25 things I wish I’d known before I started blogging

Blogging can be more challenging than you realise - especially if you haven’t set yourself up right first. Mr Romance at The Copy Collective, Jim Butcher, dishes out some useful tips, tricks and trade secrets to guide you through the early stages of running a blog.

Scrolling through glamorous photos of laptops and macarons on Instagram you could think that blogging was easy. What you don’t see in those perfectly styled images is the hard work that goes on behind the scenes.

Blogging can be a lonely profession too as you’re working on your own the majority of the time. Once you reach out and find your tribe online you really start to reap the rewards of blogging. Not only does blogging develop your writing skills, it can be cathartic, a creative outlet and bring new friendships and community. 

source: litreactor.com

With that in mind, here are the top 25 things I wish I’d known before I started blogging:

1. Don’t wait for ‘the perfect moment’ to start blogging. Just write.
2. Get to know other bloggers online - or in person if you can. Look for local meet-ups.
3. Write from personal experience, not from press releases or regurgitated news items.
4. You don’t have to write 1,000 word essays. Short is sweet in ‘the bloggersphere’!
5. Try to keep paragraphs to three sentences max. The way people read online is different to hard copy.
6. Start an editorial calendar so you can plan out your content.
7. Write offline then upload into your blog. Internet connections can fail so keep a backup.
8. Carry a notepad. You never know when blogging ideas will strike.
9. Write your ‘about’ page first. Make it interesting and include a photo.
10. Don’t over-complicate the design of your site. Don’t use too much colour, don’t centre-align your text and images, and don’t use light text on dark background.
11. Use at least two images per post. 
12. Create your own images as much as possible.
13. Format your images so they’re all the same width – match the image size to the width of your paragraphs. I use 600pxl across.
14. Watermark your images, but keep the watermark small, in a corner and transparent.
15. If you’re using other people’s photos, always check copyright restrictions and credit them.
16. Picmonkey and Polyvore are your best friends for image editing. Picmonkey is a free online ‘photoshop’ suite, Polyvore lets you create flatlay collages of images.
17. Embed Instagram videos into your site (go to Instagram, click on the three dots next to your video and select ‘Embed’. Copy and paste the code into your blog!)
    
    
18. If you’re not sure which social media platform to focus on, go where your audience is.
19. Don’t try and use all social media platforms – there are too many. Choose two or three, and focus on getting your voice out on them. I focus on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Though Twitter and Google+ are also becoming quite useful.
20. Treat each social media platform like a mini blog that’s part of your main blog.
21. Own your own domain: buy the .com of your blog name.





Common blog platforms. Source: www.allprosncons.com

22. There are lots of blogging platforms but Wordpress offers the most flexibility - especially if you think (or hope) that your site will grow.
    


23. Comment on other people’s blogs. They’re likely to comment back, and that starts a relationship.
24. Go to blogging conferences and talks. The community is one of the best bits of blogging.
25. Don’t expect oodles of traffic coming to your site on the first day. Or even the second! Just keep going – write it and they will come!

The most important thing to remember is to have fun! Blogging can be incredibly enjoyable, so don’t sweat the small stuff. You’re bound to make mistakes; just treat them as a learning curve and you’ll get so much more out of it.

Good luck and happy blogging!

By Jim Butcher
 

If you're looking for copywriting that is smart, creative, effective and more than a little bit amazing, contact The Copy Collective today.

Guilty by Association - Are you mindlessly sharing content you haven’t even read?

The Copy Collective’s Jim Butcher lifts the lid on lazy sharing that could cost you ‘Likes’…

Isn’t it annoying when your personal Facebook or Google+ newsfeed gets chock full of mindless junk?

I’m not just talking about your cousin rejoicing in their latest Farmville conquest or your mate inviting you into the terrifying world of Candy Crush Saga. I mean the stuff companies whose Facebook pages you’ve liked, start sharing things with you that they think you’ll find “interesting”.

It’s the result of firms sharing content to improve and maintain their social media presence but not really thinking about the quality of their newsfeed.

One poorly chosen shared article from them and ‘click’ they’ve lost a reader and a potential customer. It’s something you should be very conscious of when sharing content with your readers too.

Too often people share content that they think is what their readers want to know about, but they haven’t even read the article.

To prove the point, National Public Radio (NPR) published this brilliant prank post on Facebook about why Americans don't read anymore. 

After the headline and title image, a quick message asks all people who have read thus far to simply like the post and not comment and see what happens.

The comments that follow are well worth a read and just goes to show people really aren’t paying attention to what they’re interacting with online.

