Blogging is Like a Batch of Cookies

Rebekah Pike

Yep, I just compared blogging to baking. Sound crazy? Stay with me here for a sec. What I’m talking about is strategy.

Too often, people (professional writers included) have a scattershot approach to blogging. We have a great brainstorm for a blog series that we fail to follow through on.

We make resolutions to post every week, but then life happens and a crisis (or two, or three) pops up and the blog sits there collecting digital dust.

We write something genius that attracts some traffic, but then we get intimidated by the demands of generating fresh, engaging content and retreat into procrastination mode.

If any of this sounds too familiar, rest assured – it’s not just you.

Blog presence is a fantastic way to bump up your SEO and keep your company competitive in search engine results. But like any other tool, a blog is only useful if you know how to maximize its potential.

So … how? As a business owner, making time for one more thing is tough.

Back to baking – you need a scaled-up strategy.

Think batches, not single posts.

I ran across this analogy from Ali Luke who wrote about batch blogging over at The Write Life. Think about how you’d bake a dozen cookies. You could get out all your ingredients and equipment, mix and bake just one cookie – and then clean everything up, put everything away and repeat that process eleven more times.

But that would be crazy inefficient, right?

It makes a lot more sense to do what everyone does – gather your equipment and ingredients, mix enough dough for all twelve cookies, bake and clean up.

This is the basic principle behind meal prepping, wardrobe capsules and a million other hacks and strategies you’ve probably seen on Pinterest, Instagram and elsewhere.

Schedule work in sessions. Save time and stress later.

You can take this idea and apply it to blogging too! Here some simple steps to get you started.

1. Lightbulb moment for a great blog post? Write it down. Now.
This can be as simple as using the memo app on your phone to jot down any idea you have for a future post. Keep it simple – a couple notes about the topic will do. If a hard copy is more your thing (who doesn’t like a good notebook?), keep one handy just for this purpose.

Don’t tell yourself that you’ll remember it later! Trust me, I forget my inspired ideas all the time. Don’t be like me. Write. It. Down.

2. Schedule a time to draft your ideas into posts.
This is not your time to carefully edit and perfect each post. What you want to do is take several of your ideas and create rough drafts for each one. Writing down 2-4 main points for each idea is a great place to start. Then you can spend your time filling in those points with relevant content.

3. Work out your final edits.
Take off your writer hat and put on your editing one! Now you can schedule another session to go back through and think about things like paragraph length, image placement and sentence structure. You’ll start to see things that need work – maybe you fall back on the same three adjectives too frequently. Maybe you need to add some bullet points to highlight topics more clearly.

We have a great post with more helpful tips to make your written content engaging and easy to read – check it out here!

The benefit of grouping the same tasks together (jotting down ideas, writing, editing) is that it keeps you from getting distracted by less important details and rabbit trails.

By breaking the task up into smaller pieces, you will create a routine and a steady, consistent output of work.

Auto-schedule your posts.

Many blogging platforms give you the option of publishing your post immediately or at a future date. If you choose to take advantage of the auto-schedule option, your blog can essentially update itself!

As long as you keep feeding your blog a steady stream of new posts, your website content will stay fresh and relevant. Plus, you’ll be keeping your business visible in search engine results and attracting new clients to your site!

Remember: content tells your story.

The words and images on your website tell your customers who you are.

Honesty time: is your website really representing you the way you want it to?

Not sure? We can help with that! Download our Website Assessment Guide – it’s packed with valuable tips and information that will help you figure out your next steps.

Not sure if blogging is right for you? We understand! Sometimes one more thing is one thing too many. We have a stellar team of copy editors who would be happy to help get you started. Call us or shoot us an email – let’s talk!