate in a 7-post or 100-post challenge is if I wrote everything at once and then scheduled it. Why? TIME!
Let me check my stats for a second… I get an average of 26.45 optins per day from squeeze pages, people who optin after the sale, affiliate optins, that kind of thing. Only 1.85 optins per day come from the blog!
In other words, if I’m spending more than 6.9% of my time on my blog, I’m wasting money.
6.9% equals is 2 days out of the month… or about 30 minutes per day.
Most people still haven’t properly monetized or lead-captured their blog. They don’t have enough autoresponder followups or broadcasts… they’re not split testing… they don’t have a product for sale… so blogging keeps them busy (but not productive or making money).
And the reason why I schedule posts the way Terrie describes (1 a month then fill in the gaps to 2-3 per month) is because way too many bloggers sprint for 30 days and then go 6 months without any new content.
Thanks for the great post Jeanette… and I hear it was your birthday the other day… happy 26th.