I have recently come to the conclusion that I miss old school blogging and old school bloggers - and here's why. There's also an explanation at the end...
Writing a blog post in 2002-2012:
- Write
- Publish
- Go and experience life so you have something to write about next time
- ... whenever that may be
Writing a blog post now:
- Make sure your RSS feed is working
- Have a lovely template so that your blog is nicely laid out
- ... and mobile responsive for your potential readers that might view on a phone or a tablet
- ... and your own domain name because any web address with .wordpress or .blogspot in it isn't to be trusted
- Create IFTTT recipes 'to make blog sharing easier'
- Think of an idea that is 'on trend'
- Write the article
- Ensure you have everything spelled correctly and that your grammar is on point
- Consider the rules of Search Engine Optimisation
- Re-write the article
- Find a nice image but don't tell anyone if you use one you found on a Google Image search
- Ensure the image is the right size and resolution
- Then make another one for Pinterest
- Publish the article
- Check your IFTTT recipes have sent the blog post to your Facebook page, your Facebook profile and your Twitter account
- Dump the link on Google+ (yes, it's still there and yes, it still matters... apparently)
- 'Pin' the blog post to your chosen board on Pinterest
- ... and to a couple of community boards that you are a member of
- Use one of the images on Instagram with the caption "New blog post is up. Link in bio."
- ... #dont #forget #the #hastags
- Send the link to StumbleUpon
- ... and 'thumbs up' a couple of non-relevant web pages to make it look like you're not spamming
- Alert brands/people mentioned in, or related to, the blog post via social media
- ... remembering not to put their @name first so everyone sees the update
- Add the blog post to your weekly Buffer schedule
- ... also schedule a few more on Facebook
- ... and Twitter
- ... making sure you optimise the sharing times
- ... sometimes with an image, sometimes without
- ... sometimes with #more #hashtags, sometimes without
- Share on Twitter if you see someone else mention something similar to your blog post
- Add the link to your weekly/monthly newsletter
- Join some 'comment
ringslove threads' in blogging Facebook groups - Find a relevant linky to join but probably don't visit any of the other links that have been shared
- Repeat numbers 23 (if they didn't respond the first time), 25, 26, 27 and 31 on at least four occasions
- ... per day
- Panic when your blog post is shared on Facebook and the correct image doesn't appear or is cut off at the wrong point
- Check a seasonal topic calender to find your next blogging subject
- Check your statistics. Every. Single. Day.
- ...make sure you compare them to last week/month/year and stare at the screen in dismay if your blog hasn't 'grown'
All the blah blah blah:
OK, so I'm guilty of about 90% of the above - I admit it. As a blogger, of course I want people to read what I churn out but I want them to see the real me and I want to write what matters. More recently I realised I loved writing stuff like "I can't remember the last time..." because it came from pent-up emotion but then I read Tanya's 'Keeping It Real' blog post and knew that this one was just on the tip of my fingers. I'm going back to basics and hoping everyone else will also fuck it all and just write!