Agencies, Freelancers, Design, Copywriting & more.: [Copyblogger] The Mr. Spock Guide to Effective Blogging

The Mr. Spock Guide to Effective Blogging

The Mr. Spock Guide to Effective Blogging

Mr. Spock

It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want. ~Spock

The Star Trek franchise has created dozens of memorable characters and inspired an incredible degree of connection and passion in its fans. One of its most enduring characters is Mr. Spock, the eminently logical half-Vulcan first officer in the original series.

Spock’s controlled, cool demeanor won him legions of fans, including millions of women who wanted to Pon Farr his pointy ears off. When I sat down to write about the need for rational, logical planning for your blog, what better model could I have found?

Sure, blogs are personal, emotional constructions. But if your blog isn’t performing the way you want it to, try using a little Vulcan logic to move it in the right direction.

Use logic to define your goals

Blogging takes a significant amount of time and effort. So it’s only logical to define just what you want to get out of it.

Do you want to sell ebooks or other information products? Build your service business? Create stronger relationships with your customers? Sell advertising?

You might be looking for some combination of those goals, which is fine, too. Your blogging goals can be modest or vast; narrowly defined or as amorphous as a Canarian amoeba. And your goals are likely to change over time.

The most important aspect of any goal is that you’ll know when you’ve achieved it. “Kick 10 light years of ass” is a Captain Kirk goal… inspiring, maybe, but not very logical or measurable. Make sure you take a Spock approach to at least some of your blogging goals. For example, you might want to generate 15 new leads and 2 conversions a month for your business.

Use logic to develop a plan of action

Once you’ve defined your goals, you need to look strategically at each component of your blog.

Are you trying to establish yourself as an authority so you can build your consulting business? You might want to rethink posting that image of your spectacularly disorganized desk. On the other hand, a few personal posts about your hobbies or your family life might be a very logical addition–they help potential clients feel they already know and like you.

Thinking about adding Feedburner stats to your sidebar? Wait until there’s a logical reason to do so–when your subscriber numbers are large enough to provide social proof that your blog is worth reading.

Look through your categories. Is there a logical connection between what you’re writing about and your blogging goals?

Your blogging tactics (frequency of posts, what you write about, your tone and style, the writing techniques you use) need to be in line with your goals. Anything else would be . . . illogical.

Use logic to measure your progress

Now that your goals and tactics are aligned, logic demands that you measure your progress. Spock was the Enterprise’s science officer, always ready to quantify his observations to the last decimal point.

If your goal is to sell information products and you’re making two $29 sales a month, your tactics aren’t working efficiently yet.

A hard analytical look at your results will help you determine how to improve. You may need more traffic, you may need to boost your authority and credibility, or you may need to improve your conversion with better sales techniques. Of course, Copyblogger is the logical resource to help you with any of those.

Use emotion to create fascinating content

Mr. Spock is, as every fan knows, half human. The show’s screenwriters contrived to put him into embarrassingly illogical positions at every possible opportunity. The mix of emotion and logic made the character much more fun to watch.

It takes more than logic to be a great blogger (or Starfleet officer). Without that spark of passion and emotional intelligence, your content will be cold and you won’t make the connections that lead to success and satisfaction.

So go ahead, make the most of your emotional human side. But try a little green-blooded Vulcan logic, too. You’ll see your blog live long and prosper.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is an Associate Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.