What to Blog About Next? How 'bout Now? part 2

I heart evergreen posts. Now and always.

Blogging got off to a suspicious start. Even auspicious, maybe. But I'm not blogging about run-of-the-mill, run-off-the-mouth blogging. I'm blogging about corporate/business/ghost/marketing content blogging.

Which means your blogging efforts will probably require meetings. Schedules. A plan. 

Yeah, I know. Borrrrr-ing. But do it right and you'll be hearing ca-ching!

Here's the good news about planning your blog posts: it doesn't have to be hard, they don't have to be long, and variety is the spice of blogging.

In other words, sometimes you can blog about what you're doing right now.

We're having a sale! is a great way to start a blog post.
Hurry to renew your contract before the price increase! works too. 

Seasonal tips make for great blog content. Got a landscaping business? Why not blog about liability as it relates to snow plowing contracts?

But wait, it's not exactly snowplow season, you're thinking. And we're not having a sale this week. So what do you mean, blog about "now?"

I mean, time is of the essence. You will have to spend some time planning and writing and scheduling your posts to make sure they're always timely. Get it? Blog about now means now, AKA your publish date. You want your content to be very timely ... or very evergreen. And sometimes, in-between.

I'll address evergreen posts (I love evergreen posts!) later, and tweeners too. Meanwhile, if you're wondering what to blog about now, I suggest you plan now to blog about something that will feel like you wrote it just now when the reader reads it... later.

Later! 

~Diane Stresing

What to Blog About? What to Blog About Next? And After That? Part 1

What to Blog About is a three- or four- or five- or 50-part series about - well, duh - what to blog about. Not sure what to blog about? or if you should blog? Please, read on

This series was inspired by and has grown out of a series of a-ha! moments I've had recently about content. See, I've been writing about writing and blogging about blogging for longer than I'm willing to admit. And of course, it's all content. So is copywriting. As are catalog listings, white papers, spec sheets, sell sheets, and tip sheets. But not satin sheets. That's slippery stuff. Anyway, downloadable games, quizzes, reviews, and surveys, heck, it's all content. The whole blogosphere brouhaha about the importance of content, frankly, is very old news to moi. 

Moi? Why Moi always knew content was king!

Now. I will not entertain any comments about how very old it might be, smartypants. Let's just say I knew Miss Piggy before she kissed her first frog, and leave it at that.

The most recent a-ha! moment bringing this to my attention was a conversation with an old friend, now the owner, founder, and a C-level bigshot at a pretty cool company that sells a very nifty bunch of software tools any design engineer would be happy to have. (Hi, Frank!) The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey, I think I've got a blogging opp for you. (Yes, I really talk like that.) I've been working with a tech firm that's open to guest bloggers. Want me to introduce you?
Him: Thanks for the offer, but I don't know a lot about Blogging so I really don't see the value.

skreeeeeeeeeeetch!

Whether you heard nails on a chalkboard or somebody slamming the breaks on the possibility of reaching a whole lotta new customers, you're right.

So. I let Frank off easy - hey, I like to think that's why we're still friends - and decided to blog about it.

Part one in the bag. Stay tuned to find out What to Blog About Next.

You & Your Source: Different Interview Perspectives

PR Daily is good at asking questions, and How far should you stretch in an interview? is a good question.

In the case of this particular question, author Brad Phillips concludes that there's no right or wrong answer. I beg to differ.

As a writer, I've been on the deadline end of the wrong answer, and it stinks (to put it politely).

On Being a Good Source 

My answer to would-be sources is this: don't stretch for an interview unless you're really, r e a l l y going to stretch and actually become a good source.

Trust me, a prompt, professional response that you're not able to authoritatively address the specific aspects of the assigned topic will be appreciated.

Do you worry because you "hate to turn down a media opportunity?" Don't. Generally, a prompt, professional response of any kind will be enough to get you on the list of "people to call" for future assignments on any related topic.

As a source, the second-worst thing you can do is stretch a little. If you stretch enough to talk around the topic, but are unable to offer any real insight into the topic, you've wasted not only the writer's time but the readers' time as well.

The Worst Source

In my opinion - as a writer and a reader - the worst thing a source can do has nothing to do with stretching. It has to do with bending.

Sources who bend, twist, or turn their responses, or who stray so far from the topic that their comments are useful only to themselves and/or their brand, are the worst... when you're prepared, that is.

Sometimes - rarely, but sometimes - a "bad" source can, like a lost sheep, be worth following. The trick is knowing when.

Don't Get Lost, Get Lucky

Following a wayward source is worthwhile when you have enough time to appreciate the detour as part of the education process. Managing your work so that you can have "enough time" is a challenge every writer knows too well - and most know it depends on having a lot of discipline and even more luck.

To increase your chances (I'm talking to writers now, you source-types are free to leave) I've found it helps to identify potential sources as early as possible in your research phase. I've lucked out a few times by contacting those potential sources before I understood the topic well. In those cases, I suspect my totally honest approach improved my luck.

Contacting Sources Too Early Can Work

When contacting potential sources before I've had a chance to develop good questions, I say something like, "I'm researching X topic and would like 10-15 minutes of your time while I begin to understand how Y and Z are affecting X. Before you agree I should tell you this interview would be considered background only - in other words, no attributable quotes at this time. If you're willing to speak to me, please call..."

