Hope Writes

Flying By The Seat Of Your Pants

Posted by Hope

This blog post at Performancing.com got my wheels to turning. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about doing more in-depth planning for a couple of my sites in particular.

I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal. But that’s not always a good thing. I also tend to get lots of ideas. I’ve long since learned to keep a notebook handy to jot down these ideas. I’ve always had a tendancy to jump on every idea I had. Problem with that was they almost always flopped because rather than plan and think things through to the end, I just jumped on the idea and ran with it.

This post talks about doing things like researching up-and-coming trends. If you are a niche marketer, this is an excellent tip because you can get a leg up on the competition. It also recommends weaving in holiday-related stuff and writing ahead.

There’s one thing on this list that I’ve been doing for some time now, which is research your stats. This is by and far a terrific way to get into the minds of your readers. You can learn how they found you (search phrases) and where they come from (site referrals).

Something that recently caught my attention one day as I checked my stats was a graph that shows what day(s) of the week are best for traffic. This is something you should pay attention to. You can write more “meaty” posts on those day(s) of the week and do some linkbaiting in those posts as well, to attract even more traffic.

The key then, whether you’re a writer, blogger, or business-person, is to plan ahead. Don’t let unexpected surprises knock you off you’re feet. Believe it or not, these things do happen, and almost always at a time when you feel like you’re finally beginning to get somewhere.

Do you fly by the seat of your pants, or plan ahead? What are some of your tips?

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Too many plans

Posted by Hope

I’m catching up on blog reading this morning and was pleasantly surprised when I read this post about Bob Bly’s dirty little secret. His secret, of course, is that he’s never had a business plan. Wow.

A while back I entertained discussion among a group of writers about creating a writing plan for our writing business. I did write out a simple plan–monetary goals, personal goals, etc. But to be honest with you, I saved the file and never opened it again. I forgot all about it.

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