Have a “Content Bank” with pre-written posts!

If you have blogged for a while, you’ve been there.  Deadline approaching, the well seems dry.  There should be 100 things to write about, but none of them seem to be working… you feel all blocked up.

Of course, when you don’t NEED a post, ideas flow freely.  So, the trick is to capture that free flowing creativity.  Write when you don’t need to write, and make withdrawals from your bank when the well seems dry.  When I have been on top of this with my blogs, I have had a month of posts banked and ready to publish.

The danger is getting too comfortable with the bank and not making enough deposits.

Another danger is content that can go stale.  Some blogs don’t have issues with the timeliness of content.  Other blogs only have a shelf life of a few days on a topic.  Most are in between, with some topics that can sit on the sidelines until they are needed and others needing to get out as quick as possible.

My real estate blog is like that… market reports need to get out on schedule, but other posts are timely even a few years after being written.  Occasionally, a topic pops up that HAS to go out right away.  Using my Editorial Calendar, I can track and schedule posts.  I can rearrange them if a timely topic comes up.

So, my New year’s Resolution for my blogs is to re-build my Post Banks.  I will try to build up a month’s worth of posts for each blog.  For me that means that I will have a total of about 60-75 posts across all of my blogs.

In order to accomplish that, I will need to do a few things…

• Series Posts.  They are often easier to write since the subject is partially pre-set.
• Video Posts.  Frankly, they can be a little quicker for me to produce.
• Formula Posts.  My Market Report posts are pretty quick to write.  Of course, the problem is that I can’t write them until the data comes out.  But since I have 8 market areas to post about, I can dribble them out for a few weeks.
• Guest Posts.  I haven’t leveraged these much yet, but would love to bring in some other writers from time to time.

We’ll see how I do…

Related articles

• 12 Business Blogging Shortcuts for Time-Crunched Marketers (hubspot.com)
• How to Build a Blog Editorial Calendar Even If You Don’t Know Where to Start (pushingsocial.com)
• Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog (internetmarketingformommies.com)
• Five Goals to Build a Better Blog in 2012 (thewritersrefuge.wordpress.com)

Image via Wikipedia

There are a couple of ways to deal with those issues… to begin with, using a tool like WP Editorial Calendar (If it weren’t free, I’d have an affiliate link… but you can find it through your Add New Plug-in Menu on your WordPress Control Panel.  Using the editorial calendar makes scheduling future posts a snap.  When I’m on top of my game, I have a few weeks of posts scheduled.  That also means that as I run across an idea for a post, I can write it and schedule it for the future… on MY schedule, instead of on the blog’s schedule.

Another way I have thought of to do this is a little more radical…

Posterous makes it REALLY easy to be an editor rather than a writer.  Instead of writing and researching to create blog posts, Posterous (through browser plug-ins) makes it a snap to share articles from the web.  After running across an appropriate article, just click the share button in the browser and write a few notes. Of course, you still have the ability to knock out a more traditional post, as well.

Image via Wikipedia

While it is REALLY easy to do, maintaining a schedule like I do on all of my blogs is pretty tough.  This blog, for example, should be updated every 4 days… at 8:00am (when I am keeping up).  Posterous doesn’t have an editorial calendar built in, nor the ability (yet) to plug one in.

If you are wondering what that looks like, here is my CoolCaroftheDay.mobi site.  It is a companion site to CoolCaroftheDay.com (which is a WordPress based site).

The bottom line is that there are a few ways to keep the blog flowing…  And honestly, I’m seriously considering porting this blog over to Posterous and becoming more of an editor rather than an author.

