The Sensible Blogging Checklist

In this post we’re going to look at a checklist to create a successful blog.  This checklist was created as a guide by The Whole Brain Group, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based internet marketing company.   It is being used here with their full permission to reprint.  They even provided the html code to embed it in the post.  Thank you The Whole Brain Group.

You may not know this, but business blogging can increase your web traffic on average by 55%. Yesterday we looked at some reasons to have a blog. But how do you get started?

The Sensible Blogging Checklist will help!  Follow the simple suggestions in order to:

  • Define your goals and audience
  • Plan your content strategy
  • Make sure your blog is user-friendly
  • Optimize your posts for search
  • Encourage engagement and content circulation

Don’t forget that this checklist is just a guideline to get you started! A really effective strategy and implementation plan takes a lot of thought and research.

Additionally, using this checklist can help you see the areas where you need more clarity.  For example, it reminds you to know and be able to define your niche, also called your audience, your tribe, or your clients.  The checklist makes you think about the people you are trying to reach and engage with.

In the “plan your content strategy” section, you are prompted to consider whether your blog serves both your business and your readers.  It makes you think about the details of what your blog content will be and how you will present it.

There’s a suggestion in the Content and Readability section that suggests that your blog should be under 350 words.  There’s some debate about that.  I’d like to suggest that you make that decision depending on your audience.  Some blogs, like mine, need to be as long as they need to be in order to explain the concepts being discussed.  If your audience is made up of people with attention deficit disorder, then I suggest you might want to consider keeping your posts under 350 words.  If your audience are intellectuals or college professors, well, there may be no limit on the number of words that are acceptable.  Do you homework, read other blogs that speak to your audience and see what’s popular and what is not.

One thing is certain, using this checklist will help you learn areas where you need to increase your knowledge and skill base.  With a bit of research, taking a free webinar, reading free ebooks/reports on blogging, you will learn all you need to learn to build a potentially successful blog.  I say potentially because no matter how good your skills are, without commitment and consistency, you won’t have a successful blog.

Take time to look over this checklist and lets discuss the questions at the end.

WBG Sensible Blogging Checklist Sensible Blogging Checklist for Businesses [INFOGRAPHIC]
So, what are your thoughts about this checklist?  Did you learn anything new?  Can you think of anything that’s missing?  Would this be a useful tool for you?  Does it give you any ideas of how to improve your own blog?
Courtesy of: Whole Brain Group

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Ashley - October 3, 2012

Great ideas, never really thought too much about blogging before. I am learning a lot with this challenge. Have to agree with the under 350 words, sometimes I get put off by the length. There are just too many things to do in one day!
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    Julia - October 3, 2012

    Thank you for your feedback Ashley. For me, the length of the blog that I read depends on the topic. I also prefer smaller posts, however, they are not always practical. I do try not to be long winded as I know that people are rushed. I’m also learning a lot about blogging from the challenge.

Sara - October 3, 2012

Thanks Julia – 350 words is not very long. Most of my posts are over 500 words if I intend to submit them to an article directory like Ezine articles – they have their rules. Great post xxx
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    Julia - October 3, 2012

    Thank you for stopping by Sara. 500 seems like a good size post to me. The size of my posts are all over the place. I tend to just write an article and however long it is when I’m satisfied with the writing is how long it is :-). Everywhere you post an article has different rules. I guess that’s to discourage you from posting the same article in a lot of different places. I should get back to posting on Ezine. That was the most effective source for traffic for me. Examiner was a dud and hard to follow their guidelines.

Ivy Stirling - October 3, 2012

Really helpful. Thanks Julia!
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    Julia - October 3, 2012

    You’re welcome Ivy.

Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A. - October 3, 2012

I love this! I do think over the past twenty months, the recommendations for blog length have increased to 425 to 600 words. That is more related to how/why the SEO barons have decided they will index and promote the various blogs.
And, I cannot possibly emphasize how important the last point is- because without encouragement and engagement, your blog is the proverbial “tree falling in a forest”…
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    Julia - October 3, 2012

    Thank you for coming by to visit Roy. It is a great tool, isn’t it? It seems to cover all the important aspects of creating a great blog. Of course, a blog is only as good as the writer who writes it and the readers who appreciate it and comment. I love that this blog challenge is so interactive and that folks are more than willing to share comments. The question for me is how do I sustain this level of participation once the blog is over.

