You need to choose a model that helps you understand your audience and what content they want to read.
It will help you write if you think of your blog as an instruction manual. That mindset helps you:
- Define your audience
- Choose your content
- Make it easier to blog
That’s the model I chose to discuss at January’s Social Media Breakfast because it’s an easy idea to execute for the audience – mostly creative and technical solopreneurs.
Don’t start blogging yet
But that doesn’t mean an instruction manual is the best model to promote yourself and your business.
So in no particular order, here are some more models that you can use to guide your blogging.
Day in the Life/Personal Journal
This is probably the stereotypical blog. You can use it to describe what you find interesting and create personality for your blog.
Portfolio
This is very useful for creative types – artists, photographers and writers. Basically you’re providing samples of your work so clients get a better feel for what you do.
Soapbox
This is your chance to change the world. Argue for the way life should be. If you want to be the voice of change, use your blog to present your arguments.
Museum Exhibit
What a soapbox is to debate, the museum exhibit is to education. This is an opportunity for you to curate content about a subject and share it with your audience. By choosing the best content and mixing in your own, you are building a reputation as an expert.
News Service
You’re going to post news and the latest developments about your niche. This is a high-effort blog that should only be used if there is a very content-hungry audience, and you are an extremely dedicated fan. The demands are high because the audiences expect constantly refreshed content. This is probably the hardest type of blog I can think of.
Community
You need to understand that blogs don’t make very good communities. Blog posts tend to be broadcast content with reader comments that are rarely interactive. If you want to use a community to curate and distribute content, you’re going to need tools that allow the community members to interact with each other and share their own content. Note this is either just as hard or harder than running a news service blog.
And what’s wrong with a hybrid?
Nothing. You can create a blog that has many of these functions and features. If that works for your audience.
Sometimes it’s more efficient to pick a model that keeps you focused on set tasks. It can be very comfortable for people who are natural writers.
What kind of blog do you have?
