Attracting Ideal Clients

Use GoogleDocs to Write Blog Content - Part 1

GoogleDocs is a great tool for writing and tracking blog content. I have used a lot of strategies to write blog posts. I’d like to share some of these methods so you can learn from them.

Methods to write blog posts:

-Typepad/Wordpress

The disadvantage of this method is that you end up with a lot of drafts and it obscures your posted content (on the back-end). I’ve generally found it best to write my blog content outside of the blogging platform and then copy and paste when the content is ready. There are exceptions to that rule.

-Notepad

This is one of my favorite tools for creating web content. It is a simplified form of content without any of the underlying code that comes from a Word document. The disadvantage is that line breaks are sometimes an issue. You may end up having to go through your post and change the line breaks manually. One disadvantage is that Notepad does not have spell-check. And I don't know about you, but I occasionally spell words incorrectly.

-Microsoft Word

Word is a great tool for writing any kind of document, but you often run into issues when transferring to a web publishing tool. Word has a lot of underlying code that can be misinterpreted when published on the web. For an example of this, simply copy and paste a document into your blogging platform and then click the html button. You will see all sorts of strange code. (Not good.) When you actually view the published web page, you may see strange characters.

-GoogleDocs

I have used GoogleDocs for writing blog content for a few weeks. It seems to work pretty well. You can create folders and documents. The text transfers well into my blogging platform. (Note that there is sometimes a lag time after you save something before you see it in the folder. It’s a little unnerving, but it shows up within a few minutes.)

In Part 2 of blog post series, I will share details about how I track blog topics. (Hint: I make a list of topics that I want to write about in advance.)

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing Expert

Time for a Change – How to Improve your Blog

Make your blog more relevant and effective. Have you ever felt like your blog was ready for a facelift? What’s holding you back from making the change?

I recently decided to make some changes to my blog. I just felt like it wasn’t looking as good as it could.

How long did it take me to make the changes? About 10 minutes!

How did I do it? I used Typepad. I’ve had the opportunity to use Wordpress, Blogger and Typepad. While Wordpress sites look great, they’re not the easiest to change. And you might need help from a Wordpress developer to make the changes.

I haven’t used Blogger in years, but the interface seemed a little clunky to me. Maybe it’s changed since then.

On the other hand, Typepad is easy and flexible. It’s to blogging what Constant Contact is to email marketing: simple, flexible and cost effective.

If you feel like your blog is due for a change, then just do it. You can make a plan if you want, but it’s okay to just pick a new template and go with it. Change doesn’t have to be hard!

Rick Cooper
Sales & Marketing Success Coach