Content is King! Bloggers know… but do you struggle with planning quality blog content?

Regardless of any angst, content creation is the most important thing you do as a blogger. The majority of your time should be spent on planning and developing amazing content.

Optimizing Your Blog Posts

One of the printables that you receive with the Blog Success Planner is the Blog Post Optimization Checklist. This printable prompts you to review your current and old posts for maximum impact.

1) Check for errors.

First of all, you want to review your content for obvious errors. I understand that life happens and you cannot always write your blog content weeks in advance. However, you should write your post and save it as a draft. Then go back in the next day – or maybe a week later – and read the blog post to check for errors.

Why wait that long to review the post for typos?

Because if you are like me, you tend to get glazed over. You know, I write it all out and think, “There are no mistakes here!” Then, I will proof it quickly and will not see anything. I hit publish and sure enough… somebody is going to email me to say, “I think you didn’t mean to say ‘you.’ You meant to say ‘your.’” You get numb to your typos.

So go back and check for obvious errors:  punctuation, spelling, grammar. If you are not great with grammar, I recommend Grammarly.

Grammarly is a FREE browser extension that automatically checks for up to 250 types of grammatical mistakes, contextual spelling errors, and poor vocabulary usage.

2) Review for relevance.

This step is very important especially if you are going back and reviewing an old post.

An evergreen post that means it is going to be great information over and over and over again. The post might be seasonal but the content will still apply later. For instance, if you write a post this December that will also apply next December. I consider that an evergreen post.

It is very important to revisit old posts seasonally. Review your evergreen content and cycle
the posts through your social media again. Just make sure it is still relevant.

3) Use quality images.

Look at your post images through a fresh set of eyes. Create your featured image and then ask a blogging friend to take a peek.

Your images should be used legally. If you have questions about copyright, Creative Commons, or where to find free stock photos, download The Blogger’s Guide to Royalty Free Images.

Your featured photo also needs to be pinnable. What does that mean?

Pinnable images are long, not horizontal but vertical. Edit your photos in ratios of 2×3, 4×6, 4×5, and 5×7. Vertical images take up more real estate on Pinterest, and you will get you more attraction from the feed.

Horizontal images do not capture as much attention in the feed because everything else is long, beautiful, and vertical.

But, I think having a horizontal image optimized for Facebook is also a great strategy. The two images (one for Pinterest and one for Facebook) do not need to look exactly alike but they can.

If you do not want duplicate images in different sizes within your blog post, there are ways to hide images behind the background. If you upload an image to the social tab of WordPress SEO by Yoast, you can use a different image for Facebook that is seen only when shared.

4) Check your SEO keywords.

As you are reviewing your content, make sure your keywords are in the:

• title of the blog post
• URL (or permalink)
• image alt
• etc.

We have a separate checklist for SEO is in the SEO section of the Blog Success Planner.

5) Insert monetized links.

Have at least one or two monetized links in each post. These links include your affiliate links,
referral links, some type of commissionable link where you are directing traffic towards that click so if you make a sale you get the credit for it.

6) Include links to related blog content.

Do you have links within your post to other related content on your blog? Ideally, you want to keep people on your blog for as long as possible.

If you review your Google Analytics and notice that readers are not clicking on additional pages, you need to go back and evaluate whether your post is linking to other content on your blog.

I recommend including a list of related content at the bottom of your post. For instance, let’s say your post is about homemade Christmas decorations. You know that you have two or three other posts about homemade Christmas decorations or something else related to Christmas. Then, at the bottom of your post, you would type “Other Homemade Christmas Ornament Ideas” as a subheading and list posts.

Anyone who makes it to the bottom of your blog post is a perfect candidate for subscribing.

Why place this list at the bottom? Because if the reader has reached the bottom of your post,  they are willing to click around and see if you have more content on that topic. Anyone who makes it to the bottom of your post is a perfect candidate for subscribing. The more readers see that you have related to what they like, the apter they are to subscribe.

Managing the Frequency of Your Blog Content

How often you post is a personal decision. You might only post once a week. You might only post once a month. However, whatever you choose to do, do consistently.

7) Accept that seasons change.

The more often you post the higher your page views will be.

I have gone through seasons where I will post every day because there is an ebook bundle sale, and I want to drive traffic to my links. Right now, I am in a season where I cannot post as often.

Did I make that change suddenly? No! I back off the amount of content I am pushing out each week slowly. I might transition from five posts a week to three posts a week for a couple of weeks. Then, I will post twice a week for a month or so before shifting to one post a week.

