Publishing your own blog is a proven way to boost your professional profile, but it will only work if you regularly produce a high quality product. Professional bloggers publish predictably, consistently and regularly.
So if you’re serious ab
out writing a blog, you need to make the time to be consistent. Here are five tips you can use to beat procrastination and get your blog out on time, every time.
Map out six months’ of post titles
Effective bloggers are efficient bloggers. They write to a plan, rather than writing haphazardly. To create your plan:
- Decide on your theme
- Brainstorm six post titles
- Sequence the titles so they make logical sense
Now you’re ready to start planning the points you’re going to make in each post.
Create five dot points for each title
Aim to produce at least five key points in every article you write. This is much easier if you plan each point before you hit the keyboard. Planning is simply a matter of taking your dot points to the next level down. Define your topic. Then describe why this topic is important to professionals in your field. Next, describe three problems that practitioners in your profession commonly face. Finally, provide solutions for each of the problems that you described in the previous paragraphs.
These points form the skeleton of your 500 word article. Now all you have to do is put some flesh on that skeleton by starting to write.
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Set aside one hour of writing time for six days
Now it’s crunch time. If you’re serious about being a blogger, you need to spend an hour a day of your peak energy time being focussed. That means calendarizing an hour of your high energy time every day. If you’re a morning person, set aside the first hour of the morning. Or if you’re an evening person, set aside the last hour of the day. Adopt a ‘no excuses’ mindset. Make sure you spend this hour, every day, on the task of blogging. Do this for six days and you will have six articles, each of 500 words. Get details on how to do this easily in my free podcast Find Time to Write Your Blog.
Write 100 words per dot point
All you have to do now is write 150 words about each dot point. To maintain focus as you write, simply transform each dot point into a bold heading. Then, under each heading write two paragraphs. This will produce about a hundred words per heading.
Writing this way is easy, because it breaks the large task of writing 500 words into small, manageable chunks. You’ll find its easy and natural to write once you start working in this format. Download your free copy of Find Time to Write Your Blog podcast for more tips.
Auto-schedule the publication of your posts
Aim to produce regular content by creating a stockpile of posts. These should be scheduled 1-2 months in advance, so you’re always sure you’ve got content lined up and ready to go.
So, who would’ve known that writing and publishing regularly can be such a breeze? A little bit of planning will go a huge way in making you a professional, authoritative figure in your field. Good luck and feel free to contact me if you’d like some personal coaching on how to be an expert writer or presenter in your profession. Find out more about coaching with your free coaching starter pack.
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About the author of these tips
Eleanor Shakiba is a well-known trainer and coach. Since 1994, she has been teaching talented people – like you- how to think, communicate and behave in ways that build success. Eleanor holds qualifications in Social Anthropology, Applied Psychology, Adult Education and Neuro Linguistic Programming.