I don’t think I’ve ever talked about my OCD tendencies. Well now that the cat is out of the bag, I recall refusing to leave the house until I counted my steps and my Barbie dolls were perfectly positioned in my bedroom as a child, which was quite inconvenient for my poor mom. But now I feel my OCD tendencies really come in handy, especially for blogging.
I’m always a week ahead of the game with my blog posts - I have a to-do list every single day with things I know I can actually accomplish, and I won’t stop a photoshoot (even in 18-degree weather) until I know I got “the shot”. I literally won’t do anything else until I know my blog is taken care of - no dinner, no hanging with friends, no boyfriend, and no laundry until my blog baby is ok.
Now, I may go to some extremes and other bloggers do just the opposite and blog after everything else is taken care of. There’s nothing wrong with either as long as you’re consistent.
Consistency is the ultimate secret to maintaining your blog with or without OCD.
So let’s look at how you can do that for 2017, shall we?
Get a planner & plan content for the month
My Sugar Paper Planner has saved my life. I don’t leave the house without it. I’m able to write down in the little squares what content I’m posting on what day and time. Then further along in the planner, there is a place to jot down your to-do list for each day. And in the back of the planner, there’s a notes section where I brainstorm ideas for Not Another Blonde and write down my goals for the month/year.
You don’t need some fancy online digital planner that costs $99 a month. All you need is a simple, “old-fashioned” planner with space to write stuff down. I think there is something to writing down your goals and to-do list - pen to paper - that solidifies what you’re trying to accomplish.
I read something once that said you’re 3x more likely to accomplish your goals when you write them down, which makes total sense to me. Once I’ve physically written something down, it’s like a switch goes off and I have to follow through, no matter what.
(Side note: Goal making is a controversial topic for me, comment below if you want to know more about making attainable goals for 2017.)
Brand your blog style
Even though I think every day you wake up is a day to start over, the New Year signifies fresh new starts for many. So if you’re one of those people and you want to rebrand your blog style, let 2017 be the year.
The goal of branding is to be unmistakably identified as you.
For example, when you see the big red Target logo, you know that represents the brand Target. Obviously, branding goes beyond big corporations. There are a handful of bloggers who have perfected the art of branding and there are also huge corporations who haven’t perfected branding at all. So it doesn’t matter your size, as much as it matters your strategy.
Branding also goes much further than a logo. Branding is your pictures, your blog layout, your infographics/quotes (if you have any), your color scheme, your voice, etc. For example, I use the exact same editing on all my pictures (my OCD tendencies comes in handy there). I’m a pretty minimal blogger so my blog reflects that. I also will edit all of my blog tip pictures in the exact same way (the title of the post and my URL, outlined by a white or black box).
There are other bloggers whose brands are more colorful, bold, artsy, simple which reflect their personalities. Regardless of how you choose to brand your blog in 2017, again, the key is consistency. Keep grinding, keep branding, and people will catch on.
Edit your content once a month
Every month I conduct a “content audit” where I go through and edit my blog posts to make them relevant to my current brand. When I rebranded Not Another Blonde last year I went through and added entirely new pictures to every single blog post (OCD tendencies at its best).
I also checked, added, and deleted links within my blog posts. And if my views on a certain topic had changed, I either edited some paragraphs or deleted the blog post entirely.
If you’re a new blogger, this is the perfect time to start editing. Your content will be much easier to maintain having only a few blog posts under your belt versus having hundreds, or even thousands of blog posts to edit. No matter where you are in your blogging game, if you start in 2017, it will save you a ton of time later and it will make your blog more “browsable”.
You want your blog to be a relevant, up-to-date, and credible source of information for your readers.
I have a really great feeling about 2017, and I’m not just saying that to get you pumped. I really think we’re going to see some exciting changes in social media and just blogging in general so I hope you take these tips seriously with you into the New Year. And as always if you have any questions, comment below!
How do you plan to maintain your blog in 2017? Tell us in the comments!
xx Britt
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Image Source Credits - Not Your Standard
You Should Also Read:
4 Steps to Give Your Blog a Makeover in 2017
Best & Worst Place for Bloggers to Grow Their Business
What to Do if Your Blog is Slow Around the Holidays