Related articles

• 5 Reasons You’ll Love the WordPress Editorial Calendar (dailyblogtips.com)
• Blog Better with an Editorial Calendar and Style Bank (hubspot.com)
• Three Reasons Bloggers Need an Editorial Calendar (blogherald.com)
• Q&A Friday: How To Manage Multiple Websites (Video) (newbizblogger.com)
• A Simple Sample Editorial Calendar to Keep Your Blogging on Schedule (smallbusinesssem.com)
• Four ways to make blogging a sustainable part of your life (kleenexmums.com.au)
• Blogger’s block (caramieandtheboyz.wordpress.com)
• Editorial Calendars 101 (ereleases.com)

Image via Wikipedia

WordPress is a great Content Management System (CMS).  It can be a blog, but it can also be so much more.  It can be a VERY easily updated website as well.  But in order to really get the most out of WordPress, you need to deploy a few plugins that aren’t included with the basic package.  Luckily, they are all free.  I have 40 active plugins on LaneBailey.com and 20 here.  And all of the plugins listed below are on both sites.

These aren’t limited to just real estate sites… they can be used by anyone, especially those utilizing WordPress as a business website.

Here they are in no particular order…

1. All in One SEO Pack*.  If you are blogging for business or to get noticed, you will need to be optimized for search engines.  This plugin, after it is set up, handles a lot of the drudgery of SEO.  You still need to provide the killer content, though…
2. FaceBook Share.  There are a variety of ways to do this, but the basic point is that FaceBook is second only to Google in importance for growing your site.  You NEED to have a way for readers to easily share your killer content with their friends.
3. 

   Image via Wikipedia

   MobilePress.  This is a plugin that builds a mobile version of your site.  You can tweak the mobile version so that it is faster and easier for mobile users.  And the growth in mobile web surfing is astounding.

4. TAC (Theme Authenticity Checker).  If you like to use free themes, this is a great plugin that will look through the theme for potentially malicious or junky scripts.  If it does catch something, it isn’t always completely bad code… but it is a good prompt to look into it further.
5. SoJ Tag Feed.  Turn any post tag into a RSS feed.  This is great for sending some of your content to your other sites.  It is also a great way to have a feed that is targeted for a specific audience (like maybe a different feed for buyer and sellers).
6. WordPress Editorial Calendar*.  I’m writing this post a few days before it is going live.  I usually try to have anywhere from 3 to 10 posts in queue at any given time.  This allows my blog to be more consistent.  With the WP Editorial Calendar, I can look and see at a glance when I have posts scheduled to run.  If I had other bloggers, I could also see who is posting what… and when.
7. 

   Image via Wikipedia

   WP-DBManager*.  This allows you to inspect, repair and optimize your databases from right within the WordPress admin panel.  But, it also allows you to get scheduled back-ups.  You HAVE to have back-ups coming in regularly in case there is a problem.

8. Zemanta*.  This is one of the plugins that I leverage more than any other.  It allows me to easily find and use images and related articles.  I can use just my own or I can use items from around the web.  One word of caution, though… KNOW if it is content you are allowed to use.  The articles are generally not a problem (they are just linked), but you CAN get into trouble with images.
9. Page Link To.  This allows you to build a “holder page” so that you can link in the menu to items outside of the WordPress installation.  If you have a squeeze page, sales page or other site that you want included in your menu, this is the way to do it.
10. Blog Copyright (by BTE).  If you don’t protect your content, nobody else will.  This doesn’t keep it from being stolen, but it keeps the reasonably honest people honest… and can make it easier to find the scrapers that steal it.

The plugins with a “*” after them are the ones that I think EVERYONE needs to have on their blog.  These are the ones to grab first.  I would have a hard time blogging without these…

Image via CrunchBase

What do you think?  What plugins do you find essential?

Related articles

• 8 Essential WordPress Plugins for the New Blogger (thenextweb.com)
• WordPress Plugins Wishlist – Plugins I Would Like To See Created & Working (digitalvegetarian.com)
• Speeding Up WordPress (noupe.com)
• Last WordPress Seo Plugin (preciseinternetmarketing.com)
• WordPress: The Free Software With a Big Economy & How You Can Get Involved (thenextwomen.com)

The ONLY way I can do all of that is by maintaining a serious “To Do” list, and (where possible) a detailed editorial calendar.