Obviously, when using this approach it helps to cast a wide net (or look for a lot of sheep). And it helps to have a long lead time - something almost always out of your control as a writer.

What is under your control as a writer, and what you must remember during the interview and writing process, is that you and your sources approach the interview from completely different perspectives. Put another way: as long as you understand that the question How far should you stretch in an interview? is one sources must routinely consider, it's probably unlikely that you'll be led too far astray.

~Diane Stresing

Dear Writers: Don't Fall for a Line Like That

"This position is really meant for people who know how to bring in real traffic. We pay a $2.50 CPM (That's $2.50 per 1,000 pageviews your article attracts) with a cap set at $25 per article."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If the line above - from a real, recent post on a quite-respected job board - had you going at first, I hope you did the math at the end and got the same answer I did.  Sorry, but "$25 cap" isn't appropriate or respectable, even for a "small but respected social media reporting site."

SMH.

We're all writers so read this before sharing on Facebook (or anywhere else)

This is something of a public service announcement. If you use Facebook, please invest a little bit of time into understanding the basic functionality of its privacy settings. Also set aside a few minutes every couple of weeks to review them, as they change frequently and frankly, you may not fully understand that by clicking on something, you can change your own settings quite unintentionally.

For example, I have changed my own posting/privacy settings multiple times and for various reasons (some I understand, others not so much) they have changed back, or changed again.

Here's an example: it's extremely easy to set your status-posting setting to "private" - which means, of course, it's not private at all, but shared with all your friends.  It's also very easy to change your status setting to "public," which means it's really public, out there for anyone to see, like, forever, or until you delete it.

Ok. Those of you who are Facebook gurus know exactly how these things work. And you can still make mistakes.

What's worse, a disturbing lot of you are thinking, well, I don't use Facebook enough to worry about all that or I don't have time to mess around with all those settings and to you I say, yes you do.

If you use Facebook at all then you should learn how to use the privacy settings to your advantage, and be vigilant about understanding the changes. And there are always changes!

It doesn't take that long to learn the ropes, and Facebook has helpful "help" pages that explain things well. Use them. Don't take the advice of post-of-a-repost on one of your friend's friends' walls. Go directly to the current Facebook help page and learn how to do it.

I manage Facebook pages for nearly a dozen businesses and organizations (and my own book!! < that's a plug) and I assure you that if I can screw up a "simple" privacy setting, you can too. Shame on all of us who don't take the time to learn how to use them properly.

Lecture over! Class dismissed! Thanks for reading!

OH, that's why I hate to cook...

In TheKitchn blog, poet, Zen master, and masterful chef Jane Hirshfield very artfully explains why I don't like (borderline-hate) to cook:

The only way to answer the question "what else" is to imagine a range of possibilities, and then, before adding one in, taste them first in your mind and then with your nose (the miraculous kitchen organ of first-draft preview, since, unlike words on a page, ingredients added can't then be removed). It’s the same with a poem, of course—you may have some starting direction of thought or feeling, but the actual poem will be made by its "what elses"—the details of world and word that make it the only possible way to say what it says.

Yep. It's that whole ingredients-added-can't-then-be-removed thing that disturbs me so.

In writing, there's editing.

In gardening, there's weeding, pruning, uprooting, replanting...

But in cooking, there's toss it in, and then like it or lump it.

I think I'll go out for lunch now. 

~Diane Stresing

Copywriter Crib Notes - this week's roundup

I have a habit of writing things on scraps of paper.

Notice I didn't say "bad" habit. The tendency can make me appear a little scatterbrained/disorganized at times, but it has some redeeming traits.

Like, having notes nearly covering my desk, I rarely have to dust it.  <BaDaDUM> Ironically, the majority of those little scraps of paper contain notes I've taken from some website or other. Yes, I know all about bookmarks and my (computer) desktop is littered with links to things to read later (or again) and I even have and use an electronic "notes" program. On my computer and my phone.

It's not that I'm a hopeless luddite. I'm not addicted to paper. I'm just an old-fashioned note-taker. I've found, when I write something down, with a real pen or pencil, on a piece of real paper, I process it better and retain it longer than when I try to absorb something from the screen.

But enough about me.

Below, some of the best writing tips I picked up - and promptly scrawled on scraps of paper - this week. I hope they're helpful to you. If they are, tweet about it, share this post or ... scribble it on a piece of note paper.

Who knows? Maybe when you clean up your desk you'll find a blog post amongst those scraps of paper.

> Use your Twitter background image to promote products!  (Thank you, @ShannonKSteffen! and hello, Whydidn'tIthinkofthat Hall of Fame.)

> The first one of these 8 tips I wrote down was #3. The other 7 are pretty good too! 

> OK I didn't exactly write any of this down - I enjoyed the article so much I printed it. And that's serious. As in, that's how you create good content serious. Kudos to Kuno. 

Hm. That's about it for writing tips on my desk this week. As I cleaned up my desk I realized that a lot of those scraps of paper are recipes and grocery lists. Food for thought, as they say. :D