What An Executive Blog Editor Needs to Know

March 27, 2009 · Comments

newsman I have a list of URLs for projects that I would love to do, if I had nothing better to do. All of these projects are content marketing related. In some cases, I want to write about something like business travel. In other cases, I want to write product reviews. In all cases, these are commercial ventures, and have a revenue plan as well as a larger business goal in mind.

The thing is, I have no time to run any of these projects. None. I’m working over 80 hours a week, and these will require more attention than I can give them.

The problem gave me something to consider: what I’d want (and by extension, what I feel other people would want) in an executive editor for a blog. In this case, I’m thinking about retail or B2C or the consumer-facting.

Build it as a Business

Blogging isn’t always just writing whatever comes to mind, or riffing off other people’s posts. It can be built around solid business intentions, such as content marketing (writing posts that are intended to deliver action, or at least actionable information), thought leadership (ideal for consulting opportunities), or even media sales model (typical “write good stuff and put ads against it” thinking). For someone to run a blog project like this, they have to develop a simple set of filters.

  • Does this move my business goal forward?
  • What’s working? What’s not?
  • Can I isolate things that aren’t working and replace them with new experiments?
  • What purpose is the content serving?
  • How do I measure that success?

That’s simple enough. If you answer these questions faithfully every time you consider posting content, every time you consider adding some widget or functionality, every time you work off-blog to build promotional relationships, and in other business circumstances, you’ll find progress a bit more reasonable.

Be Merciless About Content

Write great work or don’t post it. Make decent videos or don’t post it. Create exceptional pieces that drive the business forward, or don’t bother.

There are plenty of personal blogs that roam about just fine, unchecked and all. We’re not talking about them. We’re talking about you as a blog’s executive editor, with a goal of empowering your audience with actionable information. Ask yourself every day whether your efforts are having results.

Promote Liberally, but Tastefully

“Write it and they will come” has been disproven. There are some great blogs out there who never see more than a few hundred people a day. In many cases, what’s often needed is just some old fashioned promotion and potential audience expansion effort. It’s not difficult, but it takes effort.

Always be looking for ways to connect more people to your blog. Find ways to tie-in to other, more successful blogs, perhaps through a guest post, and see if that changes your numbers. Think often about ways to grow your audience and then experiment with them. Leave nothing sacred. Are the titles of your posts boring? Are you using a messy screen layout? Have you built several ways for people to subscribe and pick up your work?

It all relates.

Look for New Revenue Models

Money from blogs doesn’t begin and end with finding ad sponsorships. There are several ways to build revenue. Beyond ads and affiliate marketing opportunities (and I think the latter offers so much potential in the coming years, you might also find ways to build a consulting practice around what you know. You might find crossover or tie-in opportunities that pay better than typical banner sales. You might discover that informational products sell like hot cakes on your site.

A great executive blog editor thinks about this all the time. How do I get more from the effort of blogging, and sometimes, when I say “more,” I mean “any.”

An Executive Editor Makes Decisions

There’s not a lot that can crush a blog too quickly. Build boundaries and relationships with your other business partners, if there are any, and then give the lion’s share of the decision making power to the person running the day to day of the blog. She’ll know better.

Decide up Front the Money Situation

If this is a blog intended to make money, be very clear with all potential business partners what the money exchange situations will be. Know before you spend a dime, and know before you make a dime. This kind of experience can really wreck it for some folks.

Find Great Writers And Develop Them

You have a sense of the work that needs doing. You know what’s important in a blog. How do you work with your writers? My recommendation is to praise and develop the ones who do good work. Be willing to give them advice on how better to craft a story. Give them a sense of how strong you need the piece to be.

By developing them, also give them a platform from which to grow. Make this their place to be “discovered,” and create your business accordingly. Meaning, don’t worry if your stars run off to launch their own blog projects, but instead, develop a deep bench. Make sense?

