Tech Tip: Backpack for Blog Posts
Nice to see you again! Join in the discussion!Today’s tech tip is about staying organized. As a writer of five blogs, I often find it overwhelming to keep up. However, each of them are unique and give me a chance to indulge in my favorite things. Writing, of course, is one of them.
I’ve tried to come up with a system to keep my blogs current and to plan posts. I like to use evenings, when I’m just hanging out maybe watching TV to do my planning. I can plan, but not have to be totally engaged. One system I’ve been using for a few months now is BackPack.
There’s so much to like about BackPack. It’s easy to use, intuitive. The layout is attractive. For blog planning, I’ll use the calendar function. I have color-coded calendars set up for each of my blogs. At the beginning of each month, I’ll plan my posts. There will be obvious seasonal topics. I’ll add those. I also include my regular weekly posts.
Oftentimes, I’ll mull around ideas for posts. To make sure they actually happen, I’ll add them to my BackPack calendar. Then, when it’s time to start writing, I’ll refer back to my calendar for post ideas.
Another way I use it is through Pages. I’ve accumulated several regular sources from my nonfiction writing. Of course, efficiency in writing is always a plus. I created pages for my typical writing topics. Then, I’ll add my reference links, formatted for inclusion in my work.
I’ll also use the Pages to note sites with particular information or statistics that I find compelling or useful. I’ll enter the info on one line and right below, cite the source. The formatting alone saves me a lot of time. I don’t have to worry about errors from re-entering information. My work feels more streamlined.
When time is money, anything you can do to save some moments here or there is valuable. With BackPack, I have my calendar, references and resources in one place.
Writing Tip: Diversify Your Income Sources
Perhaps this is common sense when it comes to investing: smart investors will diversify. The same sage advice applies when you are blogging for money. Don’t depend upon any one source of income.
So many opportunities exist to promote your blog. Social media, commenting on blog, and forums are to name a few. The key is to increase your exposure. The more times a viewer sees your name, your blog, the greater the impression you will make. You begin to be seen as an authority in your niche. This should be a goal of any freelance writer. Your name sells.
There’s an added benefit. The more you generate traffic to your blog, the greater your opportunities for revenue sharing through content and article sites. An authority in a particular niche is more likely to have tweets, updates, or blog posts go viral. The marketing feeds on itself. The more you’re seen, the more your content is shared and the more your traffic grows.
However, it takes time. It takes dedication. One of the biggest mistakes online marketers make is thinking that success will come immediately. Unless you have a reputation to begin with, rarely does this occur. Rather, it happens gradually as traffic slowly grows. A nice perk is that the more time you spend on it, the more likely you are to become engaged by the energy. Your energy feeds the fire. It all begins with engaging the reader.
Writing Tip–Get to the Point
As a couple of bloggers have observed, Ernest Hemingway has a lot to teach us about blogging, or just Internet print in general. Today’s writing tip recognizes Hemingway’s style and what it can bring to your writing.
“Never mistake motion for action.”
Don’t just do it to do it. Write and act purposefully. Trim the fluff that leads up to the action. It’s not action if the story isn’t moving forward.
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
If there’s anything I’ve learned from writing, it is to listen. Listen to how people speak. Listen to how they lie or make love. Listen to know what dialogue is.
“In order to write about life, first you must live it!”
Certainly, firsthand knowledge brings the most life to your writing. It’s not enough to know that bear may attack. How will he attack? What will you do? The last point is key. Writing forces us to view our inner self. What good or evil lurks here?
“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit.”
It’s okay to experiment. It’s okay to run with an idea to see where it will take you. Ride the rapids, and enjoy the show. Everything will be waiting for you when you return. Write with a mind to explore.
Tech Tip–Keep Those Ideas Handy
You’ve probably all heard of the concept of keeping an idea file handy. We writers know only too well that the Muse keeps her own hours. You never know when she’s going to have something to say.
