Blogging 101: Inconsistent Blogging Is Hurting Your Pet Blog

Bottom line, blogging is a way to boost your brand and its visibility. It doesn’t matter whether you are a one woman or one man show or if you’re part of a larger pet business, if you start a blog then don’t write and post you’re damaging your business and its credibility. If you aren’t blogging consistently, you’re probably better off not blogging at all. Why? Because if you don’t post and a potential client comes to your site and sees that you haven’t written a blog post in months, he or she may feel that you’re out of business. In this Blogging 101 post we will explore how inconsistent blogging is hurting your pet blog.

Believe me, I know how hard it is to keep up with your own blogging duties, especially if you’re employed full-time outside of the house or if you’re working with clients and performing their blogging. It’s very easy for your own blog to get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list until it becomes so neglected that you find you haven’t posted in months! Gulp!

 

What is a “good” posting frequency?

Once a month is not “good.” Once a week is better. More than once a week is ideal. If, however, you can’t post more than once a week, commit to a weekly posting to keep your blog and your readers happily fed. You may want to make note, “I will be posting weekly so look for a new post every Wednesday!” Let your readers know your schedule, and they will be more likely to come back on Wednesday for the new post. If they don’t know when to look for new content, they may come back on Monday and again on Tuesday, see no new posts, and move onto a different blog.

Determine how many hours a week you have to devote to your blogging. Make note of how long it takes you to write a blog post, add your graphics, and add it to your social media sites. Once you know both of these figures, you can determine how many blog posts a week you can comfortably commit to.

Promote your posts on social media

Writing a blog post is great, BUT if you don’t promote it and share it with your followers on social media, who will know? Sure, those dedicated souls who seek you out will find your post. But unless your blog post is so highly searchable that you are found by thousands doing a Google search, your finely-crafted post will receive no love if you don’t share it far and wide.

Take your Wednesday post and space your social sharing out over the course of a week. Share it one day on Facebook, another on Twitter, yet another on Pinterest, then finally (or in whatever order you choose) on LinkedIn and Instagram. This way your one post can work for you throughout the week. Pretty great, huh!?

Using a scheduling tool like Hootsuite will help you with your blog promotion. You can write your post and schedule all of your social media status updates in your Hootsuite account throughout the week and viola you’re done for the week! (Well, not quite because you will want to interact with those who are liking and commenting on your post)

Repurpose your content so that your social updates aren’t all the same. Shake it up.  

Keep your blog searchable

Don’t think you have to take time out of your daily activities to become an SEO expert to make your blog searchable. What you do need to do is use keywords that you have put thought into and use those in your blog post. You do know how you want to be found on the Internet, don’t you? For example, are you the:

• Groomer to the stars
• The Basset Hound Blogger
• The pet-centric social media manager or
• The Pacific Northwest cat blogger

Know how you want to be found and sprinkle those key words into your blog posts as a way to help your site and your blog be found by those who might be searching for what you do.

Link back to other posts on your site that are relevant to the post you’re writing. Link out to relevant sites.

Add a call to action

If you’re blogging about “how to blog” and you’re teaching a course or your newsletter provides weekly tips on this subject, at the end of your blog post put in a call to action. What is a call to action?

• Sign up for our newsletter
• Sign up for my how to blog class
• Register for my private how to blog Facebook page

You get the idea. If you have goods or services to sell and they make sense in the blog post you’re writing, add it in. Subconsciously we want to be asked. We like to be prompted to action. We may think, “Hhhmmm I should sign up for her how to blog class…” but if you have to leave the page to find it, chances are we may not. We have good intentions, but poor follow through. Make it quick and easy for your blog readers to take an action!

For those who aren’t involved in blogging, they may think it’s simple and in some cases it is. However, blogging certainly isn’t easy. It takes dedication, attention to detail and frequency.

How often do you blog? Are you consistent?

Robbi Hess is the former BlogPaws blog manager and will be speaking on Time Management Tips For The Blogger at the BlogPaws 2016 Conference. She blogs at All Words Matter and is the Media Manager for Big Barker, maker of premium beds for big dogs.

Images: stock_shot/Shutterstock.com and Yuriy Rudyy/Shutterstock.com