Previously, I was using MS Outlook for the To Do list, but have moved to Toodledo (web) and Got To Do (Android).  They sync together, and help keep me on top of the list.

On my WordPress blogs, I have WP Editorial Calendar.  There are a couple of reasons that I use it…

• It gives me a visual representation of my post scheduling.  Unlike looking at a list of drafts and scheduled posts, I can also see what day of the week the posts are to appear.
• Moving posts from day to day is VERY easy.  It is drag and drop.  That means that even if I have a bunch of posts set up for the next week, if there is breaking news, I can easily re-arrange the posts to work in the now one.
• I can draft posts directly from the calendar.  Honestly, I don’t… I prefer the full editor over the one that pops up for posting from the calendar.  But, if I wrote shorter posts, I might utilize the pop-up editor more.

These seem like simple things, but being able to conveniently schedule posts in the future, and efficiently move them around as needed is huge.  The time savings, and organizational value from the editorial calendar much higher than I expected.

It has pushed me to a goal of having my posts laid out up to two weeks in advance.  With the flexibility of being able to move posts around quickly and easily, I don’t feel locked into the the schedule.

To really make (blogging) life easier, being able to deploy this tool over several sites would rock.  In fact, even being able to use this kind of tool on Active Rain (with future post scheduling) would hit the level of ‘rocking’…

Related articles

• Editorial Calendar – WordPress Plug-In (savvyblogging.net)

I am a FireFox user.  I prefer it over Internet Explorer for a lot of reasons.  It has WAY more flexibility.  And one of our MLSs is even going to be supporting it soon.

I had installed one particular plug-in a long time ago, and was left wondering why.  In fact, when I set up the new computer, I didn’t install that particular plug-in.  But while at REtechSouth (#retso), I attended a session of FireFox, and it was mentioned as a ‘must-have’ add-on.

It is back.  And it is back with a companion.

GreaseMonkey is an add-on that allows little ‘scripts’ to be run.  They modify the experience of sites from Amazon to YouTube.  They can be major (literally moving components around) or minor (blocking Farmville notices in FaceBook).

GreaseFire is the companion.  This little add-on finds things that can be modified by a GreaseMonkey script. I’m finding it a bit buggy… and that doesn’t seem to be very different from some other users… but the concept is great, and I would expect that to be fixed in a release in the near future (FireFox just did a major upgrade).

The other way to find scripts is to look on Userscripts.org.  There are thousands of different scripts…

Have Fun.

As mentioned last time in WordPress and Joomla and Active Rain… oh my!, dynamic websites are the direction the web is going.  In order to live in the dynamic website world, you need to produce content.

That is the first problem.  Good, engaging content doesn’t create itself.  Readers want to see pictures and video.  They want interaction.

Image via CrunchBase

I’m AT LEAST as guilty as anyone else of not serving it up sometimes.  One one of my blogs I don’t have any access to a plug-in called Zemanta, and I have to jump through hoops to use Apture.

On my WordPress sites I have both Zemanta and apture installed, so it is easy to amp up the graphics and add video.  Now, on my Joomla sites I also have Zemanta installed.  I still have to jump through a few hoops to run Apture, but I have bookmarked a direct link to the page to build embeds.

Zemanta

Zemanta is a plug-in and site that surfs for images and links that are related to the article (post) you are writing.  Basically, it scans your content and finds related articles and images.  You also have the ability to refine the results (spelled S-E-A-R-C-H) for specific terms if the automatically returned results are getting it for you. Also, through Zemanta, users can allow content to be reblogged, similar to Active Rain’s reblog feature.  A reblog is a reprint of the post (with permission) on another blog.  It basically syndicates the content.

Apture

Apture is slightly different, but geared similarly.  It isn’t automatic, and I find it best geared towards video.  It also has a linking component.  Apture builds mini-galleries.  You can put as many as 6 videos in one embed on the site.  Here is an example in Joomla.  Here is one in WordPress.  (BTW, the first link was created using Apture and the second using WordPress’s editor)  With Apture, you have the capability of combining multiple content types into one embed.  The only thing you can’t combine are links.  Other embeds, like pictures, slide shows, videos, maps, etc CAN be combined.

