Yesterday, I discussed the objectives of real estate blogging. One of the keys to achieving those objectives is consistently blogging at whatever frequency fits your business model. Remember that how often you post determines how often your readers will visit your blog.
Start by creating a blogging game plan.
Create a list of 3-5 topics that you plan to discuss in your blog. I started with six topics: Strategy, Software, Tools, Templates, Info, and Industry. Write your topics on a piece of lined paper, leaving several blank lines between each topic. Now brainstorm subjects for each topic. Don't bother editing your ideas now, just write down a couple of words for each subject under the appropriate topic. Within a minute or two, you should have a dozen or more potential blog post ideas on your informal "publishing plan" page.
Write extra posts and save a few to publish later.
Most blogging software allows you to write drafts and save them for future use, so if you have time you can write several posts, but I recommend publishing posts one at a time unless you plan to post constantly. Having extra posts already written will make it easy to post when you are pressed for time or don't have a good subject. Keep your publishing plan (page with blog topics and subjects) handy and add to it as ideas come to you or sit down and devote a few minutes to brainstorming if needed.
Break up long subjects over several posts.
Remember that blog posts tend to be short and informal. If you have an idea that would take more than a page to discuss, you should probably break it up into several parts and spread out those posts, but let your readers know that each post is part of a larger series and give them some idea of how often new posts will be added to the series. You don't have to post them all in a row, but you should provide a transitional paragraph at the beginning of each post with a link to earlier posts in the series so that readers who join your series in progress don't miss earlier posts.
Publish time sensitive blog posts first.
If you create a publishing plan, maintain a backlog of a few emergency posts or short subjects, and break up longer subjects over several posts, you should find it relatively easy to maintain roughly the same posting frequency for a long period of time. You can always add additional topics as you finish other topics. Also remember that one of the benefits of blogging is increased relevance because blogs are more dynamic than other real estate publishing models. If you have a chance to respond to a news item or you want to relate something that just happened to you, publish that first and save your topics and draft posts for another day.
Thanks!
Frank Jewett
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