We all know that sometimes keeping up with posting on a blog can get troublesome for bloggers. You’re tired, bored, fighting writer’s block, frustrated with the lack of commenters, or just flat out too busy. This is where developing an editorial calendar, much like the major newspapers and magazines do, can help.

I’m speaking from experience here, folks. I own several blogs that had been tremendously neglected for some time, but I didn’t really want to let them go just yet. I decided to hunker down and create an editorial calendar for each blog to schedule my posts out ahead of time, so that when I had the time/energy/desire to sit down and get some posting out of the way, I had a concrete plan so I could post up to months in advance if I wanted to!

Now, depending on your niche topic, this might be more difficult for some of you than others, but never fear, for there is always a way!

If your blog is a “newsy” type blog - where you spend the first part of your day, 5-7 days a week, scanning RSS feeds for barely-reported news, and then quickly write up a post to get on the list of the first few to “break” the story, then what you need to do is break your editorial calendar down into subtopics for certain days.

Let’s say you have a tech news blog, and you cover anything and everything technology related. Set up a schedule so that certain days cover certain aspects of technology and development.

Monday - New Products
Wednesday - Product Reviews
Friday - Company Profiles

Notice, there are 2-4 days missing in that calendar (depending on if you want to be a 5 post a week blogger or a 7 post a week blogger). This is where you can fill in with your feverishly researched breaking news stories. Since regularly updated content is essential to the success of every blog, wouldn’t it be better to have guaranteed posts for a few days, and then fill in with the “Oh my God I have to blog this!” type stuff on a less frequent basis? Yessir, I think so. Instead of having to do that RSS feed research/fever posting 5-7 days a week, you can now bring it down to 2-4 days a week, without having to worry about missing days of content!

Now, here’s another take on this, so let’s stick with the tech blog and try another type of editorial calendar:

Monday - iPod/Apple
Tuesday - PCs/Microsoft
Wednesday - gadgets/gear
Thursday - company profile
Friday - other product reviews/link post to “news”

In this editorial calendar, you’re set up with pretty much 5 days worth of posts that you can write in advance. Let’s face it, as a small-time blogger (no offense, that’s what we all are when we start and up until we “make it big”), it’s highly unlikely YOU are going to be in the first 5 or 10 to post something newsy. So why not save Fridays for a weekly link roundup of the top blogs that HAVE earned that status, which will not only provide you with several less stress-induced posts to write each week, but will also give your readers links out to people you feel are an authority. It’ll also likely get you attention from those authority bloggers, which can never be a bad thing!

The real benefit to a calendar like this, is let’s say that you’re sitting there really finding some good stuff to write about iPods. Rather than write one post now and wait until next week, then scour your bookmarks or do the research all over again, you can post date that second and third post for the following two Mondays! So now in one fell swoop, you’ve gotten three posts out of the way, and you don’t have to research iPods again for weeks!

I found one of the best ways to manage an editorial calendar when posting is to have an actual calendar in front of me, with lists on each day for what posts go on which blogs. Then when I write my posts, I can cross out the calendar entry after it’s been postdated, so I know I’ve already taken care of that day on that particular blog. Plus, the crossing out of things has always made me feel like I’ve really accomplished something, and it motivates me to do more so I can cross more off!

Now, all that said, there are other ways editorial calendars can help spur activity on your blog:

• Visitors know what to expect, and when. So they know you’ll have something of interest to them on a certain day, and they can be sure to read and comment.
• Readers are allowed the chance to be more loyal, because they get used to knowing that you’re going to have X amount of posts per week, rather than sporadic posting. Research shows that inconsistent posting can lose RSS subscribers. (Among other things…)
• In the event that you choose to have multiple authors or you want to hire ghost writers, you can delegate the schedule so that you know certain things will be covered on a regular basis by others. This allows YOU more time to market your blog and be more social (commenting and linking and all is also quite time consuming, though essential!)

What are your thoughts on editorial calendars? Are you using one, and if so, what’s your schedule?

Popularity: 47% [?]

You might’ve read somewhere about sneeze pages, which are single pages where you guide your website or blog readers to find a cluster of information on one specific topic. Darren Rowse has a great post about the different types of sneeze pages, and why they can drive readers deeper into your blog, but I wanted to get past that a little, and talk about developing a process with how to create them.

The thing about sneeze pages is that they can really target a specific group of readers on your site. I’m going to talk about the pages I’m planning on creating here on the Anubis Marketing blog, but you can create them for any kind, on any topic.

One of the first things you might want to do is get yourself set up with an analytics program so that you can see what’s already bringing readers to your site. I use 103bees, because it not only tracks search queries, but it shows you exact questions (”How do I…?”) so that you can better target future posts, or see where your blog is getting the most attention. One of the most popular posts on this site is one I wrote ages ago when someone forwarded me information on a plagiarism checker website.

Now what this tells me is that there are people who are concerned about one of two things. Either they’re worried that people are plagiarizing their stuff, or they want to repost something and see if and where it’s already posted (common with sites that use article repositories to get content - something I’m not too fond of, but that’s another story).

Since I don’t condone the use of article repositories, I’m going to go with encouraging users to check their own content to see if anyone else is ripping it. Now, I have to think about what kind of bloggers would be concerned with that. It’s likely NOT big corporations, because many of those either don’t care, or aren’t aware of it as a potential issue. It’s probably going to be smaller businesses where there is only one or two proprietors, and they’re writing their hearts out to help customers (past and future) and to display their authority on the subject at hand.

