Staying organized as a writer or a blogger has always been part of my writing DNA. As a past business writer for the Post Tribune, Sun Times and Chicago Tribune, nBiz a business journal out of Houston TX (19 years and still writing) and along with other blogging forums, I realized I needed a way to stay organize especially if I wanted to share a past article’s link.
Messes aren't my friend!
My excel sheet is similar for each forum, but is also different. Organizing my ActiveRain blogs begins with keeping each month separate though all are on the same sheet. I start with the first article I post for the current month, #1 (Column A) and then count up until the end of the month.
By the way the second sheet in this excel file is the monthly goals for the current year. Currently my minimum monthly goal is 600 points per day or 18,000 a month. This writing goal is one of my marketing goals within my strategic thinking one page marketing growth action plan.
The next column (B) is the day of the week the blog is published. Column C is the actual date of publication.
Next is the title of the Article (Column D). If a particular posting has been featured that would be indicated in Column E.
Initially I started tracking the number of views (Column F) though I am not as consistent about that as I was. The reason as my length of time increases on Active Rain, the views also increased. Now at the end of the month, I do a quick check to see if any particular posting garnered more views than others. On average the postings do have over 200 plus views.
With all the groups in Active Rain, I believed it was necessary to identify that particular group (Column G) be it for Real Estate Professionals or Consumers (the Public). Next in Column H, I placed any notes that I wanted to remember.
Being a writer and understanding that words do matter along with words having an emotional value, I use a website to determine the emotional marketing value (EMV) of the headline. (Column I) When I first started blogging years ago, I discovered this website (www.aminstitute.com) and have found its calculations to have positive impact on my word selection especially for titles.
Usually, the first four to five words are what grab someone’s attention. For this posting, the first 4 words had a 50% emotional marketing value (Intellectual and Spiritual0. The entire headline received a 22.2% EMV split between intellectual and spiritual.
Column J is the actual URL link to the posting. By having this column if I want to reference a particular blog posting in a current endeavor I can quickly copy and paste that URL.
By the way at the beginning of each month on the line before the first article, I will note the current monthly challenge, the criteria and the URL link for that challenge. This way if the challenge requires coming back and entering my response on that URL link, I can quickly undertake that effort.
Finally, each entry takes about a minute with the end result of saving me time and organized. Also, I can make sure I don’t duplicate past title.
Leanne M Smith, The Grit and Gratitude Agent Who Goes the Extra Mile Because Life Begins Where the Pavement Ends.
Feature Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com
Any reproduction of Leanne M Smith’s blog for use by any AI or GAI, distribution or reproduction including but not limited to electronic newsletters e.g. PDF’s Internet sites or physical products e.g. newspapers, CDs without prior written permission and consent by me, Leanne M. Smith (Leanne Hoagland-Smith) is strictly prohibited.
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