Blog Content Strategy and Organization

Blog Content Strategy and Organization

My content strategy rant: Have you landed on a blog before where there was no navigation, no recent posts links anywhere, no introduction, or clear idea of what the blogger was trying to deliver? Or worse, the blog was like a Las Vegas boulevard full of blinking sales ads and distractions? UGH, personally, I close all blogs that interrupt my reading with an ad TEN TIMES through the article. Period. I get it they are trying to monetize their blog with those ads, but I just want to read stuff from REAL people sharing REAL strategies and content. Sometimes I can't even find the rest of the darn article! LOL.

I am sure if you are reading this post you are likely not looking on how to add annoying ads to your blog (that frankly take people AWAY from your hard work), and instead you are looking on how to get your ideas, business or content online in some form of organized fashion by leveraging a solid blog content strategy. I can help you with that (note: I will be doing a Periscope on this topic also! Follow me on Twitter @aymeeb later if you want to catch it).

The first thing you need to figure out to create AWESOME blog content is WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS. I know this may not be news to you, but sometimes it just gets confusing, ESPECIALLY if you happen to be in network marketing (do you blog about you? the business opp? the product?…. eeeeeh). I am the co-author/developer of my organization's team training blog and even we struggled with staying focused on the audience. We kept coming up with great content for potential promoters but the blog is specifically for our team, to train them and help them develop the business and their business skills; and these folks are already promoters. So, make an effort to DECIDE and REMIND yourself every time you come up with content: Will this appeal to my target audience? Does this serve their needs? If I were (my audience) would I want to read this?

That said, I am not suggesting you need a whole different blog for each topic, but if you must speak to more than one area do make sure you keep it WELL organized on your blog for your readers.

How? By CATEGORIZING all your posts accordingly. Here is where the fun begins (or continues):

Start with a list of maybe THREE-FIVE AREAS or CATEGORIES you want to blog about. Your main categories will depend on WHAT YOU TEACH. If you are strictly a social media coach your categories may be the networks: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Periscope… right? But if you are a business coach, then ONE of your categories would instead be SOCIAL MEDIA (and the networks then could be either the content or you could even break these down into sub-categories for your audience). Another category could be “BRANDING”, or “BUSINESS PLANNING”. If your business is about health, then you might focus on FITNESS, RECIPES, MOTIVATION, etc… If you are in the make-up industry then TRENDS, APPLICATION TIPS (with subcategories for each part of your face or something), PRODUCT REVIEWS, etc… (Side note for network marketers: OTHER network marketers, not just customers, might also visit your blog… content about building teams, leadership development, personal development, building community etc, would also be categories to include maybe under BUSINESS BUILDING.

As you start coming up with content ideas to blog about, decide WHICH category this article would best fit under or if you must, CREATE a new one. Just consider that it is better to have more content under less categories than a TON of categories with little content…from your reader's perspective. It also helps your audience get a much better idea about your BRAND and what you focus on if you have less categories.

Tech tip: To add those categories you can either use a widget OR you can add them to your navigation bar using the Menu under Appearances. Some themes will list the categories you can add to your navigation by checking them, but if not, you can add them as custom links by copy/pasting the link to THAT category (you may need to have 2 windows open for this).