If it Ain’t Fun…

Decide how long to do this, and what your target setting goals will be on the way to that decision marker. Is it “Write for 3 months and determine the potential revenue between now and then is the kicker, or if its number of readers, or whatever you want to use as a killswitch. Decide whether the experience is fun, whether you want to keep doing it, what you’ll do to transition it or kill it, if it doesn’t worky.

Make sure you keep fun in mind. I wrote this about business, and I’m thinking from the perspective that an executive editor for a blog is here to serve a business purpose, but if that’s you and you’re not having fun, bail out. Be clear with your business partners about what would lead you to make that kind of decision. Be ready to talk through all the details of that with your partners.

What Have I Missed?

What else should an executive blog editor have for a skill on board? Where are these blog editors all doing their work? Can you see how this shifts if you do B2B or enterprise blogging? Can you see the similarities?

Photo credit, ChicagoEye

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  • Great stuff, Chris. I'm working as the social media reporter for Consumer Reports and I will definitely pass this on to the CR folks. Such good advice on how to build a blog in a businesslike and classy way. Much appreciated.
  • Chris, This is a great post and very timely for me . Just started blogging in public a few weeks ago. I am in the process of writing a new business plan including social media, blogging and interactive website. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.
  • I agree mostly with the point about great content. However, far too many people will take that too far and never post anything, because it's never perfect. Something is better than nothing in many cases.
  • Batman
    You might've wanted to say something about the allowing comments situation. Free for all, or on topic only? Public or private? Have them at all? Not all blogs allow comments, so, this question especially needs addressing.
  • This is wonderful advice and so timely. We have just started a new blog that will cover topics related to our nonprofit work with orphans in China. We are are trying something totally different and have some great topic ideas....all part of our new marketing approach. Our goal is to bring in more readers...that will then help more kids (our revenue). Your blog has been such a help to us in so many ways as we make this transition....thank you! http://lifeofgiving.blogspot.com
  • I think writers of personal blogs could think of themselves more like editors too. It helps you to see your blog through a slightly different filter, and engages a different part of the brain. Adds to the fun of blogging!
  • Hi Chris - another excellent topic / post.

    Content is the biggest issue with me. I usually keep a little text file on my desktop and jot down article ideas or headlines to remind me later (I have a terrible memory) or I'll send myself emails as a jotter.

    When I started blogging two years ago (nearly), things were very sporadic and I think it took me a good year to really get into my stride, so it doesn't always happen overnight people (but this can be a time issue too).

    Back to the content - we're a personalised photo gift business in the UK and most of the blog posts go into detail on a particular new gift idea we've added or a round up of suitable gift ideas for a special occasion e.g Father's Day etc.

    In my 'spare time', I do try to write some SEO help articles - we're a small business and we've had to learn the hard way so perhaps we can help other small businesses (in particular) out by sharing what we've found works.

    On that point, you'd think our most popular article views would be about our core product but you'd be wrong (and I' constantly amazed) that the largest page views/stats are always the seo ones.

    It would be nice to reverse the trend and sometimes I feel I ought to but then again, people interested in seo also need to buy gifts so its all traffic - traffic I didn't have before. Also, I don't know what I can do to 'reverse' the visitor trend anyway.

    Should I be trying even?

    Jonathan.
    http://purple13.blogspot.com
  • Chris,

    Thank you for your finely crafted insight.

    I'm especially enamored of the concept of "fun" in business and in life. For me, fun takes priority over purpose, but it can still be directional. My reasoning is this: deciding if something (anything) is strictly purposeful can bog down and involves the mind, while knowing that something is fun is much simpler. Purpose doesn't always communicate, fun does. It's still an art, and requires attention, perspective, and a clear head.

    Sometimes, if your purpose is showing it can detract or push people away, but if your fun is showing, it's more likely to attract.

    Certainly depends on the field, the market, the purposefulness of the reader/viewer/listener and all that, but my current track is be very sure of purpose, and then have fun with it.

