I decided to check in on my blogging strategy this morning. The last couple of posts I wrote felt like I was maybe getting off into the weeds. (Keep in mind that the order I write them in is not the same order you see them in. By the time I post this, the posts prior to this one could be any of them.)
At first, back in the summer, I concluded that I would just blog “for my friends”. To me, that mean write some stuff they will find interesting. This was helpful since I knew my audience pretty well and since I wasn’t going to show them the posts anyways, I could be certain they would think they were amazingly insightful and incredibly hilarious. The freedom of not worrying about what the whole world would think removed a huge barrier and I was able to get started.
Last week, I hit 50 blog posts in 50 days and nearly 500 blog post ideas overall. I felt pretty confident my blog everyday habit was secure.
So it was time to thank my imaginary friends for their support over the last month and a half and start considering a wider audience.
I want to do more of the work I love doing and I want to develop more skills and abilities to do that work. This blog is a tool to help me get there by attracting fans, partners, investors, and others. I was going to take the advice to “show my work” to get more of the work I wanted to do.
I grouped all the blog post ideas into categories and then asked myself, what is the priority of each of these if the goal is to “show my work”?
Here’s the rankings I came up with:
PRIORITY OF CATEGORY
- Work I have made.
- Things I’ve learned making the work.
- Things I’ve learned in the meta of the work (productivity skills, etc)
- Things I’ve Done / About Me / Things I like
- Ponderings/Questions.
- Experience Ideas (that I didn’t do)
This morning I was asking myself what I should blog about today. I referred to this list. Somehow it seemed lacking. I didn’t just need types of posts, I needed to get more into what the content was. After all I wasn’t looking for just any work so I shouldn’t just talk about any work I’ve done. I need to present my work as best I can as a reflection of me, better foot forward.
Here’s what I came up with:
EACH BLOG POST MUST
- Provide something of value for their time.
- Provide a WOW. (High concept, original-ish thoughts, insane undertaking, surprise ending, clear insight).
- Show DEPTH
- Well written. Easy to read.
OVERALL THE SITE MUST
- Make the blog something you would look at and think “wow, this guy knows the important stuff”
- Show BREADTH of knowledge, thoughts and experiences (different posts).
I’m sure I’ll adjust and change these over time, but I think it’s good to check in frequently to see where you’re at and what the priorities are for gettting where you want to go.