Can you identify three (3) statements or positions your BLOG will focus on or stand for this YEAR?

These can be things, causes, people, or initiatives that you want to support or even just 'threads' you want to weave into your content throughout the year.

What are the three (3) promises or commitments you're making to your BLOG community this YEAR?

These can be in terms of the content you intend to provide, goals you intent to accomplish, a level of transparency you want to initiate, or even just a community you plan to foster.

What are three (3) questions that you intend to answer for your readers/community via your BLOG this YEAR?

Blog Categories:

Categories are the various topics that your content can be divided into. These are usually general topics that often relate back to your business and the services or products that you specialize in. These are the areas that you hope to be considered an expert in and build a following around.

The difference between categories and tags - 'Food' would be a category, where 'rice' or 'chocolate' would be a tag on a post in the 'food' category.

We recommend planning around your content categories in order to keep a healthy mix.

For example: if you have 4 categories and plan to post once a week, you may find that 1 post per category is a good mix.

Content Styles:

Another consideration is the writing style(s) that you plan to incorporate. Styles might include; instructional, informational, opinion, personality, video, audio, guest posts, etc...

Determining your ideal style mix will also help you in planning out your content calander.

For Example: If you post weekly and your goal is mostly opinion, with some informational and instructional content, then you might choose a strategy of 2 opinion posts per month, 1 informational post, and 1 instructional post.

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Quarterly Content Focus

Take a few minutes to note any major topics of interest for each quarter of the year. This should line up with your goals and any launches or programs that you are running as well as seasonality and topics of interest for your target market.

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Monthly Content/Theme Ideas

Taking into consideration your frequency objectives, categories, and style mix, spend a few minutes to note any major topics of interest and content ideas for each month of the year. Keep in mind any industry specific topics as well as seasonality, holidays, etc...

Also list the acompanying actions that you will encourage your readers to take based on your content ideas.

Use these frequency goals to help ensure you have enough ideas to accomplish your goals.

For Example: If your goal is to publish 2-3 times a week, then you should have 8-12 content ideas per month. Alternately, you could plan 4 content series per month, as long as each series will allow you to post 2-3 times per topic.

Use these priorities to ensure you outline the appropriate action items to accomplish your goals.

For Example: If your primary goal is to grow your email subscriber base, you should have at least 50% of your CTAs each month going to an opt-in form for your newsletter. That opt-in could be for a lead generator incentive (free report, ebook, etc...) that is related to the content in your post or just a general call to join your community for updates and announcements.

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Congratulations! You have completed our 1-Year Blogging Strategy planning guide. Click submit and your submission will be emailed to you at the address entered above.