10 time-saving tips to help you blog more frequently and effectively

Over the years we’ve written at length about the importance of adding fresh content to your website to assist with engagement, search engine ranking and delivering news that existing or potential nonprofit fundraising donors will want to read. The most time-consuming but still extremely important option is to blog on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Not only does blogging give your organization a voice that allows you to communicate at length about the important news or changes that are taking place in your arena, but there are excellent natural dividends to blogging that will help you gain more exposure, create more engagement and find new connections.

Each and every time you publish a new article on your blog you’re sending a message to Google and other search engines that says “Look, we have new content on our site. Please index it and help people to find it”. In addition over time a blog will create a loyal following of readers who may check in daily, weekly or monthly to find out the latest and often share it. Finally, fresh content on your blog provides you with ideal links to share via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other social media platforms that you use.

Blogging does take time and commitment but a disciplined approach to blogging will create huge interest in your site over time, even if you’ve only got time to blog weekly or a few times per month. Much like a garden you can’t just plant the seeds and walk away for three months, you have to keep making the effort to truly see worthwhile results.

So can a disciplined approach to blogging mean that you write more frequently and far more effectively? The answer is a resounding yes if you work to incorporate the ten steps below so that it becomes your normal routine. Ten steps may sound like a lot but once you’ve followed these

1. Outline & Research – Give yourself ample time to think through your topic before you type your first word. Consider your audience, the goal of your post, how your message and personality can shine through within the writing and make sure that ultimately there is inherent value in the topic that you’re about to write about. Researching a topic effectively is as important as writing about it and if you’re writing from the perspective of personal experience be prepared to demonstrate that within your writing style.
2. Ask Yourself Questions – Decide exactly what you want your blog post to accomplish. Outline this goal in the opening sentences and explore it in the body that you’re about to write. Are you able to provide information that provides readers with enough information to make it an interesting piece to read? Many of the most successful blogging consists of the provision of information from first hand experience or a unique perspective. Who could possibly be a better source of authority about the activities and developments at your nonprofit organization than you?
3. Create First Draft Remotely – Years ago I used to write directly into WordPress (the most common blogging platform) and I wish I had learned on day one that it’s an awful place to write due to the ‘on screen’ distractions. Create your first draft on remote software so that you have the space and clear canvas to simply write with a natural flow.
4. Edit Your First Draft – Review your first draft and edit down as much as you possibly can while at the same time keeping your personality. Avoid being repetitive and creating paragraphs with more than three or four sentences. Consider the overall flow of the piece to the reader. If it’s a topic you’ve written about before then mention that, if it’s a topic that encourages discussion then welcome that debate. Typically your first edit will reduce your written content by about 20-30%.
5. Transfer To Your Platform – Following your first edit move your written content over to your blogging platform.
6. Take Time Away – This is an easy step – do something else for at least an hour. Go to lunch, answer emails, walk the dog – absolutely anything but continue looking at what you’ve just written.
7. Add SEO Ingredients – SEO is important but your SEO considerations should never take priority over your writing style. Of course you’re writing on theme most of the time but your SEO will come naturally from the content you’ve just created and never the other way around.
8. Add Images & Links – Always add images after writing your articles and not beforehand. After you’ve written and edited your piece the perfect image will occur naturally, as you conclude writing you’ll already be thinking of which image best accompanies the content. Always link back to your site if certain pages are related to the blog post or previous articles and credit sources as and when you use them. Never write ‘click here’ and link that but instead write what you’re linking to and link that. A great way to credit sources is to add “For further reading: Source 1, Source 2 etc” at the foot of your blog post.
9. Final Review – Before posting or scheduling your post give it one final review for grammar, flow and appearance. You’ll almost always catch things that you missed earlier.
10. Measure Your Impact – Once you’ve written a blog post don’t forget about it forever. Review your site visits and analytics for your recent posts a few weeks later to determine not only which articles were viewed by the most people but how long reader spent on the page, how well were articles shared via social media and which created the most interaction via comments or surveys.

By following these ten steps blog creation will become far more organized and less stressful, plus I guarantee that you’ll save an amazing amount of time. In addition you will be creating more consistent and improved content for your website. If you have any other favourite suggestions that might help a fellow blogger please share in the comments below.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services