Tools & Tips for Creative Blogging

I’ve been publishing a post on OMHG almost every day for 3 years now and have hit publish on nearly 900 posts in that time (we are coming up on our 1000 post next month!). Along the way I’ve learned a few things about how blogging creatively can help you to build community, market your work and collaborate with new friends from all over the world.  Blogging changed my life in ways I never would have expected when I first purchased OMHG and I learned through a pile of trial and error. I wanted to share some of my tools and tips with you for our marketing theme and hopefully these short cuts help give your blog a little boost. Your path for creative blogging might look totally different, I don’t believe there is a formula for building a blog you love! The beautiful thing about blogging as a medium is that it changes based on our input and there are endless ways to express yourself or evolve as you grow. If you have blogging knowledge to share come meet us in the comments and add your voice to this list!

• Plan ahead. An editorial calendar is my very best friend! I started out lo-tech with Google calendar/iCal, and now couldn’t function without my WordPress editorial plugin.
• Themes are awesome. Having a topic, theme, or regular post makes planning your content a million times easier. Brainstorm a list of 50-100 potential themes & watch the inspiration start flowing. Don’t limit yourself only to topics in your business niche-we spent a whole month talking about gardening and it was one of our most inspiring themes.
• Set a date. Having a deadline for that theme/post/project keeps you accountable to your grand plans. Mark it in red and either get it done before or come screeching in just in time, but stick to it. You don’t have to publish every day, or even every week, but if no one is keeping you accountable to a schedule it will become so easy to put it off if you don’t commit.
• Start anywhere. Every post is a blank page and it can be overwhelming if you think too hard about what you are going to write. Once you have your topic start anywhere-magic usually happens. I tend to edit a post multiple times from my initial stream of consciousness but would rather have too many ideas then not enough!
• Create conversation. Blog posts that don’t end with a question or invitation to engage don’t usually get comments-if you want people to participate you need to invite them in! When you notice visitors who come back regularly build relationships with them by reaching out-they will become your biggest supporters.
• Be consistent. Consistency means showing up regularly, not wildly changing your offering or language from day to day, and letting your readers get to get to know you so you can build trust with them. If one day you are sporting a mohawk and the next show up in a business suit people might get confused…unless that is your whole thing in which case, carry on.
• Avoid predictability. Try not to get too comfortable with a pattern that works and stop pushing yourself to create original content. If you are bored your readers will feel it, so if something stops working or feels stale, change it! Experimentation is always more exciting than stasis. Not all posts or ideas are going to take off and I’ve found quite often that the posts I slave & worry over get less interest then the ones I type up on the fly because I’ve got a hole in the calendar or want to respond to another post.
• Make it pretty. Great images are key to a beautiful, engaging, and unique online home. Carefully choose & credit the images you use and always try to create as much of your content as possible. In my list of resources I share my favourite places for finding images and crediting sources but I’ve moved to taking more and more photos or designing the images myself like the graphics used in this post (I used the font Trend Handmade from MyFonts).
• Ethics are everything. Be conscious about the language you use, the way you share and consume online content, and what you send out into the world via your online presence. Your blog is a mini-community and its up to you to lead it in a way that is respectful, honest, and kind regardless of the tone and style you choose.
• Build friendships not followings. If you genuinely reach out, interact, and engage the world explodes with new friendships and opportunities. Your blog can become a leaping off point to amazing new adventures but you’ll never get started if you don’t reach out and say hello or tend to the friendships you begin. I spend very little time on outreach and have never paid for advertising instead I focused on finding opportunities to collaborate using OMHG as the vehicle to bring us together.  I welcome and cherish new friends and connections but I don’t spend a lot of time searching for them!

• Start a series or project. It can be as simple as Soule Mama’s This Moment photo project or a project series like Brett’s at IAMTHELAB. Share your favourite series & blog projects in the comments so we can check them out!
• Host an online event & call for submissions. Give people a reason to flock to your blog & participate! Story of Mum is hosting an on + offline virtual exhibition, It’s A Banner Day is a global call for artists to collaborate, hosting our #OMHG chats built our community and traffic- post other examples in the comments & round up some great inspiration.
• Team up on a post. One of the best ways to build friendships through your blog is to team up to create content for each others sites. We’ve had so many collaborative posts on OMHG like this wonderful one from the archives by Geri & Alison.
• Interview your mentors/friends. Collecting the insight & expertise of friends and mentors is a great way to create content and connections at the same time like Allisa’s Finding Your Marketing Voice post or Nanako’s round up of effective Etsy photos.
• Invite guest contributors. 90% of the awesome that is OMHG is thanks to our contributors, when you are first starting out you can connect with other emerging bloggers to build both of your sites and build up each others content. Be sure your contributors are in line with the mission and goals of your blog and you outline ground rules for the collaboration! When I took over the site in 2010 we had 15 contributors and we have swelled to over 45-managing this many contributors is almost a full time job so start small and add to your list when you are ready.
• Post submission guidelines. Clear and well written submission guidelines are so important if you are planning to open up to guests, our guidelines have had multiple evolutions over the years to keep up with the changes to the site. Spend some time looking at guidelines on other sites so you can get an idea of how people manage contributions.
• Plan a link up. People love to share what they are working on, give your readers a chance to be seen on your site by creating opportunities to link up-either in the comments, through blog features or via social media like our weekly #OMHG chats or our recent biz share #PinParty 
• Go on tour. Blog tours can be a fun way to connect a group of bloggers around a common theme. I’ve seen blog tours for topics like the Things I’m Afraid to Tell You series or products like those often run by sponsors. Do you have any examples of creative blog tours?
• Connect with sponsors. Sponsored posts can connect you with your sponsors community as well as bringing value to your own. Be sure to have an agreement that outlines mutual promotion of the post, depending on the size of your readership you might get product in exchange for editorial or you might be compensated. Beware sponsored posts take a lot of time, I typically spend 6 hours on a sponsored post like this or this & charge $175 (my shop rate for consulting & design is $120 per hour so sponsored posts sure are not all about the money!).
• Promote your supporters! You would be surprised at how many people are so excited to have a feature published on OMHG who don’t promote it to their own community. If someone posts for you be sure to shout them out on social media and in your newsletter, the same goes for if you are featured elsewhere!

• Pugly Pixel
• Aeolidia blog
• Zoe Rooney (WordPress tutorials & resources)
• WordPress Editorial Calendar
• Design Seeds
• Lost & Taken
• Creative Market
• Flickr Collage pool
• Fuzzimo
• MorgueFile
• The Ink Nest
• OMHG banners & tutorial 
• The Graphics Governess
• The B Bar
• Click to Tweet (for adding clickable tweets to posts)
• Bitly (for tracking links)
• Link with Love
• If Emily Posted series
• Blogging Your Way 
• Talk to Your Readers
• Getting Past Zero Altitude Summit presentation

I would love to know about your ideas about how to use blogging as a platform to connect with your community and customers! Share a link to your blog in the comments and let us know: what are your biggest blogging lessons? Where do you find great images to use? Who are your blogging inspirations? Let’s turn this post into a resource for bloggers everywhere!