The point is: if you do need to change the pace at which you post blog content, change slowly.

I want to maintain a consistency and predictability, but at the same time, I know those moments in life are going to happen when I cannot be writing as much content and maintain quality.

The point is: if you do need to change your pace, change slowly. Don’t just make a sudden shift and by all means… do not announce to your readers that you are making a change because 1) they don’t really care, and 2) it shows you are inconsistent.

8) Post to most popular categories regularly.

When you are planning your monthly content in your Blog Success Planner, take into account any special events and holidays but also verify you are maintaining consistency in how often you post to your categories.

Do I post to every category every month? No, I don’t.

Research your most popular categories – where people are clicking most often – and consider it an indicator of what they are really wanting to read.  Then, publish to those categories consistently. Add new blog content to those categories frequently.

9) Plan your publication dates.

As you brainstorm post ideas and know how often you are posting that month, use the blog post schedule to evenly space your content throughout the month.

You do not want to post five posts in one week and then… your readers hear crickets. It’s like choking readers with too much and then starving them for the rest of the month.

No matter how passionate you are about that topic, no matter how badly you are wanting to push that blog content out, space it out evenly.

VIDEO RESOURCES

Worksheets reviewed in this video:

• Blog Post Optimization Checklist (0:12)
• Monthly Content Plan (7:16)
• Blog Post Schedule (8:04)
• Blog Post Planner (8:55)

Products mentioned in this video:

• Blog Success Planner
• Grammarly

There has been some confusion in recent weeks about content curation. Some even going so far as to say it should never be done. In this post I hope to show you what it is, what it is not, and how to do it well. For if there were no curators, the world would have no museums, no good way to share and experience the great art forms of another.

What is a “Curator”

An Art Curator

Think of a curator of a museum. What is his role or job?

• He orchestrates collections of art created by others.
• He cares for the art and displays it to it’s best advantage.
• He arranges for collections or exhibitions of the art.
• And he finds ways to help others appreciate and learn from the art.

Does he create the art? Does he claim it as his own? Certainly not. In most cases he is an art lover and simply facilitates the appreciation of the art by others. It is not normal for anyone who sees an art exhibit to even give a thought to the curator who put it together for their benefit.

A Content Curator

In the case of a content curator, the same should be true. A content curator facilitates the appreciation of the content by others, making much of the art and it’s qualities and making little of himself.

What Content Curation is not:

• It is not stealing content.
• It is not plagiarism.
• It is not claiming others content or images as your own.

All of the above can get you into serious, even legal, trouble.

What Content Curation is:

• It is appreciation of the content.
• It is (sometimes) the organization of the content into categories or displays.
• It is facilitating the appreciation of the content by others, who may or may not have a chance to experience it otherwise. (i.e. introducing your readers to bloggers/writers and/or topics they might not otherwise know about.)
• It is giving due recognition to the creator (original artist/author).

How to Curate Content Well

There is a right way and a wrong way to curate content. Basically, anything falling into the above categories of what curation is not would be doing it the wrong way.

To curate the right way you write original content that explains why the content you are sharing is important, why it is  relevant to the discussion, and some information about from whom and where it came. This can be done in several ways, the most popular of which are one-post focused and round-up posts.

So, how do you know if you are correctly curating content? Here are some simple rules to follow.

The Rules for Proper Content Curation:

1. Always create your own original content describing the post(s) you are curating and telling why it is important/relevant and/or what you appreciated about the post or the author or the site.
2. Always mention the blogger/author and brand by name.
3. If you quote from the curated post to prove a point or further pique their interest, never use more than a sentence or short paragraph (not over 100 words), and be sure to correctly attribute the quote.
4. Always link to the curated post (set to open in a new window) and encourage your readers to read the entire post there.
5. NEVER use their photo in your post without prior written permission.
6. When you can, leave a helpful comment on their post and mention that you will be sharing it with your people. Don’t be spammy or rude about it dropping links all over, but do say something that adds value to their space.

Need some Examples?

Curating in Round Up Posts by Meet Penny

Curating a Single Post by Cómo Blog

Other Posts of Interest:

Creator vs. Curator

The Top 5 Reasons You Should Curate Content

So now you know what content curation is, what it is not, and how to do it well. But maybe this discussion has raised some other questions for you? Leave them in the comments and we’ll be happy to answer.