Combined, there are great options to make a more engaging site, in both WordPress and Joomla, as well as some other platforms.

Part of the power of WordPress is in the extensibility of the platform through plug-ins. The large community of WordPress users have created these little snippets to solve problems or overcome shortfalls of the basic program.

These are some of my favorites…

And I’m going to start off with two that aren’t for WordPress, but that I use ALL of the time…

• Zemanta – This is one of my “blogging assistants”.  Zemanta searches for relavent photos for posts, while I am writing them.  It is a FireFox plugin, and functions on all of the WordPress blogs without installing a WP plugin.  I also have it installed on my Joomla sites…  I did have to install a Joomla plugin…
• ScribeFire – Another of my “blogging assistants” … and a commenting assitant, too.  ScribeFire lets me format posts or comments, even adding video to comments on Active Rain.  I can add headlines, colored text and other features using it.  It is also a FireFox plugin.

I promised WordPress Plugins…  So here are a few…

• Add Post Footer – Just like the Post Footer settings here on AR, I can add whatever I want to each post on my blog with this plug-in.  Automatically…
• All-In-One SEO Pack – Tunes SEO for the blog and posts easily…
• Apture – A different way to present media.  I just started using this on my WP blogs after reading about it here from Brad Andersohn.
• Google XML Sitemap – It is very important to have a sitemap.  This automatically creates, updates and sends to search engines…
• Great Real Estate – I can showcase listings easily on my blog…  I also can run sidebar widgets with the listing pics and other info if I choose.
• Local Market Explorer – This is a tool from Zillow that put market stats, reports, pictures, info and other juicy stuff on pages in my blogs… easily.
• MobilePress – Automatically see when a mobile devide is looking at the blog and tweak it to better display on that device.
• NextGEN Gallery – This is a better gallery system that the stock one in WordPress.  It is also required for Great Real Estate.
• Property Watch – Automatically builds a form so that buyers can send me requests for the type of property they are looking for…
• SoJ Tag Feed – I can create a landing page for ANY tag or catagory on my blog… with this I can create an RSS feed for any tag as well.
• Wibiya – Check out the Toolbar at the bottom of LaneBailey.com.  Although I might have to pull it down to experiment with something else (something BETA this way comes?)
• WP-DB Manager – I can do database management from my blog… and have it automatically email back-ups to me.

There are actually a lot more plugins that I run, but this gives you a good idea of what is available.  it is a VERY extensible platform.

What do you think of the new theme?  Like how it matches GarageHomesUSA, even though they are on different platforms?

from Lane’s Active Rain blog

Just a note here.  There are tthings to consider when looking at themes for WordPress.org.  This is the version where you load WordPress onto your own hosting account, not WordPress.com… the hosted type.

Fixed Width – As the name implies, the width of the theme is fixed.  The good side of this is that the blog owner knows how the site will display… it is the same regardless of the viewers computer.  The bad side is that if they have a wide screen, it will be a band down the middle.  If they have a narrow screen, they might have to scroll to the side to see everything.

Fluid Width – Instead of a fixed width, the theme expands or contracts to fit the monitor of the viewer.  On the good side, the display generally looks good… it fits where it sits.  But… that also means that different people will see different presentations.  Pictures may move around a bit.  Things might not fit the alloted area.

Widget Ready – This means that the sidebars are able to be modified.  The blog owner can add widgets to their blog… Even if a theme isn’t widget ready, it might be modifiable to accept widgets.

Plug-ins Required (or not) – Some themes need other plug-ins to be installed in order to function.  Others don’t.  I would select a theme based on that criteria… plug-ins are easy to deal with.

Picture Menu - Instead of having a post represented with text, the posts are represented with an uploaded image.  I am working on one here.  Each post will have a descriptive picture.  Of course, I won’t be posting every day…  These might also be called Graphic Menu or Image Posts… or a variation.