How to Blog Every Day: Slides and Resources from WordCamp Portland
Today I’m giving a talk at WordCamp Portland on how to blog every day. I wrote this talk based on what I learned from blogging every day for a month in November 2010 and November 2011 and I’m excited to share it with the Portland-area WordPress community.
Live stream — All of the sessions will be live streamed, here, and follow along with the hashtag, #wcpdx. I’m in the Bergen Dining room at 2:15pm.
Once I get a recording of the video, I’ll post it here. For now, here’s a copy of my slides and additional resources that I reference in the talk. Feel free to download and share this presentation as you’d like!
How to Blog Every Day
The secret to blogging every day is easy—just write. But the process of coming up with an idea is hard. Then it comes the excruciating part of putting words to the page, editing it, finding the perfect photo to accompany your post, and formatting it on your site all before you can press that beloved “Publish” button.
Oh, and if you’re writing every single day, you do it all again tomorrow.
Resources to help you Blog Every Day
Here is a list of blog posts and resources I reference during my talk, and here’s a link to the video of my talk so that you can catch what you missed at WordCamp Portland.
Where to buy my t-shirt
- I’m not a player, I just blog a lot from Raygun (unisex and ladies)
What I learned from blogging every day for 30 days
- 2010 recap: When Creativity Flows, Don’t Turn off the Faucet
- 2011 recap: NaBloPoMo Goals and Milestones
Examples of how to create a content or editorial calendar
- How to Put Together an Editorial Calendar for Content Marketing on Content Marketing Institute
- How to Create a Successful Editorial Calendar on Unbounce
- How to Create an Editorial Calendar on Spin Sucks
Tools to help you capture your ideas
- Favorite note-taking app that syncs with your phone, computer, tablet: Evernote
- Favorite tool that helps you start writing: 750 Words
- Favorite non-battery-powered option: a journal
Examples of different blog formats
- Standard: Today is Sunday
- Epic: Book Publishers are Not Tech Companies
- Response: How to be a Hipster and 500 Words or Less
- Single Paragraph: How to Impress your Customers and Create Lifelong Fans
- Photo: Nobody Tells this to Beginners and Picturing My True Identity
- Link Roundup: Musings on Adulthood and Ambition
Ways to beat writer’s block
- Choose a different topic on your content calendar
- Get inspired by going for a walk, watch a video, hop on Twitter, read something, talk with a friend
- Take a day off (it’s okay, but tell us what you’re doing instead of blogging)
- Help Me Be Fing Creative
Examples of posts I wrote when I had writer’s block
What to after you publish your blog post
After you have that out of your system, sit back down, and promote your blog post like crazy. If you need help, check out the presentation I did for WordCamp Seattle on just that: How to Promote Your Blog without Losing Your Soul.
Why I wrote this talk
I’m not expecting you to start blogging every single day. But if you only blog once every other month and really want to blog more, this presentation and ideas should help you get started. If you blog once or twice a week and want to start blogging three times a week, this will help you even more.
Blogging every single day is not for the faint of heart; it takes time, lots of time. Plus you have to strike a careful balance between planning what you’re going to post and letting your muse run away with you. However blogging every single day for thirty days straight will teach you more about your writing style and how you blog than you could from anything else. I highly recommend it.
Psst, a recording of this talk has been posted here: How to Blog Every Day: Video of my Talk and More Resources to Help you Blog.
Tags: blogging, speaking engagements, WordCamp, WordCamp Portland, WordPress, writing process
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2012 at 10:45 am and is filed under speaking events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
