Is it worth it to restart your inactive blog? And how can you improve your writing for higher quality blog content? In this article, lets first determine the reason why you deprioritized your blog and then discuss 7 tips to get you back on track.
It’s a given that there’s going to be a ton of dormant blogs floating around on the internet – all of which were started with the best of intentions. It’s no surprise, because blogging is a relatively inexpensive marketing strategy to launch as a small business owner.
The caveat? It’s hard work. Apart from the fact that it is incredibly time consuming, writing isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone. So, the initial appeal and excitement soon wanes and the blog just ends up… an unmanageable blackhole on your website that gets avoided at all costs.
Because perhaps you had high hopes for your blog and you’d still like it to succeed. After all, it was clearly your intention to get into long-form content marketing. And rightly so, we might add. Your path to creating an online presence and establishing your credibility through published writing just didn’t go as expected, and there’s no need to dwell on it. It’s fixable!
Before you rush over to your word processor and pick it up again, take a moment to identify the reason why you stopped in the first place. This will help you better navigate your downfall and be more aware of your expectations as you revive your blog.
Three reasons why you gave up on your blog too soon:
Reason #1 – You’re not getting enough traffic to your blog
Welcome to the world of internet traffic. This problem is certainly not unique to your blog, so the first thing to note is that you are not alone in this struggle. SEO has left countless bloggers frustrated and disheartened when it comes to creating shareable content online.
“How long does it take to rank on Google?” is a common question heard at digital marketing agencies. The truth is, unfortunately, that there is no easy, clear-cut answer for this. A little bit of research into this will reveal that there are many factors that go into ranking. You can use your judgment and expertise to determine which of them will most affect your content specifically, but you’ll undoubtedly need to develop a solid strategy for keywords to create content that search engines are going to love and rank in organic search queries.
Reason #2 – You’re not seeing any tangible growth
It’s the norm for new blogs to initially grow in small increments. Likely, your immediate network and a few additional followers will be seeing your blog posts for the first 6 months. You’ll gain some followers, lose some followers, and it will feel like an insurmountable challenge to push the number forward.
It’s during this time, within the first year, that bloggers get discouraged by the numbers and give up for more faster-growing strategies. Perhaps that was better suited to your business model and you realized that blogging wasn’t a good fit for you at the time.
But if you persist through the initial stages and focus on solidifying your readership, there will come a point at which your blog will snowball and gain momentum. Ideally, from the get-go, you should incorporate other marketing activities and have the blog support those. Keep your blog in mind for any cross-channel marketing efforts and content repurposing, as well as creating unique content that drives search traffic towards your call to action.
Reason #3 – You’re running out of content ideas
All the enthusiasm in the world cannot be sustained if you’re simply struggling to think of creative and engaging ways to write about an indefinite choice of topics, with an array of multimedia at your disposal. That’s part of the reason for a big shift in blog marketing into the space of content marketing. In this decade of digital marketing, there’s so much more to blogging than writing up a 500-word article and hitting publish.
Use this to your advantage, though. If you’re proactive, you can track topics that you are passionate about and find ideas to address in a timely and engaging manner through your long-form blog. Take some time to plan out your content calendar, follow blogs that you enjoy reading, and do research on topics that your audience would be interested in.
Is it worth it to restart an inactive blog?
A quick look at the latest statistics on blogs in 2020 shows:
- 77% of internet users read blog articles,
- Internet users is the U.S. spend 3x more time on blogs than they do on emails,
- Blogs are some of the most shared content online, and
- 60% of people purchase a product after reading a blog post about it.
Yes, it’s worth it.
Blogging isn’t dead, as some would like to believe, but it has evolved. As blogging is moving towards content creation as a whole, successful bloggers are focused on cross-channel storytelling, building an email list, and incorporating social media. Full-time bloggers are most likely to be involved in other content creation activities for revenue streams, beyond the scope of text-based blogs.
So, although it may take months for your articles to start gaining any traction, all those consistent updates to your website and high quality content will pay off in the end. That’s why blogging is suggested as the perfect strategy to compliment your other marketing activities – so you might want to seriously consider giving your blog another go.
Luckily, you’re not trying to win a Nobel Prize. You just have to strive to be as authentic as possible, connect with your audience, and drive organic searches through optimizing your blog content. There’s really no need to keep putting it off any longer, as you can start where you are right now with a bit of guidance. So if you think you prematurely called it quits on your blog, let’s get into how to write better and faster than before!
1. Set Weekly Writing Goals
Make writing a weekly practice. Schedule in time for it in your calendar and make sure it’s on your to-do list for each week; don’t just hope to squeeze it in when you’ve got a moment. Blog content aside, writing is one of the most valuable skills in business. It translates into all your other marketing efforts and business activities.
Treat your writing as a process, not a product. Write – edit – write some more – repeat. You’ll soon find that words begin to come more naturally and that you actually begin to enjoy the opportunity to think clearly.
Key takeaway: Just write!
2. Learn Best Practices for SEO
Search Engine Optimization, SEO, is a huge topic in itself with must-know information for blogging. This article isn’t intended as a deep dive into that, but remaining up to date on best practices for SEO is something any content creator should do. Here are a few of the basics to keep in mind and research for your blog:
- Titles – Research and use competitive keywords.
- Structure – Make use of subheadings for SEO and skimming.
- Backlinks – Insert internal and external links.
- Content – Create new content and update older articles.
Neil Patel offers a super comprehensive, step-by-step SEO guide for beginners.