    - Bruce
  • Chris, I really like the practical advice here. I'm currently editing a monthly technology supplement for the leading newspaper in Malta and setting up an online magazine using WordPress as a blogging platform. The guidelines on editing, finding great writers but remaining focused on the business model ring true. I am finding most of my writers by searching on Twitter, following what they say and engaging at the right moment. Twitter gives you the bench that was difficult to secure in the past. I'm sure other editors are doing the same to find 'new' writers that they can work with on their own blogging platform.
  • Great post, Chris. I have been blogging daily for a couple of months now and have to agree with you that staying focused on an overall plan has helped tremendously. I have seen my readership grow by 20 - 40% a week which I feel is the result of:

    - Focused message on a few messages only (Startups, Management, Process, SharePoint, CRM, Mobile).
    - Delivering content daily. I have tried to follow your advice on only delivering great content. I know I'm not there yet but I do feel I continue to improve.
    - Promoting liberally. Over the course of the last couple of weeks I have combined guest posts as part of my overall blogging strategy in order to capture more potential readers.

    Keep up the great writing.

    John
    http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com
  • Excellent post, Chris, and really it's my fantasy to have a blog editor, or more a business-minded project manager. ( You're not free are you? ;-))

    I'm attracted so much to writing good content I spend way too much time chasing down good research and content ideas which can be rabbit trails not money trails.

    It's not all about the money, and Lordy, without the fun, we wouldn't be doing this. But it's hard to live in the big picture world of business purpose when my nose is inside a sentence on my 'compose a post' page.

    Thanks for these reminders. This is what I'm talking about with our Blog Squad clients when we tell them it's the 10% nuances that make the difference for a blog that works for business results.
  • Thanks, Chris - very timely and masterfully focused.

    Our gift basket franchise's private online community's blog is one week old. These tips will help me maintain the best standards in delivering quality content to our franchisees. Including these guidelines in our editorial calendar will help "sell" topics and series to Head Office - who has come around nicely to the concept after being totally against it when I first recommended last fall.

    I also agree with Joanna that private blogs will benefit greatly from this advice.
  • Man! I gotta go face customers in 12 minutes...

    Think before you write... think before you write.... think before you ...

    Superb post, Chris, in message and presentation. You've made it easy for me to process these thoughts, while I work at ground zero today.

    More later...
  • Hi Chris,

    Great advice! I can easily get bogged down writing a blog all day, but it's not making me any money. Got to go where the money flows!
  • Articles like this make me tired. Which makes me realize that blogging for profit is not/should never be my goal. Thanks for not talking down to those of us that do have "great blogs out there who never see more than a few hundred people a day." You are a class act, Mr. Brogan. Thanks for doing what you do so that I don't have to.

    xo,
    Suzi W.
  • Really great advice, Chris -- as always. I just launched my new blog about 2 weeks ago. Really good info for me to consider.

    Cheers- Bethe @balmeras
    http://www.grassstainguru.com
  • Hi Chris, I have been blogging about homes and real estate since 2006, but I am just now focusing on how to drive more traffic to that blog. I will return to your site often for more tips. Thanks for a well thought out post!

    Diane
  • Thank you for the terrific summary of qualities to look for in an Executive Blog Editor! As you point out, balancing quality content and a monetized business model requires a diverse skill set. I invite you to check out my "Adventures in Networking" blog - I would welcome any opportunity to work with you and convert some of those 80+ hours/week into more productive and mutually benefitial activities. Translation: I'm for hire!
  • Fabulous information - as always! Thank you, Chris. I learn a lot from reading everything you share with the community.
  • Michelle @ Find Your Balance
    Can you say more about ads and affiliattes? I've yet to innccllude either. Good info, thx from a newbie!
  • Great post Chris. Just the kind of valuable, tangible information that I hope to provide on a new blog I'm creating for actors. Good stuff to keep in mind as we move forward in developing. Thanks.
  • Chris - thank you for the great post. I am just getting my feet wet in the blogging world and these guidelines are incredibly helpful. Thank you for (always) sharing your wealth of expertise!
  • Content is king with blogging. Usually personal blogs that are random are my favorite but for the more serious blogs that I subscribe to they have to have the content. I don't really care about the editing just useful information.
  • This seems very similar to a conversation Brian Clark and I have had. He has an enormous list of URLs he wants to develop, but with running Copyblogger, he doesn't have time to develop them all. His solution thus far has been to partner with other people (like me) to develop those URLs and then use Copyblogger to promote them.

