Be a more productive blogger was quite a hit with y’all and it caused some very good discussion as well. I’m very glad to have give many of you ideas and I’m glad to say y’all gave me some good ideas in return.
Because of that post I started a new site, Successful Blog where I’ll focus on all sorts of issues related to blogging, and I’ve decided to write this follow up. I figured I had to know of more than 13 tips to becoming a more productive blogger, and sure enough, I have quite a bit more.
As a bonus, this time I’m also going to throw in a few ways you can use your blog to be more productive in other parts of your life.
h2. Here are a few more quick tips:
* Tell a story. Storytelling is probably the best way to share information with a wide audience. It’s a fun way to write, helps you inject some personality into your writing and emulates a great conversational tone.
* Break longer posts up into several smaller posts. This not only gives you the feel good illusion of getting more into your blog, it helps your readers take in what you have to say.
* Lists, lists, lists. They’re easier to read and a bit easier to write, because they allow you to get to the point and cut our meaningless words and phrases. Not perfect for everything, but they come in pretty handy at times.
* Make good use of your drafts. I carry at least a few drafts in each of my blog at all times. Sometimes these are simply the title, but these help give me ideas when my creative energy is low and provide a starting point when I’m bogged down with writers block.
* Quote liberally and be sure to tip. This is definitely more of a trick than a tip, but I find there are times when I’m writing and I just can’t think of the right way to say something. Sometimes a little research can help and you’ll find someone else has made a similar point. It’s ok to quote and play off that, just make sure you linkback (as links are the currency of blogs) and give proper credit.
* Respond to feedback on your blog. People love to talk and share their opinions. I’ve found that by engaging your readers and taking the time to listen to them, you’ll often find a good topic that you can respond to in a new post.
* Don’t obsess over your stats. It’s easy to get into the habit of checking your stats all the time, this can destroy your focus and put a real damper not only on blogging, but everything else as well. I try and check them once a day and not think about them after that.
h2. Tips on using your blog to help you be more productive:
* Learn from blogging. I find that writing and engaging in conversations about things I’m interested in with like minded people really helps me learn. To-Done is a great example. I’ve learned way more about personal productivity than I ever would have without it.
* Use your blog to sort out problems. I often use posts and the ensuing conversations to work out ideas or help get my mind around something. In that way you’re (if you’ll pardon the expression please) killing two birds with one stone.
* Think of your blog as a knowledge management repository. I don’t know how many times I’ve been able to go back to my blogs and pull up something or other that helped me get something taken care of. It’s been a real time save in that way.
* Use your blog to test ideas. I’ve found blogging to be extremely helpful in testing out new ideas I’ve got. I’ll write up a post or two, throw it out to my readers and gauge reaction. While this technique isn’t fool proof, I think it’s worked pretty well, not only in helping to tell the good ideas from the bad, but to gather initial research that helps in fleshing out an idea.
16 Comments on Be A More Productive Blogger 2
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Productive Blogging Tips
Are you blogging or thinking about blogging? Keith Robinson has written two excellent posts on this subject:
Be A More Productive Blogger, andBe A More Productive Blogger 2
He presents a mix of blogging/writing and time management ideas. Two of m…
Keith, another great entry. I find some really good tips in your articles.
I’ve noticed that a lot of people link to your articles; it is especially visible in your ‘Be a more productive blogger’ entry and I suspect it will be for this entry as well. Tells you a lot, doesn’t it?
I also anticipate Successful Blog being, well, a success.
Adam — Thank you! I hope these posts are helpful to people. I try to write in such a way as to be as clear and accessible to the greatest number of people and if people feel them worthy of a link back, it just motivates me to write more.
Thanks again for the kind words. I really, really appreciate it.
Productive Blogger
These are good tips
Thoughts on a Month of Blogging
It’s been about a month since I started this blog, and I’ve been posting pretty regularly. I feel like it helps me think things through, and I don’t doubt it’s instrumental in me finding a unique style of writing. In other word…
Be a more productive blogger
D. Keith Robinson has several tips how to be a more productive blogger.
(via Steve Rubel)
…
Hello Keith,
I happy to see that you produced another good piece of writing :)
These lists of things have two purposes: the first one is to learn to new bloggers what blogging could brings them. The second one is to remember to old bloggers what blogging was, is, and will bring them. It is a way to refocus on the exercise.
Keep the good work going Mr. Robinson!
Salutations,
Fred
A few of these I agree with, but I’ve found that breaking long posts up into shorter ones don’t really work. For example, with BlogAbroad we found that interaction on our blogs would dip when we’d do a “to be continued” or “part 1, 2, etc”. The telling a story part is dead on though, but once you start telling sub stories (by breaking up posts) it’s tough to follow.
Better blogging part 2
Kudos to Keith of To-Done for coming up with a follow-up (part 2, if you may) to his writeup on being a more productive blogger (which I earlier cited).
Highlights:
Tell a story
Break up long posts…
Very useful blogging the one you´re making here. Congratulations (And sorry for my english). I´ve linked you here:
http://arellanos.blogspot.com/.....tivos.html
如何åš一个更有æˆÂ效的blogger
因为上次那个帖åÂÂ，我开始了一个å«åÂÅ¡Successful Blog的新站点。在这儿我å¯以专注于åÂ㍤Â与blog有关的è¯Â题，而ä¸â€Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥â€ ³å®šåœ¨é‚£ç¯‡å¸–åÂÂ之åÂŽå†Â写一篇，关于如何åš一个更有æˆÂ效的blogger的帖åÂÂ。我想…
Breakfast: 6/30/2005
Try one of these specials with your breakfast: California Conservative doubts the polls about Arnold. The Astute Blogger doubts the Democrats criticism of the President’s speech. It’sAPundit finds a post from the very early days of the Internet. The …
Who are you, Scrivs?! :-p
You, sir, rule for sheer volumes of websites.
Be a more productive blogger, Part deux
Be a more productive blogger, Part deux · I just found that article I referenced by Keith Robinson has a part two! My day just keeps getting better and better….
Be A More Productive Blogger
Are you a blogger and have trouble posting consistently? Not sure what to write about? Do you feel your quality has dropped or that you’ve lost readers?
To-Done.com has some tips on how to be a more productive blogger:
Be A More Productive…