Journal Your Content
Last week I attended the Chamber’s “State of the Cities” annual breakfast that features the Mayors from the two major towns in our county and the City Manager of the third. It dawned on me that their event last year was one of my first blog posts on my this blog site.
I decided to review where I started and where I am now by looking at my various Journal entries over the year and if I had changed my way of writing.
I found three things.
First -
I used my first journal to record a lot of technical items about my blog and took a few free courses from several sites to update my internet skills. I had not really kept up with the industry and found I was way behind the curve. That led me to NeilPatel.com. His tutorials and blog posts led me to his Chrome Extension Ubersuggest. That little program has helped me keep current with SEO (search engine optimization) and how to track keywords. That helped me focus on what keywords I should use for both my blogs, and how to use them correctly.
Second
I used my second journal for taking notes on the classes and courses I used. Kelly McCausey’s I Dare You To Email Challenge made me realize I needed to be writing on a regular basis and how was I going to do that and what was I going to write about? That brought me to the local Women’s Business Center and their need for someone to teach “How To Write Your Elevator Speech”. My first attempt was humble, but they were kind. I continued to research and write about it and have created a short course that you can download. It’s free, so download yours today.
Third
those efforts led me to another realization, I had a boring website. How was I going to improve it without learning how to code? I’m not interested in coding, but really needed to bring my sites “up to speed”. Enter Thrive Themes. I knew by reading about them it was the perfect solution for me. I did some more research, writing it all in my third journal, and purchased the rights for use on multiple websites. Best decision I’ve made in the past year. My sites are responsive to each kind of devise you might review them on, I can use a variety of blocks, fonts, pictures, etc. to make them interesting and current. And they have a huge assortment of tutorials on how to use their products. If you’re not sure about your site, try them.
That brought me to looking at the journals a little closer and I realized I had told my learning story in my journals over the past year. I took notes on all the classes I went through. I used them to explore content strategy for myself. I have written several ideas down with links to research for each topic. And I’ve tagged the various pages of information I haven’t written about so I can go back and use them in the future.
One last thing
I have taken the last 4 pages of the third journal to record all my internet information. Logins, passwords, programs, hex color numbers for each site (since there is a global color feature) and all those little details that get lost. That’s why I decided to create the Biz In A Bundle Journal and provide it free to download.
My newest journals are smaller, and one for each area of my life I need to write about. My volunteer time for the Cedar City Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors program. My volunteer time for the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum Foundation (friend’s group) where I serve as Vice-Chair. And one for my life and what I’m reading. In addition, I created a notebook, with a divider for each area that I focus on in my writing life. As I research and take notes on three-hole notebook paper, I file those items in the notebook. When I’m not “forward thinking” I can simply go to the notebook for a topic. And when I’m filling out my content strategy pages for the month; I use them to fill in the blocks.
I’ll share that form with you next time. Until then - - -