Pat Flynn
Last month, I read a great blog post on Daniel Scocco’s Daily Blog Tips entitled, The Blog Post Checklist: Use Before Hitting Publish. In it, he lists 13 different things you should do with each and every one of your blog posts before you take the article live. It’s a very thorough and well-written piece of content that I suggest you read if you haven’t already.
There are a lot of other resources on the web about what you should do before you publish your post, but there isn’t that much information about what to do after—at least not in an easy to read checklist format that you can use, until today.
Why is this important?
Because to me, 50% of a blog’s success comes from the actual posts on the blog itself. The other 50% comes from what happens after that content is published.
Unfortunately, many bloggers tend to work hardcore only on the first 50% (publish and done) and therefore only see 50% of their potential results. Growing a successful blog takes work, and the work doesn’t end with the content on your site. Follow through with your posts and you’ll see better results in less time.
Below, you’ll find a description of each check, but you can download a PDF version that you can print out if you’d like.
Immediately After Publishing
1. Did I read my published article and check for spelling & grammar errors?
Although we should check for spelling and grammatical errors before we publish our posts, we should also do it after as well. Seeing it published and live will make you more aware of the details and you may find some mistakes that you may have missed while proofreading.
If you do find errors, don’t worry. Just go back, edit and update.
2. Did I read my published article and check for formatting or spacing errors?
Luckily, WordPress gives us the ability to preview our posts before they go live, however, Murphy’s law often likes to make it’s way to our blog posts and screw up how things should look, even when we’ve done our best to make sure everything is perfect before we publish.
Our graphics aren’t aligned, line breaks aren’t where they should b, or some piece of code in your post made your entire blog look screwy. Whatever the case, now is the time to fix it.
Thanks Murphy.
3. Did I tweet about my blog post?
You should definitely be tweeting about your published post to your followers.
Make sure you shorten the url to your post using a site like bit.ly, so you can keep track of the clicks to your article as well. Or, you can tweet using a third party software such as Tweetdeck to easily shorten the lengths for you, and keep track of who is retweeting your articles.
What you say in your 140 character limit really does matter. It’s your “ad copy” for your blog post, and the better copy you write, the more traffic and buzz you’re receive
Choose your characters wisely.
4. Did I share my blog post on Facebook?
If you don’t know why Facebook is so important for bloggers, then I suggest recommend demand that you read The Blogger’s Guide to Facebook.
Like Twitter, Facebook can be a major source of traffic for your blog. In fact, people are on Facebook more than any other site in the world, so you’d better take advantage of this by sharing your post and getting it in front of their eyes.
You might be wondering if it would be easier to use an automatic application or tool on Facebook that detects your new blog posts and pastes them onto your Facebook Page’s wall for you. Although this is easier, I’d recommend posting about each new blog post manually and separately. It will seem more personal, and you can add in your “ad copy” along with the link to optimize your click-through rates.
5. Did I share my blog post on all other social media platforms that I joined?
Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only social media platforms out there. If you’re a part of any other networks, make the most of them and share your post.
6. Did I social bookmark my blog post?
Social bookmarking sites offer a fantastic way to drive traffic and get backlinks to your site too.
I would be cautious about bookmarking my own posts on the major bookmarking sites, such as Digg, Stumbleupon and Delicious, since they crack down on self promoting bookmarks.
Other sites, however, are great for driving traffic and building authority for your post in the search engines. You can use the free tool at SocialMarker to easily bookmark your site across a number of social bookmarking websites.
Soon After Publishing
7. Have I responded to comments made on my post?
One of the best things you can do is come back to your post some time later and respond to the comments that other people have left. They took the time to leave you a comment, and the least you can do is spend a little bit of time to answer them back, especially if they have a question and are looking for answers.
This really helps with credibility and building trust with your readers. Also, it encourages more discussion because people are more likely to comment knowing that they are actually being read.
8. Have I thanked people on Twitter for Re-Tweeting my blog post?
If you tweeted your blog post (see #3), then chances are you will have a few people who re-tweet your tweet to their own followers. Take a moment to thank some of these people, because re-tweeting is totally voluntary and can lead to massive amounts of traffic. If you thank them, they will be more likely to re-tweet your tweets in the future.
9. Have I commented on a commenter’s blog post?
I’ve never shared this with anyone before, but I encourage you to do this too if you aren’t already.
On each of my blog posts, I’ll single out one commenter and click over to their own website. If the site is not a blog, then I look for another commenter’s site until I do land on a blog.
Then, I look for an interesting article, read it, and make sure to leave a comment.
Why do I do this?
- It forces me to learn new things from other people.
- It disciplines me to practice the “old art” of blog commenting, which can sometimes help with backlinking.
- Many top bloggers seemed to have lost the motivation to leave comments on other blogs. So, when I do it myself, it really helps me stand out of the crowd and be even more personable than some of the more successful bloggers out there.
- It slowly builds even more trust with my readers.
I try to pick out blogs from new commenters and bloggers, because you never know which of the newbies will end up going big someday. Maybe when they get big, they’ll remember my small gesture and hook it up in the future somehow.
Later After Publishing
10. If my post contained audio or video, have I begun getting a transcript made for it?
If you’ve got audio or video in your post, then you definitely need a transcript. If you’re good, then you’ll already have this completed before you publish your post, so you can insert it into the body of your content for people to read or download immediately after it goes live.
But, sometimes transcripts take time, so now it is good time to get started on it.
You can write it yourself, but I would suggest hiring a virtual assistant to do it for you. You’ll save a lot of time.
You can then publish this in a separate post (which is great for SEO purposes), or simply update your existing post and place the text or a download link to a PDF in it.
11. Have I re-written / summarized my post for article marketing distribution?
Many bloggers like to repurpose their content and syndicate it onto article marketing directories.
Never copy/paste your blog post word for word for article marketing. You should always re-write your content, and you can even put a little spin on it to give it a fresh look, while not having to spend so much time writing a totally brand new article from scratch.
You should also always include a link to your blog post from your article to optimize your search engine rankings.
Be sure to read the terms and conditions of each of the article directories you choose to write on for where links are allowed to be put in the articles.
For Your Reference: Some of the top article marketing directories include: EzineArticles, GoArticles, Buzzle and ArticleDashboard, just to name a few.
12. Have I checked the stats on my page including traffic, click-throughs and sources?
After some time, it’s important to check the statistics of your post. Based on what you find, you can act accordingly.
For example, if you find that your post is bringing in more traffic than normal, you can find out why and go to the source to see what’s going on. There may be more opportunities to network with people or get even more traffic if you find out where it’s coming from.
Also, if you placed affiliate links in your blog post, you can check to see how they are converting. If you’re getting 100 clicks to a product a day, but no sales, then you may want to reinsert a different offer, or try a different landing page.
Have I Missed Anything?
What would you like to add to this list?
Comments closed due to spam on this particular post.
