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A client asked me to write a guest post that would take his readers behind the scenes of his blog. As a busy executive VP, he wanted to answer a common question:
“How do you find the time to blog every week?”
Ultimately, he decided not to reveal his biggest blogging secret (that he uses a blog ghostwriter), so I reworked the post to give you the benefits of our blogging experience.
While some people question the ethics of ghost blogging, what I do is take my client’s ideas, words and expressions, and put them together into a blog post written in his voice.
Here are the three most important things we do to keep my client’s blog rolling week after week:
1. We have a blogging schedule
Aside from holiday weeks or times of intensive travel, we’re committed to publish a new blog post every Wednesday. In order to make that happen, we line up as many posts as we can so we don’t have to scramble at the last minute.
I keep a calendar of upcoming blog posts and when they’re scheduled, and tell my client what we need to be working on next. We also have a recurring blog writing call booked in our calendars every two weeks. If one of us can’t make it, we always reschedule so it doesn’t get dropped.
2. We have systems in place
Because there are several moving pieces in the process, especially when we’re working with guests (see below), it’s important for us to use replicable systems that keeps us on track
For example, we use Microsoft Word tracked changes so he can quickly review and comment on my drafts and tweak as needed. At the bottom of that initial draft, I use a text expansion program to paste in a blogging promotion template for the social media updates my team posts to my client’s accounts via Buffer.
3. We love our guest bloggers
As passionate as my client is about his subject, sometimes he’s either not inspired by any topic in particular, or there’s too much going on in his business to devote as much attention to the blog.
At those times we rely on his connections to other related experts in his industry. Not only do guest posts give him a break from blogging himself, they bring more value to his readers with new perspectives and insights.
I work with our guest authors to either interview them and write up the posts (much as I do for my client), polish up something they’ve written for us, or re-print a post they’ve published on their own site.
All guests are promoted with bylines at the top of the article and a bio – with link – at the bottom. As well, we mention our guest bloggers on social media and tag them if we can.