    Have you thought about doing the same thing here?
  • This is a great roadmap Chris! It is also valuable to use your blog to connect the real-world with the virtual world. This helps with identifying, creating and repurposing content. So before you write an article, attend a professional association meeting or deliver a presentation, it is important to think of how to translate this activity into the virtual world. For example, getting a series of video clips from a presentation you are delivering will provide many blog posts worth of content while reinforcing your message. I always say " Be lazy, it's good for your personal brand." So thinking about everything you do with a bigger perspective will ensure you have the content you need.

    Best.
    William
    www.williamarruda.com
  • Strategic thinking about blogging tactics. Love it!

    One of the things that often frustrates me about blogs, specifically the more business-oriented ones, is a lack of editorial direction. Just because you can post it doesn't mean that you should post it. Posts should have purpose individually, and they should, collectively, fit into the purpose of the blog as a whole. A newspaper or a magazine doesn't just go publishing articles willy-nilly, they have a team of editors who make decisions about content. They have a strategy for delivering that content. There is no reason why blogs should be any different.

    Blogging is a tactic, it needs a strategy to be successful.
  • The issue of having great content seeing only a few hundred visitors a day is exactly why I opened up my site to additional writers, who gain additional exposure, and downstream, more traffic to their native work on their own site. If you have a popular brand, don't compromise on quality, but extend the opportunity.
  • Chris,
    This was a timely post for me as I've been trying to build my blog in a number of ways--readership, content, income and relationships.

    I've learned so much from studying other bloggers in my niche (and other niches) and have begun partnering with them to make our blogs stronger & more impactful together and to reach a larger audience.

    I've begun having guest bloggers and have even written a couple of guest posts myself.

    I'm exploring revenue streams and thinking about how I can make advertising on my blog more effective by harnessing the power of social media.

    Thank you so much for this post--this keeps me thinking. Always.

    Heather
  • Spot on Chris and I'd say this might be one of my favorite posts of yours. Your words about staying true to your message are perfect.
  • Thanks, Chris. I recently started my blog at http://beelines.biz offering PR tips to small businesses. Blogging is a great way to market your business, but like so many other "free" methods available today, it can be a huge time waster (and therefore not free, but very expensive) if you don't stay strategically focused. One way or the other, marketing costs.
  • You read my mind - but put it on paper in a more organized fashion. I spend a lot of time thinking about blogs I would like to create and that I just don't have time to work on. I now own 20 some domain names (I have to stop my self from buying more domain names- I am probably one of the few people that would be thrilled to receive a godaddy gift card :) ) and I have stacks of notes about websites I would like to set up. I think one of the reasons I haven't moved forward is because I am just not sure the payoff is there in terms of money. Do you think that these blogs can generate enough revenue to support themselves?
  • Chris,

    Managing the blog team for the growing number of blogs at Network Solutions is a daunting task and having this post validate some of what I am doing and shining a light on what I need to do more of going forward.

    Thanks,
    Steve
  • Great article! If there is anything I could do to help as a virtual assistant please feel free to contact me.
  • Fantastic post! I love the setting a time limit tip. Definitely bookmarking this post for to revisit in the future.
  • This is a treasure trove of great blogging-with-intention tips. Thanks for your insights!
  • My favorite part of your post:

    "Create exceptional pieces that drive the business forward, or don’t bother."

    Driving business (or even goals) forward - it all comes down to that.
  • Writing great stuff or don't post anything at all is pretty critical advice.

