Your Platform or Mine?

Platform diving is like platform building.
Platform diving is like platform building.

Today is June first, a strategic date that marks the halfway point of the 2014 marketing plan I wrote six months ago. It took me a few minutes to find it under the scattered Post-it notes that clutter my desk. It is dusty. The ambitious plan is hand-written in a spiral bound journal that also contains my passwords for all the Internet sites I frequent. I give it a cursory look—and note those items I’ve actually accomplished. My critical nature zeroes in on the goals not achieved, and I’m annoyed with myself. Rather than toss the plan aside and start from scratch, I decide to give myself a break and review it without judgment. Success is not linear, a borrowed quote I use often. Have I accomplished any of the most important goals I established in a blissful haze of naïve optimism? Continue reading “Your Platform or Mine?”

How to Schedule a Blog Post

A few months ago, a friend of mine cranked out about six blog posts in one night. I asked her why she didn’t schedule them to publish once a week for six weeks. She replied, “I didn’t know you could do that.” Well, m’dear, it’s very easy. Here’s how.

If you’re using a WordPress blog – it doesn’t matter if you’re using .com or .org, it’s the same. Over in the upper right-hand corner of your admin screen, you should see this:

schedule post 1Notice “Publish immediately” is the default. (I’ve expertly highlighted that in yellow for you.) Click on edit and your screen will shift down, making room for the month, day, year, and time to be entered by you. Continue reading “How to Schedule a Blog Post”

Is Your Old Blog Post an Antique or New Content?

Are you ever stuck about what to blog about? It happens. Instead of searching high and low for a topic, have you ever looked under your nose? Many of you out there have been blogging for while, and even if you started in the last year, you’ve got a ton of content right in front of you.

In the early days of your blogging, you probably had some great, fresh content that nobody saw! It’s time to brush the dust off of some of those posts and get them back into the stream. Continue reading “Is Your Old Blog Post an Antique or New Content?”

Create Eye-Popping Headlines for your Blog in Six Easy Steps

Whether you are Tweeting or writing a blog post, your headline is what captures the reader’s attention. I know that I’ve struggled with headlines my whole life. Sometimes I can sit down and pound out 800 words in minutes but it will take me an hour to figure out a six-word headline.

Headlines online are quite different from headlines in newspapers. Online headlines must stand-alone and help the reader decide if they want to click through.

So, how do you create a headline that people want to see? Continue reading “Create Eye-Popping Headlines for your Blog in Six Easy Steps”