Blogging Tip #2: How To Create Anticipation With A Weekly Blog Feature (And Make Blogging Easier For You)

UPDATE: Since I posted these instructions, YouTube changed things up so the value of the height and width for the html code have slightly changed. I highlighted the changes in red. Sorry for any confusion. :)

(Here is my introductory post for my blogging series in case you missed it)

Music Monday, Thoughtful Tuesday, Wedding Wednesday, Throwback Thursday, Friday Favorites…etc…etc…

If you read blogs, you’re familiar with these post titles and topics. The darlings of the blogosphere, as I like to call them. These aren’t just cute and witty ways to name the days of the weeks (I doubt Sesame Street will be calling any time soon). They are actually very powerful and helpful tools in a blogger’s arsenal.

Mix Tape Mondays and Fotography Fridays

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (and btw, thank you so much for that), you know that on Mondays I post music and Fridays I post about photography…or fotography. There are a few reasons why I started these two series and why they are the bookends of my blogging week.

We Are Creatures of Comfort

People like routine. They crave it and they look for it. It’s human nature. Successful blogs have a regular routine (and by successful I don’t mean massive traffic and what not – I mean blogs that attract and draw in the audience <– massive traffic is a result of this done successfully). It may be subtle, but it’s there. The routine may be a post a day, a post every hour, a weekly video or Q&A post…whatever it may be, the readers familiarize themselves with it, are aware of it and anticipate it. And anticipation is what brings them back to your blog.

Half The Battle

Why are these posts the darlings of the blogosphere and bloggers? Because every Monday I know to post music and every Friday I know to write about photography. Bam. Two posts knocked out for the week. I don’t have to dig through my brain for a topic and I can schedule these posts weeks, even months, ahead of time. It helps make blogging easier. The other 2 or 3 days/posts get easily filled up by photos from my shoots or my J’Adoring series. It makes blogging less daunting, right?

Let Me Help You Start Your Own Mix Tape Monday Feature:

• Go to YouTube

• Search for a song – I’ll use Lady Gaga’s Born This Way as an example ;) (Inside joke)

• Click the Share button below the video player

• Click the Embed button below the link. In the blue Custom box, enter ’300′ (not 200) for the width. (Note: Make sure ‘Use old embed code’ is checked)

• Copy the html code (highlighted in blue)

• Go to your blog post and paste the code into your html page. Replace the height value to 25.

And voila! This is what it should look like:
Lady GaGa – Born This Way

More Tips For Creating a Blog Feature

• Keep up with the feature and post regularly (if you decide to do Wedding Wednesday, make sure you post a wedding every Wednesday)
• Try to come up with fun, catchy, unique names. This is another way to brand yourself.
• Stay true to the topic and content as much as possible.
• Don’t have more than 2 regular weekly features. Why? It starts becoming mundane. Use the other days to mix things up a bit with different post topics. Readers get bored, readers will leave. Simple concept.
• Have fun. Having fun is contagious – even in the blogosphere. ;)

P.S. If you do decide to do the Mix Tape Monday feature on your blog, let me know! I’ll link you and we can create a mix tape chain! Fun stuff, right?

P.P.S. Thank you to Tofurious Lawrence for inspiring and pushing me to write this post. These P.S.’s are an ode to him…as well as the Lady Gaga song. ;)

P.P.P.S. Ok, last one, I promise. Here’s Lawrence’s quick tips on increasing return visitors.

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