If the time isn’t right to flesh out a new idea, you can take notes. Put them in a file for later. Write them in your notebook. Whatever you do, just don’t lose them.
I recently started a new blog, “The Boat Log,” which discusses all things boating. I had been musing about it for some time. Finally, I went ahead and and started. I wanted to generate a lot of content quickly. So, instead of an idea file, I took each of my ideas and made it a draft blog post. I added a title and some notes as needed. I have about 10 posts ready to write whenever I need it.
Not only did I capture my ideas, but I took them one step closer to being published by entering them in my blog. When the time comes to write, I just select my draft and start editing. Of course, this works best if you are checking back to locate those drafts. Since I have a regular schedule of post themes, this won’t be too much of an issue to easily locate posts titled for the particular theme.
How do you record your ideas?
Tech Tip–Makes Friends With Your Blog
Today’s tech tip focuses on an area that we’ve probably all have stumbled through at some point in our blogging career–what to do with a broken blog.
Free blog sites such as Wordpress.com and Blogger.com make is so easy for Internet users to blog. Their interfaces appeal to those not wanting to dive into XHTML or CSS. One can create, without learning the code part. Now that’s a good thing, and it’s a bad thing.
Sooner or later, you will get a great idea of which you want to blog. You have the vision. Then it happens. You don’t know how it happened, but something broke. Your blog is acting weird. If you’ve been blogging for any amount of time, you probably can relate. Something happened.
When this has happened to me in the past, I frantically searched the forums for help. Because I didn’t have the technical background then, I knew that I wasn’t conveying my issue clearly. I probably added a lot to my frustration by my ignorance. Saying “it’s broke” and asking for help is like going to the doctor and saying “I don’t feel good” and expecting a miracle cure. More information, please.
My advice to all bloggers is this:
Even if you don’t want to get into coding, at least familiarize yourself with what code is and what it does.
Lo’ and behold, you may be able to fix your own problem. If not, you will know how to ask for help in the forums. You may be able to figure out where the problem is so you can better ask for and get the help you need. If you’re using a free site, the tech support department won’t be there. To fix issues, you need to reach out to the community. Simplifying the process will save you time and aggravation. Here are some sites to learn the basics.
Writing Tip–Exercising Your Writing Muscle
Today’s writing tip is about honing your craft. Your writing muscle is much different from your physical muscles. If you follow off your regular schedule, it takes time to return to your previous fitness level.
Depending on your source, if you stop exercising for two weeks after a regular regime, it’ll take about that amount of time for your body to get back to where it was. The best way to stay in shape is to keep up the exercising schedule. So, it is with writing.
It is not as important to do the same type of writing as it is to just write. Write every day. No matter if you’re writing a blog or composing a novel, you experience the same challenges of searching for a word, feeling at a loss for an idea, struggling with the perfect copy. Those are precisely the type of skills you need to keep yourself in practice.
You want to instinctively know how to research. Whether you’re writing non-fiction or fiction, research is part of the game. You want to write efficiently and make the best use of your time. You want to write tight and interesting.
A lot of your time after completing your work is spent on the tough stuff like editing and proofing. Keeping a blog keeps you involved with your craft and on the essential skills.
Marketing Through Blogging
My blog serves many functions, but its main goal is marketing. Going through the whole process of moving my blog from blogger to a self-hosted WordPress format has been a long learning experience. To make my blog effective, I want to post regularly. I’m always on the look out for new ideas. That’s what made this post from PureBlogging so informative. If you haven’t stumbled upon this blog, you should. There is so much here.In this post, he cites six blogs that everyone should bookmark. (His should be added to the list.). The list takes you through a variety of avenues in the blogging world, good if you’re serious about staying on top of the blogging world. BloggingTips deals with day-to-day issues like this post about dealing with not-trolls. One’s goal ultimately with a blog is to create your own interactive community, but sometimes people don’t play nice. The advice of others can be invaluable.
There’s plenty of advice and help out there. These blogs are great resources. Happy blogging!
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