I read an article this morning entitled, “How to Write a Blog Post: A 12-Step Guide.”
After reading it, I feel like I need a 12-Step program. It’s too much to do for those of us who can’t (or don’t want to) spend hours and hours writing blog posts.
Which is why, years ago, I switched from being blog-centric to email centric.
I used to write a blog post first (with images, if you can believe that) and then send it to my newsletter subscribers (in html, if you can believe that).
Now I write an email first, then post it to my blog.
Seems like the same thing, but it’s not.
My emails are plain text. And brief.
And they take takes mere minutes to write, send and post.
Yay me.
I’ve got nothing against blog posts. But they require a lot of time and effort I would rather invest doing other things.
What kind of effort? Here are the 12-steps in the article I mentioned:
- Understand your goals
- Understand your audience
- Brainstorm a list of ideas
Sure, we need to do this for every kind of marketing we do.
- Do keyword research
Yes, research keywords for your blog. I don’t do that for my newsletter.
- Organize your content into an outline
I don’t think of my emails as content and I don’t write an outline. I may write down a few notes about what I want to say but usually, I just let it fly.
- (Check Google and) read the top 10 posts for that keyword
Good idea for a blog post you write once a week or once in a while. Not going to happen for a short, daily email.
- Write the body of your blog post
- Write a killer intro
- Write an excellent headline
I don’t spend more than 30 minutes to do this.
- Proofread and format your post
I don’t format anything.
- Optimize your post
I don’t optimize anything.
- Publish your post
Finally! I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted just reading this list.
Bottom line: a blog and a newsletter are both valuable resources for building a professional practice and should be a part of most lawyers’ marketing mix. But I’m sure you don’t want to spend hours and hours of your precious time crafting fine art.
You don’t have to do that, if you use my system.
Which you can learn more about here.
