The quick blogging tips, 10-minute tasks series is tackling blog content this week. Here are 10-minute tasks for blog content you can do today to move your blogging business forward.
Myself and most of my clients blog in the margins – fitting in just a bit of blogging here and there.
10-Minute Tasks for Blog Content
The focus of this article is only quick blogging tips for blog content. You can find all of the tips in the 10-minute tasks series here.
Better yet, get all of the 10-Minute Blog Tasks published here AND additional tasks and sections. The Blogging in the Margins book is now available on Amazon!
Because we need boundaries, I chose tasks which can be done in just 10-minutes but would love to hear from you. How do you fit writing, editing, and fine-tuning blog content into the margins of your life?
Do you:
- outline posts regularly and keep a running list of ideas?
- purchase content to help you with article preparation?
- optimize for keywords before or after your write a post?
Inarguably, a blog’s content is its most valuable product. Optimizing your time to fit in more 10-minute tasks for blog content creation will be time very, very well-spent.
Update: Facebook Group Questions
One of the best features added by Facebook (if you run a Facebook group) is the questions feature!
Ask questions (and be sure to remind them to sign up for your newsletter as an easy way to grow your blog’s subscribers)!
Dump the Excess
Creating a link system within your content will yield more than the plugin at the end of your article advertising 6 other sites. Those links take YOUR reader off YOUR site and give them to someone else. #notthebestgrowthstrategy
Linking to your own articles will help improve your bounce rate (a Google algorithm metric) and it will help build authority with new visitors.
Remove any ‘fluff’ in order to focus on having your reader go from one article to the next.
SEO Keyword Research
I don’t think I’ve ever completed my SEO research for a new blog series in 10-minutes, however, I’ve made headway (or started).
A search for keywords, whether you’re using KW Finder, SERPStat, Pinterest, or just the Google search engine, will never be wasted time.
Outline a Blog Post
This is beneficial for you, your reader, and your income. If you outline, you’ll write a more cohesive post which takes the reader on a journey and that’s a good thing. Give it a try and develop a post just like your 3rd-grade teacher taught ya: intro, main points, and summary and call to action.
This format works well for most articles, however, all of the DIYers and crafters will need to make sure the step-by-steps will move the post to completion.
Fill-In or Sketch Out a Blog Post
If you’re like most of my clients, you have between 5 and 50 posts in draft. It doesn’t matter where you write or on what device – set a timer for 5- or 10-minutes and just write a single section.
The draft is there for a reason. Your goal in 10-minutes is just to move it towards completion.
If you don’t think it’s a good enough idea to finish, delete the draft.
Learn to Write Better by Doing This!
The number one tip to write better is to write more. More.
Take just 10-minutes a day and do the most important aspect of blogging: write.
If you write a non-fiction blog (most bloggers do), seek out tips on writing. One of my favorite books is Zinser’s “On Writing Well.” I’ve gone through three copies – it’s a classic for a reason.
If you think your blog structure could use some work, try to write using these SEO tips. They’ll help you structure your blog post to allow for a) SEO optimization, b) structure for ‘skimmability,’ and c) consistency.
Many of us can improve our grammar or do what I do and cheat. Keep yourself off the grammar police’s radar and use Grammarly.
Write a Better Title
Did you have a post fall flat or are you considering updating an older post? Give it some title and headline love using a free tool like CoSchedule's headline analyzer.
Another method to improve your title game is to analyze the titles of your popular posts. Do they contain numbers? Are they written in a certain style (snarky, informative, listicle, etc.)?
If you’re new to title and headline creation, use Google and Pinterest to search for similar articles. Study the popular posts and their structure.
Stand on the shoulders of giants and learn from successful titles and headlines to make yours better.
Content Expansion
Mentioned in the 10-minute blog tasks for blog strategy, working on content expansion helps your readers and your site’s SEO. #winning
Some ideas to work on this valuable blog activity are:
- create a promotional video for your post using still images, music, and subtitles
- rework an old sponsored post into an affiliate article
- use Google Analytics to search for top keywords
- update an old link party post into a themed resource for readers
- link or embed a YouTube video (even the 30-second promotional videos for Facebook will help)
- add in new content links to relevant, older content
Housekeeping
Sadly the clean-up fairy has yet to make a visit to either my home or my sites, so let’s dish on some ‘tidying-up’ 10-minute tasks for blog content. Some ideas to quickly perform some blog content housekeeping:
- test site speed (on mobile)
- run a report and fix broken links
- check for missing, short, long, or duplicate META data
- refresh a landing page or optimize it further for SEO
- backup your database (if not automatic), document plugin updates via a change log, and run one update
Get More Tips
Bloggy buddies are always sharing quick blogging tips with other, right? Well, now you can join the Elevate Everyone group on Facebook. We’ll have tips, questions, and helpful interaction on 5 to 10-minute quick tips for blogging! Come join us!
Takeaway and Action
Use at least 2 of these 10-minute tasks for blog content this week and move your business forward in the time you’ve got to work with.
Bri Adams says
I saw this on Instagram and had to check it out. This might actually transform my life and save my sanity. I might actually get to bed before 2am and feel like a human being again. Thank you so much!
Sarah Nenni Daher says
Haha – blogging can definitely have you working into the wee hours of the morning! I have an entire summer series on blogging tasks you can do in 10-minutes, so stay tuned.
P.S. If you don’t use timers, I highly recommend adding them to your blogging practice. VERY helpful to make sure you stay on task and it will help you to streamline your work as much as possible. Thanks for popping over from IG, Bri!
Sara Beth says
Excellent tasks. Glad you added the practice of writing. It’s how you get better.
One thing I’m working on is deleting “filler words”.
It can be done within 10 minutes.
Sarah Nenni Daher says
Great idea to intentionally remove filler words (I should add that to my writing practice, as well)!