Whenever I give presentations for other translators, I find that I pick up as many tips as I dispense. Last week’s sessions for the Société Française des Traducteurs were no exception and I’ll be describing some of these newly-gleaned tips in some upcoming posts. This one comes courtesy of Sara Freitas-Maltaverne, author of the popular blog (written in French) Les recettes du traducteur; Sara told me that she in turn received this tip from Kelly Rigotti, who blogs at Almost Frugal.
Sara described a simple but brilliant strategy for people who want to launch a blog: first build up an “inventory” of 20 fully-written posts, then take the blog live. Far too many would-be bloggers undermine their credibility and readership by rapidly progressing (as described by Riccardo Schiaffino in his “Blogging 101” presentation) from “I am so excited about my new blog” to “Here’s a preview of the multitude of posts that I’m working on” to “Sorry I haven’t had the time to blog for the past three months” to complete silence. The “blog post inventory” helps avoid this. First, if you can write 20 blog posts, you probably have enough momentum to keep writing even more; the fear of running out of ideas is less of a concern if you’ve already written 20 substantive posts. Second, if you write 20 posts and then put one of them on your blog every week, that’s five months of material. With those 20 posts, you’re way ahead of the three or four posts that many bloggers put up before disappearing into blogging oblivion. I love this tip!
While in theory this is a great idea my personal experience is that four or five posts are actually a good number to start a blog with and keep the momentum. I did it this way and, after nearly six months, I’m still at it 😉
I also think it’s a good idea to set time aside to write, even if you don’t feel like it. If you wait for these moments that you’ve actually got some spare time you’ll probably won’t write many blog posts…
Love your blog 🙂
Alex
Hi,
Thanks for passing on the tip, and the the link to both my blog and Sara’s. I’m by no means a blogging expert, but after two and a half years at it I feel comfortable calling myself knowledgable ;).
With all due respect to Alexandra, four or five posts isn’t nearly enough when you announce yourself. It’s certainly not enough for a reader to be able to get a good idea of what your voice is, nor the range of topics that you’ll be covering. Notice I said ‘When you announce yourself’- you can be publishing on a live blog for months before having a visitor. I do think it’s beneficial to have the experience of clicking publish and then seeing your work love (over and over again).
One of the most common problems that blogs fail is that people run out of things to say- not because they lose interest, or have too many things going on, but because the niche is too narrow. Writing a hefty number of posts in advance is a good way to see just how much you’ll have to say on the topic.
Thanks again for the post- it was interesting!
Kelly
I totally agree with your last point, Kelly. That’s why I did make a fairly long list of subjects to write about before actually starting out with my language blog. This way I knew I would have enough “material” to work with for at least the first year. I just have to do the actual writing 😉
Also, I didn’t really announce myself. I just started, publishing the first four posts a couple of days apart and after that writing one new post each weekend. I do little in the way of blog promotion (apart from the occasional tweet on Twitter), but I enjoy the organic growth of my blog as it gets picked up by the search engines and friends and colleagues mention it to other people.
I think Sara’s advice is indeed right on target…I made the exact mistake : launching a blog and now not having the time, maybe even the ideas, to keep up with it…but constantly thinking about it…not good at all!
I also really really like Alex’s idea of setting aside time to write “even if you don’t feel like it”. I also make the exact mistake of waiting for “the right moment”…but I can’t write when I’m driving or teaching 🙂
I wish I had read this advice before putting myself in this uncomfortable (and unprofessional?) situation 🙁
Thanks to both of you…and thanks for this blog, it’s pleasant and useful, I love it!
Feriel
Very good advice (although when I started six years ago it was with a single post, and not safety net of other articles ready to post).
I keep a folder for my writing projects (in practice just for blogging, I use it for the articles and presentations I sometime write for other occasions). That folder is then subdivided into three different folders: ideas, articles in progress, and articles published.
The folder for “articles in progress” is where I keep things ready to post (when I have them). Once posted or published, I move the articles to the “published” folder.
A strategy of having material ready to post is especially important at the beginning: when your blog has gone on for years, you know you can keep it up and continue writing it even if at certain moments you don’t have anything in the pipeline, but at the beginning, a blog is very much like a blank sheet of paper, daunting in its emptiness.
Hi Corinne,
Excellent post as always. This is something I need to do since I am in the startup face of blogging. I just need to find the time to sit down and write, the ideas are already there. Have a great weekend!
Corinne,
Thanks for the excellent training session in Paris. I went home and immediately created a separate Twitter profile for La Marmite (la_marmite), got started with HootSuite, and set up searches for opinion leaders in my area of specialization on Twitter!
Now I just need to follow Kelly’s advice and bring my *other* blog back to life. 😉
Well Corinne,
I fully agree with you. Thinking is not enough, doing is something that might you bring to a success:)
This is a great tip, one I should pass on to colleagues who are thinking about blogging. While we also started our translation blog without a safety net in terms of posts, we were already quite prolific writers with several other blogs under our belt. Compiling several posts before you go live is an excellent idea for linguists who might ne afraid that they do not have enough interesting things to write about.
BTW, @Tess has a new blog!
I also like Riccardo’s idea of having a few posts lined up. We usually write a few when we are not busy or are too tired to do anything else and then publish them as needed.
Can’t wait to hear about your presentations in Paris!
This is a valuable tip. As an avid blog reader, I do get turned off by those blogs that are not regularly updated, even if it’s just once a month. Having what I like to refer to as ‘stand-by blogs’ are very handy and practical. It allows the flexibility to write about your latest and greatest thoughts or post a passage from your ‘stand-by’ stash. Either way, your readers always have a reason to visit your site.
Hi,
Thanks for passing on the tip, and the the link to both my blog and Sara’s. I’m by no means a blogging expert, but after two and a half years at it I feel comfortable calling myself knowledgable .
With all due respect to Alexandra, four or five posts isn’t nearly enough when you announce yourself. It’s certainly not enough for a reader to be able to get a good idea of what your voice is, nor the range of topics that you’ll be covering. Notice I said ‘When you announce yourself’- you can be publishing on a live blog for months before having a visitor. I do think it’s beneficial to have the experience of clicking publish and then seeing your work love (over and over again).
This is a great tip, one I should pass on to colleagues who are thinking about blogging. While we also started our translation blog without a safety net in terms of posts, we were already quite prolific writers with several other blogs under our belt. Compiling several posts before you go live is an excellent idea for linguists who might ne afraid that they do not have enough interesting things to write about.