Anyone who blogs on their site should know that maintaining content is absolutely integral to success. You can have the catchiest URL, the coolest flash intro, the best giveaways and contests, but you have to keep things current.
Here are a few tips to keeping your blog current, even if you’re not at the keys to do so!
Plug-ins – As a WordPress user, I have an army of people all over the world constantly writing themes, plug-ins, and complimentary accessories to my site. I can change the look and feel of my site weekly, if I choose, and that may be relevant depending on how the visual aspect of your business changes. For instance, in Division, every time we release a new CD, we may want to change the color scheme and theme of the site to match that release. The WordPress Editorial Calendar plug-in lets you write your posts and schedule them for release in the future. This is an easy, visual way to track your cadence and to keep your posts related to your future events.
The authors of “Nine Months In, Nine Months Out” used this technique to author 42 weeks of topics and have them posted once a week – about the length of an average pregnancy. Having your material already written is a great way to avoid the feeling of dread the night before your post is due, scrambling for a topic, and writing a blog post that you can’t take pride in. Having the tools to automate the release of blog posts can help you build an educational schedule that ties in to all of your events. For instance, you could blog about specific topics that tie into upcoming events. Hosting a black belt test, blog about the tradition of the test and the organization. Hosting a charity event? Have a member of the board or the executive director of the charity on your site as an interviewee or a guest blogger. Make it relevant to what you have going on in your business.
What to write
Michael Veltri, of D.C. Aikido, uses a four-week rotation to cover different topics that he teaches to students. This may cover strikes in Week One, floor techniques in Week Two, blocks and countering moves in Week Three, and miscellaneous topics in Week Four. This approach also works for blogs. To once again use Division as the example, we tend to rotate through topics published in our blog. The four week rotation may include writing, recording, performing, and gear talk. (We make it our goal to be as educational as possible to all the new bands and musicians who visit our site.)
Once you’ve written your content, you’re going to want to let your followers and audience know that it is available. The WordPress Auto-Tweet plug-in automatically posts a link to your new blog post to twitter when the post is published. The end result is that you can dedicate a short amount of time to writing on particular topics, and your viewers will receive notification of that content over the days, weeks, or months you’ve scheduled.
You’ve now overcome the challenge of staying relevant, and letting the right people know about it.
Please share your tips, tricks and opinions! We’d love to hear more of how you stay on top of your page, and keep your readers coming back.
One Love,
nK