Jan - October 3, 2012

I must admit, I had never heard that blogs should be under 350 words. I’m more the other way when I’m working with clients, if it’s a written post (rather than images or video) then get some words on the page. People like limits so I use a minimum of 300, which ties in with the Yoast plugin I recommend too.
I’m with you, a blog post is as long as it needs to be 🙂
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    Julia - October 3, 2012

    Keeping a post to 300 or 350 words is a real challenge for me Jan. Once I get started writing, it’s hard to turn it off. I end up spending more time editing than the initial writing. I guess it the teacher in me coming out. With my young clients, I have to try to keep it short and to the point or I end up losing them to lack of attention and other distractions.

    Thank you for your comment.

Emily - October 3, 2012

I really enjoyed this post. I also tend to write until the point I’m trying to make is covered. But I also try to utilize lists (bulleted and numbered), captions,images and so forth on longer articles, so people can skim through and pick the section that interests them. I think I’m going to try a little harder to do post of around 500 words though, it’s just really hard for me and I worry that the real meaning gets lost sometimes. I also loved the checklist!
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    Julia - October 3, 2012

    Thank you for your comments Emily. I really love the checklist too. I use a lot of checklists and I love them. They are just what I need to stay on track. As for writing, I say the article is as long as it turns out to be. Each blog is different and should be treated accordingly.

Amethyst Mahoney - October 3, 2012

350 words? Every once in a while, maybe. I’ve found 600 to be great for my readers, so I’ll stick to that until I determine otherwise!

At first keeping under 1,000 words was tough for me. Stupid PhD. 🙂
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    Julia - October 3, 2012

    I can so relate to the “stupid PhD.” comment Ame. I am ABD in public administration, long story. There was a time in my life that I actually wanted to be an intellectual. Then a friend “educated” me to that fact that intellectuals severely limit the number of people they can talk with/to so I dropped the big words and started to KISS it (keep it simple stupid). It was a good move for me and allowed me to communicate more effectively with my young clients, many of whom couldn’t read let alone know big words. And keeping it on the shorter side is important for my blog. Between 500 and 600 words usually works for me. And some posts I can make it less.

Nanette Levin - October 7, 2012

I really had to laugh at the whole infographic section on Content & Readability: under 350 words AND bullet points to break up large sections? How do you get large sections with 350 words? Has reading really been reduced to this?

I see others have responded to the word count suggestion as well. Frankly, with the topics I cover (at least on the writing/marketing and horse blog; it’s doable with the produce/farm site – but not always) and the audience I appeal to, holding to such a word count would annoy them. Soundbites aren’t what they’re looking for. They come to learn and want information presented in a way they can walk away with and implement. I will say, I do a lot of editing to write tight, but even so, 800 words is about the minimum to bring an idea or tutorial full circle.

It really depends on what you’re trying to do with your blog (some points made and some missed in the Whole Brain Group material). For business growth (unless you’re playing the numbers game – doesn’t work very well with services) I’ve found a small, loyal, passionate and referral-rich audience works better to garner clients.

Personally, I tend to scan the short copy blogs I subscribe to, but enjoy delving into those that offer some meat. Of course, I’m very selective about which ones I choose to follow in earnest.
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    Julia - October 8, 2012

    It’s funny that with the questions at the end, the one thing people focused on was the word count. I just write and it’s large or small and when I’m happy with it, I just focus. With this blog I have to be aware of not being too long winded, which I can be and frequently am. The young people that this information is for just do not have long attention spans for the most part. And these posts are meant to be more inspiration than instructional. The books are going to be companion pieces to the large program.

Kama - October 9, 2012

Loved this! Simple and straight to the point. I did learn a couple of things so very helpful, Thank you.
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    Julia - October 9, 2012

    I glad you learned a couple of things Kama. You made my day! I have to keep it simple, after all I am writing for teens and twenty-somethings so any simple tool I can find is a good thing. This one is obviously basic, but that is perfect for my purposes.

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