The Importance of Intentional Blogging

Grow with Angie and April: A Podcast for Teacherpreneurs

We get a lot of blogging questions from TpT sellers. And, since blogging is a great way to grow your audience and sell more products we are going to address one of the most popular questions we get. We are continuing the conversation in our mastermind group so head over to share your blogging tips and ask any related questions: www.growwithusmastermind.com. One of the questions that we hear the most about blogging from TpT sellers is, "What do I blog about?" And, we totally get it. Choosing a blogging topic can be overwhelming because there are so many things that you can blog about. So, today is all about blogging with intention. What is intentional blogging? Intentional blogging is when you really focus on your main niche when writing your blog post. You blog about the things that you are an expert on and stick to it. You think about a call to action for each post and intentionally think about how you craft the post to encourage people to act on that call to action. The purpose of writing a blog post can be to highlight a product, give away a free resource, make a push to get email addresses, or just giving valuable content for your target audience. Both Angie and I used to just blog about whatever we were thinking about. We didn't give it a lot of thought and there wasn't a real strategy. But, if we are going to take the time to write a post and people are taking their time to come and read it, then we want to be purposeful about what we want to accomplish. Blogging intentionally helps you make the best use of your time I have plenty of old blog posts that I'm working through and trying to move towards having a purpose and a call to action. Blog posts can be good for getting traffic to your blog, but when you have little time to work with, you have to be really intentional about what the blog post is geared towards. You want to have a goal for your blogs so you don't just go on a random tangent. Angie shares that blogging doesn't come naturally for her. So, when she is going to blog she wants it to be well worth her time and I couldn't agree more. How to blog intentionally The first step to blogging intentionally that both Angie and I use, is to think of what we wanted to accomplish from our blog post. Ask yourself what action you want people to take after they read your post. Then, work backward. For example, if you have a resource that has lost traction and sales have really dropped off, write a blog post about it. You could give teachers ideas on how to use it in their classroom and even create a freebie from it. This can help to boost sales again. When we create new products, we spend a lot of time promoting them. But, then after a year or two, they start to lose their traction. I like to track my biggest sellers and then when I notice a big drop, I know it's time to make some changes. This could be updating the covers and preview images and writing a really useful blog post that highlights the product. When you look at the data and you're freaking out because something isn't selling, it's nice to know that you can go and write a blog post about it and it will help it gain traction. This doesn't mean it's a quick process. Blogging is more of a long game, but it's nice to feel like you have some control over it. So, instead of sitting and staring at a blank screen trying to decide what to write, start by thinking about what you want to accomplish and work backward. Create a 3 part blog post Sometimes I split my blog post into three parts. The first post is about the topic. It might be a how-to type post or something like that. The second post is something like tips on how teachers are using the resource in the classroom or a "here's what you can do with the resource" type post. The third post is a roundup of quick tips and social m