My Blogging Resolutions for 2009
HubSpot Marketing posted five excellent blogging resolutions — from which I’m heavily borrowing (with their permission)!
Herewith, my blogging resolutions for 2009 (which is going to be an excellent year!):
1. Post more regularly — I make resolutions all year long to post more regularly. Some weeks I post two or three times. But other times, when I get really busy and overwhelmed, I don’t post at all. My first resolution is to add my blog to my daily work schedule and then post at least two times a week every week.
2. Link to other bloggers — I read a ton of blog posts, newsletters, and reports. I even print out this information and plaster sticky notes on it to remind me to write blog posts. But alas, by the time I get around to writing, the blog post, newsletter or report is months old. I resolve to do a better job of linking to other bloggers by writing about their interesting or insightful information within a week of it being posted online.
3. Learn how to better optimize this blog — I downloaded and activated the WordPress SEO plugin, but I never use it. I resolve to learn how to optimize this blog and then report my findings.
4. Link to my other content — I publish an e-newsletter each month, write articles for other online publications, and often get interviewed by other bloggers, but I don’t always publish links to this content. I resolve to do a better job of promoting other bloggers and online venues and their efforts to reach out to me.
5. Use more pictures — I heartily agree with those experts who say blog posts should have pictures. I do try to include them when possible, but will often forego adding pictures when pressed for time. I resolve to make my blog posts more graphically appealing by adding pictures, logos, YouTube videos, etc. whenever possible.
That is my list. What do you think I should do more of? What should I do less of?
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Hi Dianna. Great post! I agree 100% with everything you point to here (and am trying to do it myself on blog.hubspot.com).
Two thoughts:
(1) Have you tried website.grader.com? This will help you with the basics on #3.
(2) Assuming, you’ve taken care of all the basics, I think doing #1 will help with #3. The more you publish, the more you’ll rank well for long-tail keywords.
Good luck, and Happy New Year!
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Rick,
The Website grader gave this blog an 86 — very exciting. I had no clue some of my posts were showing up in Digg!
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:29 am
Don’t forget video! It’s an important and fast-growing way to reach your blog readers.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:32 am
JanO — Yep! I mentioned YouTube. Still have not come up with an idea on how to use video with regard to my own business. I don’t want to look like a talking head.
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Hi Diana,
Have you every considered allowing guest bloggers on your blog? If so, care to blog on the pros and cons? It could specifically help with goals 1 and 2.
Michael
PS: How did you post your last response in the future (it says 11:32am today, and I’m posting this at 7:40 am CST)? Or are you half-way around the world right now….
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Michael,
I have not considered guest bloggers — although I have had freelance writers (whom I don’t know) email to ask if they can be a guest on my blog (which seems weird if you want my opinion).
I checked out the time. I had UTC time — which was ahead. I had to adjust it to UTC-5 — that should fix the problem! Thank you for catching it.
January 8th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Great simple techniques, thanks Dianna – the essence is that blogging well is really quite simple
I’ve found that people like consistency, freshness, a tongue in cheek approach, some freebies and then don’t seem to mind a soft cell
Just came across this that I tweeted on this a.m. – might be useful for blogger’s block
http://skribit.com/
Just about to add you to my blog roll as there’s some good stuff here
January 8th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Tom,
Thank you for the good words — and for stopping by!