Key takeaway: Figure out SEO!
3. Document Your Thoughts
You’re throwing ideas away if you aren’t capturing them as they come up. There’s nothing more frustrating than staring at a blank page trying to think of all the ideas that you know you had before, only for your mind to go completely blank in the moment. So when inspiration hits or an intriguing thought comes to mind, don’t let the idea just pass you by. Because no, you won’t remember, especially if it’s when you’re lying in bed at night.
Inspiration and stories can be drawn from your day-to-day life, so long as you are present and aware enough to spot them. Incorporating these moments into your marketing will humanize your brand and resonate with your audience, so make sure you have a system in place to capture them for future reference.
There are ample note-taking and management systems, such as Trello, Evernote, and Keep. A useful and easily accessible way to capture your thoughts is the voice memo app on your smartphone. Record yourself as you talk through your idea and then listen back later. There’s also the option to physically write down ideas in an old school notebook – or the nearest piece of scrap paper. Whatever works best for you.
Key takeaway: Take notes!
4. Read More Regularly
This one kinda just makes sense, right? Reading will expand your vocabulary and introduce you to different writing styles – which will naturally help you become a better writer. No knowledge is wasted, so the content does not necessarily have to relate to your writing practice. But if it does, that’s just a bonus as it doubles as research then.
And whenever you read an article that you particularly enjoy, analyze it. Try to understand exactly what about it makes you want to read it. If you can understand and easily connect with the content, that’s something to keep in mind when writing for your own audience. It is both an art and a science, so try and reverse engineer it.
There’s a strong case to be made for entrepreneurs reading more. But there’s also a sense of discipline that comes from incorporating reading into your daily routine. Presumably, that habit will train your brain to also become more disciplined when it comes to writing (cultivating better habits and all that), so it’s worth following advice on how to create reading habits if you aren’t a strong reader.
Key takeaway: Read more!
5. Use a Strong Hook
Think back to your essay writing days in high school. You were taught, repeatedly, how to structure your essay and create cohesion between paragraphs. And just like your teacher would’ve preached, it truly is your opening paragraph that draws your reader in and sets the expectation for what’s to come.
A hook is the line, or lines, that lures your reader in and makes them want to stick around to find out more. There are different types of hooks that you can alternate between for your blog posts. To best craft your hook, it’s crucial to identify your audience and then define the tone. But generally speaking, posing a question is a very popular hook (scroll to the beginning of this article!) because the goal is to get your audience thinking about a topic and then seek an answer to it – and they can get it by reading your blog. Another popular hook is making a surprising or strong statement, which can be controversial or unexpected.
Foreshadowing or suggestion is an attention-grabbing hook that avoids description and creates suspense, because not everything is necessary to spell out right in the beginning. Because people are inquisitive, they will at least scan through your blog to get the gist of it. Best case scenario, they then decide it’s worth it to actually read the article and better engage with the content.
Key takeaway: Reel them in!
6. Find Your Voice and Write Naturally
Being yourself is the most sustainable way to create an online presence. Trying to mask your voice and simply emulate what everybody else is doing is not a good idea – as you will come across as disingenuous or inauthentic to your audience.
There are millions of blogs online and everyone is producing freely available content with valuable information, so what’s the one thing that you have that nobody else does? Your voice! Embrace it and cultivate it.
Don’t be afraid to insert yourself in your writing or share anecdotes with your readers, because it’s precisely your perspective that brings the content to life and makes it all the more memorable and entertaining. If you want to write in first-person, go ahead! As a matter of fact, many recommend and prefer it over the elusive corporate “we”.
Write as you would speak, within reason, as if you were telling a friend about it. Again, think about the writing styles that you enjoy as a reader. Stick to clear and concise language that’s simple to follow.
Key takeaway: Be yourself!
7. Step Away Before Editing
You’re always crunched for time, as you’re an entrepreneur, and you just want to get the content out there as quickly as you can. But whenever possible, don’t edit your writing immediately after you’ve finished writing it. You have to take a break, work on something else, and then come back to it with fresh eyes.
At the very least, it will help to just take a quick walk or enjoy a cup of coffee to move out of writing-mode and into editor-mode.
Read your writing out loud, even when it seems unnecessary – it’s not. Reading out loud will help you check for rhythm, awkward phrases, missed words, grammatical errors, and develop your sound as a writer. If it’s not possible to do so where you are, read it aloud… in your head.
You’ll easily find self-editing tips that you can reference for guidance, but as you begin to develop your writing skills, you’ll soon notice your weaknesses and become more attuned to common errors to look out for.
Key takeaway: Switch gears!
Bonus tip!
Use Grammarly, an AI-powered writing assistant.
Recap:
1. Set Weekly Writing Goals
2. Learn Best Practices for SEO
3. Document Your Thoughts
4. Read More Regularly
5. Use a Strong Hook
6. Find Your Voice and Write Naturally
7. Step Away Before Editing
Bonus tip: Use Grammarly
Writing and communicating your marketing strategy has become equally as important as developing and implementing it, so although these tips are to help you be a better writer and restart your blog, keep in mind that writing is also the foundation of everything that a digital marketing professional does today.
Writing with purpose, something you practice when blogging, is arguably the single most powerful tactic for producing excellent copy. When you have nothing to say, or you lack purpose in your writing objectives, your content will fall flat and the words won’t resonate with your reader.
So become a better writer for your blog, and then watch as you become a better marketer for your business.
what great tips you have told in this post. I am impressed.