Restarting a business blog is a common question that we see. Sometimes the person in charge of the blogging is taken away from it for awhile. Another area of the business requires attention. There isn’t enough time for it.
Or maybe you’ve been hired to help restart the blog along with some other tasks. That’s another common one that we run into in our business.
Whatever the case, there are a few simple ways to get things back on the right track and ensure that you have a high likelihood of having success and maintaining your momentum.
1. Schedule Recurring Date For Title Brainstorming
One of the best tricks I learned early on in blogging was to separate the brainstorming from the writing. It’s a little romantic to think that writers in any area will sit down in front of a blank screen and let the words flow.
I learned it from the songwriting world. I was reading about songwriters and nearly all of them would keep a notebook with them at all times. Later, it would be the Notes app on their phones. They would take down song title ideas. Then they would go to writing meetings, take out their notes, pick a title and write the song.
Look at just about any form of content creation and you see the same process.
There is a slight chance that maybe this is why the business blog stopped in the first place. The tasks were too overwhelming and the brainstorming wasn’t given its own recurring time slot.
2. Schedule Time For Research & Writing
Also schedule separate time for the research and writing. You can even break these out into their own sections, but I find that you can do these at the same time in most situations.
But the best blogs, like other forms of content, often stick to a recurring schedule. Let’s say it’s a weekly blog post. Schedule time each week to take a title, research it and write it.
You won’t always have the inspiration flowing through yourself when you sit to write. But I find that most weeks it will hit as you get into the writing. Not always, but even in those times it’s good to push through and get something done.
You never know what posts will be hits. Sometimes your inspired posts don’t find a reader and sometimes your hard work posts really do hit with readers.
What makes for a good post? I don’t know, but I’ll tell you when I read one…
3. Schedule Time To Edit
It’s also good to schedule time to edit. You can tweak a post as you write it. That’s a good practice. But it can also be good to walk away from the post and come back to it with fresh eyes and review it. You’ll find little things to change.
You don’t want to go overboard with the editing. That can lead to a perfection cycle where you’re not publishing on a regular schedule and that can lead you back to an unused business blog.
4. Schedule Time To Share & Promote
Another aspect that can be overlooked is the sharing and promoting. By now you’re probably seeing that there is a lot involved in blogging. It’s not really a part time thing in most cases.
You can skip the sharing and promoting. You can rely on people to find you via search engines. If that’s enough for you then you can definitely do it that way. And people can find you via word of mouth and things like that too.
But you can also share via email or social media and other channels. You can share the entire post by reposting on a channel like LinkedIn. You can use snippets from posts and share those on social media. You can do lots of things.
But obviously it takes time and it really needs its own time slot on your calendar.
5. Determine If You Need Assistance In Any Of These Areas
Now after considering all of these things it’s good to determine if you need help. Maybe you want to do a few of the items, but one or two of the others aren’t your strong suits. You can look to bring on someone els to help out. Maybe that person is on your team or maybe they’re outsourced.
Blogging is often more than a one person job. That’s a big realization that many businesses overlook, but it can be a game changer to have a successful business blog.
Conclusion
Restarting a business blog is exciting. But it will involve some work. For titles, it’s going to involve some strategy. I like to stick with the basic strategy of identifying questions the audience is asking and trying to provide the answers with the posts. That’s a good solid strategy. But you can work in other angles as well.
Hopefully these tips help you have a successful relaunch, but I really hope it helps you to have long-term success with your business blog.