How Do We Keep Our Blogging Momentum Strong?
Blogging consistently over time can be rewarding but also challenging. Some days our writing energy feels expended. What are some practices to keep our blogging momentum strong?
Be Authentic
Develop your blog based on being you, with your unique gifts and talents. Authenticity may sound like obvious advice, but when we’re trying to get published or grow our ministry, we can lose track of that. Nothing depletes blogging energy like not being ourselves.
Being authentic and finding your niche may require trial and error. You may know right out of the gate that you’re passionate about marriage but then find yourself writing also about healthy living. Can you blog about both? Sure! If that’s your heart, go for it. However, I would try to find an umbrella to put a couple of topics under, and I wouldn’t blog about too many topics.
With a niche, you become known as the go-to girl for that topic. That’s what you want, and that will help you keep going with strong momentum.
Blog from God’s Heart
We are writing for readers with real problems and hurts. We have the privilege of offering our readers hope and encouragement from the heart of Jesus. Our readers are people who have crummy days yelling at the kids, feel bad because they haven’t lost that 30 pounds, wake up in the night worried about finances, and go to jobs they don’t like all that much. Not to mention the much more serious challenges they face.
Let’s never forget to keep our readers in our minds and hearts. Christian writers need to hold out Christ’s love and hope with their words. Christ’s well never runs dry.
Celebrate Others
Use your blog to celebrate others. Invite their comments, interact, and show you care. For example, if you’ve been blogging about transitioning from college to the real world, and you learn one of your readers got a great new job, give her a shout-out. Maybe even do a short Facebook Live with her.
Also, celebrate others in ministry. Offer to promote someone else’s book or to host a podcast. Link to a blog post or resource your audience would love.
A generous mindset can motivate us and keep our blogging energy strong.
Keep It Simple
The rule for blogging is to keep it short and simple. A blog post doesn’t need a long introductory paragraph. That first paragraph can be a couple of sentences or simply one sentence, not longwinded like you might write for another type of manuscript. And you don’t need fancy words.
Simple sentences, paragraphs and words — but not simplistic. Also, remember people are reading on a screen which is harder than reading on paper, so keeping it short helps them out.
Also, short blog posts make it easier to produce more blog posts.
Have Something to Say
We write because we have something to say. But what do we do when we run out of words? We stir up our words and blogging ideas by living in a way that is interesting, engaged and connected. Talk. Watch. Read. Pray. Discuss. Interesting lives lead to captivating blog posts.
We all have times in blogging when we feel uninspired and stuck. Try some of these tips to keep your blogging momentum strong.
Melanie Chitwood is the author of two marriage books, What a Husband Needs from His Wife and What a Wife Needs from Her Husband. She’s a writing coach and editor at Next Step Coaching Services where she helps other writers make their dreams come true.
_______
Don’t miss out! Leverage the Speaker Conference is coming November and registration is filling up.
Click here to learn more and register for this life changing conference today.
