Lawyers, PRs, journalists, foodies, fashion designers, writers and mummies. They all have something in common. They all blog and they all benefit hugely from it. While the rewards vary in regards to the type of blog and objectives laid out, we all more or less know the key performance indicators of a successful blog; a large and targeted readership, healthy engagement, good optimisation, among others.

While making a blog is fairly easy, achieving the above performance criterion is more difficult. There are a lot of great articles that list handy and effective tips in a comprehensive manner, as well as devoted blogs that can help you all the way. I would like to contribute myself by giving you a few basics, but with a twist.

If you’re like me, you’d love Shaun Of The Dead. It is my favourite Zombie movie, most of all because it makes me laugh out loud and because it teaches you a lot of lessons through an easy-to-identify with flawed human. Can we replicate these lessons in blogging? Of course.

Shaun Of The Dead

1. Hang Around Somewhere You Feel Comfortable

Possibly the best joke of the film derives from the obsession for going to and being in the pub. Liz, Shaun’s girlfriend, dumps him for it. However, as it turns out the pub was the safest place to be when the zombies attacked.

In blogging, you have a lot of options, from a simple and straightforward Posterous blog to the more elaborate self-hosted WordPress. If you don’t know coding or hosting or if you think PHP is the Sub Of The Day on Tuesdays, then it’s best that you stick to a less ambitious solution. The bottom line is that you don’t want to spend a lot of time pimping your blog with features your audience don’t care about, because that time will be taken from more key activities like social networking, backlinking and creating compelling content. As an example, two of the most successful bloggers of all time are very Zen to their approaches and have stayed purposely in the pub for ages : Seth Godin and Steve Rubel.

2. Be Persistent

Shaun and Liz

When Liz dumped Shaun he didn’t give up loving her. He fought for her life even when everything seemed over and, in the end (surprise surprise) he wins her back.

Likewise in blogging you will experience a lot of ebbs and flows. And predictably, a very slow beginning when nobody seems to know you exist. Be persistent, expect an average of three months with low activity and expect setbacks. Never give up unless you have conducted analysis that tells you that your marketing time would be better spent somewhere else. Blogs tip at some point in their life if you stick to basic rules and don’t forget to oversee the whole process.

So, as someone who has to continuously multitask to make her partner happy, a blogger has to be persistent. Don’t drop the guard and take care of all aspects of the blog (content, promotion and SEO mainly).

3. Aim For The Head

Shaun could shoot, stab or burn the zombies but he wasn’t successful until he learnt that the living dead could only perish after having their heads removed brains destroyed. From then on, he made sure to aim for the head and managed to kill quite a few.

In blogging, you first have to discover what the head of the Zombie is. What keywords should you be competing for? What content makes your audience tick? What bits of your blog get the best and most interaction? What pace of publishing, length and tone of article works best? There are many tools and processes to get this vital question right and I hope we can generate some discussion. In the meantime, and if you don’t want to get overwhelmed with chunks of code and SEO tools…why don’t you ask your audience? Think yourself lucky because Shaun couldn’t ask the zombies personally.

4. Relationships Matter

Stick Together

In the film, Shaun didn’t only look after himself. He stuck by his best friend, even though he was extremely annoying, and risked his life to fetch his mother and girlfriend. Along the way, he even found out that alleged “enemies”, like his stepfather, loved him for what he was. Working as a team, some of them survived, and the rest experience quite honourable deaths (except perhaps for David, the flatmate of Liz, but he deserved to be gutted anyway).

In blogging relationships matter online and offline. You need to devote as much time to creating content as nurturing relationships. You have to take care of your audience, making sure you give them what they wish for (a youtube channel, timed tweets, a newsletter, a translator widget etc.) You also have to join the burgeoning community that your blogging subject has formed over time and credit them with links in a Blog Roll (maybe then they will pay you back). Keep a close eye for offline events, not only because they’re fun but because the relationships that form in a tweet-up, cook-out or knitting-carnival will create huge opportunities for blog promotion and SERP climbing. You will hardly have competitors in blogging. Your fellow bloggers are not fighting for a “share of the attention”, they are helping you to grow your market.

5. Devise And Stick To A Plan

Shaun didn’t grab a cricket stick and go crazy to kill as many zombies as he could (well, only partially). Instead, he devised a strategy (gather his loved ones and save them) and a plan of action ( Take car. Go to Mum’s. Kill Phil – “Sorry.” – grab Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over). Sticking to the plan has its setbacks, but overall, it saved their lives.

Likewise, blogging requires planning. It is too easy get carried away with writing articles as they pop into your head but you need to devise a strategy first (e.g. educate chefs in the marvels of Thai cuisine) and a critical path (research branding opportunities, test, research keywords, implement SEO tools, list guidelines for content creation, create a Facebook page, etc.) Whatever your strategy stick to it and decide your course of action in advance. It is easier said than done, but hey, you think killing zombies was Shaun’s cup of tea?

About The Author

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.

Follow Xavier on Twitter at @Xavi_izaguirre