Have you been away from your blog for a while? I know I have. Well it’s time to dust off those cobwebs, and there’s no better time than the start of a new month (and a little incentive from Cheryl Sleboda over at muppin.com) to get back in the habit.
I recently taught a class at Houston Quilt Festival all about reviving a blog (more on that in a minute), and I thought, hey! I should practice what I preach! Incidentally, Cheryl also started her 31 Day Blog Challenge today (not too late to sign up here) so the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
One of the challenging things about blogging is that it’s so easy not to do it! It’s so fast for me to grab my phone, take a photo, and post something to Instagram and Facebook. That takes 2 minutes tops, and it feels like connecting and communicating in that moment. But I can’t tell you how many times someone has asked me for more detail, or will ask a question about something I know I addressed in one of those fleeting social media moments. In fact, the other day someone asked a question in a group that I know I’ve answered three or four times already. Why isn’t that on my blog?
What things are you holding back from your blog? What are you posting on social media that would find a more sustainable home on your blog?
Over the next 30 days, I will commit to writing something every day, but I don’t think I will post every day. I want to develop a sustainable habit, and for me I think that will be getting back to a regular schedule of 2-3 posts a week.
If you are also interested in developing a sustainable strategy for your blog, let me tell you a bit about my Blog Revival class.
30 Days to Blog Revival
It’s so hard in a 1 hour lecture or even a 3 hour class to convey all the information needed to develop a good approach to blogging. In the class I cover seven areas that are critical for blogging success: content, presentation, call to action, planning, SEO, promotion, and consistency. I really felt that I could do a better job of helping people if I had more time with them, and could guide them through the process. That’s when I developed my online course, Blog Revival.
What’s so great about this class is that it’s self-paced, but gives you something specific and actionable to do every day. It starts with a writing prompt (and in fact, I provide a writing prompt for each day) and progresses with 1 or 2 things for you to do to get your blog back on track in one of the key areas. When I launched the class, I also shared my real-time work on my own blog, which showed how I implemented the principles and what areas I was struggling in.
Day 3 of the class, for example, has three topics – the writing prompt, the importance of keeping an idea file, and introduces the idea of scheduling time for a weekly brainstorm. My “behind the scenes” that day shows how I set up Trello to manage my idea file and weekly brainstorms.
As I go through the next 30 days I’ll be refreshing some of the information in the class to make sure it’s still relevant and correct, so everyone taking the class (past and present) will have the most up-to-date info. The great thing about taking this class is that you always have access to the information and you can retake the class as many times as you want, or spend more time on a specific topic if you need to.
If you’re interested in learning more about the class, you can read more about it on the class page. I’m offering a deal when you sign up by December 10th – the class is only $97 – and you can start anytime.
Do you think my Blog Revival class can help you with your blog? Feel free to post a comment or ask a question below.