    It amazes me how much content you are able to nail on this blog, day in and day out!
  • Engage, engage, engage, with a touch every now and then. Create exceptional pieces.. or don't bother. Hmmmm. Not everyone can be that calculating, IMHO.
  • That is a perfect post. Thank you Chris.
  • Chris, still the best blogging advice that can be given:
    "Be Merciless About Content

    Write great work or don’t post it. Make decent videos or don’t post it. Create exceptional pieces that drive the business forward, or don’t bother. "
  • Great post! Thanks for sharing your expertise and insight!
  • Kathy Myers
    Loved your article on executive editing. Want to be one. Quoted you w/o naming you on a Tweet: "Decide whether the experience is fun, whether you want to keep doing it, what you’ll do to transition it or kill it, if it doesn’t worky."
    Maybe you were just being quirky, or making a reference that I don't understand.
    I have this campaign going that there's a need for copy editors to comb blogs and Internet pages for typos. Anyway, your site is way cleaner than average.
  • Chris, this is great indeed, all the more so as I now work as Social Media manager for a company that has had a blog for a while. :-)

    I think what surprises me in a way, is that very little is usually being said about analytics of the blog. You mentioned this in terms of visitor stats, but it could certainly be expanded further. Back in 2006 when they were planning a release of 'Quiet Flows the Don' on the Russian television and I'd practically just started blogging, I saw lots of people searching all over the web for information about the film. The posts I wrote were unique in that some information was translated from other languages. I wasn't blogging for money, so I didn't capitalise on the interest, but I exploited the traffic opportunity, and with the blog being very new then, it certainly helped.

    What this means to me, is that many a blog writer or editor can be spared of headache of story hunting if they only study their analytics data diligently. I'm not discarding the importance of research and following the industry news (whatever industry it may be). I feel though that at times people forget to analyse their own content, or don't take the analysis seriously enough.

    And yes, I also know what you mean when you deplore the lack of time. But with blogging platforms today, it's only in LiveJournal (to my knowledge) that a post can't be pre-written. WordPress, TypePad, Blogger each allows the writer to schedule posts, so at least from the technical point of view we are no longer tied down.

    Finally, which may be strange or not, but I notice this happening in the UK a lot: whether it is a small business blog, or personal blog, or a blog by a big company, comments are often disproportionate to the interest in the post. You'll see a single article being viewed many times, but hardly anyone says anything. Fair enough, some people may not want to say anything because they think "thank you for a great post" is, like, childish. Or they think that they aren't obliged to comment, unless specifically asked. And even when they are asked, they still don't leave a comment. I feel the problem is not with the content on this occasion, but with the culture of web browsing and commenting. I heard some people felt almost ashamed or afraid of browsing a blog because they felt they were thus entering someone's personal space.

    Writers/editors in such situation seem to be able to do very little to change the current. Do you have ideas of how to make readers break the ice?

    Thanks!

    Julia (@mundusvivendi)
  • Great post! me of all people need this! lol...
    One to bookmark for sure!
    Have a great day Chris! :)

    David
  • So simple and straightforward just the advice I was looking for as I'm just starting my own blog. Since selling my business in Dec 2007 I've been building up my business coaching and mentoring practice. A blog seems a productive way to collaborate with my clients and encourage inquiries from new ones. Chris your structured advice will make a great cheat sheet!
  • This was a great lens through which to view our business blog. We have four regular contributors, myself included, and although we have a few regular features, I have to admit there's not much more to our plan other than blogging our fancy that day provided it's topical or timely. Looking critically, we really could be doing better. This gives us a great roadmap to make sure we're making the best use of our time and going with what works rather than occassional good content and a whole lot of filler.

    Cheers!
    -Amie
    http://blog.ebsqart.com
  • Executive Commenting. Don't forget to say something if you're going to comment. Merely saying, "Wow, Chris you are soooooo smart." Might not be the best use of your time either. [OH, Chris, you ARE so smart, BTW!]

    But do more, add something to the conversation. And why is it that the blogs with 100 or so visitors a day can't get a single comment in a week? Is it because we're only commenting where we see the value in commenting? WIIFM? I hope not.

    Be real out there, it's a universe of Twitts.

    @jmacofearth
  • Picking up on Julia (@mundusvivendi)'s comment above (and John McElhenney) about how to get readers to comment more (or to engage better)... does time-of-day influence blog readers' inclination to leave comments?

