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When committing to blogging you are entering journalist territory. Deadlines will come often and you will have to deliver on a consistent quality level. How can I find a way to blog with consistent results.

As a though leader you need to feed your audience with new insights on a continuous basis. Without consistency in delivering new content you risk losing your blog audience. It is way harder to build a readership than it is to lose it. Multiple thoughtleaders share the blogging undertaking in a large company.  In a previous blog we dealt with drivers for blogging. Here we will focus on securing a high quality and consistent delivery.

When I started to blog, one of the first things I did was to go to a bookstore and look for a book on the subject. The most interesting part of the trip was I found a large variety on books on how to write a novel. I left with the conclusion I need good ideas and I need to find a good writing framework. I suggest you start with collecting great blogs and then craft a personal framework suitable for your style of writing.

To make your writing session productive you need a background process. The following need to take place in the background to help get ready for writing sessions;

1. Collecting headline candidates in a note book – when “listening” for stories in your daily work you will find a lot of them.
2. Collect new words catching your attention – your stories will become interesting with a few exciting words.
3. Collect data points and Infographics – both your visuals and your stories will need numbers.

The third ingredient is to find productive writing time. Search for timeslots where you can write a complete blogpost without interruptions. You might want to go up early on a Saturday or write on a plane when you are traveling. Pick a slot which is recurring so blog writing becomes part of your routines. Consider making it a hobby of yours so you do it with passion, rather than a forced activity. When you get to such a point it will be a lot easier.

Unless you are native English speaking you need a professional writer taking the language quality up a notch or two. Poor language is the easiest way to lose your audience.

All blogs need visuals, visuals and headlines is what will make your audience wanting to read your blog. The actual text is their reward for swallowing your bait.

Most of your audience will find your blog when searching for something. Few enjoy the luxury of a large blog subscriber base or an audience looking you up on a continuous basis. Selecting the right search words secure readers to get to your text.

The last part is about your blog-post funnel. Secure you always have 3-5 posts or a 6-8 week funnel of unpublished blogs.  Such a strategy give you peace of mind and eliminates last day fire drills to deliver committed inputs. Consider yourself to be a freelancer for monthly magazine. Not a war zone reporter cranking out the latest and the greatest from the front.

Good topics for you and your team to work with in this development area are:

• What should my blog writing format look like? – Address target length, type and source of visuals, structure of the main sections, use of references for respected sources etc. .
• How do I generate a draft bucket of headlines, words and facts so I can move straight into focused writing when I sit down? – This will make writing sessions more focused.
• Who can give me honest feedback on my blog-posts before I publish? – Let someone close by shoot down the ones that are not high enough quality. It is great for you and your company’s brand.

Her a few ideas on additional reading:

• 8 ways blog writing is unique [BLOG] – by Mark Schaefer
• What are great topics your CEO can blog about [BLOG] – by Steve Farnsworth
• How to create great blog-posts that engage readers [eBOOK] – by Steve Scott
• Think Write Grow: How to become a thought leader and build your business by creating exceptional articles, blogs speeches, books and more [BOOK] – by Grant Butler
• 74 attention grabbing blog titles that actually work [ARTICLE] – by INC (@INC)

I hope you are inspired to step into the thought leadership shoes and start becoming an active content contributor. It is a good way of leading by example.