The underlying green principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle aren’t just for environmental matters. You can also apply these green principles to your blogging. For those of us who create a lot of content, blog sustainability is a matter of creative survival.
Reduce
1. The number of words
Writing fewer words can save blogging time, if you start with that objective. Writing long posts and editing them to be short, however, can take a disproportionately long time. When you set out to write a shorter post (i.e. in the 100 – 200 word range), going in with a brief outline can make reducing words a real time saver.
2. Time spent writing
Get a kitchen timer, and set a limit on how long you’ll spend writing a blog post. Forcing yourself to write for only 20 minutes on a single post gets you in great practice for writing quickly AND shortly.
3. Posting frequency
If you’re struggling with the posting schedule you have, consider reducing how often you post. You don’t HAVE to write every day. Pick a less frequent schedule, communicate it to your readers, and stay consistent with the new schedule as you enjoy your new free time.
Reuse
4. Your links
Face it: not everybody is reading everything you’re posting. Plus (fingers crossed), you’re picking up new readers all the time. If you have major subject in your blog, link back to earlier pieces that expand on the points you’re making in a current post.
5. Popular posts
Look at your Google Analytics and see what readers have been reading the most. Create posts which highlight popular posts built around specific topic areas your readers enjoy.
6. Images
Just because you've used an image once doesn't mean it can't be used again. Get proficient on basic editing software – crop a picture to focus on specific, different elements within it. Add effects to it as a way to use an image for multiple posts.
Recycle
7. Popular post themes
Update popular topics or combine them into longer, more comprehensive articles. You could also build on comments readers shared and turn those into related posts.
8. List posts
List posts are often more about the list and less about the explanatory text associated with each item. Pull out a single item from a list post and expand it into a more fully-developed blog post.
9. Multiple posts
Take multiple posts on a specific subject and aggregate them into an article or ebook you can offer as a download on your blog.
How Creatively Green Is Your Blog?
Try these 9 ideas and you’ll be doing your part for blog sustainability. What other ways do you reduce, reuse, or recycle with your blog? – Mike Brown
The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at brainzooming@gmail.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help your organization make a successful first step into social media.
