A Weekly Blogging Schedule Gets the Job Done
Not only are your readers busy, but as a small business owner, so are you. Long blogs posts are good if they are meaty and full of interesting information that helps your readers learn something new or enhance how they live their lives. Every blog should have at least a few meaty posts each month.
But let's face it, there only so many hours in a day. Yet, in order to make your blog work for you, you have to post regularly. The more the better. I suggest aiming for 5 times a week. Before you start throwing things at me, it's not has hard as it sounds. Here's a weekly blogging schedule to get you started.
Monday: An Interview Post
Introduce your readers to someone interesting. If you do this
regularly,they will start to look forward to it. An interview
with an interesting person your audience can relate to
is an easy way to create a meaty post that people will read, but which
will take you only a little bit of your time.
When you come across someone
of interest, send him an email introducing yourself and your blog. Then
ask him to answer 3 to 5 questions and send back a picture of himself
with a link to his blog or website. Give him a deadline; 72 hours from
when you send the message is usually acceptable if the questions are
short and to the point. Cut and paste the answers into your blog.
Here's an example of a recent interview post.
Tuesday: A Holiday Post
Even if Tuesday is not a holiday, there's still some kind of holiday
news of interest you can report. For example, did you know that March
17 was National Corndog Day?
Most of your readers probably didn't either. Turn this and other little
known holiday trivia into something interesting. Share the holiday with
a link to the website, and tell readers about your favorite corndog. Or
tell them how unhealthy corndogs are, and how you can't believe there's
a holiday for corndogs. The idea is to quickly tell them about a little
known holiday, put a personal spin on it and invite their comments and
experiences.
Wednesday: A New Product or Service Post
Select one day a week to introduce a new product or service. Another great idea is to tell a story about how a new product came to be. This can include sharing manufacturing challenges, an office product launch celebration party, pictures of you using the new product, etc. Always have a digital camera ready to take pictures of these moments because blog posts are more interesting if they include photographs to tell the story.
Offer a
discount on the new product for the first 10 people who post a relevant comment to your
blog. Here's my post introducing my free Indie Business Group Coaching Program.
Thursday: A Recipe Post
No matter who your readers are, they have to eat. Post a recipe that
is consistent with your blog and your readers will appreciate something
they can use in their daily lives. Make the recipe relevant to the time
of year or season.
For example, for the months of November and
December, post your favorite holiday cookie recipes. Don't
forget to include a picture of you and your family enjoying them for an
added personal touch. Here's an example of a fun recipe post.
Friday: A Current Events Post
Friday is the perfect day to post
about current events because it's the last day of the week, and every week is filled with news. Politics is especially interesting at
this time since it's an election year. Then there's health care, global
warming and other environmental concerns, rising gas prices, sinking
housing prices, etc.
Pick a topic that made the news during the week and share your
personal commentary on it with your readers. Invite them to share their
opinions. Here's an example of a current events post that took me about 10 minutes. As you can see, it doesn't have to be terribly brilliant to be timely, interesting and effective.
A final word of advice: With all you have to do as a small business owner, don't make blogging harder than it has to be. There is no such thing as a perfect blog or a perfect blog post. Let your readers be your guide. As long as you are connecting with your target audience, whatever you do is a success.
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