2019 will be here in less than a month. For small business bloggers, that means spending the first quarter of the year wracking your brain for blog topics, researching 2019 blogging trends and topics, writing each blog, sourcing images, and scheduling each blog. Rather than laboriously – and frantically – going through that process, you can spend a single day writing and scheduling all the blogs you need for the entire quarter (January – March). Here’s the simple process I use to get it done.
- Select Dates: I blog once a week on Tuesdays. Whatever your blogging frequency, start with a blank Word (or whatever word processor you prefer) document and list each date for which you need a blog entry.
- Do Your Research: This is where 2019 blogging trends first come into play. Online research, interest from your target market, and awareness of what bogs performed well in the last quarter should guide your research into topic choices, blog lengths, industry news, and ideal consumer preferences.
- List Your Topics and Titles: Letting your research guide your topic choices, assign a topic to each date, then turn each topic into a blog title. That title will help keep your writing clear, focused, and concise.
- Pick A Picture: Blogs with relevant images perform better than text-only blogs. Source pictures from trusted sites where you have a paid membership or from stock photo sites where their licenses and usage rights are clearly spelled out.
- Write: Start by freewriting to get the crux of what you want to say out of your head and onto the page. Then go back and make sure each blog meets your word length goals, isn’t packed with fluff and filler, is SEO-optimized, and provides your readers with information they want and need.
- Edit and Proofread: Before you get to this step, take a breather. It’s easier than you think for your eye to fool you into seeing something that isn’t there or into not seeing something that is. After you read through each blog and make corrections, run your word processor’s spell check and use an outside spell checker like Grammarly to avoid spelling and grammatical errors.
Once that’s all done, I go to the back end of my website, and to my social media scheduler, and carefully schedule each blog and social media snippet along with its corresponding image. When I hit that final schedule button, I’m done for an entire quarter. That gives me an abundance of free time, eliminates a ton of frustration, and lets me focus on other areas of my business.
I can usually complete this process in five to seven hours. Pick a day this month, clear your schedule, research 2019 blogging trends, and get your blogs written for the entire first quarter of 2019. After you’ve completed the process, but before you completely wrap up for the day, schedule a day in the beginning of March to create and schedule your Q2 blogs. Your readers will thank you, and you’ll love the freedom and peace of mind that comes from creating a set-it-and-forget-it quarterly blog.