There’s one system I wish I’d set up when I started blogging over 5 years ago.

In that time I’ve written more than 200 articles about using social media, modern marketing techniques and email marketing to produce healthy growth and profits for small businesses and solo workers. Plus, I’ve written about systems, processes and mindset that help make the day-to-day of running a small business easier. Because it’s hard work creating a business you love that doesn’t take over your life!

My greatest passion in work is putting solo workers in control and empowering them with the knowledge to make their business a success. I love working with my private clients. Guiding them through the maze of modern marketing so that they can achieve success for themselves and continue to do so long after our work together is done.

What’s more, blogging regularly means that I can share my advice, offer guidance, lift the lid on insider strategies, and explain what I’ve learnt along my own business journey to many more modern entrepreneurs.

But back to my blogging system…

200+ posts is a lot to remember and manage.

I know that good planning and systems is the secret ingredient for a happier and healthier business. It’s also the behind-the-scenes stuff you don’t get to see portrayed on the glossy outside of most businesses.

We’ve all asked ourselves the question while admiring a competitor website or product launch: Wow, that girl’s a machine! How did she do all that??

You can bet it’s all down to great planning.

Before I created my blogging system I’d waste valuable mind space constantly asking myself questions like this…

• Wait. Have I written about the subject before?
• Is the information in this old post still current and valuable to my readers?
• What links have I included in the post and are they still active, or are they broken?
• This post is rock solid – have I shared it on social media recently?

etc…

What’s worse, as my library of content increased, my older blogs could not be found as easily or read by the people who would get the most help from them. Even with clear blog categories, helping visitors find information they need gets increasingly difficult so it makes smart business sense to continue posting older blogs through social media profiles.

Tricky and time consuming when you can’t remember what you’ve blogged about!

When it takes on average 1-2 hours to write a blog post, you want to make the most of the effort you put in. Plus, the valuable information you provide in each post can continue to help those who value it and will help you grow your business – your community and clients!

If you’re blogging twice a month, that’s 24 posts in a year. If you blog weekly, it’s 52 – that’s a stack of valuable information to remember and can easily be forgotten.

Whether you’ve been business blogging for years or it’s brand new to you – my system will help you make the most of your writing efforts to benefit your business and community plus it will save you loads of time.

The system is simple…

It’s a blog archive.

A straightforward spreadsheet that you keep updated as part of your blogging process.

The purpose being so you can see what you’ve created at-a-glance, then easily re-use your growing library of content on social media; update it; direct people to it: customers, clients or others it can help.

Here’s what you need to include to create your own:

• Live link – one click to access your post or copy and paste the link to send wherever you want
• Blog title – so it’s easy to refer to and find
• One line blog summary or searchable tag words – to remind you of the content (especially if the title is obscure!)
• Blog category
• Date of publication
• Anchor links added in the post itself – so that you can check they are current, and quickly edit them over time if necessary
• Social media headlines – to make your blog easy to share long term without having to dream up yet another social media update

Your take away action

Using the screenshot and the titles I’ve listed above create a simple spreadsheet of your own and start capturing your blog post details. Start with your current posts, or delegate to your VA or a team member to create a back catalogue of your previous posts.

You can start by downloading this blank template that you can populate yourself. It’s totally free – no email sign up required.