Triple your post frequency!

WordCamp NYC 2012

Andraz Tori@andraz

Your blogging heart rate

• Alive and kicking?• Content recency

• Walking or running?• Frequency

• Healthy?• Regularity

Goal

Increase frequency and regularity

without compromising quality!

But, before we start...

But, before we start...

What helps?

• Having a plan• Having equipment• Having a coach

Three directions of attack

1. A system of post types

2. Adopt a pacemaker

3. Spend less time per post

Three directions of attack

1. A system of post types

2. Adopt a pacemaker3. Spend less time per post

And blog 'plots'?

ProBlogger: 52 Types of Blog Posts that Are Proven to Work

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/09/03/52-types-of-blog-posts-that-are-proven-to-work/

Taking a look at

1. Case Studies/Profile Posts2. How-To Posts3. Link Posts

Case Study Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

USE CUSTOMERS' OWN WORDS

AND USE VISUAL CUES

Case Study Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

KILLER HEADLINE

Case Study Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

REAL EXAMPLES

Case Study Post - Checklist

1. Create a Killer Headline2. It's a Story3. Use Customers' Own Words4. Use Visuals (graphs, images of product in use, video testimonials)

How-To Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

CONCISE INTRODUCTION

How-To Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

CLEAR STEPS

How-To Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

USE EXAMPLES

How-To Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

SOLIDCONCLUSION

How-To Post - Checklist

1. Concise Introduction2. Clear Steps3. Include Examples4. Solid Conclusion

List Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

STAY TRUE TO YOUR SUBJECT/TITLE

List Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

NUMBER YOUR LIST SO IT'S EASIER FOR YOUR READER

TO FOLLOW

...AND DON'T LIMIT YOURSELF TO SPECIFIC NUMBERS

List Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

USE CATEGORY BUCKETS

List Post

bit.ly/Kpny8o

TAKE FORMATTING INTO ACCOUNT

List Post - Checklist

1. Stay Close to Your Subject/Title2. Numbers3. Only on-topic4. Use Category Buckets5. Take Formatting into Account

Three directions of attack

1. A system of post types2. Adopt a pacemaker

3. Spend less time per post

Importance of frequency and regularity

• Predictabilty for your readers• Increasing recall of your blog name• Material over which to engage about on social channels

Adopt a pacemaker!

• We are all lazy• So we use tools that help us do the right thing:

• A Boss• An Editorial calendar• Inspiration delivery

A Pacemaker

• A tiny thing• Hidden from the view

• And hugely important

Editorial calendar

• Can be as simple a Google Docs spreadsheet

• Or robust like Edit Flow...

Simple to manage calendar

http://editflow.org/

Custom post status types

http://editflow.org/

Editorial Metadata

http://editflow.org/

Editorial comments

http://editflow.org/

What to write about?

Inspiration, delivered daily

• Input: • blogs on the topic you want to write about

• Output:• Articles and topics that you should write about• Integrated with WordPress (.org and .com)

• You:• Start writing your thoughts immediately

Takes you to “Add new post”

Three directions of attack

1. A system of post types2. Adopt a pacemaker3. Spend less time per post

Writing does not a post make

What makes a post?

• Writing• Decorating• Connecting• Tagging

Writing

• You can get inspiration out there• But no automated tool can write instead of you

• So good luck!

Decorating

Skyword study found an average increase of 94% for articles that included an image or infographic.

http://skyword.com/blog/96-skyword-study-add-images-to-improve-content-performance.html

Connecting

• Links to:• Your sources• Your inspiration• Good links for readers to dive deeper

• Linking out is one of the best ways to get noticed

Toto, I don't think we're on paper anymore!

Don't be an island

• Don't be a content island!

• It's lonely• No space to grow

• BYP periodically references LifeHacker articles

• One of the Lifehacker bloggers took notice and linked back to one of Blogging Your Passion posts

http://bloggingyourpassion.com/how-using-the-zemanta-wordpress-plugin-can-increase-your-blog-traffic/

Tags

• Important for SEO• And sometimes user-discovery• Very important on WordPress.com

How to be efficient at all this?

Age of smart

Optimize, enhance

• Search Engine Optimization

• Professional copy editing

• Basic spell & grammar checker

• Personal writing assistant• Helps with recommendations while writing:

• Images• In-text links (Wikipedia, authoritative sites)• Related articles (Blogs, big & small media, yours)• Tags (so people can find your content)

Adding images

==

Adding links

Adding tags

And publish!

Takeaways

Exoskeletons

Or like this

Links

• 52 types of blogs http://bit.ly/qV1spC• Checklists http://bit.ly/Kpny8o• EditFlow http://editflow.org• BlogSpire http://blogspire.zemanta.com

And remember

• Purpose of all this is to build a habit• Without a habit no tool or approach will help long term

• There is no magic bullet

Thank you!

Andraz Tori@andraz

Photo credits• http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/B2B_Trends_2010.pdf

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/aye_shamus/2929888687/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/stylianosm/3989939286/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/betta_design/2200198472/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferranp/317125624/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanaka/5949395563/lightbox/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/squeaks2569/3700355684/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trj/1032572214/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/cazatoma/6086507585/

• Raytheon Sarcos

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Photo credits• http://www.flickr.com/photos/ioveva/2582842514

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/n28ive1/431939090/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/riekhavoc/5117958417/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jontunnell/4417137695/

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Resources• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-for-writing-great-blog-posts/

• http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/10/10-tips-for-corporate-bloggers/

• http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32105/The-Top-10-Qualities-of-High-Quality-List-Posts.aspx

• http://blog.kissmetrics.com/creating-a-great-case-study/ 

• http://www.bloggingtips.com/2010/01/05/50-examples-of-great-blog-engagement/