Practical Plan for Quilters Words for Blog Content Writers as Well

Plan. Shop. Cut. Sew.  These are the four steps in a practical plan McCall gives quilters.

• Plan. That’s the real secret behind corporate blog writing sustainability. At the very outset of the blogging initiative, define a few basic “leitmotifs” or themes to form the backbone of your writing, including beliefs you hold about your industry that you think are important to convey to readers, and specific ways you successfully serve customers and clients.
• Shop. Then, to help you flesh out these themes on an ongoing basis, one truly practical planning tip is to keep a blog idea file, online or in a paper folder. In this folder would go articles you cut out of newspapers or magazines (I’ve used just such a one in today’s Say It For You post), notes on ideas gleaned from a seminar, radio, blogs and book. Ideas are everywhere – you simply need to stay in “shopping mode”.
• Cut.  “If your copy tells too many irrelevant stories, you will lose your prospects’ attention and interest,” fellow blogger Michel Fortin reminds us. And, whether you happen to be a freelance blog writer like me or are blogging for your own business, it’s clear that blog posts have a simple advantage over more static traditional website copy.  While each post should have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business or your professional practice, there’s no need to toss those extra pieces of “material“ – simply save them for another post.
• Sew.  Writing blog content to help market a business or professional practice is very much like sewing the small, different colored squares of a quilt together into one sustained, coherent thing of beauty. First of all, the pattern is varied, yet repeating.  Remember, the more frequently your content mentions the keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business, the better your chances of your site being found for those very phrases. Maybe even more important, a business blog, consists of many, many posts spread out over a long period of time, clarifying, adding, proving, restating, giving examples, testimonials, and stories, building belief piece by piece.

McCall’s  practical plan for quilters works for blog content writers as well!