Today whilst visiting a real estate office we got talking about social media strategies and why as a real estate office they should be working towards implementing a social media strategy, not just to farm new pastures, but also to help them in the optimisation of their web site. During the conversation we got on the subject of blogging, and why creating a blog would help their Internet marketing efforts.
Well I have to admit that over the last few weeks I’ve neglected my blog a bit as I explore new areas and work on my web site, so with a little bit of a guilty feeling, I’ve motivated myself to write this article, and you can probably guess what it is about, making sure you create and maintain a disciplined approach to blogging.
In my research I come across a lot of blog writers who after a period of time, and it’s often around the 12 month scenario, tend to get a little bit of writers block and lose interest in maintaining their blog, which is what happened to myself, and in a number of cases the blog gets abandoned altogether.
The Internet is full of abandoned blogs, left in the wilderness by writers who lose interest.
It’s not easy maintaining a blog on a regular basis, you also have to work hard at maintaining your audience and coming up with new content that appeals to your readers.
So today I’ve written a list of things that I will do to assist me in writing articles for my blogs and I’ve listed them below for you, if you are just starting as a blogger I hope they help set you on a disciplined approach and most of all don’t give up.
1. Set aside 1 hour each day to research for new articles – doesn’t matter what time of day it is, just DO IT! – Talking to other people also stimulates ideas for posts. Mornings I find are much better, I can sit in my pajamas and coffee and read.
2.Write when you get urge - A lot of times I’ll come up with an article idea and leave it till later, in most cases later never comes.
3. Create a list of topics and categories – Then write first about what you like or are passionate about. That way you’ll enjoy writing about your favourite topic.
4. Revisit your old articles - Some of these older stories can be updated and rewritten. As some of these topics are changing almost daily, providing updates on these old stories can generate new ideas.
5. Read other Blogs & Bloggers - This will help to create ideas as well, it gets the creative juices flowing and helps with topics and trends.
6. Subscribe to RSS Feeds - Make sure you get updates delivered right to your computer, and use some of these articles on your own blog. They help break up the style of writing and provide different opinions on topics. But remember, always credit the author of the article.
6. Commitment - Now here is the magic word, once you start you really need to be committed to your blog, so create that list.
That is what I intend to action from today, I put it up on my office wall so that every morning the first thing i see will be the list.
I hope that if you are just starting out, this little list will help keep your blog on track and if you have any additions to the list please share them with me.
For more information on topics such as this, please visit www.mikeandrewrealestate.com