    Has anyone seen research numbers on that? It's easy to imagine that a reader's mindset has an influence on her inclination to "engage" in the conversation. Mindsets are different when you're jacked up on espresso early in a work day versus when you're kicking back on a rainy Sunday night with the family.

    What about adding a "liking" tool to the comments (like the Facebook's thumbs up or down) to add a crowdsourcing ranking to comments? Has this been done already and failed for some reason? One would hope that the most "engaging" comments would rise to the top of the list. Comment trending?

    Just riffing... (@rossteasley)
  • Hi Chris, I am glad that I’d visited your blog, This is an informative subject which I need to learn as a novice blogger. It helped me to be aware of the matters which occur around this community, simply to my visitors who had left their comments in every topic that I wrote. When I write my first post in my blog, it surely did not satisfy me, but in the long run, when I entered and visited different blogs and read their entries, it was awesome!!. I learned a lot from them. Every author has different ways to express their thoughts, to attract their readers. Anyway, these are truly helpful tips; it’ll assist me in writing good topics to attract my readers and I might be able to monetize it as other bloggers do. I hope you wouldn’t mind if I add you in my friend list for easy visit. Thanks and more power. BTW..I followed you in Twitter.
  • Hi Chris,

    Wouldn't these responsibilities fall more under "blog publisher" than "executive blog editor"? Since most of the work is on the advertising/revenue building side? Not bashing your ideas at all--in fact, I think this is a great set of rules for any blogger to follow as well as a possible job description that we may one day see people hired to do. But if this job does become commonplace, I hope we'd call it what it is: a publisher.
  • As a business blogger meaning I'm trying to build a discussion around the typical pain points of my clients and the types of services we provide, I don't want to give away our strategy too much. I like my salepeople to have some "exclusives" when they go into a meeting. Am I stone-aged here?
  • Chris, thank you for writing such a thorough post. I've been thinking and reading a lot about the money issue you highlight here and hope to fetch all the random thoughts I have at the moment to assemble them into something worth reading... more to come.

    Mason, I just wrote about that very thing. I use the metaphor of a recipe. Just because you give away your recipe doesn't mean anyone can duplicate your cake -- we as individuals are more important to the deliverables we produce than we often realize. Give away the recipe -- people will still want *your* cake. Ideas are plentiful -- it's all about execution. Good execution is rare.
  • Hi, Chris-

    Great post! You definitely outlined some main points any executive editor should consider.

    I would also add: Prepare editorial calendars and decide on a blogging schedule. So many people start out blogging five times a week because they feel like they *have* to - when actually, one excellent blog post, once a week, may serve them better. Having an editorial calendar allows people to clearly see their upcoming obligations and decide what frequency best meets their goals.

    I would also add that the executive editor should conduct keyphrase research, develop a keyword list and learn how to insert these keyphrases into their blog posts (plus teach their writers best practice SEO copywriting tactics, as well.)

    Thanks so much!
  • This sounds like a manifesto for digital newspapers as much as bloggers.

    I'll be passing this link out to all of my friends in the digital newspaper world.
  • Chris - this is a great article, and very helpful.

    I would love to see an expanded post on your site about your second point - Promote Liberally, but Tastefully.

    I understand that this won't happen over night, but I'm looking for some ideas to help get me jump started.

    Thank you!

    Beth
  • Speaking of thought leadership, blogging is one of the things my partner and I have been doing to promote our new marketing and copywriting consulting business. Getting the word out via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and general email word of mouth has been great, but being able to voice our opinions and experience has been fun and interesting as well. It gives us the opportunity to talk about our business in a whole new way. Sometimes it's challenging to think of new topics that are interesting to both us and potentially to our audience, but it's worth the effort.
  • You just gave me a lead on how to get on my blog. Started one one recently and can't seem to keep up with it or know what to do next. you just became my blog mentor! Thanks.
  • cb3r3al/editorchris
    thumbz up
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