 
To make sure you’re sharing the right content, here’s a quick checklist of other important criteria to consider each time you share something with your readers online:

• Does the hyperlink work? One of the most frustrating moments is when the lead-in to a piece has done its job but when you go to click through, the link doesn’t work.
• How old is the article? Even if the content you’re sharing is evergreen, make sure it’s not too old. Anything more than a year old loses traction. If it’s a stats-based piece, it cannot be more than six months old.
•  Is the article any good? Make sure it’s well written and interesting. Check it’s not full of bad spelling, poor punctuation or grammar.
• Is the article correct? Don’t share the article if it’s wrong, controversial or - even worse - off-brand.
• What does it offer your readers? Your readers will want to take something away with them from the article. Make sure what you share provides this.
• Would you follow you? Think about this as you share more and more to your curated content portfolio. People are likely to look back at what you’ve shared in the past.
• Remember, people trust your shares. Sharing poor quality content can adversely affect their trust and therefore your traffic.

As founder of ProBlogger - a publishing and information resource company - Darren Rouse says: “in the midst of the strategy and tactics, don’t lose sight of the people on the other side of your content.”          

 

How to ask the right questions to deal with dodgy copy briefs

The Copy Collective’s Mr Romance, Jim Butcher, delves into the world of dodgy briefs and hands out some helpful suggestions for navigating your way through.

 

Dealing with dodgy briefs (Pic source: Hoopla)

There’s nothing worse than those cold sweats from fretting over a brief to which you just can’t respond. You’ve spent way too long pondering the job but you still can’t get into the swing of it.

Behind the brief

This could be because the brief is inadequate. It happens frequently; so don’t be too surprised. And there are many reasons for it:

• Perhaps there was more than one person working on the brief. Too many cooks spoiling the broth and all that.
• For some, creating a watertight brief isn’t important and they just want it off their desks, so what you’ve received could just be a bit of a palm-off.
• This might be the person’s first brief, you never know.

Whatever the reason, don’t worry. As long as you’ve caught this early enough, there are things you can do. 

Asking the right questions 
As you read through your brief, which you should do thoroughly as soon as you can, make sure the following questions are answered. If they’re not, then ask the client:

• Audience - who are you writing for?
• Tone - does this need a conversational tone? Is it a report or an emotive piece?
• Purpose - is this going to be a letter asking for donations? A blog post? A promotion or sales pitch?
• Additional material - is there reference material that hasn’t been provided that may support the information that is attached? Make sure you ask for all relevant material.

If there is a lot of background information, it’s OK to ask for direction on to the specific focus of the piece. Sometimes a client will just give you everything, which is great. But trawling through a 900-page document for a 300-word piece isn’t going to work for you or the client. 

Getting the job done 

Ask your questions and plan to ask as many as you need to at once. By planning, you will save your client time on separate phone calls or emails. And if you’re still not clear, ask again.
Your client won’t mind fielding your questions. Deep down, most people know when they’ve written a brief that may be missing the mark. 

Tell us your tricks

So,what do you do if the brief you’ve received isn’t up to scratch? Comment away...

What will the results of the Federal election bring you, regardless of who wins government this weekend? The Copy Collective's Pauline Lockie and Jim Butcher consider what opportunities may come your way.

In the world of politics, there is no second place. There’s either winning Government or a long period in limbo. For the rest of us it is pretty much the same: success or oblivion.

With the finish line of the 47^th Australian federal election in sight, there’s an opportunity, which organisations such as yours may use to your advantage. It’s time to ask yourself if your organisation is ready to make the most of post-election opportunities for campaigning, mobilising supporters and establishing yourself with new audiences.

In the days and weeks after the election, it’s essential for your organisation to communicate its action plan for the future. You need to align yourself with political agendas or position yourself to be the one that acts on issues that peoplecare about regardless of the government’s or shadow cabinet’s advocacy.

Either way, it’s crucial that you communicate your stance, and fast.

It’s not an easy task. Key to your campaign will be how specific you are with your ask. Saying you just want to approach - for example - environmental issues isn’t enough. Which issue? What needs to happen? Why? How? Who’s involved? And most importantly: What do you want your supporters, clients or customers to do about it?

The Asia Pacific arm of Greenpeace runs targeted campaigns that are very successful. Pic: Courtesy Greenpeace AP.

Greenpeace always does this really well and a recent example is their Great Barrier Reef campaigns. They target a specific politician about a specific issue threatening the Reef. They clarify the solutions the MP needs to implement. And they make it 100% clear how their supporters can take action to achieve these goals.

Here are some of the other possible policies (or changes to policy) that could affect you post-election:

·         National Disability Insurance Scheme

·         Education funding (Gonski)

·         Refugees

·         Marriage equality

·         Conservation and the environment

·         Welfare, and

·         Funding for the arts

But it’s all about how you ask for these things. It’s an art form. And if you’re not completely committed to producing perfect, persuasive copy, then your mission may not only fall on deaf ears, it is likely it will fall into silence too.

 It's all about quick response, and you need an expert at writing and designing online projects in short time frames. You need a campaign that is easy for people to respond to, and which may cover eDMs, social media, targeted ads, website copy, fully-integrated digital campaigns, and more.

So the question is not who will win this election, it’s will you be off the blocks and running when it’s through?