So what else would those kinds of bloggers be interested in?

Maybe they’d want to know about ways to protect their copyright.

In that case, I’ll write a post about tools online that can help you protect your copyright, and maybe another post about the confusing laws when it comes to the internet. Ignorance is not innocence, and I’m telling you that people WILL rip your content when you have a blog. Wouldn’t you want to know what you can do about it?

So there are already 2-3 posts for my sneeze page. Notice, I don’t have a title for it yet, because I want to make sure I’m on the right train with things first.

Now I’ll keep running with this process, coming up with ideas on what might be of major interest to these small business bloggers. How about a post on ways to get more readers? Or one about what your job as a blogger means, as opposed to your “regular job” in your small business? I can keep going on this, but I don’t want THIS to turn into a sneeze page! I’ll be creating some of these soon, so you’ll find more examples there. *wink*

So you’ve got a good bunch of ideas for a themed sneeze page. Now you’ve got to come up with a title that’s going to attract that targeted audience. You don’t want to be overly creative here, because people looking for information are looking for it NOW. Get creative with post titles, but point people to your sneeze page with direct language.

“Important Tips for Small Business Bloggers”
“Are You a Small Business Blogger?”
“Small Business Blog Resources”

All of these titles will work, and you need to maintain the natural tone of language in your blog, so you can avoid looking like what you’ve compiled is out of place.

Now, there are many different kinds of sneeze pages, but this is one type. The point with this kind is to build it up and THEN come up with a title. Sometimes when you’re writing a post, it’s the opposite, but in this case, you need to collect the info, possibly write MORE on the topic, and then create the compiled list of resources. If you’re writing something like Darren’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog, you’ll want to announce the project and then proceed with the posts, updating the sneeze page as you go.

Popularity: 61% [?]

The internet is full of spammers, liars, and cheats. It’s a fact.

Owning a blog can put your site out there to be “bombed and pillaged” if you’re not on top of things, and one of the ways to keep that from happening is to provide a clear, concise comment policy.

I’ve personally been in situations where I’ve seen people getting ripped apart in arguments under a blog post, and it kills me that the site owner would sit back and let it happen. However, that’s part of their comment policy - they don’t delete anything unless it’s clearly classified as “spam”. Usually that’s when a simple bot comes along and blasts your last 100 posts with a URL or some kind of mile-long list of links to sex sites or the like.

Other people refuse to tolerate the negative bashing and simply delete the posts like that with no exception. Some will only do this if it’s bashing another commenter, while others will do it if it’s bashing them.

What about “signatures”? When someone leaves a comment and then puts their name and a link to their site in it at the bottom, that’s a signature. I’ve seen people comment with a 3-line answer and then put a 5-line signature at the bottom, phone numbers and all!

Personally, when it comes to spam, it’s handled by my sites’ spam filters. Some slips through, and I have to moderate it, but for the most part, it’s already caught and I don’t have to deal with it.

When it comes to blatant attacks and bashing, of my readers or other commenters, it’s gone. Deleted. Outta there. You want to argue with me and something I said? Present a valid, calm argument and it could benefit everyone involved. Start name calling and such, and depending on the blog (as I have several), you could find yourself outed (nothing’s ever truly anonymous) and/or given a good lashing right back. On this site, I’d likely simply delete it, but on some of the others I have, I’ll make a mockery of the “criminal”.

As far as signatures go, I don’t have a huge problem with them if you’ve left a reasonably valid comment (rather than “Thanks for the info”) that adds something to the discussion, and if they’re not like the 5-liner signatures I mentioned above. The reason being that when you leave a comment on a blog, you almost always have the opportunity to put your site’s URL in so that the name you use links to the site. There’s no need for a second link in the comment, you know? In the event that happens, I’ll simply delete the signature and approve the comment. If it’s one of those “thanks” kinds of comments, I’ll let it go through if there’s no signature, otherwise it gets deleted. You can’t add something of value to the thread, you don’t deserve even the default link.

What’s your blog’s comment policy? Do you have it posted somewhere, or do you just play by ear?

Popularity: 75% [?]

I’m so super excited to announce the release of my friend Darren Rowse’s book! Okay, well I’m not announcing it, he did, but I’m bragging for him!

Here’s an excerpt from the book’s site about what’s included:

Unlike other books that are big on potential and theory, ProBlogger provides results based on the authors own experience of what really works through practical, tried and tested advice. Inside readers will learn:

* How Bloggers Make Money
* Direct Income Earning vs. Indirect Income Earning methods
* Why Niches are Important
* 20 Ingredients for a successful blog post
* Optimizing advertising
* Which advertising platforms work best
* Expert analysis of Technocrati’s Top Blogs - why they work

Pretty nifty, eh? Oh, and you can save 5% ($8.50) by pre-ordering ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income at Amazon.

Popularity: 82% [?]

Hey gang - just a quick update to the whole WordPress 2.5 update process. I did a guest post over at Brad Shorr’s blog Word Sell about my recent experience with the new version and how much I love it (and why). Go check it out, and tell Brad I sent you!

Oh, and if you’re HERE because you read the post over at Brad’s, thank you for stopping by!

Popularity: 75% [?]